Up Serge in cost

General discussion
#1

Is it me or in the last year has everything pertaining to car subscription gone astronomically high in price?

It’s definitely a case of paying more for less.

Plus getting around London without being fined for one thing or the other is proving to be more and more impossible to achieve.
It just feels like the stress levels have increased in the past year.
On the upside, driving out on the country roads and motorway is really enjoyable, especially on a sunny day.
It might take an hour to actually get out of London, but once you do there’s no looking back in the rear mirror.

I just think Unto could be a bit more reasonable with the new costs that they’ve added, also losing Instavolt is tragic, huge blow as it’s the most dependable and accessable charging point. Losing BP Pulse as well means long queue’s at the Shell charging points.

Maybe it’s time to look elsewhere??

1 Like
#2

They’ve been quite open with their need to increase costs - obviously the charging offering was simply unsustainable. It’s just a shame there have been more than one increase in cost and decreases in offering in a short space of time.

There’s another thread on here about comparative costs, you might find that leasing and paying for your own insurance, charging and maintenance is a lower cost a month, but by how much? If it’s a difference of £10-£20 a month but you lose the flexibility, is it worth it? Same for purchasing. When you add the finance cost, then insurance, maintenance and charging, how much do you stand to save?

Note that Elmo have also bumped up their prices recently too, not long after Onto’s recent price/offering change. What is odd is that no existing customers have had their prices changed - nor has their £10 BP Pulse offering increased in price either.

2 Likes
#3

This has been discussed to death, in this thread https://community.on.to/t/update-to-subscription-pricing-bolt-ons-and-charging-partners-for-new-customers

The problem is costs are going up across all sectors, and OntO and all the other subscription services have increased there prices, some have even left the market.

A Shell Card doesnt mean you can only use Shell branded chargers, you can use any of the roaming partners…

At the end of the day OntO are a business and need to make a profit, and unfortunately I have a feeling InstaVolt have said this is the cost for this service and OntO are passing those costs onto the customer.

Cheapest way to get into an EV at the moment is probably via Salary Sacrifice which is a taxable benefit…

2 Likes
#4

Indeed. And personally I find Shell itself nearly as poor as the Bloody Pathetic hasn’t-actually-got-a-Pulse brand….

But with regular dabbles and dalliances at:

Ionity
RAW
Osprey
MFG
Mer
GeniePoint (some do actually work :man_shrugging:)
Porsche
Fastned

… and probably some others I have forgotten…

It’s not really too bad a deal.

Yes, InstaBolt will be a loss, but only to the extent that those that never had it won’t miss it. Some of us retain it for a while longer…

I occasionally do what I call a “Convenience Charge” (typically Gridserve, PodPoint, Dragon) where I’ll (reasonably) happily pick up the tab for a fiver’s worth of :zap: rather than drive somewhere out of my way.

Reminds me the value of the all-inclusive model too - and the flexibility / while I don’t have a daily fret over what price to try and chase if I have other things in my life to be worrying about :man_shrugging:

4 Likes