If you have not noticed I always shy away from the BlueSG chargers because they are mostly located in residential areas and you will almost always need to pay for parking unless on Sunday or Public holidays.
There are many reasons why you rarely see EVs charging at BlueSG chargers, below are the points and I’ll explain more but before that you need to know that only some BlueSG chargers are allowed to be used for EV Cars. This separate service is called BlueCharge.
Subscriptions
The first reason is that there is a subscription, WHY! I’m not 100% sure why they charge subscription but one reason maybe that they prioritize their car sharing service more than the private electric cars.
Price
You may check out their most updated pricing structure on their website, www.bluecharge.sg .
Subscription is at $20/yr. Following that you will need to pay $1/hour for the first 3 hours which does not sound much. That’s because you have not been told that these chargers in fact are charging at 3kW! Lets burn your brain with yet another negative point to the whole service, after the first 3 hours, they will charge you $2/hour!
Are you still reading this post? I would say do not waste time with this service because we have not mentioned about the parking fees that have to be factored in. Go straight to the end of the post for a surprise instead!
Parking
Conveniently located in HDB carparks, you will need to pay for these parking chargers while charging at BlueCharge stations. If you stay nearby and bought the season parking for a carpark with BlueCharge available, you may actually like to consider this service. However, I would think it is less cost effective to use this service at all.
Location
With over 480 chargers island wide which is just a small part of the overall BlueSG network. It is the biggest number of charging station network in Singapore but you have to watch out for a small detail not listed on the website.
Charging Speed
These chargers are 3kWh chargers which means they will probably take twice as long to charge your car and they charge you per hour. If you stop charging within that hour, you would have wasted the left over minutes.
Conclusion
With the odds stacked against us, I would highly recommend not purchasing this subscription and rely on other public chargers and P-Up Mobile Charger Service instead. The last information you will need to know before making a decision is that there is a fine print in the T&C that says that you will need to pay a minimum of 1hour when using their service.
This means every time you plug in, you will need to charge at least 1 hour. If I’m not mistaken, they will also not prorate your charging period which means they charge you per 1hour or part thereof.
With all the negative points mentioned, I would really think this charger is for 1 specific group. If you are in this group, you may like to consider using this service.
If you have paid for season parking at your home and it has a BlueCharge service at your carpark. You do not have other chargers nearby your work, home or places you visit frequently and you do not wish to charge your car at 6kW or 50kW DC fast chargers. If you are also not interested to hire the mobile charger with only charge at fast speeds that may harm your battery faster than usual then this BlueCharge Charger is for you!
National Day 2022 Promotion! *Ended
Another positive note for all EV users, if you have not signed up for this service, you may want to do that ASAP as I have done so with this promotion. They are currently giving 1 year subscription if you sign up before the end of August 2022. You may have to do so before 29th as it take a day or so to complete the sign up.
I would recommend you to sign up before 7th August as there is a promotion for all subscribers to be able to charge for free on National Day (9th Aug 2022) which would be a good deal if you can find a available charger and get your car fully charged up that day! from 0000 till 2359 on 9th Aug, charging is free! More info here.
