NRMA fast charging network

[meloccom]

I did the "Join to charge your EV" process.

You enter in all the usual info, although more than usual... (stress address, etc).

At the end it gives you a member number; so you're not just signing up to charge, but joining as an NRMA member.

Fair enough, I thought they may have had a "free tier" membership for EV charging. Boosts their member numbers for their annual report, and I get charging access, I'm OK with that...

I then go into the "my account" and apparently my account "renews" in 12 months. So I've effectively signed up to a paid membership with a 12 month free introductory rate?

Which, if I had've known, I would have waited until I was actually travelling somewhere that had an NRMA charger before signing up ... which I won't be for a while (unless they build something between Geelong and Perth in the next month).

What was the cost of EV Charging only membership?

 

[Vostok]

In the iOS app:
To set up charging for an existing NRMA member.

Tap the services icon at the bottom
Scroll down to “Charge Now”
It will want to confirm your mobile by SMS.
Enter SMS code and tap confirm
Agree to terms and conditions “I agree”
It then sends you a text that’s not very clear saying how to set up payment.
It also will open the EV Charging part of the app.
Tap the Hamburger on the top right and select Payment Methods. You will then be at the screen shown above where you can scroll scroll down and tap + Add Payment Method
From then on to get to the EV Charging section of the app tap the services icon, scroll down and click charge now.

“Making the Complex Simple”

 

[Vostok]

Seems Olympic Park is actually now dual CCS2. With only one able to charge at a time this is an interesting choice. I guess it provides some level of redundancy on certain modes of failure.

A possible benefit is that it reduces the risk an EV can’t charge there as a result of where their charge port is. One of the two cables should reach.

SOP is the only DCFC I have ever taken my LEAF to. I had to park really close to the kerb, and as far back as possible in the marked spot for the CHAdeMO cable to reach the port at the front. It only just made it.

Not an issue anymore for my LEAF with CHAdeMO gone tho’

 

[Chuq]

What was the cost of EV Charging only membership?

There was no cost shown to me at any point of the process, that I can see.

 

[qldoldun]

What was the cost of EV Charging only membership?

I signed up yesterday as I leave next Tuesday for a trip around NSW and Victoria and wanted to cover as many charging options as I could.

I ended up with the full membership (12 months free) as no charge-only membership seems to be on offer yet.

I plan to convert to the charge-only membership when it become available - otherwise simply resign before the free period ends.

 

[Max Spaghetti]

They may have just fixed the membership problem for EV-charging-only members.

I just signed up and have the following on my account screen (no mention of any end-date or 12-months free, just $0 subscription rate):

 

[SPadival]

Don’t go into the main app Account settings and activate it.

The EV charging applet has its own Account settings, which correctly shows $0 subscription fee.

 

[moa999]

NRMA tweet that all sites will be paid by end Oct, and idle fees are coming

https://twitter.com/x/status/1706926461641228670

 

[RichardV]

Sounds like there is a possibility that NRMA chargers will also appear in Chargefox app in the future.
And maybe the reverse,

With an option to enable showing 3rd party chargers in the NRMA app. Currently does not show any.

 

[Vostok]

NRMA tweet that all sites will be paid by end Oct, and idle fees are coming

oooh…. that’s gonna hurt the freeloaders and entitleds!

 

[aegidius]

Reciprocal arrangements for interstate club members? (RACQ, etc)

 

[Max Spaghetti]

Reciprocal arrangements for interstate club members? (RACQ, etc)

What do you mean? I don't see any discounts for NRMA members (unlike the Chargefox app that does give 20% discount for NRMA and interstate club members)

 

[doggy1]

What do you mean? I don't see any discounts for NRMA members (unlike the Chargefox app that does give 20% discount for NRMA and interstate club members)

I think the "discount" will be after a year when the free memberships become $5 per month but roadside members continue for zero additional cost. A bit like the non-Tesla EVs with the $10/month "membership fee".

 

[cafz]

Every time I see the address of the Olympic Park charger somewhere, I hear Roy & HG saying MURRAY ROSE!

 

[Vostok]

Now I’ve had a play with the new NRMA App, my critique:

• From the home page, if you tap on “Fuel” under “Help Me Find…” it will take you to the map showing nearby chargers (if you have selected ”EV Charging” as your fuel type). But it makes no distinction between AC And DC chargers and no way to filter on that as far as I can tell.
• Then if you tap on a charger icon in that map, it goes to a new map that shows the price (e.g. SOP 54c/kWh), the address, and distance from you, but that’s it. It doesn’t show occupancy. Tapping on the charge station icon in that map does nothing, when I would expect that to do something useful, like display occupancy or enable you to start a charge session. It’s a completely static page that goes nowhere, apart from “get directions”.
• Scrolling the map is really slow… take ages for the App to show charging stations located within the selected map area.
• Tapping on a charge station icon in that map should take you to the “Charge Now” part of the App for that station (on the home page, under the “Help Me Find” part).
• And then the mapping interface for the “Charge Now” part of the app is completely different to the mapping interface for the “Help Me Find” part. It‘s like two completely different Apps have been glued together.
• In the “Charge Now” part of the App, the histogram of peak charging times for a given station is useful, but does anyone really believe that at 4am the usage of Sydney Olympic Park charger is only half that of the usage it gets at 8pm, which according to the histogram is the busiest time?
• Also, that part of the App does not show any NRMA station which is still free. So Nabiac, for example, does not exist in this part of the App.
• Tapping on “Close” at the top in the “Charge Now” part of the App does not take you back to the previous page you were on, but dumps you right back on the home page of the App.

So the UI is a mess. One would hope this is temporary and in time they‘ll have a much more unified and logical layout. But seriously, they’ve had years to work on this, so I don’t excuse it.

 

[moa999]

Reciprocal arrangements for interstate club members? (RACQ, etc)

Would that not require some reciprocation?
Don't think RACQ or RACV have invested in any EV infrastructure.

In any event, as above, there are ways anyone can join MyNRMA for free now and access the two paid chargers, and it's expected that there will be some way for non-members to access the chargers once they've completed switching the entire network over to paid.

 

[Max Spaghetti]

There already is - EV charging only membership, as I posted above. I don't start paying $5/month in 12 months time.

I don't need to join NRMA, I don't live in NSW. I am already a member of RACV, which has reciprocal road-service with NRMA.

I just downloaded the app and created a free EV charging account and added a payment method, just as I did with Chargefox, and Evie, and Ampol, and BP etc... I must admit, it's becoming a bit tedious.

 

[ZeeDoktor]

The EV charging bit is simply a (poorly programmed) web page being shown in a webkit container inside the app.

I've seen better apps rolled out for $99 from sweat shops in the sub continent.

 

[moa999]

The sole advantage of that is they could improve it relatively easily without having to reissue the entire app.

I hope they didn't pay much more than $99 for it.

 

[moa999]

NRMA seemingly continue to struggle with their new app and site upgrades.

After almost two weeks of failing to get it working it's finally marked back as Free within the NRMA charging sub-app.

Previously it's said $0.54 but had a small note that it was still free.