Chargey EV charge / trip tracking app for iOS now available!

[submatrix]

Maybe you can try a free but ad supported model? I'd prefer that over paying a sub, personally.

Again, not trying to tell you what to do. Just hoping it offers some insight into what owners like me think when evaluating using an app like this. Your time and effort spent developing it are commendable and appreciated. Most people (I suspect) just aren't gonna want to pay an ongoing cost when the amount of time spent using it doesn't line up.

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[DerekS]

Maybe you can try a free but ad supported model? I'd prefer that over paying a sub, personally.

Again, not trying to tell you what to do. Just hoping it offers some insight into what owners like me think when evaluating using an app like this. Your time and effort spent developing it are commendable and appreciated. Most people (I suspect) just aren't gonna want to pay an ongoing cost when the amount of time spent using it doesn't line up.

I appreciate the candid feedback!

If you only plan to use it for trips, that's what the 1 month sub is for - cheap price to track your trip then put it away until next time.

 

[submatrix]

I appreciate the candid feedback!

If you only plan to use it for trips, that's what the 1 month sub is for - cheap price to track your trip then put it away until next time.

Ah nice, didn't realize this was an option. Do I still have access to my data without an active sub?

 

[DerekS]

Ah nice, didn't realize this was an option. Do I still have access to my data without an active sub?

Yes - you can't share out of the app but you can view them all you like, and nothing would prevent you from screenshotting them.

 

[submatrix]

Yes - you can't share out of the app but you can view them all you like, and nothing would prevent you from screenshotting them.

I'll definitely check this out on my next road trip. $1.50 per road trip isn't bad at all.

 

[Hirschaj]

I appreciate the candid feedback!

If you only plan to use it for trips, that's what the 1 month sub is for - cheap price to track your trip then put it away until next time.

I was a techie, now I'm in product marketing. I believe it would help tremendously for you to spell out the value a user will derive from your app. You've define the "what" pretty clearly. Spend some time on the "why" and you just might see a nice uptick in subscriptions.

I'll ask a couple of direct questions. Why would I want to log a trip? Why is that worth paying $1.50 per trip? If you can answer those questions in a compelling way I'll probably subscribe every time I take a road trip.

 

[Orwell]

I appreciate the direct feedback. You're right that (if nothing else) just staying current on iOS merits work every year, which is why single-price-upgrade-free-forever is an unsustainable model.

This is one of the biggest problems with the app store - users expect to pay once and get upgrades forever, free. Developers lose interest in sustaining the app once it's not making money, so they are disincentivized from keeping it current.

I get the need to keep subscriptions down. I planned for this in my model - what I'd recommend is subbing for a term you can live with, and immediately cancelling.

That gives you a year (or month, or 6 months) to determine if you want to keep going, as the sub remains active until the renewal date.

I've also increased the free period from a week to a month - if you cancel before that month is up you'll pay nothing. I feel like that's a pretty good period to evaluate the app.

Lastly, someone's free trial converted to paid today, so I officially have a (one) customer.
Thanks kind person, whoever that was!

Here is a vote *for* subscriptions. I understand that if I want updated software / services, those cost money to produce. Shrink wrapped software went away progressively over the past 15years and I don't see it coming back.

I subscribe (and unsubscribe) to features/services that I want/need.

There is a decreasing list of things for which there is zero ongoing expense (such as a subscription).

 

[DerekS]

I'll ask a couple of direct questions. Why would I want to log a trip? Why is that worth paying $1.50 per trip? If you can answer those questions in a compelling way I'll probably subscribe every time I take a road trip.

Good points. And as a techie I am admittedly terrible at marketing, hence my predicament.

I'm not sure how I'd present this in the app yet, but to answer your questions:

Why log a trip? A few reasons:

• It's fun to have a travelogue with pictures from the stops along the way
• If you're data-minded (I am, obviously) it's interesting to see where the time went and how much of it was spent charging vs driving and other stops.
• When people are curious about how long road tripping takes (or better, try to say EVs can't do it) it's great to pull out a trip log and have facts and data to talk about
• It makes a nice way to share details about your road trip to forums like ours. In fact I had the genesis for this app when I took my Dallas->Los Gatos road trip in June 2022. I tracked the data on a spreadsheet at the time, but I kept thinking "if I had an app this would be so much less data entry!"
• Which brings me to my final selling point: Chargey reduces data entry as much as possible while maximizing the data captured.
  • For lucky Porsche (or Tesla) owners, SoC and mileage is pulled from the car API
  • Location address, longitude/latitude and name is populated by default
  • If you visit a charging station more than once, the photo and other details are copied in by default
  • When you're done charging, you can scan the screen to grab kWH delivered, cost, minutes and ending SoC.

I mean, this is sorta interesting and fun, right?

 

[Hirschaj]

Good points. And as a techie I am admittedly terrible at marketing, hence my predicament.

I'm not sure how I'd present this in the app yet, but to answer your questions:

Why log a trip? A few reasons:

• It's fun to have a travelogue with pictures from the stops along the way
• If you're data-minded (I am, obviously) it's interesting to see where the time went and how much of it was spent charging vs driving and other stops.
• When people are curious about how long road tripping takes (or better, try to say EVs can't do it) it's great to pull out a trip log and have facts and data to talk about
• It makes a nice way to share details about your road trip to forums like ours. In fact I had the genesis for this app when I took my Dallas->Los Gatos road trip in June 2022. I tracked the data on a spreadsheet at the time, but I kept thinking "if I had an app this would be so much less data entry!"
• Which brings me to my final selling point: Chargey reduces data entry as much as possible while maximizing the data captured.
  • For lucky Porsche (or Tesla) owners, SoC and mileage is pulled from the car API
  • Location address, longitude/latitude and name is populated by default
  • If you visit a charging station more than once, the photo and other details are copied in by default
  • When you're done charging, you can scan the screen to grab kWH delivered, cost, minutes and ending SoC.

I mean, this is sorta interesting and fun, right?

That’s a great start. Next step is to synthesize this down to the most important nuggets and create concise messaging. From everything you wrote, here is what jumped out at me…

• Know exactly how much that road trip cost - Keep track of all your expenses from disparate charging networks, hotels, restaurants , etc. in a single location
• Let the app do the hard work for you - automatically scans in charging expenses
• Keep a trip journal to remind you of the favorite parts of your road trip (if there was an easy way to export and share this info it would be even more compelling)

Those are some examples while I’m sitting at the bar in Dallas on a business trip ?

These all sound like pretty good reasons to subscribe. I’ll give it a go on my next road trip.

 

[DerekS]

• Keep a trip journal to remind you of the favorite parts of your road trip (if there was an easy way to export and share this info it would be even more compelling)

There is! There's a share button for trips and for individual logs - exports right out as an image, sharable to the usual iOS sources.

Those are some examples while I’m sitting at the bar in Dallas on a business trip ?

You should have led with that, I would have come out to meet you and bought your drinks for your feedback.

 

[Hirschaj]

There is! There's a share button for trips and for individual logs - exports right out as an image, sharable to the usual iOS sources.



You should have led with that, I would have come out to meet you and bought your drinks for your feedback.

I appreciate the thought. Happy to help out a forum member who contributes so much to the community.

 

[Porsche-Guru]

It literally has that now; you save more the longer term you choose.

$1.49/mo, $5.99/6mo or $9.99/12mo.

One-time purchase is a non-starter for me.

At this point it’s looking like my best move is to give up and walk away, as I’ve not made even one single sale. I’m in the hole for money spent on graphics, domain reg, web hosting etc.

Oh well. I like it.

There is another commercial model that you may wish to explore.

Look at an app called Agenda, and they have 2 models.
1) Annual subscription
2) Life time fee.

However, the model is quite unique.
Once you pay for a subscription (for a year) then all *new* features released in the subscription period (1 year) are automatically available.
The unique concept is that all these existing features released (until your subscription ends) continue to remain free for ever - even if you do not resubscribe.

So, if anyone wants new features, they subscribe to another year; else they keep all features they had.

Lifetime works the same, except they always get all features for ever.

It is a great model where the more features you release and the more attractive you make your app, the more people would subscribe (and pay yearly subscriptions) - but for ones who are happy with your app features as of today, they can just subscribe for 1 year. It remains a cheaper option - and it almost works like a one-time purchase for these people.
Have a look!

 

[DerekS]

Try Chargey now by simply scanning this code with the Camera!

Browsing on the phone and can't scan?
Visit https://get.chargey.app with Safari as another way to launch the App Clip.

 

[DerekS]

I'm reducing the subscription costs starting 8/1.

New prices (in USB) effective 8/1 which also apply to existing subscribers:

Monthly: $1.49 -> $0.99/month (lowest I can make it)
BiAnnual: $5.99 -> $2.99
Annual: $9.99 -> $4.99

 

[dutchcourage]

Would love to use it for trip tracking. Try to login “vehicle integration” using my porsche account but do get an error “ can’t login with provided credentials”.
is this a common / known problem?

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