r/nottheonion • u/DonkeyFuel • 4h ago
EV Renter Hit With $418 Charging Bill After Using Dealer's Public Charger
https://www.thedrive.com/news/ev-renter-hit-with-418-charging-bill-after-using-dealers-public-charger157
u/EnergyDrinkStroke 4h ago
Seems like the US needs price regulation on ev charging but I wouldn't hold my breath.
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u/Arponare 4h ago
Finding a public EV charger is the fifth circle of hell. I did a cross country trip and ran into just about every issue you can imagine. First of all, it seems like everyone and their mother wants you to download an app. Why the fuck do I need an app? I should just be able to tap and go. Secondly, half the time it doesn’t even work. When it does work, the prices can fluctuate wildly based on the city (fair enough) time of day, how many people have been using it. That is kinda annoying.
EV charging prices and methods definitely need to be regulated. I wouldn’t hold my breath though like you said. In the city is fine as long as you have a home charger. For long trips, may god have mercy on your soul.
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u/bcredeur97 4h ago
Ionna has been doing a great job addressing a lot of the issues with EV charging. They can’t roll out fast enough lol
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u/derekdepenguinman 2h ago
Ionna was one of the best places I charged at on my last road trip. I’ve had good luck with Pilot as well
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u/rendeld 3h ago
How recent is your experience. It is currently light-years better than it was when I bought my first EV in 2021. I have my gripes with the current system but cross country trips are possible now and a lot easier even in deep red states than they used to be. I've driven from Detroit to Nashville a couple of times at this point and I'm planning a couple more trips as well. There's an App called ABRP (A Better Route Planner) that is extremely helpful for all of this.
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u/Arponare 3h ago
I did my trip last month. It’s certainly doable. Just not ideal. I drove from NYC to LA.
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u/ninetaledMSK 2h ago
Oh damn no wonder, you drove coast to coast. I'm suprised they have electricity in some of thoes areas.
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u/JohnApple94 3h ago
I echo the other commenter’s sentiments who called out IONNA.
Used one of their stations on a road trip the other day and they literally solved all the issues I frequently have with other chargers.
Cheap, fast, plenty of spots, all chargers functional, covered from the elements, no app needed to start. Night and day difference compared to using just about any other charger brand.
Only issue is that there’s only 1 IONNA station on my usual road trip route. Can’t wait to see more of them pop up.
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u/chownrootroot 2h ago
There's also Walmart's network, believe it or not, it's pretty good. Same for GM and Mercedes networks.
The best networks are using Alpitronics hardware: Ionna, Walmart, Mercedes, even Electrify America has a few (but it's a mixed network). You want good charging you find the nearest charger with Alpitronics hardware. It's the charging equivalent of caviar.
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u/FewAdvertising9647 10m ago
there's speculation that big retail stores are going to get more competitive because there's one thing EV charging stations currently have an advantage to against gas pumps, which is ironically time to finish getting fuel being longer.
A gas pump, you are out in minutes from entering and pumping. with EV charging, you might be there for half an hour or more, so it gives incentives for big stores to have chargers to get people waiting on charging to shop.
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u/The_Super_D 4h ago
That's the main reason I'm going to have at least one gas-powered car for the foreseeable future. We'll have one electric for daily driving, and gas car as a secondary car and for long trips.
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u/mondaymoderate 3h ago
Plug in Hybrid is the answer right now until the infrastructure is reliable
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u/icecream_specialist 3h ago
Plug in hybrid is actually worst of both worlds for a lot of people. It works for me because I have free charging at work and my battery capacity is almost exactly my round trip commute, and I charge on a regular wall plug if I feel like it when at home. Most people would just end up never charging and drive an extra heavy less efficient hybrid. I realize it varies but this is well documented in Europe where people/companies bought PHEV because of incentives and never charge them.
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u/Sirwired 2h ago
Anyone with a garage or driveway next to the house is good to go for a Plug-in Hybrid. Even an ordinary wall outlet is fast enough for most standard commutes.
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u/icecream_specialist 2h ago
Agreed, that's exactly what I do. But in practice that is not don't consistently
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u/bionicfeetgrl 2h ago
dude its the best. I have no range anxiety, even if i exhaust the battery I get great gas mileage. if I can charge at work....great (its super cheap) if not, no big deal I can charge at home. I love my PHEV and will likely stick with those from here on out
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u/icecream_specialist 1h ago
If it works for you it's a great option, I have one and it's perfect for me. I'm just saying majority of people would probably be better off with a regular hybrid
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u/edwardlego 4h ago
In europe it’s very easy. I have an rfid badge and (mostly) 1 app. i never came across a charger i couldn’t activate with it. Tesla fast chargers are an exception, for those you meed the tesla app. Pricing is 9 times out of 10 disclosed in the app, the other 1/10, i’ve found the price on the display of the charger
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u/SoCalThrowAway7 4h ago
I think that depends heavily on where you live. I’ve never had trouble finding public chargers in California
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u/mondaymoderate 3h ago
It’s usually cross country trips where people complain. Some people will go out of their way to find the closest charger and get there only to find it’s broken.
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u/Arponare 3h ago
It was a cross country trip. I can find them in my city just fine for the most part.
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u/TruthNotTrash2 4h ago
Yes, the absolute morons currently posing as your "gubmint" getting involved in green energy pricing is just the solution!
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u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 3h ago
Don't even need to be price control. Just require clear pricing to be posted like gas stations are required to do.
Do you think gas stations should be able to sell gas without clearly displaying the price with some randomly charging $40/gallon?
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u/EnergyDrinkStroke 4h ago
Yes... Price caps are effective and many countries have them. If the free market could fix itself then we wouldn't have these issues but it can't.
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u/explosiveegg 3h ago edited 3h ago
Wild that a dealship would pull this crap. If you don't want people using your chargers make them private...
For people unaware, and so they can avoid it, this occurred at Elder Hyundai in Macomb MI.
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u/advanturer 3h ago
All dealership chargers have been frustrating experiences for me. Many are able to access after hours according to the app and the charger but when you are onsite charging police or private security will ask you to leave stating it is closed when the dealership is closed. I have also ran into dealer cars just parked in the spots to block the chargers during normal hours too.
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u/pickled-pilot 3h ago
I have charged at plenty of ChargePoint chargers. They can be locked with a code to prevent public use. They also always display the price. This was a ridiculous rate but who just starts charging without checking the rate?
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u/thishasntbeeneasy 45m ago
Sounds about as easy as private parking where people drive past a city spot at $1 an hour and instead park inside the private lot at $10 an hour and then whine about the price.
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u/Friendral 4h ago
Charging costs should be required like gas prices are.
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u/ScottRoberts79 4h ago
Chargepoint chargers, like the ones in the article, display the cost. But you have to actually look at the screen to see it.
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u/makingnoise 4h ago
That's funny, because more than half of the Chargepoint chargers I've used you CAN'T SEE the freaking screen because it's been deep fried by solar UV rays.
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u/lioncat55 3h ago
I work for a company that makes EV chargers and runs the network for them. If you want to get NTEP or CTEP certified (one of them is required for most rebates) you have to show the pricing and you have to be really clear with it.
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u/alt-227 3h ago edited 1m ago
I used a charger a couple of weeks ago that has a $50/hr idle fee as well as a $1/hr use fee (on top of the charge for electricity). It was at a ski resort, so I get why they do that as the parking is in a premium area. They could turn that shit off in the summer, though.
Anyway, the extra pricing was very easy to see, and I got an email from ChargePoint warning me about the idle fee as soon as I started charging.
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u/internetlad 25m ago
Be the one time I wouldn't mind seeing some guy in a dualie triple parked across all the spaces
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u/kevinds 2h ago
had been billed at a rate of $5 per kilowatt-hour and $5 per minute.
I've seen rates like this before.. Not sure why they even bother having a charger, nobody should be dumb enough to use it.
Tesla chargers are stupid at $0.88/kwh, never mind charging more than that.
It is apparently “reserved for its own customers and vehicles,” based on what the dealer told WXYZ
Their own customers would be charged that too.
next time you’re on the road and displaced from your typical public charger, to take note that not all public stations are priced with you in mind.
That goes for most of them unfortunately.
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u/Riptide360 1h ago
Shhezus EvGo. The bad publicity on this is deserved. 31 times the normal rate for roaming agreements is predatory and the reason why laws get passed.
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u/Mysterious-Tie7039 3h ago
It’s dealers not actually wanting people to charge there, so they make the price exorbitant.
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u/westsideriderz15 2h ago
Welcome.. to late stage capitalism with unchecked EV regulation….
‘Jurassic park theme ensues’
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u/Vahuo89 4h ago
So it was NOT a public charger...
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u/advanturer 3h ago
They probably got a tax write off or dealer incentive or was required to put in to sell ev’s
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4h ago
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u/apworker37 1h ago
“…extremely low on juice, estimating he had about 20 minutes of driving range left.”
I’ve never calculated my range in minutes. Is that a new thing?
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u/fflip8 1h ago
What I don't understand is why EV charging rates are so high even at the "standard" networks. In like 90% of the country if you plug in at home it's less than 15 cents per kWh, but for some reason if you plug in on a public charger it's going to be anywhere from 30 to 70 cents per kWh, very easily more expensive than gas.
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u/coma24 6m ago
they're for-profit companies and they do have overhead to cover. Interestingly, commercial electricity rates are often based not on kwh's delivered but realized kw rates. If you have 10 Level 3 DCFC's all running at max speeds, the electricity costs the facility way more, proportionally, than if one person is charging at a given time. Unfortunately, this variable pricing isn't passed onto the customer at all, resulting in pretty significant margins at many facilities. That, and a massive number of EV's charge very slowly, so even if the bays are full, the realized rate of delivery is still relatively low. It would be really interesting to see the margins they've actually seeing, month over month (fixed overhead excluded).
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u/lioncat55 3h ago
The user here was dumb and did not look in to the pricing at all. Charge Point tells you the pricing on the screen.
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u/npbruns1 2h ago
100%. Chargepoint stations are owned by the dealerships and they can set pricing. They should've set them up for dealership use only but who just starts charging without checking the price when its easily listed?
This user is not the brightest crayon in the box
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u/alvehyanna 1h ago
I mean it's a Hynidai dealership, what do you expect? Both them and Kia can be super shady.
I have an EV, a Ford Mach-e. My dealership has chargers, including DC fast charges and it's the same base rate for everybody and very affordable. The article does point that out, that most dealerships consider them open to the public and charge fairly. Rightfully so. This dealership is greedy.
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u/rosen380 4h ago
"It is apparently “reserved for its own customers and vehicles,” based on what the dealer told WXYZ, and priced exorbitantly to deter public use. Surely, the dealer could’ve blocked public use some other way if it really wanted to, or at least attached a disclaimer to ensure that anyone about to use the charger knew what they were signing themselves up for. And it goes without saying that this particular terminal probably shouldn’t be listed on EVgo, or indeed any public-charging map."
Can they legally make a product or service available, where it is consumed before payment, without the pricing be posted?
Feels like that is jus ta way for a business to literally charge ANYTHING THEY WANT without dissuading potential customers with extreme prices.