I’ve never used a dealership’s charge station, simply because there aren’t any good ones near me. They’re almost all Level 2 charging, which isn’t exactly helpful, as I’m not going to leave a car at a dealership for hours. However, according to WXYZ (h/t to The Drive) Michigan resident Stanley Kpenkann was driving home in a rented Chevy Bolt and was running low on battery, down to his last 20 minutes. So he decided to stop off at an Hyundai dealership to use its EVGo fast charger. Kpenkann has an EVGo subscription, so he expected to pay a solid price. He certainly didn’t expect the $418 bill.
Surely, such an expensive charging session must be a mistake, right? That’s what Kpenkann thought, too. After he saw the final price when he was done charging, he contacted EVGo, figuring it was some sort of glitch. However, it wasn’t a glitch or charging error. That station charged him $5 per kWh and $5 per minute by design.
Per WYXZ, EVGo has a roaming agreement with ChargePoint, so its customers can use its app at Chargepoint stations. The agreement allows ChargePoint and dealers to set their own pricing, which was supposed to be displayed on the charger’s screen but Kpenkaan claims to not have seen it.
“I was flabbergasted; never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be saddled with a bill of 418 dollars for a charging session,” Kpenkann told WXYZ.
The charger he used was apparently reserved for dealership customers, and its general manager set high prices to deter outsiders from using it.
“It makes no sense for you to have it on the app, but say we don’t want anyone to use it because of private use, then make it private, don’t make it public,” Kpenkann said.
After arguing with EVGo, Kpenkann was able to get a $405 refund, bringing is his total charge price to $13.27, which is what it would have normally been with his subscription. Still, he was out $405 until the problem could be resolved.
