- Chevy Bolt renter paid $418 for a 44-minute charging session at a Hyundai dealer.
- Charging was set at $5 per kWh plus another $5 per minute to discourage outsiders.
- The charger was still listed as publicly accessible, and EVgo ultimately refunded $405.
Running low on fuel isn’t fun, and the pain at the pump is real, but not the same as what one EV driver just experienced. Low on electrons, they pulled up to a publicly accessible EVgo charger at a Hyundai dealership. When they drove away, they were high on range but had lightened their wallet by a whopping $418.
Read: The Best Fast Charging Experience In America Isn’t From Tesla
Stanley Kpenkaan told WXYZ that he was returning home after dropping a friend at Detroit Metropolitan Airport when his Chevrolet Bolt’s battery began getting uncomfortably low. With roughly 20 minutes of range remaining, he opened the EVgo app and found a charger listed as publicly accessible at a Hyundai dealership on Hall Road in Macomb Township. Usually, finding such a charger is a relief. Not this time.
The Rate Was $5 Per kWh, And Then It Got Worse
Kpenkaan initially assumed the $418 total had to be a mistake. EVgo, however, confirmed that it wasn’t. The charger was priced at an eye-watering $5 per kilowatt-hour and another $5 for every minute connected. To clarify, that is roughly 10 times the amount of a normal charger in the area. It would be like pulling up to a gas station charging $40 per gallon rather than just $4.
Those prices weren’t accidental, either. The dealership told WXYZ that the charger was intended for its customers and inventory, and that management deliberately set the rates extremely high to discourage anyone else from using it. There’s just one fairly significant problem with that strategy. Plenty of dealer chargers are free, and the EVgo app doesn’t display the price. Outsiders could still find and use the charger, and if they didn’t check the screen on the charger itself, they’d never know the price until the session ended.
Kpenkaan said he didn’t notice the dealership’s unusually high rates before beginning his session, although WXYZ confirmed the prices were displayed on the charger’s screen. So he wasn’t exactly charged a hidden fee. Still, there’s an obvious question about why a dealership that doesn’t want outsiders using its charger would leave it publicly accessible and instead rely on astronomical pricing as a deterrent.
EVgo Steps In With A Refund
After some back-and-forth, EVgo eventually issued what it called a $405 “goodwill refund.” That reduced Kpenkaan’s final cost to $13.27, which EVgo said was what the session should have cost under his subscription plan. Even so, the lesson is clear: always check the charging rate before plugging in.
