Tom Williams via Getty Images If you’re ever peeking around for public chargers when you’re in an unfamiliar area, dealerships tend to come up a lot. And, indeed, many of them are intended to be used by the public, regardless whether the driver has visited the store before. But if you’re not careful, you could endure the misfortune that one Michigan resident did, when he charged his rented Chevrolet Bolt at a Hyundai dealer, only to learn after the fact that he had been billed at a rate of $5 per kilowatt-hour and $5 per minute. The grand total? $418. The Bolt has a 65-kWh battery pack, and the customer in this case—Stanley Kpenkann—told news channel WXYZ that the EV was extremely low on juice, estimating he had about 20 minutes of driving range left. He searched the EVgo app and found a Hyundai dealership on Hall Road in Macomb Township, which would seem to be Elder Hyundai, with a ChargePoint charger. Kpenkann told the news channel he never saw pricing before initiating the session, which lasted 44 minutes, though it was apparently listed on the charger’s display. EVgo and ChargePoint have a “roaming agreement,” whereby EVgo users can also tap into ChargePoint’s network. Kpenkann reached out to EVgo, as many would after a bill like that, thinking it was a mistake. EVgo informed Kpenkann it wasn’t, and, seemingly after much hemming and hawing, eventually relented and gave him a “goodwill refund” of $405—a frankly insulting label, though he was surely pleased to get that money back in his bank account. The remaining $13.27 represented what Kpenkann should’ve paid based on the EVgo plan he was subscribed to, which just adds insult to injury; this man paid 31 times the normal rate to recharge the Bolt for as long as he did. You may be wondering why the Hyundai dealer priced this particular charger this way. 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, especially as a public charger. For some perspective, the average per-kilowatt rate for a Level 3 DC fast-charger nationwide is $0.53, per Qmerit. So not only was the electricity 10 times more expensive, but that’s before you factor in the per-minute fee as well. It’s a sobering reminder to any EV owner or renter, 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.
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