BEWARE - EVGo at Pilot Flying J - ripoff pricing

[loudOrange]

Stopped at an EVgo charger at a Pilot location 146 near Albany NY. Cost was outrageously high…$.81.9 per kWh.

Emailed EVGo CS - Via email, EVgo Customer service said Pilot/Flying J sets pricing not EVgo, and the price is on the EVGo app.

Regardless it is price gouging and sleazy…price button is in very small text and hardly noticeable.

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[Yossarian]

I jokingly predicted a while back that we would soon see $1.00 kWh pricing for non-Tesla's at Superchargers. Looks like that prediction was wrong, but not in a good way.

EVGo pointing the accusing finger back at Flying J for the predatory pricing is laughable. Kind of like Captain Renault in Casablanca who was "shocked, shocked" to find gambling going on at Rick's Place. A more contemporary comparison may be the response of several politicians and members of the judiciary who recently were accused of wrongdoing to say with straight faces that their spouse, not them, was actually the guilty party.

A rate of $0.819/kWh for an EV with an efficiency of 2.5 miles/kWh means that each mile driven costs $0.3276. At that rate, you may as well hire an Uber rather than drive yourself.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

It looks like EVgo just maintains the charger. Their membership discounts may not apply?

Either way I would lodge a complaint with Pilot. They are pushing hard for EVs but that kind of pricing will ensure nobody uses their chargers. It's about double the cost of the membership rate with EVgo, EA, and Tesla.

I thought the whole idea was to bring people in to their stores?

 

[COdogman]

I wondered how this would play out with the truck stop charging stations. They are obviously aware of the demand for charging on road trips. I figured it would be higher but this is ridiculous.

 

[Ryone]

This one is near me and I was excited to see it going up. Since opening the price has moved between $.75 to $.95. It’s infuriating. They have to have metrics showing that it’s underperforming, right?

On the positive side, it is trailer friendly.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I'd stop at some of the Pilot centers before stopping at a local Tesla Supercharger station strictly because of their pull-through and covered chargers. Most of our trips this year are going to be while pulling a trailer. It's generally too awkward if the stations don't have adequate room for maneuvering a trailer in a busy parking lot.

 

[Rivdog]

Need more competition. When there are no other choices, that’s a ridiculous rate, but it’s better than a dead battery.

 

[Jiji]

Regardless it is price gouging and sleazy…price button is in very small text and hardly noticeable.

I guess I will defend free enterprise and ask you to vote with your feet. Sure the phone app print is tiny but the Plugshare reviews all complain about the cost and I will guess it was also available at the dispenser. But Pilot has the best location and you perhaps fell for the convenience to I90 and didn’t check Plugshare, you missed out on an EVolveNY site just up the road at likely half the cost.

But Pilot/FlyingJ is making an investment and many complain about charging locations without amenities, here you have possibly everything you need In a bright, well-lit location. Or maybe there are too many fingers in the pie, here you have GM, Pilot, and EVgo wanting a cut of the action.

Unfortunately charging is hard and until trip planning can optimize for travel time, distance, and charging cost, the burden is on us to figure out the optimal result. If you can grade locations for availability and charging speed perhaps a price score is in some future update.

 

[vandy1981]

I will happily pay a premium for fast and reliable charging at this point. We can't expect businesses to install chargers if they can't make a profit and I think we all underestimate how much these things cost to operate and install.

EVGo lists their rates in their app and you're not forced to use their chargers, so I don't see what's so predatory about their pricing. If you don't like it, go to one of the 18 EA/Evolve NY locations in the area.

 

[Budman]

The underlying question is; what price is required for them to be profitable? The industry needs to be profitable to exist and expand.

 

[Zoidz]

Pilot Flying J is a big company with 700+ (?) locations. They certainly do market research and fuel pricing comparisons for their dinosaur fuel. I want to think that they have done their EV "fueling" market research and this is their business plan, even if it makes little sense to me. Do they simply look at costs, ROI and want a specific profit margin? Is the three way partnership overloading the cost? Do they believe they are the "only game in town" for their selected install locations? No question that it's excessive pricing.

 

[Grabs10]

Wonder how much govt funding went into those those chargers??? Corporations and gov always have your best interest in mind when doing something.

 

[COdogman]

Pilot Flying J is a big company with 700+ (?) locations. They certainly do market research and fuel pricing comparisons for their dinosaur fuel. I want to think that they have done their EV "fueling" market research and this is their business plan, even if it makes little sense to me. Do they simply look at costs, ROI and want a specific profit margin? Is the three way partnership overloading the cost? Do they believe they are the "only game in town" for their selected install locations? No question that it's excessive pricing.

I believe all of those are possibilities. I’m sure they have also calculated their KPIs for the EV customers and know they will likely spend more time in their stores and buy more products in addition to “refueling” than the average ICE customer who stops, fills up, uses the bathroom and maybe grabs a snack or drink in a much shorter amount of time.

 

[azbill]

Agree that prices are high, although EA has also been raising prices. In Winslow the EA chargers are $0.56/kwh, Pilot is $0.72/kwh. But look at the charge rates, even for the 800V Taycan and EV9, people are getting on Plugshare. Walmart parking lot versus canopy and pull through.

 

[MIG]

The post should be titled "Beware the eXtend network." Any time you see a 3rd-party mentioned you know you're in for a gouging.

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