BEWARE - EVGo at Pilot Flying J - ripoff pricing

[Flexnet]

Is BlueDot a credit card? Thats the vibe I am getting from the webpage.

It’s a virtual debit card. Cash back if you use the card with other charging apps, but you can initiate charging sessions at EVgo and ChargePoint stations through their app. If you do that, you get the flat rate of $0.35 per KWh (dropped to .25 if you charge more than 3 times per month or something like that). That’s where the great savings come from. But I had the debit card tied to my Tesla membership and still got 20% cash back on those sessions on my trip. Cash back payouts have stipulations, but still straight forward savings if you initiate EVgo or ChargePoint sessions through the BlueDot app.

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[zymolysis]

Once I pick up my truck....I plan on "filtering" out all chargers except for Tesla and Rivian Adventure Network. Stupid ? Perhaps, but dang at that price I might as well be driving a Raptor.

Well then, there's a lot of places you won't be able to go. If you have no desire to go anywhere that doesn't have compatible Tesla or RANs on the way, then it isn't stupid.

 

[TexasBob]

Once I pick up my truck....I plan on "filtering" out all chargers except for Tesla and Rivian Adventure Network. Stupid ? Perhaps, but dang at that price I might as well be driving a Raptor.

That is how I have my R1T set up. RAN and Tesla. If there is a gap when planning a particular trip or leg, I will add-in EA. I got caught up once with the horrid EVGO over-priced garbage network (posted on here somewhere) and have banned them.

Near as I can tell, EVGO has a bloated, high-cost model. They do not know how to make, build, or maintain much of anything. They have a bunch of high priced developers and supervising engineers etc, that they have to feed but just like EA, they pay a big premium for someone else to do everything for them. They own no real estate so they have to pay for someone else's (Flying J), they use third party (very expensive but not very good) charging equipment companies, they use third party EPC firms to construct, they use third party companies to provide maintenance people (down a lot) they use third parties to provide payment and membership software, they use third parties to provide back-end software for operations, etc. Back when they were part of NRG they at least had the capability to supply cost-advantaged electricity to themselves. I do not think they even have that.

This business model of supervising someone else while you pay them to do your homework is not sustainable. Oil companies get away with it in the retail business because they make money on the commodity and on the back court. Vehicle charging is a fundamentally different business and it needs companies that build things.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Is BlueDot a credit card? Thats the vibe I am getting from the webpage.

The BlueDot site is awful and they don't answer emails when you have questions. The debit card is optional, that you have to pay a small fee for. Then, you have to preload it with funds. So it's a card and digital wallet. You get direct discounts on certain charging networks, you also earn rewards to retailers that have signed on with them... just like grocery store or gas station reward cards. And just like those rewards cards, they make money selling your data.

 

[Nacho Rivian]

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.

You need to ask Warren Buffet to lower the charging price; Pilot is owned by Birkshire Hathaway.

 

[Tarkus]

After a couple of reminder visits to EVgo Stations recently, I no longer visit them:
I visited this Albany, NY back in late April as well & posted in Plugshare

Even with membership it's still 33% higher than anyone else I charge at & I charge up on the road 2 times a day (10 times per week).

 

[SoCal Rob]

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

If so, this pricing strategy seems to undermine that. I imagine that people are more likely to spend as little time and money as possible if they think the location is overcharging them.

I could see people being annoyed enough that they charge just enough to get to another station with better pricing along their route. Worse, they are more likely to avoid that location in the future. The pricing strategy seems short-sighted to me.

 

[emoore]

If so, this pricing strategy seems to undermine that. I imagine that people are more likely to spend as little time and money as possible if they think the location is overcharging them.

I could see people being annoyed enough that they charge just enough to get to another station with better pricing along their route. Worse, they are more likely to avoid that location in the future. The pricing strategy seems short-sighted to me.

Agree. If anything they should be undercutting everyone and selling electricity at cost or at a loss to get people in the store. I'm sure we will read something soon that says Flying J/Pilot truck stops aren't going to add chargers due to low use. And they will blame EV adoption and customers not wanting EVs vs. the real reason, their pricing.

 

[Jiji]

Agree. If anything they should be undercutting everyone and selling electricity at cost or at a loss to get people in the store. I'm sure we will read something soon that says Flying J/Pilot truck stops aren't going to add chargers due to low use. And they will blame EV adoption and customers not wanting EVs vs. the real reason, their pricing.

Or just wait. Tesla has an almost 100% captive audience of vehicles to charge and will soon raise prices so they can restore more of the SC team they fired. Then Pilot/FlyingJ will be in the pricing sweet spot without moving.

The only mistake Pilot/FlyingJ made was to partner with GM who has been having trouble ramping up volume to steer legions of vehicles to their branded chargers.

 

[Yossarian]

I paid $1.75/kWh at a DC Blink charger this past weekend... for a whopping 80kW rate! It was literally the only DC option in the region and I had to have 25kWh to complete my trip. This guy knew he had the entire market and charged accordingly... need more competition!

Yikes! Even at 3 miles/kWh, each mile driven sets you back more than $0.58. In ICE terms, using the present national average of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, $3.70, that's the equivalent of just over 6 miles per gallon.

Blink seems to be doing their best to prove those stories about EV's being much more expensive and less environmentally-friendly than ICE vehicles right.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

If so, this pricing strategy seems to undermine that. I imagine that people are more likely to spend as little time and money as possible if they think the location is overcharging them.

I could see people being annoyed enough that they charge just enough to get to another station with better pricing along their route. Worse, they are more likely to avoid that location in the future. The pricing strategy seems short-sighted to me.

Totally agree and they should. That's crazy charing folks that much. The highest I have seen prior was EVgo non membership $0.69 per kwh which I think is also crazy high.

 

[Riviaenz]

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

Not just funding of the chargers, but special rates/pricing per kWhr they deliver. Many states and utilities have discount and incentives programs in place for EV chargers and EVSE to dispense energy to EVs. Some utilities also have programs in place to help deploy sites even offering rebates or paying for them outright like for example if they are for sites serving “under served communities”. They in turn get grants or funding for offering those types of programs.

 

[Riviaenz]

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.

It’s a horrible excuse and sounds like deflection. They clearly don’t care given how the charger and experience has their name on it.

I’ve charged at an EVgo branded DCFC at a shopping center and between their session fees and total cost the rate they charged worked out to $1.20/kWhr. I too tried contacting their director of customer service and didn’t even hear crickets. The worst part is that their unit didn’t disclose the rate and with the interrupted session it flashed the results of the first session not giving me a chance to be forewarned before starting a second session.

I’ve not stopped at an EVgo since that one and only experience left me feeling violated especially considering there was an EA across the road. There are plenty of other options to easily skip over EVgo. It’s funny at two other locations I’ve stopped for an EA session, I’ve noticed lonely and neglected EVgo within sight of the EA dispensers.

I’ve been sure to call them out on PlugShare as well to warn others.

 

[shrink]

There’s a place here in Kona charging, wait for it…

$3/kWh @ L3 62.5 kWh max rate.

I used BlueDot which charged for $0.30 cents/kWh which is cheaper than my rates at my Kona house

They can sell my data all they want. I’ll take the relatively cheap electrons.

Actual charge when initiating with the BlueDot app:

PM me for a BlueDot referral code! ?

 

[Captblue]

Once every one starts charging above $.80 cents a kWh, electric vehicles are done, it would cost more to charge than to pay for gasoline. I would go back to buying ICE vehicles.

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