LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Electric vehicles have been gaining popularity and we are seeing them pop up all over the place.
While some places charge absolutely nothing to use their charging station apart from the electricity, one dealership in Lansing has opted for fees that can make charging up more expensive than filling up.
“I do not know of any parking charges at all. I would not pay to park,” said EV owner Rick Houghton.
Houghton says a majority of charging stations he runs into only charge for the electricity used.
But that’s not the case at Williams Hyundai in Lansing where the dealership was charging a $1 per minute fee to use their level three ChargePoint chargers, on top of electricity cost.
Meaning, it was costing people, who use their chargers, over $60 an hour.
“I think they basically when they were setting it up, they just put a dollar in there. I don’t know how it got set up that way, but I did have them change that,” said Vice President Jeff Williams.
Williams says it’s something he wasn’t aware of, and hours after 6 News got ahold of him, they reduced the rate to 50 cents per minute, still a high amount compared to other level three chargers in the area.
For instance, the Meijer on Lake Lansing Road only charges for electricity 30 cents per kilowatt hour with no extenuating fees.
Williams said it was $150,000 to have both chargers installed, and without access to the millions of dollars of state funding that are going towards public chargers, dealerships get none of it.
“Yeah we do not get any of those rebates or anything of that sort that the government offers,” said assistant manager for Graff Chevrolet Thomas Alaniz.
For dealerships with level three chargers, the fastest on the market, Williams said they have to put an additional usage charge.
“It’s 18 years before it pays back, before I just break even,” he said.
