This is regarding Electrify America and them overcharging Kona and eNiro owners for charging. I would recommend that all US and Canada Kona and eNiro owners with a Facebook account go to Electify America or Electrify Canada and "LIKE" them. Once you do that, you will see their new posts. Occasionally, if an Electrify America Post shows up, RESPECTFULLY ask if there are any updates on the Issue that they are overcharging Kona and eNiro owners. I started doing this and few others are doing the same but there are not enough of those questions (or LIKE of those questions) to actually get them to do something.. If you have more and more questions about this on their posts, we may be able to accelerate them doing something about this issue.. It's like lobbying government to get something. If enough people do it, it will eventually catch their attention. I personally really would like to go on road trips outside of my state but won't do it with my EV as it's currently OVER 50% cheaper to take my wife's 20 mpg Minivan on a road trip than taking my Kona EV. Something needs to be done. We need to create more pressure on them do do something about this issue. If we remain silent, they will feel no pressure to get the fix done. Just remain respectful and ask a friendly question or "LIKE" a friendly question from someone else on this topic. Being mean or aggressive may have the opposite effect.
Doesn't hurt. Attention will only get them to consider it. Then they will make a business case (the cost to them vs. benefit) which might have factors in it we and they have little control over. With just a couple thousand owners, they may find the business case thin....So, does not hurt, but temper your expectations. https://www.facebook.com/ElectrifyAmerica/ https://www.facebook.com/Electrify-Canada-677205735992875/
I sent them an email (respectfully) letting them know i would be going on a 3000 mile road trip without using their chargers. It certainly wasn’t easy. There were several instances where their chargers were the best option but I refuse to pay the inflated rate for a short charge.
Also contact you state department of weights and measures. This is something that needs to be rugulated just like gas or any other commodity that cannot is sold by a measure, California I believed has already enacted regs that require that the consumer is charged based on the Kwh instead of minutes.
Thanks for the idea! I just sent in a request to the NC Dept of Weights and Measures (I didn't know they existed until I read your post). Not sure the number of Niro or Kona EV owners in NC is very many, but it can't hurt.
Just saw a post from EA on FB vaguely referring to some new premium benefit for Hyundai owners in their recently updated app, and another such teaser for Kia owners.
I would bet that shortly, they will have the same deal for the Niro.. The promo changed the rate to .35 per minute and no connection fee/session fee.. The deal is good for 9 months..
It might or might not renew after that point. And we don't know anything at all about the agreement that EA and Hyundai signed. We assume that some money was paid by Hyundai - we just don't know how much or what the terms were. I guess from our perspective it doesn't matter that much - except that if the terms really suck for automakers, you won't have many others signing up. This does remind me that Nissan signed some sort of deal with EVgo so that Leaf owners get free charging for some period of time.
I think that it would have been easier to create a voluntary software update for Kona/Niro owners that allows owners to limit max charge rate to whatever they want. That shouldn't be to complicated and they would not have to pay ransome to EA... Doing that would eventually lead to per kwh billing..
How exactly do you propose they issue such software update? The cars have to OTA capability. Lower trim level cars without navigation also don't have SD card slots. Most likely the low-level systems/firmware that control CCS protocols can only be updated by special software only dealers can access. This was the case when Hyundai needed to update the instrument cluster GOM algorithm on European Konas. With typical labor charges across thousands of cars, it would probably cost more than just paying a bribe to EA. They are also probably hoping this will only be a short term solution until legislators force EA to charge by the kWh like home electricity.
Any Dealership should be able to install a system update.. I doubt that the Niro has OTA capability for system updates.. The Kona certainly doesn't. Kia/Hyunday could come up with a patch, installed by the dealer.. I'm a software engine and I'm certain this is doable without too much effort.
It's called SAE J2534 pass-through programming, and has been the standard way ECUs get reflashed for quite a while now. None of this sneaky OTA crap, it requires physical access to the vehicle and the OBD2 port. Dealer scantools have the capability, unless maybe they're Tesla and depend entirely on OTA. But that's going to be much slower and error-prone. _H*
So, EA's Kia Select plan is now available. Comparable to the Hyundai plan introduced recently: https://insideevs.com/news/408622/electrify-america-offers-kia-select-pricing/ NB - in addition to the VIN, you'll need the "KSCharging" enrollment code
