COSTCO has officially removed ALL existing EVSEs

COSTCO has officially removed all their EVSEs. It's all gone! Paddles, AVCONs the whole deal. The word came down from COSTCO corporate office: They did a quick survey and determined usage of the old paddles and AVCONs. Obviously, those were installed at the wrong time/wrong era since the only EVs out there were experimental and not mass production ones like the Volt, Leaf or Prius PHEVs.

They concluded that those EVSEs were severely under utilized and a parking spot was worth more revenue than allocating it for an EV. That is sad and ultimately the end of their support for renewable energy initiatives and the electric car momentum.

Is there an avenue for raising this issue?

C'mon people power!! We need to raise this issue similarly via Twitter, Facebook etc etc and gather critical mass support. Recall the people power display re: Netflix did recently by raising prices to 60%.

I'll need something more official than your say so before I write any letters. What's your source?

davewill said:

I'll need something more official than your say so before I write any letters. What's your source?

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Dave, I was at my local COSTCO site today. The EVSEs are gone, the EV parking signage gone and the hole in the ground was filled with cement.

Last month, I personally handed the application/paperwork for the Clipper Creek free upgrade of the old AVCON/Paddle infrastructure over to the local manager.

If you need more details, pls PM me.

Could have been a local decision, then.

davewill said:

Could have been a local decision, then.

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Nope. It was a corporate email directive.

I had the support of the local manager. He is a good guy.

We still have them here in San Diego, at Carmel Mountain.

Made a point of driving past my local one today. EVSEs are still there, but naturally ICE'd up with tire shop cars.

mxp said:

davewill said:

I'll need something more official than your say so before I write any letters. What's your source?

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Dave, I was at my local COSTCO site today. The EVSEs are gone, the EV parking signage gone and the hole in the ground was filled with cement.

Last month, I personally handed the application/paperwork for the Clipper Creek free upgrade of the old AVCON/Paddle infrastructure over to the local manager.

If you need more details, pls PM me.

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I'm really surprised the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing at Costco. The latest issue of the Costco magazine is a total greenwashing. Made me want to write a letter to the editor about the hypocrisy (I still may). I'll definitely cancel my Costco membership if they remove the chargers and/or don't take advantage of the free upgrade program.

kevin672 said:

I'm really surprised the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing at Costco. The latest issue of the Costco magazine is a total greenwashing. Made me want to write a letter to the editor about the hypocrisy (I still may). I'll definitely cancel my Costco membership if they remove the chargers and/or don't take advantage of the free upgrade program.

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Kevin, when I visited my local Costco, they has just uninstalled the EVSEs.

While the rest of the other folks reporting back that the old EVSEs are still in place, it probably is just a matter of time for the local chapter managers to get their workers to remove them.

This is just starting to happen so I'd expect more sightings in the coming few months. Apparently, someone high up mgmt polled all the local stores who had chargers and requested the usage data and the results were negative. Upon that poll result, mgmt pulled the EVSE plug.

All I am asking for is for some of us on MNL who have established contacts inside Costco corporate to help foster some dialog and try to turn things around.

davewill said:

I'll need something more official than your say so before I write any letters. What's your source?

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I too recently dropped off upgrade paperwork at my local Costco and was told by the manager that he'd seen a corporate memo saying they would be removing the EVSEs. So, mxp isn't just making this all up...

GeekEV said:

davewill said:

I'll need something more official than your say so before I write any letters. What's your source?

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I too recently dropped off upgrade paperwork at my local Costco and was told by the manager that he'd seen a corporate memo saying they would be removing the EVSEs. So, mxp isn't just making this all up...

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Maybe it's time to get the media involved. I bet ABG would eat this up. In light of the "greenwashing" Costco has been doing some negative publicity would hopefully put some pressure on them to put the removals on hold, and take advantage of the free upgrades in some key locations and revisit this in 6-12 months.

mxp said:

They concluded that those EVSEs were severely under utilized and a parking spot was worth more revenue than allocating it for an EV.

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That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard from Costco. How can it ever be utilized if it is old broken equipment and occupied by the tire department :roll:

Another reason to shop elsewhere where EVSE are installed and working.

Naw, I still like Costco too much to leave...

Nekota said:

Another reason to shop elsewhere where EVSE are installed and working.

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Nekota said:

Another reason to shop elsewhere where EVSE are installed and working.

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Someday that might actually be an option

uh, I dont go to Costco for the great selection of cheap charging spots.
With or without, I would go to Costco. The 40 minutes of charging wont send me to walmart.

smkettner said:

mxp said:

They concluded that those EVSEs were severely under utilized and a parking spot was worth more revenue than allocating it for an EV.

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That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard from Costco. How can it ever be utilized if it is old broken equipment and occupied by the tire department :roll:

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I agree it's pretty dumb. I can understand them having done this a few years ago after seeing the initial investment and crop of EVs be a total failure. But now with free upgrades (to the ones in CA anyway) and thousands of EVs on the road and more to come? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Electric4Me said:

Maybe it's time to get the media involved. I bet ABG would eat this up. In light of the "greenwashing" Costco has been doing some negative publicity would hopefully put some pressure on them to put the removals on hold, and take advantage of the free upgrades in some key locations and revisit this in 6-12 months.

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Maybe. But you'd have to be careful that it doesn't cascade into a general anti-EV piece (as the media seems to be so fond of doing)... Did you mean ABC or ABG? If the later, who's ABG?

GeekEV said:

If the later, who's ABG?

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ABG http://www.autoblog.com/

GeekEV said:

I agree it's pretty dumb. I can understand them having done this a few years ago after seeing the initial investment and crop of EVs be a total failure.

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Keep in mind that 'failure' was basically the result of the vehicles being pulled from the market. Costco got encouraged to install those EVSEs, then the manufacturers stopped making the cars that could use them.

GeekEV said:

But now with free upgrades (to the ones in CA anyway) and thousands of EVs on the road and more to come? It just doesn't make sense to me.

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Yes, exactly. Just as EV production starts to ramp up they decide now is the time to remove them? The experience they have of the past 5 years is not at all representative of the use they would get now and in coming years.


There are probably various financial incentives and political motivations surrounding this whole situation. But for all we know Costco is just doing some sort of 'knee jerk' reaction to the sudden amount of questions they started to get about this equipment. In a way when they could silently ignore the little used charge spots back before it was less of a 'hassle' for them. Now they are being asked to 'upgrade', and consider if to upgrade only the Avcon, or the SPI too. Someone somewhere may have just thought "why did we do this again?" A case of the "squeaky wheel gets the axe!"

It may be easier to talk to Costco's competition.. do they Have Sam's Club in California?