Is Costco really removing plug-in vehicle charging stations?

Recently, dissent has been bubbling up on plug-in vehicle discussion forums recently about Costco's anti-electric vehicle nerve. Specifically, the shopping center giant has reportedly been removing a bunch of already-installed plug-in vehicle chargers at some California store locations. Plug In America responded with an action alert that saw hundreds of plug-in supporters contact Costco's CEO to ask that his company replace the old units instead.

Wait, what's that about old units? Ah, yes. See, the chargers that are going away were the old-style paddle/AVCON chargers, which are not compatible with the new generation of plug-in vehicles. Plug In America's press release on the matter says that, old-school EV drivers are still using Costco's "60 charging stations around California. However, at least a dozen of these Costco charging stations have been removed or are scheduled to be removed."

There's really no reason Costco shouldn't perform the upgrades, since it won't cost the company any money. The California Energy Commission has something called the "ReConnect California" program, a partnership with ClipperCreek, that lets owners of the old AVCON charging equipment upgrade them to to J1772 units at no cost. Why this isn't happening is confusing, so we contacted Costco for some sort of explanation but have not yet heard back. We'll let you know when we do.



Source: Autoblog Green