Good question. There were legacy chargers at several Costcos, but those were inexplicably ripped out everywhere a few years back. They said not enough people used them, even though plenty of people relied on them. Just ripped out of parking lots everywhere. They were offered free upgrades to J1772 as part of an upgrade program and declined.
Maybe that would be partnership worth developing: Tesla Motors and Costco. Maybe in addition to (re)installing charging bays and even as a sales connection with TM. They generally have a car (Toyota, Honda or something) out front of their local stores. I DO know they could not gain access to certain brands (BMW comes to mind).
This year almost 400k cars are going to be bought by Costco members using truecar.com. Buying a Car at Costco: Make a Deal, Without the Dealing – Feature – Car and Driver | Car and Driver Blog Americans rethinking how they buy cars
I guess when you get right down to it they don't need the incentive to get people to shop there especially considering people pay to get in.
I guess people like the option of bypassing as much of the dealer process as possible. Who knew - - - Updated - - - True, but they do excel at putting the Customer first, and who knows, waaaay down the line they could be a potential seller of Tesla, since they don't confirm to the dealer model, and lots of people like/love Costco. Unlikely I know, and probably shouldn't derail the celeb thread.
Costco has since installed J1772s at a few locations. However, locally they're too busy adding giant gas stations to their warehouses. An estimated $6,000,000 invested on pumps compared to zero for plugs. It might even be commercially viable for them to install CHAdeMO in Quebec. The commercial electric rate is only $0.05/kWh and they would have close to a monopoly on quick charging, so they'd get a lot of signups. I have suggested this via comment card, without response. Someone has recommended I resort to old-fashioned mail.
Maybe that's the real explanation about why they ripped out the original charge stations. Didn't want the competition.
I wonder if a mod wouldn't mind stripping out this interesting-on-its-own-merits discussion about Costco-Tesla and creating a thread of its own?
If this is the reason for neglecting EV's, then I may have to think twice before buying tires from them.
Do people really drive that far to get to a Costco that a HPWC would be useful? I can understand J1772s to accommodate Leafs, etc., but seems unlikely a Model S would need to charge on a shopping trip to Costco.
It's a value-add and customer service thing, but you're right, it should probably be a more universal option, at least until the Tesla design becomes the 'standard'. that said, I suspect Tesla would happily provide free, or at least subsidized, HPWC's to Costco. Costco respond to emails, the link is on this page: http://www.costco.com/call-us.html
Costco tore out my preferred parking space to build a gas station. Fortunately, Costco provides clean gas.
It's simple, gas pumps make money, electric plugins don't. That investment they made in to gas pumps is expected to be recovered by those paying for fuel from said pumps. Unless they charge for the electrons the same can't be said of the charging stations (and there's a fair amount of resistance to the pay-to-charge model)
and when you fill up every night at home, you don't ever need to go looking for a gas station. Or making special trips to Costco just to fill up your car. Oh, so much better!!
I don't really see much value for level 2 chargers at locations like Costco, people aren't there long enough to make a difference. We're generally in and out of Costco in well under an hour, so how many miles are going to be added? Maybe 15? That doesn't seem like a very big deal. Level 2 chargers at a beach, concert venue, hotel, etc. sounds very useful, but for short term parking like a retail store I don't see how it would be worth much.
I'm thinking more along the lines of EVs in general, not just Teslas with large battery packs. There will be people that have both a local EV (small pack) in their garage, along with a larger EV for family trips and times they need more miles available. I liked seeing EVSEs at Costco. It helped to raise awareness with the general public that EVs are here now. When we get to the Model 3, there will be a lot of education required for people on where to charge, how to charge. The more the public sees EVs in their day-to-day activities, the easier it will be when Model 3 hits. Just my opinion. But I think we need to be concerned about every EVSE, every location ... 'rising tide floats all boats' kind of thing. We need more EVs on the road. Even ones with less range that need to charge while at Costco.
In Québec Costco has actually gone to court trying to charge less for gas. iirc, the minimum markup over wholesale is 3-cents per liter. They would rather charge less in order to drive memberships. 240v would be useful to many EVs and gain Costco memberships. If they ever installed CHAdeMO, they could charge a reasonable fee for its use and gain many members. There are several Costcos in strategic locations far away from the sole SpC planned for my province, so I'd definitely renew my membership, get the adapter, and often have 1-2 hours to kill shopping while recharging if Costco ever goes that route.
But they install them at Walgreens and McDonalds, and I assume most people don't spend more than 10-15 mins at those places. I think it's more of a question of gaining the necessary momentum and infrastructure so that it just becomes a no-brainer, and reduces the widely-held belief that there's nowhere to charge an EV. We (here) all know that's not true, but the big shiny EV charge stations really put the message out there quite effectively.