Kia "CHARGE UP" Card

[loristein]

Has anyone secured one of these "Kia Charge Up Cards" that are to be made available to Soul EV owners? My dealer doesn't know anything about them. It allows free access to Greenlots network of chargers...

http://www.kiamedia.com/us/en/media/pressreleases/9327/kia-motors-america-ramps-up-dc-fast-charging-network-in-preparation-for-arrival-of-2015-soul-ev

 

[Tomlamb]

Has anyone secured one of these "Kia Charge Up Cards" that are to be made available to Soul EV owners? My dealer doesn't know anything about them. It allows free access to Greenlots network of chargers...

http://www.kiamedia.com/us/en/media/pressreleases/9327/kia-motors-america-ramps-up-dc-fast-charging-network-in-preparation-for-arrival-of-2015-soul-ev

I did get a greenlots card, but when I went online to register, it only had a program for the Nissan Leaf...

 

[GeekGuam]

I just got the Greenlots card, and registered through the website charge.greenlots.com (no "www" in front) and successfully linked the RFID to the account.

 

[carverbaby]

Hi,

Is the greenlots card something we're supposed to get on our own? my dealer made no mention of a chargeup nor greenlots card.

Thanks

 

[GeekGuam]

Hi,

Is the greenlots card something we're supposed to get on our own? my dealer made no mention of a chargeup nor greenlots card.

Thanks

My dealer also made no mention of it when I took delivery, but he called me a week later saying he forgot to give me the Charge Up card. If I were you, I'd print out the Kia Motors Press release (see below) and show it to them. Thanks to loristein for the posting the original link.

http://www.kiamedia.com/us/en/media...rk-in-preparation-for-arrival-of-2015-soul-ev

 

[ElectricSoul]

I was told by the Greenlots people that they will soon be merging onto one network with Chargepoint and Blink. That would be great, kind of weak right now on it's own.

 

[erikdg]

That's good that the networks are merging. My city has 240V chargers. I've request they add the CHAdeMO high speed. Hope they will!

 

[JimSoCal]

Has anyone used the Greenlot card anywhere? I got mine with my car and registered the card online. Now I'm wondering where it can be used. There is a blink chargepoint near my work but the card didn't work there so I ordered a card from blink. Also near my work is an EVGO chargepoint and a SEMA chargepoint but not sure if greenlot will work there either. Anyone have success with the greeblot card anywhere?

 

[carverbaby]

i got a call yesterday from ali w/ kia care and i asked about the card (my dealer didn't have them) and he said they'd be mailed out soon. i wonder if they'll be any different than the greenlots cards some of you got?

 

[loristein]

Hi, I'm following up. I have been in contact with Kia customer service on the issue of the Kia Charge Up Card. Apparantly, this is not a "free" charge up card. You have to put money on it to use it (it's easy to register, though). Don't know why this is a benefit to us as Kia Soul EV owners because we can all get RFID charge up cards linked to our own credit cards without Kia...

What has anyone else found out?

 

[loristein]

I'd like to urge all Kia EV owners to contact Kia Customer Support to urge them to follow Nissan's "CHARGE FREE" program.

I did this and was told that Kia has no current plans to do this. Currently, you can get a Kia Charge Up card for the Greenlots network, but you have to link your own credit card to it in order to charge.

I have been at many different charging stations watching Nissan Leaf owners charging up a storm...for free with their Nissan Charge Free cards.

If you want to call customer support, the phone number is 1-800-333-4542. I have been speaking with Maryann in Customer Service who has noted my "request."

 

[TomT]

Considering what a disaster Nissan's program has been, perhaps it is best if they do NOT follow them...

I'd like to urge all Kia EV owners to contact Kia Customer Support to urge them to follow Nissan's "CHARGE FREE" program.

 

[loristein]

The Greenlots card that you receive from Kia has to be linked to one of your own credit cards. When you go to a Greenlots network, you flash the card, it's read, and the charger will work, and your credit card will be charged.

I now have eVgo card, Greenlots, and Blink cards. I've learned that you need to get one of each if you are going to have to stop to charge your car somewhere. It's like Chevron, Shell, and Exxon--different gas stations-- except that they take your credit cards and you don't need a specially linked card for each and every network. It would be great if some of these orgs merged, but such is life. If you don't have one of these cards, you can still charge as a guest, but you have to make a phone call, and the fee is higher.

The big thing is that we should ALL be urging Kia to follow Nissan's "charge up for free" program. This allows Leaf owners to charge their cars at certain networks (eVgo is one of them). Everywhere I go I meet Leaf owners who are at these charging stations "topping off" their power for free.

Kia customer service said they have no plans currently to follow suit. I urge everyone to make a call and register your desire.

 

[tigger19687]

Why not just get a Charge-point card alone?

I read over the Greenlots website and it looks more like a service to help a company set things up and help maintain it. Not really their own EV Chargers.

I DL their app, it didn't list a bunch near me and did not list $ or who owns the charger. I Deleted it.

I DL the Charge-point and Plug-share.

Plug-share said I can't use it unless I DL the Play Store Update. At 27MB I declined and and Deleted the Plug-share. Too bad as I like the comments on it. I will DL it later when I actually need it.

But I usually search around while I am at work/home on the computer. Faster that way. And if I am going to travel I usually pre-plan and look for stuff before I go .


and I do not have an EV car yet. I have a Diesel truck and not every gas station around here has Diesel so I am used to searching

 

[HDLPRL]

I picked up my Soul EV+ last night and the dealer (North County Kia, Escondido, CA) gave me a nrg eVgo fob that provides complimentary charging for 60 days upon calling nrg eVgo and activating the fob. I have previously used the nrg eVgo Freedom stations in the San Diego area with the 2011 Leaf (just traded in for Soul) with a fob attached to an eVgo account I set up. Obviously I'll use the "free" eVgo card for the next two months; then go back to using my regular eVgo account. I agree with Lori Stein; Kia should provide at least one year of complimentary charging; both Nissan and now BMW i3 provide complimentary charging. As she suggests; I will call Kia customer service and tell them they can do better than just 60 days complimentary charging.

 

[nukar]

It took over 2 months to get my Charge Up card. I bought my car in December in the Bay Area (Capital Kia San Jose) and received the card automatically in February. I haven't registered my card yet since I do all my slow drip charging at home.

 

[dondon]

It took over 2 months to get my Charge Up card. I bought my car in December in the Bay Area (Capital Kia San Jose) and received the card automatically in February. I haven't registered my card yet since I do all my slow drip charging at home.

Ditto (except mine is from Fremont Kia).

 

[bfranci]

I got mine as well. I already had all the cards for the different charging stations so it was somewhat superfluous for me, although EvGo offered 2 months discounted charging through the card so it's not a total waste.

 

[jbella]

Seems like the ChargeUp program is Kia's name for the ez-charge program.

This site gives some detailed information about what the program is all about:

https://www.ez-charge.com

 

[Elm]

I'm late to this thread, but I just got my Soul last week. My dealer also knew nothing about the cards but I actually found mine in with the owners manual and all the other documentation that I wouldn't normally read. But since this is my first EV, I wanted to see if there was anything special I needed to know that my dealer hadn't told me (there wasn't). The card was in a plain white envelope. Unfortunately, my puppy got hold of it, so as you imagine it is useless now.

So take a look in all the stuff in your glove compartment.