EA Megathread

[HC_79]

On road trips they all charge to 95% or more, my brother to avoid too many charging stops and my two friends because the issues with CCS charging make it risky to let charge drop too low before planning the next stop

eah, I try not to judge other people's motives with charging. Some folks really do need 95% or 100% to get to their next destination.

There are valid reasons for going between 85% to 100% even in the Lucid but in a downtown \ suburban location? not buying it.

I was on a road trip once and stopped at the Panoche Shell EA on the I-5. I was driving an e-Tron at the time, and I knew I couldn’t make it from that location to home without stopping at the Bakersfield location to cross the Grapevine. I charged my car to 80%, but the car beside me was already charging to 90% and beyond. In fact, they were there when I arrived and still there when I left. The issue was that even charging the car to 90% wasn’t enough to get them over the Grapevine, so they were going to have to stop at Bakersfield anyway. They literally stayed at the charger longer than they needed to, blocking it for someone else for no valid reason. Ironically, I finished charging my car and was about to leave the Bakersfield charger when I saw the exact same driver from the Panoche location pull up to charge. That’s the problem: people are blocking chargers that don’t actually benefit them or the line of drivers waiting for them to get out.

 

[momo3605]

Frankly, I think it's despicable that EA would set charging limits in a shabby attempt to address miserable conditions (out-of-service equipment, too few stalls, low power output) at so many of their charging stations.

Urban/suburban chargers are almost always used for free charging. I do agree, for rural chargers, there shouldn't be an hard limit. Probably still a good idea to soft limit to 80 or 85% like Tesla does in those cases.

But for the former, urban/suburban chargers...there are way too many abusers. I bet if people would GTFO at 80%, there would be no lines even with the lousy number of stalls/broken equipment situation.

 

[hmp10]

I was on a road trip once and stopped at the Panoche Shell EA on the I-5. I was driving an e-Tron at the time, and I knew I couldn’t make it from that location to home without stopping at the Bakersfield location to cross the Grapevine. I charged my car to 80%, but the car beside me was already charging to 90% and beyond. In fact, they were there when I arrived and still there when I left. The issue was that even charging the car to 90% wasn’t enough to get them over the Grapevine, so they were going to have to stop at Bakersfield anyway. They literally stayed at the charger longer than they needed to, blocking it for someone else for no valid reason. Ironically, I finished charging my car and was about to leave the Bakersfield charger when I saw the exact same driver from the Panoche location pull up to charge. That’s the problem: people are blocking chargers that don’t actually benefit them or the line of drivers waiting for them to get out.

You're using chargers on the West Coast which seems to have far fewer problems with EA chargers than the East Coast.

We are still in the 3-year free charging window with our Air, so I prefer to use EA chargers on road trips. Although the situation has improved a bit in spots on the East Coast, I NEVER set my charging limit on the assumption that the next EA station will be fully functional or even working at all (I've had several situations in which the latter was the case). So I always put in enough charge to insure I can get to an alternate charging location to the one I have planned. Consequently, I almost always charge up to 95% on road trips.

As much as it stirs my grits to say so, I will actually welcome the Gravity's being able to charge at Superchargers, as they will probably be my default choice on road trips in the Gravity. I'm just sick and tired of the panoply of problems that beset EA chargers and even some ChargePoint chargers I've used.

 

[joec]

There are valid reasons for going between 85% to 100% even in the Lucid but in a downtown \ suburban location? not buying it.

I was on a road trip once and stopped at the Panoche Shell EA on the I-5. I was driving an e-Tron at the time, and I knew I couldn’t make it from that location to home without stopping at the Bakersfield location to cross the Grapevine. I charged my car to 80%, but the car beside me was already charging to 90% and beyond. In fact, they were there when I arrived and still there when I left. The issue was that even charging the car to 90% wasn’t enough to get them over the Grapevine, so they were going to have to stop at Bakersfield anyway. They literally stayed at the charger longer than they needed to, blocking it for someone else for no valid reason. Ironically, I finished charging my car and was about to leave the Bakersfield charger when I saw the exact same driver from the Panoche location pull up to charge. That’s the problem: people are blocking chargers that don’t actually benefit them or the line of drivers waiting for them to get out.

Oh, I agree. Plenty of people are clearly abusing these chargers. That SF Harrison location you mention is five minutes from my house, so I know all too well.

I do think some people may be stopping there on their way from SoCal to up further north. Just because it's a huge station with many chargers, very convenient from the Bay Bridge. But the majority of folks at that station, I would think, are locals who have no home charging set up. And that could be for many reasons as well. Not all houses and apartments are properly set up for home charging, of course.

Not that any of this is an excuse.

This particular station has attendants on staff. If you ask me, part of that job should be managing who is charging and for how long. But they likely get paid too little to deal with rude customers, so maybe not.

 

[larrycpa]

I wanted to top off my Pure for a fairly long drive in sub freezing weather so I headed for an EA charger on Albany NY. It was easy to find and empty. I went for the Hyper speed 350v charger. I never got over 108. Went from 48% to 80% in about 20 minutes. Not terrible but I'm wondering why I never hit the higher numbers. I did precondition so my battery should have been ready. It was also after a 60 mile drive. Not complaining. Just curious.

 

[DeaneG]

I wanted to top off my Pure for a fairly long drive in sub freezing weather so I headed for an EA charger on Albany NY. It was easy to find and empty. I went for the Hyper speed 350v charger. I never got over 108. Went from 48% to 80% in about 20 minutes. Not terrible but I'm wondering why I never hit the higher numbers. I did precondition so my battery should have been ready. It was also after a 60 mile drive. Not complaining. Just curious.

Maybe the preconditioning wasn't long enough? It can take 45+ minutes in very cold weather. Or the weather was so cold that the car's thermal system couldn't bring the battery to the optimum (very warm) temperature.

 

[momo3605]

I wanted to top off my Pure for a fairly long drive in sub freezing weather so I headed for an EA charger on Albany NY. It was easy to find and empty. I went for the Hyper speed 350v charger. I never got over 108. Went from 48% to 80% in about 20 minutes. Not terrible but I'm wondering why I never hit the higher numbers. I did precondition so my battery should have been ready. It was also after a 60 mile drive. Not complaining. Just curious.

At 48% you won’t hit more than 108kw. That’s just about a perfect charge for the Pure.

You have to plug in lower to see faster numbers

 

[momo3605]

Maybe the preconditioning wasn't long enough? It can take 45+ minutes in very cold weather. Or the weather was so cold that the car's thermal system couldn't bring the battery to the optimum (very warm) temperature.

Not in this case. He plugged in at 48%. No amount of preconditioning or different weather will change the curve. You need to be at low SOC to see 150-200kw

 

[larrycpa]

At 48% you won’t hit more than 108kw. That’s just about a perfect charge for the Pure.

You have to plug in lower to see faster numbers

Good to know. I'm OCD about keeping charge in my battery. I guess I'll never get to experience really fast charging

 

[momo3605]

Good to know. I'm OCD about keeping charge in my battery. I guess I'll never get to experience really fast charging

Here’s an ideal curve for a Touring from another thread. If you have a Pure AWD it will mimick the Touring curve. If you have a Pure RWD it will be slightly lower.

But roughly you’ll see 200kw at 10% and 150kw at 30%

 

[DeaneG]

Evkx shows about 170kW at 50% SOC. I have no personal experience with this.

Lucid Air Pure charging curve & performance :: evkx.net

Below is the charging curve for Lucid Air Pure, illustrating the charging speed at various battery levels. Additionally, graphs for range and time provide comprehensive details on charging performance.

evkx.net

 

[momo3605]

Evkx shows about 170kW at 50% SOC. I have no personal experience with this.

Lucid Air Pure charging curve & performance :: evkx.net

Below is the charging curve for Lucid Air Pure, illustrating the charging speed at various battery levels. Additionally, graphs for range and time provide comprehensive details on charging performance.

evkx.net

That’s not right. It shows 300kw peak. Pure and Touring can’t hit that. Lucid themselves say “up to 250kw” on their own website. Must be a GT or Dream Edition curve mistakenly posted. But that being said, yes those cars can do 170kw at 50%.

 

[DeaneG]

That’s not right. It shows 300kw peak. Pure and Touring can’t hit that. Lucid themselves say “up to 250kw” on their own website. Must be a GT or Dream Edition curve mistakenly posted. But that being said, yes those cars can do 170kw at 50%.

Sounds likely, thanks.

 

[Murcie]

I noticed an improved charging curve with my Pure AWD after updating to 2.5.0.

Here’s my charging curve at a 150 kW EA station that goes up to 174 kW at low SoC, plugged @ 15% and preconditioned for over 20 minutes.

174 kW from 15% to 25%, then it started to decrease at a constant rate.

160 kW @ 33%
150 kW @ 39%
140 kW @ 44%
130 kW @ 49%
120 kW @ 52%
110 kW @ 55%
100 kW @ 60%
90 kW @ 65%
80 kW @ 70%
70 kW @ 75%
60 kW @ 78%

After hitting 80%, the charging station started to limit the charging power and it was randomly fluctuating between 45 kW and 55 kW until I unplugged it @ 90%.

 

[momo3605]

I noticed an improved charging curve with my Pure AWD after updating to 2.5.0.

Here’s my charging curve at a 150 kW EA station that goes up to 174 kW at low SoC, plugged @ 15% and preconditioned for over 20 minutes.

174 kW from 15% to 25%, then it started to decrease at a constant rate.

160 kW @ 33%
150 kW @ 39%
140 kW @ 44%
130 kW @ 49%
120 kW @ 52%
110 kW @ 55%
100 kW @ 60%
90 kW @ 65%
80 kW @ 70%
70 kW @ 75%
60 kW @ 78%

After hitting 80%, the charging station started to limit the charging power and it was randomly fluctuating between 45 kW and 55 kW until I unplugged it @ 90%.


View attachment 26619

Nice! That does seem better than usual. Do you remember or have documented the total time taken from 15-80? Wonder if it beats the usual 37 minute time these cars take

 

[Murcie]

Nice! That does seem better than usual. Do you remember or have documented the total time taken from 15-80? Wonder if it beats the usual 37 minute time these cars take

Yes, 32 minutes.

 

[momo3605]

Yes, 32 minutes.

View attachment 26628

View attachment 26629

Awesome! I think that’s a new record haha

 

[thyname]

We are planning competitive subscriptions with discounted charge rates for Lucid Air customers later this year. If a customer chooses to, they can download the EA app and subscribe to the Pass+ plan, in which case be sure to activate the charging via EA mobile app before plugging in the vehicle.

Can you please elaborate on this? Where I live, EA rates are $.56 per kWh. Thanks

 

[DeaneG]

Can you please elaborate on this? Where I live, EA rates are $.56 per kWh. Thanks

You can subscribe to EA's Pass+ membership month-by-month, for $7 per month, to get EA's PASS+ discount of 25%. In the past, I've often "subscribed" for one month just prior to a road trip to get the charging discount for that trip. The $7 fee can easily pay for itself on the first charge.

I can't speak to Lucid's plans for discounted EA charging through plug-n-charge. Volvo similarly claims a discounted plug-n-charge rate through Volvo's app, but with no mention of a specific figure.

 

[HC_79]

You can subscribe to EA's Pass+ membership month-by-month, for $7 per month, to get EA's PASS+ discount of 25%. In the past, I've often "subscribed" for one month just prior to a road trip to get the charging discount for that trip. The $7 fee can easily pay for itself on the first charge.

I think they’re asking about what Lucid’s subscription is going to be. I’m assuming they’ll just allow you to sign up to the EA Pass+ through the Lucid Charging Service.