Destination Charging vs DC charging

Bill55

Active Member
Verified Owner
Joined
Dec 17, 2021
Messages
1,234
Location
Greenville, SC
Cars
Sapphire - Dream Edition
DE Number
40
The non stop road trip and DC fast charging get way too much coverage. The 1% of trips with 90% of the coverage. This past weekend I did a road trip putting 700+ miles on Lucid with zero DC fast charging. We rented an Airbnb on the north side of Smokey Mountain NP. Leaving the house in Greenville, SC on Friday at 100%. Taking the long route, keeping the car cool while on hikes, 5 hours of driving. No problem for the Lucid. Arriving at the cabin and charging to 80% overnight on Fri and Saturday was plenty to explore the park. Sunday night charge to 100% and head home. Never giving charging any thought. Easier than an ICE car. Yes, unlike an ice car, I did have a back up plan in case the charger at the cabin did not work. I’ve done similar trips charging at hotels. The 1000 mile journey that must be completed in under 15 hours is an outlier, not the norm.
 
The non stop road trip and DC fast charging get way too much coverage. The 1% of trips with 90% of the coverage. This past weekend I did a road trip putting 700+ miles on Lucid with zero DC fast charging. We rented an Airbnb on the north side of Smokey Mountain NP. Leaving the house in Greenville, SC on Friday at 100%. Taking the long route, keeping the car cool while on hikes, 5 hours of driving. No problem for the Lucid. Arriving at the cabin and charging to 80% overnight on Fri and Saturday was plenty to explore the park. Sunday night charge to 100% and head home. Never giving charging any thought. Easier than an ICE car. Yes, unlike an ice car, I did have a back up plan in case the charger at the cabin did not work. I’ve done similar trips charging at hotels. The 1000 mile journey that must be completed in under 15 hours is an outlier, not the norm.
Wish this was more widely known. Twitter is full of people saying that no one should buy a CCS car, only Tesla or ICE, as if CCS charging was both completely unavoidable and fully unworkable. It's due to youtube and twitter personalities gathering doomclicks with sensational material.
 
I have a Lucid Air GT. I love this car, but unfortunately my experience with charging does not match yours, and honestly I think the concerns about the issues with non-Tesla Supercharger networks are completely valid.

Did my first long road trip on the Lucid from Austin to Galveston this weekend, distance of 240 mi. Here are the issues I had:

1. I averaged 2/3 the advertised range (64.2% to be exact). That wasn't really an issue - it's crazy hot in Texas right now, so the AC was on hard the whole way, and on the highway I averaged about 80 MPH (speed limit is 75, I'd say I was going slightly slower than most cars), and I rarely get more than 75% of the advertised range anyway.
2. I knew I wouldn't really be able to charge when I got to Galveston (staying at an Airbnb), so I stopped on the way at an Electrify America about 65 miles from my destination. Experience there was OK - when I plugged in, the power rating went wild - would cycle between like 30 kWh and 100 kWh - before settling at 120 kWh and then slowly going down to about 70 kWh (was a 150 kWh EA station). Apparently this is a known issue with this version of this EA station and Lucid. I charged about 75% full, didn't want to wait to fully charge it.
3. On the return trip I stopped at the same EA station, pulled in with 45 mi remaining. The EA charger recognized the car as a Lucid, but I kept getting "charger errors". I tried nearly all the chargers there, including the one that worked just 3 days prior. There was also a Level 2 charger there, and in desperation I plugged that one in. It said 5 kW in the Lucid but also said 0 mi/hr of addition - at this point I thought there was something wrong with the battery so I called Lucid. Other EVs charged successfully while I was there.
4. I called Lucid support (who was really, really fantastic BTW - shout-out to Josh in Houston), they had me try a bunch of resets but nothing worked. Lucid support told me there was an EVGo station just a couple miles away, so I drove there. One station was dead, but thankfully the other one worked and would charge about 42 kW. So we had a 2 hour lunch as it charged.
5. Continuing home, unfortunately we hit a ton of rush hour traffic in Houston, so we were sitting idle a lot of the time. We didn't want to chance it so we stopped at another EA outside of Austin. It was also rated at 150 kW, and we never got more than 73 kW.

I really, really want Lucid to succeed. This is by far the best car I've ever owned, but the charging network problems are not a figment of people's imagination. My relative owns a Tesla and he said the Supercharger network is a game changer - completely reliable, worst he's had was to have to wait a couple mins if all the stations were full.
 
I have a Lucid Air GT. I love this car, but unfortunately my experience with charging does not match yours, and honestly I think the concerns about the issues with non-Tesla Supercharger networks are completely valid.

Did my first long road trip on the Lucid from Austin to Galveston this weekend, distance of 240 mi. Here are the issues I had:

1. I averaged 2/3 the advertised range (64.2% to be exact). That wasn't really an issue - it's crazy hot in Texas right now, so the AC was on hard the whole way, and on the highway I averaged about 80 MPH (speed limit is 75, I'd say I was going slightly slower than most cars), and I rarely get more than 75% of the advertised range anyway.
2. I knew I wouldn't really be able to charge when I got to Galveston (staying at an Airbnb), so I stopped on the way at an Electrify America about 65 miles from my destination. Experience there was OK - when I plugged in, the power rating went wild - would cycle between like 30 kWh and 100 kWh - before settling at 120 kWh and then slowly going down to about 70 kWh (was a 150 kWh EA station). Apparently this is a known issue with this version of this EA station and Lucid. I charged about 75% full, didn't want to wait to fully charge it.
3. On the return trip I stopped at the same EA station, pulled in with 45 mi remaining. The EA charger recognized the car as a Lucid, but I kept getting "charger errors". I tried nearly all the chargers there, including the one that worked just 3 days prior. There was also a Level 2 charger there, and in desperation I plugged that one in. It said 5 kW in the Lucid but also said 0 mi/hr of addition - at this point I thought there was something wrong with the battery so I called Lucid. Other EVs charged successfully while I was there.
4. I called Lucid support (who was really, really fantastic BTW - shout-out to Josh in Houston), they had me try a bunch of resets but nothing worked. Lucid support told me there was an EVGo station just a couple miles away, so I drove there. One station was dead, but thankfully the other one worked and would charge about 42 kW. So we had a 2 hour lunch as it charged.
5. Continuing home, unfortunately we hit a ton of rush hour traffic in Houston, so we were sitting idle a lot of the time. We didn't want to chance it so we stopped at another EA outside of Austin. It was also rated at 150 kW, and we never got more than 73 kW.

I really, really want Lucid to succeed. This is by far the best car I've ever owned, but the charging network problems are not a figment of people's imagination. My relative owns a Tesla and he said the Supercharger network is a game changer - completely reliable, worst he's had was to have to wait a couple mins if all the stations were full.
This doesn't sound like much of an issue to me. You got to and from your destination and charging took a little longer than expected. No doubt that road trips with an EV take some planning and patience vs an ICE vehicle. I drove from Dallas to Greenville in an ICE vehicle the week before the above EV trip. No planning, any time I stopped for food or bathroom I filled up. It's easier. I choose the EV for some trips, not because it is easy, but because it is harder, and I enjoy the challenge. Charging is only going to get easier over time, then it will be boring. The journey is half the fun.
 
> This doesn't sound like much of an issue to me.

Perhaps, and to each their own, but I'd be willing to bet your opinion is a tiny minority. A trip that should have taken 4-4.5 hours took 9. I think another commenter here put it best "I don't have range anxiety - I have charger anxiety."

Most of us just don't enjoy playing the lottery whenever we pull into a charging station on a long distance trip of "will it work? won't it work? Let's flip a coin."

My primary point in posting my comment was to quash this idea that it's only "Twitter or YouTube personalities looking for doomclicks" that are making an issue of charging networks. I'm no fan of Tesla, and I despise Musk, but minimizing Tesla's achievements with their Supercharger network is just sticking one's head in the sand.
 
> This doesn't sound like much of an issue to me.

Perhaps, and to each their own, but I'd be willing to bet your opinion is a tiny minority. A trip that should have taken 4-4.5 hours took 9. I think another commenter here put it best "I don't have range anxiety - I have charger anxiety."

Most of us just don't enjoy playing the lottery whenever we pull into a charging station on a long distance trip of "will it work? won't it work? Let's flip a coin."

My primary point in posting my comment was to quash this idea that it's only "Twitter or YouTube personalities looking for doomclicks" that are making an issue of charging networks. I'm no fan of Tesla, and I despise Musk, but minimizing Tesla's achievements with their Supercharger network is just sticking one's head in the sand.
I think it is mostly doom clicks. Soon Tesla DC chargers will be added to the possible charging locations for all EVs. Yes, it will be 50kW for 800-900v cars until more Tesla stations upgrade to V4. We are talking about the 1% trips. I can drive ICE or EV. I’m not afraid to drive EV cross country. It does require more thought and planning. At home the EV requires no thought and no gas station stops. If you want charging to be same as fueling an ice car, then stick with ice. I drive both. The case for EVs is compelling.
 
We’re on holiday with our brand new GT, Zenith red, Santa Cruz. What a wonderful car this is. Drove to Switzerland from Amsterdam via Belgium, France and Germany. Had to reboot a couple of times on one occasion to ‘get my cameras work again’. But that was all. Good charging underway. Attached movie is at a Fastned fastcharger. When another car plugs in the charging is controlled by the provider (Fastned).
 

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We’re on holiday with our brand new GT, Zenith red, Santa Cruz. What a wonderful car this is. Drove to Switzerland from Amsterdam via Belgium, France and Germany. Had to reboot a couple of times on one occasion to ‘get my cameras work again’. But that was all. Good charging underway. Attached movie is at a Fastned fastcharger. When another car plugs in the charging is controlled by the provider (Fastned).
Now, that's fast! 😀
 
We’re on holiday with our brand new GT, Zenith red, Santa Cruz. What a wonderful car this is. Drove to Switzerland from Amsterdam via Belgium, France and Germany. Had to reboot a couple of times on one occasion to ‘get my cameras work again’. But that was all. Good charging underway. Attached movie is at a Fastned fastcharger. When another car plugs in the charging is controlled by the provider (Fastned).
Dang, color me jealous. I’ve tried 2 fast chargers since getting the car, one at a 350 charger at which I’ve gotten 175 speeds with my Genesis, but with the Lucid I got 50. Could have been an issue with the chargers that day.

The other was at my local 150 charger at which I usually get 100-105 speeds on one charger, but with the Lucid I started at 98 and dropped to 60 within a minute. My SOC was 55%. Hopefully this isn’t indicative of Lucid speeds at functional EA chargers.
 
Dang, color me jealous. I’ve tried 2 fast chargers since getting the car, one at a 350 charger at which I’ve gotten 175 speeds with my Genesis, but with the Lucid I got 50. Could have been an issue with the chargers that day.

The other was at my local 150 charger at which I usually get 100-105 speeds on one charger, but with the Lucid I started at 98 and dropped to 60 within a minute. My SOC was 55%. Hopefully this isn’t indicative of Lucid speeds at functional EA chargers.
It would be nice if both the charger and car reported requested and provided power. It seems pretty clear most of the time it is EA, but Lucid could be more transparent as well. The amount of data provided on how the car is using energy is so limited. Miles per kWh since last charge and state of charge is pretty minimal. The miles remaining calculation, I still find to be significantly off. Yes, my software is up to date.
 
We’re on holiday with our brand new GT, Zenith red, Santa Cruz. What a wonderful car this is. Drove to Switzerland from Amsterdam via Belgium, France and Germany. Had to reboot a couple of times on one occasion to ‘get my cameras work again’. But that was all. Good charging underway. Attached movie is at a Fastned fastcharger. When another car plugs in the charging is controlled by the provider (Fastned).
How is Lucid brand recognition in Europe?
 
I have a Lucid Air GT. I love this car, but unfortunately my experience with charging does not match yours, and honestly I think the concerns about the issues with non-Tesla Supercharger networks are completely valid.

Did my first long road trip on the Lucid from Austin to Galveston this weekend, distance of 240 mi. Here are the issues I had:

1. I averaged 2/3 the advertised range (64.2% to be exact). That wasn't really an issue - it's crazy hot in Texas right now, so the AC was on hard the whole way, and on the highway I averaged about 80 MPH (speed limit is 75, I'd say I was going slightly slower than most cars), and I rarely get more than 75% of the advertised range anyway.
2. I knew I wouldn't really be able to charge when I got to Galveston (staying at an Airbnb), so I stopped on the way at an Electrify America about 65 miles from my destination. Experience there was OK - when I plugged in, the power rating went wild - would cycle between like 30 kWh and 100 kWh - before settling at 120 kWh and then slowly going down to about 70 kWh (was a 150 kWh EA station). Apparently this is a known issue with this version of this EA station and Lucid. I charged about 75% full, didn't want to wait to fully charge it.
3. On the return trip I stopped at the same EA station, pulled in with 45 mi remaining. The EA charger recognized the car as a Lucid, but I kept getting "charger errors". I tried nearly all the chargers there, including the one that worked just 3 days prior. There was also a Level 2 charger there, and in desperation I plugged that one in. It said 5 kW in the Lucid but also said 0 mi/hr of addition - at this point I thought there was something wrong with the battery so I called Lucid. Other EVs charged successfully while I was there.
4. I called Lucid support (who was really, really fantastic BTW - shout-out to Josh in Houston), they had me try a bunch of resets but nothing worked. Lucid support told me there was an EVGo station just a couple miles away, so I drove there. One station was dead, but thankfully the other one worked and would charge about 42 kW. So we had a 2 hour lunch as it charged.
5. Continuing home, unfortunately we hit a ton of rush hour traffic in Houston, so we were sitting idle a lot of the time. We didn't want to chance it so we stopped at another EA outside of Austin. It was also rated at 150 kW, and we never got more than 73 kW.

I really, really want Lucid to succeed. This is by far the best car I've ever owned, but the charging network problems are not a figment of people's imagination. My relative owns a Tesla and he said the Supercharger network is a game changer - completely reliable, worst he's had was to have to wait a couple mins if all the stations were full.

The EA right before hitting Galveston was bad, I always skipped that one. I was able to charge, but when I see 50 kW, I moved on. I think I will start a new thread for Texas chargers in this forum. Past weekend, I took R1S for road tripping. I prefer to road trip on AGT, but I got tons of boxes to move for my daughter and I thought R1S will yield me more challenge as AGT I would rely more on destination charger for convenience.

Btw, Austin has many challenging terrain in Texas hill country. You are expected to be taxed more range in that city like in Seattle.
 
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