EA Charging Problems

[SDHacker]

Do you have to call Lucid customer care to verify that the PnC Certificate in setup and valid.? The Lucid app shows the EA plan summary: start date, 3 years. Is that the same as the PnC certificate?

No. PnC (plug and charge) certificate is a token stored in your car software that is passed to EA so EA knows your car and can associate it with the Lucid charging plan. The easiest/fastest way to test/verify the PnC is to charge at an EA station assuming one is convenient to you.

 

[Negan1000]

I was able to charge at EA on my third try. Had to unplug and Plug twice. Worked on third try using the Lucid app after the connection was setup and payment window showed on charger. So my PnC certificate must be good.

 

[SDHacker]

I just picked up my AT last Friday and it's in the detailer's shop for a wrap and tint. Was wondering about all the comments regarding using the Lucid App to identify the EA station as part of authentication. I'm not seeing any of these type of options in my Lucid App, just the EA Plan Summary. I wouldn't think this was our PnC. I too wonder how to verify our PnC being active prior to trying an EA fast charge...

The option to identify which EA station and charger is only active when you plug your car in and I only had to do that for a couple months when both EA and Lucid were updating software. If you are getting an authentication or payment error, you would unplug, bring the Lucid app up, plug in and check under charging for a pop up box asking what charger you are connected to. On the chargers I normally use, some require you to hit the “continue” button on the EA charger screen while others just start charging

 

[smead]

Do you always precondition?

Interesting...prior to the last two times, I have not pre-conditioned (or at least I only started it about 5 minutes before arrival at the station). The last two times that I charged, I did precondition for about 20 minutes. You would think that would improve the charging time, not the other way around.

 

[hydbob]

Well, well, well. This is very interesting. Read on. Went to an APS/EA charger in Sedona AZ yesterday just to check it out. Is 90 minute drive from my house, so a road trip. When I got there, there was a repair guy there staring at the emergency shutdown switch. He reported that the Fire Department tried to test the emergency switch, but that only stations 3 and 4 shutdown. Stations 1 and 2 were still running. He was trying to figure out why, but I could charge if I wanted. Since this was a trip to see if I could charge my Lucid for free at an APS/EA charger location, I plugged into the 350kW station. Started at 50% SOC and went to 70%, no issues. MAX rate was 127kW. Now comes the interest part. I told the repair guy they had installed a new APS/EA charger in Prescott, AZ that wasn’t turned on yet. He said he knew that and they were awaiting certification. I asked who certifies the stations. He said, “Rivian certifies the stations for EA”. Rivian comes and tests the chargers, then approves them to EA Before they are turned on. Who knew!

what is an APS/EA charger you ask. Well APS is our electric company. They seemed to have teamed with EA to install charging stations. The equipment and billing is all EA. The site and power come from APS. Both names are on the chargers. My free charging worked there! I know of 3 such locations in northern AZ. Payson, Sedona and now Prescott.

Why is Rivian in charge of certifying their stations? Seems weird when Rivian can't even get 350kwh speeds...

 

[DryFLyGuy]

I hope everyone is having a better experience with EA charging than I am. I have noted in another post we traveled 850 miles in the first 24 hours of ownership. We charged 6 times, only 1 time did we get a charge started (using the Lucid app). The other 5 charging attempts all resulted in lengthy phone calls with both Lucid support and EA support in 3 way calls. EA would give us a “complimentary charge” to get our car to charge. It has been in into service 2 times for a lot of issues along with the inability to charge at an EA station. After the last service, we were told by the Lucid Tech that the problem is solved and the tech charged at an EA station by “plugging it in and it began charging”. Well…today I took it to an EA station in Phoenix (Fry’s on Bell road). A Polestar was charging at one of the stations. I tried the other 3 stations with “unable to authenticate” error messages at all of them. The gentleman with the Polestar attempted to help using the EA app on my phone. No success. He finished and I attempted to use his station. No luck. I phoned Lucid support. While on the phone with Lucid support, a Volkswagen and a Hyandai Ionic pulled up. Both of them began charging immediately at stations that I had previously tried.

My Lucid support person tried to help me get a charge going. He was looking at live results on my car as we attempted using apps, plugging in and unplugging, and a reset for the car. We had no luck in getting the car to charge. I mentioned to the Lucid support gentleman that I have a vary worthless paperweight as I can not charge the car anywhere but my garage. Told him that 3 different types of EVs were charging. I have only been able to get a charge one time in the 26 days we have owned the car. The Lucid support gent said it is all EA’s fault and If I would just pay with a credit card my charging problems would be over. I have no idea how he would know this, I however, was willing to try. I asked hime if Lucid would reimburse me for the cost if successful. “No, EA should reimburse you, it is their problem, not Lucid’s”, the Lucid support person told me.
”I said, I really don’t care who wants to point fingers, Lucid or EA, their problems have become MY problem. I need a solution or a buy back of my car. I suggested the problem could be Lucid since 3 other brands have charged while I can not. The Lucid support gent said, “that is apples to oranges. They are paying for the charge. You are trying to get a free charge”. At this point he gave me a short lecture on why I should pay for the charges myself as the others at the charging station where doing.

I said Lucid built the price of charging for 3 years into what I paid for the car. I walked over to the Inonic and asked if Huyndai was paying for the charge. “Nope, he has ‘free charging” for the first few years of ownership, same as I am supposed to have. He did tell me his in-laws have a Lucid Touring and they have a hard time getting EA to charge. They have only had success with the EA app, not the Lucid app.

The Lucid support could hear our conversation and said that sounds suspicious since I am one of ONLY 3 Lucids that have had a problem charging at an EA station.
HOW MANY OF YOU OWNERS HAVE REPORTED A PROBLEM WITH AN EA CHARGER TO LUCID? I would bet more than 3.

We added EA support to the conversation. The only way to get my car to charge was for EA to again give me a complimentary charge and manually start the charging for me. We agreed to charge for a few minutes, stop the charge, and attempt to charge without the complimentary charge. Both Lucid support and EA support were nice enough to remain on the phone while this was attempted. No success. As instructed, I did a soft reset using the signal light method and attempted to charge with no success. Neither EA or Lucid support could get the car to begin charging using either of the Lucid app, the EA app, or no app at all. The Lucid support seemed to be able to see what was happening with my car in real time, however, this did not help him get my car to charge.

The Lucid support gentleman then began to tell EA support this is 100% EAs fault and this can not be an issue caused by my car. I asked Lucid support to document the call, start a ”ticket” of some type to have someone from Lucid figure this out and please call me with a solution. Lucid support passed it all off to EA and asked for a manager at EA. After a short hold, a manager at EA listened to our problems and stated, “this is a fairly common problem with Lucid Airs. We will look into this, however, Lucid may want to look at my car to see if a problem exists in the software”. The EA manager took my phone number and offered to look into this matter and get back to me in 3-5 days.

That satisfied Lucid support who then said “thank you and hung up the phone”. I thanked the EA gentleman and hope they may find a solution for me.

I have owned the car for a month. I spent 2 1/2 hours at an EA station with both Lucid support and EA on a 3 way call for the majority of that time with no success, unless, EA manually initiates the charge. It has been to the service center twice. Some of the issues seem to be resolved. Some are not. The inability to charge the car is a big issue. I hope some of you may have some suggestions as to who to contact at Lucid, or if you were having EA problems, can you share how you where able to work around them. Lucid support does not seem to want to admit any liability, or seem to wan to fix the charging issue. At this point I am afraid a buy back or Lemon Law may be my only option. I really enjoy driving the car. I don’t have a long enough charging cord to get very far from my home with the Lucid. It could be a very expensive paperweight that I purchased.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I’m sorry for your experience but that doesn’t make the car a paperweight. As a matter of fact, I cannot charge at my local EA site, haven’t been able to since October, but every other EA site works for me. EA has no solution, nor does Lucid, even though zero other Lucids (3 total have tried) can charge at my local EA, which is intermittently a problem for many types of vehicles. And yet I still enjoy driving this excellent car, in fact I enjoy driving it to EVGo and ChargePoint and Volta chargers, because EA sucks. I’ve charged twice at EVGo in the last 3 days without incident. So no it’s not a paperweight and the car doesn’t need to be bought back. But Lucid and EA both need to do a better job of getting their equipment to talk to eachother, that’s for sure, but until you’ve tried DC Fast charging on another network I don’t think you can draw any conclusions about the paperweight status of the vehicle.

 

[DryFLyGuy]

I’m sorry for your experience but that doesn’t make the car a paperweight. As a matter of fact, I cannot charge at my local EA site, haven’t been able to since October, but every other EA site works for me. EA has no solution, nor does Lucid, even though zero other Lucids (3 total have tried) can charge at my local EA, which is intermittently a problem for many types of vehicles. And yet I still enjoy driving this excellent car, in fact I enjoy driving it to EVGo and ChargePoint and Volta chargers, because EA sucks. I’ve charged twice at EVGo in the last 3 days without incident. So no it’s not a paperweight and the car doesn’t need to be bought back. But Lucid and EA both need to do a better job of getting their equipment to talk to eachother, that’s for sure, but until you’ve tried DC Fast charging on another network I don’t think you can draw any conclusions about the paperweight status of the vehicle.

I don’t think we have the same problem. You can not charge at your local EA site but every other EA site works for you. I have attempt to charge at EA stations across Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. With one exception, none of the EA stations work with my car, unless EA manually initiates the charge. A big difference between your car’s charging problems at EA and my car’s charging problems at EA. I hope EA gets your local station fixed as you state it is a problem for your car and for many types of vehicles. I have watched many types of vehicles charge at all of the stations which my car can not initiate a charge.

I really like the Lucid product. That is why we purchased one. My car has a lot of issues, some resolved, some resolved that have come back, and some not resolved. Charging has continued to be a non resolved issue beginning day one. Lucid support has not been able to get my car to charge at ANY station, with or without the use of apps. EA support, with one exception can not get my car to charge at any station with or without the use of apps either. EA support has been nice enough to initiate the charge manually after all other procedures, with 3 way calls including Lucid support, have failed.

Lets say you load up the family for a road trip across the country. Would you trust my car or your car?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Yeah you have an authentication problem. Mine always authenticates but then quits one second after initiating the charge. I’d still be fine taking your car on a road trip if there were other non EA DCFast chargers available, like EVGo or Chargepoint or EVConnect, but if based on ABRP app only EA DC fast chargers were available and there was no L2 option at my destination (I’ve done entire road trips with zero fast charging using only hotel L2 and it worked great), then yeah I’d rather take my car than yours! Don’t get me wrong, your problem sucks and seems unique to your car and not other Lucids, if you’ve confirmed others can charge at those same sites, but I guess for me that’s not “buyback this paperweight” territory, although it is really annoying, inconvenient, adds extra hassle and cost, and needs Lucid and EA to figure out a solution.

 

[Ashelia2004]

I don’t see the electrify America option on my lucid app.
And I just ran into the authentication problem today. And one of the stations is also not working

Have any of you guys gotten a Tesla tap?

 

[Electrified]

I don’t see the electrify America option on my lucid app.
And I just ran into the authentication problem today. And one of the stations is also not working

Have any of you guys gotten a Tesla tap?

On the charging page upper left hand corner is a three bar menu tab it should open up to a page with a Settings Tab, Lucid Charging Plan Tab, Owner's Manual Tab, and 24/7 Customer Care and Roadside Assistance Tab.
The Lucid Charging Plan Tab has all kinds of info.

FTR, I never had to do any setup to charge at EA, its all been plug and play with my car. EA has been good for me so far.
I have a Tesla tap just in case I'm overnighting at a hotel with a Tesla destination charger, I've yet to use it.

 

[elusive7]

I might be one of the lucky ones, but since delivery of my Touring last Friday (1/20), I've plugged into 3 different EA chargers, and have had 0 issues with any of them. They all just plugged in, recognized my vehicle, and started charging for free. Again, I might be in the minority, but reporting a positive data point for EA here.

 

[Ashelia2004]

On the charging page upper left hand corner is a three bar menu tab it should open up to a page with a Settings Tab, Lucid Charging Plan Tab, Owner's Manual Tab, and 24/7 Customer Care and Roadside Assistance Tab.
The Lucid Charging Plan Tab has all kinds of info.

FTR, I never had to do any setup to charge at EA, its all been plug and play with my car. EA has been good for me so far.
I have a Tesla tap just in case I'm overnighting at a hotel with a Tesla destination charger, I've yet to use it.

Which Tesla tap did you get?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I might be one of the lucky ones, but since delivery of my Touring last Friday (1/20), I've plugged into 3 different EA chargers, and have had 0 issues with any of them. They all just plugged in, recognized my vehicle, and started charging for free. Again, I might be in the minority, but reporting a positive data point for EA here.

This is normal behavior, how it works for most owners. That doesn’t mean authentication errors or other errors (like quitting a charge immediately after starting) don’t happen, but most EA stations I’ve used work just as you describe. EA is problematic in general though, PlugShare is very revealing, if you read many of the “successful charge” posts you’ll see they had to try a few times or a few dispensers before they got it to work on many vehicles. By contrast, I’ve had 100% success rate at EVGo (it’s slower though), same for EVConnecf and Volta, had one big failure at ChargePoint that nearly stranded me but otherwise Chargepoint has always worked the first try also.

 

[HariK]

I did not have single instance of Plug and charge working on EA. I have open the Lucid App every single time and choose Electrify America and the station ID. All in CA. I wonder if it is a PnC certificate issue

 

[Keith_SF]

Picked up my AT on 12/31 and on the way home stopped at the local EA installation which has 7 brand new 350kW chargers, to top it off. Couldn't get it to work at all. The car always told me to authenticate with the app and water Iselected myand after 30+ min on the phone with EA support they manually started a pity freebie charge session. Meanwhile rivians, vws, audis, and hyundias were charging without issues. I was so embarrassed.

Tried again a few days later, no luck. Sat at the charger for an hour while waiting for Lucid support to pickup. I finally gave up. When I got ahold of then later, they certified that my charging plan was active. They suggested to try support again when I was at the charger, and to also try other locations (though all are 15+ miles away)

Tried again today, no luck. By this time I had tried all 7 350kW chargers. At the end of the bank there is an older charger with 150kW CCS and Chademo connectors. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. While it didn't work via "plug and play", once I selected the appropriate charger ID in the App, VOILA! it stated charging after a min or so delay. With temps in the 50's, no pre-conditioning, and the battery already at 67 or so, it was giving me 56kW charging rate (roughly 1%/min)

I went back to a 350kW charger and was able to get lucid support on the line. We went through all the steps with no luck, then then he got EA on the line. They were stumped too and eventually manually started a session for me. It didn't charge any faster than the 150kW charger did. EA was still on the line, and I told her I needed to be able to charge at this location as I only have 30A at home (And rent, so it's not worth investing $$$$ on a new electrical circuit) and didn't have time to spend 30 min on the phone each time to start it. After explaining all the above to her again, she escalated the issue and supposedly they will contact me to troubleshoot.

Note that all the 350kW stations are ~10/22 production BTC Power units with an italdesign logo on the front (should have been the first indication that it wouldn't work properly!)

I then drove to the nest closest station , which by has only 150kW chargers. Had to wait 15 min to get a spot, then tried it, and it worked fine (plug and play didn't work but I was able to authenticate by selecting the charger id on the lucid app.. ) this charger only gave me 42kW charging though

So, my problem seems to be, so far limited to these newer 350kW BTCP units.

Anyone else have similar results?

@HariK I see you are also in the bay area and similarly is able to charge at 150kW stations with speeds similar to my experience. I would be interested to hear if you have tried a 350kW station in the area. Thanks!

 

[Electrified]

Which Tesla tap did you get?

I bought a refurbished 80 amp unit directly from Tesla Tap, I must state that the "refurbished" unit looked brand spanking new and that the price was discounted nicely from what you see on Amazon.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Picked up my AT on 12/31 and on the way home stopped at the local EA installation which has 7 brand new 350kW chargers, to top it off. Couldn't get it to work at all. The car always told me to authenticate with the app and water Iselected myand after 30+ min on the phone with EA support they manually started a pity freebie charge session. Meanwhile rivians, vws, audis, and hyundias were charging without issues. I was so embarrassed.

Tried again a few days later, no luck. Sat at the charger for an hour while waiting for Lucid support to pickup. I finally gave up. When I got ahold of then later, they certified that my charging plan was active. They suggested to try support again when I was at the charger, and to also try other locations (though all are 15+ miles away)

Tried again today, no luck. By this time I had tried all 7 350kW chargers. At the end of the bank there is an older charger with 150kW CCS and Chademo connectors. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. While it didn't work via "plug and play", once I selected the appropriate charger ID in the App, VOILA! it stated charging after a min or so delay. With temps in the 50's, no pre-conditioning, and the battery already at 67 or so, it was giving me 56kW charging rate (roughly 1%/min)

I went back to a 350kW charger and was able to get lucid support on the line. We went through all the steps with no luck, then then he got EA on the line. They were stumped too and eventually manually started a session for me. It didn't charge any faster than the 150kW charger did. EA was still on the line, and I told her I needed to be able to charge at this location as I only have 30A at home (And rent, so it's not worth investing $$$$ on a new electrical circuit) and didn't have time to spend 30 min on the phone each time to start it. After explaining all the above to her again, she escalated the issue and supposedly they will contact me to troubleshoot.

Note that all the 350kW stations are ~10/22 production BTC Power units with an italdesign logo on the front (should have been the first indication that it wouldn't work properly!)

I then drove to the nest closest station , which by has only 150kW chargers. Had to wait 15 min to get a spot, then tried it, and it worked fine (plug and play didn't work but I was able to authenticate by selecting the charger id on the lucid app.. ) this charger only gave me 42kW charging though

So, my problem seems to be, so far limited to these newer 350kW BTCP units.

Anyone else have similar results?

@HariK I see you are also in the bay area and similarly is able to charge at 150kW stations with speeds similar to my experience. I would be interested to hear if you have tried a 350kW station in the area. Thanks!

Funny my experience is the opposite. The ABB EA units near me are older generation ones, and can’t charge on any since October, but then the new BTC ones in Albany NY worked instantly, as do the Signet ones in Dartmouth Mass and Wrentham Mass. Plug & charge works every time. This is why I have a hard time blaming Lucid, especially when every other DC Fast charger brand works for me. There’s something wrong with the protocol the EA chargers are trying to use to communicate with the Lucid, as I’ve noticed the Lucid senses the error a good 30-60 seconds before EA registers an error. It’s just a mess, I don’t understand why EA can’t figure it out and the problems seem to be across all types of units, meanwhile other DCFC companies talk to the car fine.

 

[Unmutual]

I charged at an EA 350 yesterday for the first time. Took forever to authenticate but eventually did. My initial SoC was 28%. Best I could get was 122, and it settled at 116 after a couple of minutes. Then it just stopped and I got a "charging failure" [can't recall the exact wording] message, so I unplugged and started over. Worked fine for another couple of minutes and then failed again. I moved over to the next station and got an authentication error message which I ignored as the car was telling me it was in fact charging. I think I'll just stick with the EA 150 which is much closer to my home and has been well-behaved to this point [he says, knocking on wood].

 

[Bnwbaron]

Today, was the first time I was actually able to plug-in at an EA station (last time it was too crowded and there were only two functional plugs). I had a similar problem to what others are describing. The system coils not authenticate my car and I stood there like an idiot, trying to figure it out until calling customer support. She just gave me a free charge leaving me wondering what will happen the next time. At least I know to start with calling Lucid and asking the status of my PnC.