EA Experiences Recently

[GMan]

Wanted to hear if others are experiencing the same, regarding availability at EA.

I'm in year 2 of 3 of my free charging.

Year one was great. I'd pull into an EA location, and wouldn't need to wait for a charger.

About 12 months in, I started having to queue. At first just a car or three, but by month 15, I couldn't use EA because there were lines 24 hours a day, usually 5-8 cars deep.

I'm in year three with 8 months of free charging left. About a month ago I decided to randomly try EA again and much to my surprise, no lines and immediate access to a charger.

I've been 3 times in the past month or so and every time, no line, just pull in. Right now, 7pm, there are 4 of 5 chargers open

Is this trend happening generally? What's going on in your opinion?

 

[sri]

Wanted to hear if others are experiencing the same, regarding availability at EA.

I'm in year 2 of 3 of my free charging.

Year one was great. I'd pull into an EA location, and wouldn't need to wait for a charger.

About 12 months in, I started having to queue. At first just a car or three, but by month 15, I couldn't use EA because there were lines 24 hours a day, usually 5-8 cars deep.

I'm in year three with 8 months of free charging left. About a month ago I decided to randomly try EA again and much to my surprise, no lines and immediate access to a charger.

I've been 3 times in the past month or so and every time, no line, just pull in. Right now, 7pm, there are 4 of 5 chargers open

Is this trend happening generally? What's going on in your opinion?

I find traffic increased little bit overall, since there are more electric vehicles out there. Also it was little down compared to the peak from last 6 month i have seen, may be something to do with no free charging on new cars now a days.

 

[SaratogaLefty]

It really depends on the time of day around here. Unfortunately my three year free charging expired in early March but my wife's car still has a year left. I find it I go to the local EA charger (3 miles away) between 9:30 - 11:00 am on weekdays or 2:00-4:00 pm I almost never have to wait.

 

[illopp00]

The amount of EVs in my area has exploded higher, to the point I regularly see other Lucids there in line. The main problem is a bunch of slow charging cars trying to get their free charging to 100% SOC and taking up space. This is EA specifically, If I drive an extra 8 miles I can usually get an EvGo Charger but then I pay out the wazoo.

 

[TakeDuo]

Wanted to hear if others are experiencing the same, regarding availability at EA.

I'm in year 2 of 3 of my free charging.

Year one was great. I'd pull into an EA location, and wouldn't need to wait for a charger.

About 12 months in, I started having to queue. At first just a car or three, but by month 15, I couldn't use EA because there were lines 24 hours a day, usually 5-8 cars deep.

I'm in year three with 8 months of free charging left. About a month ago I decided to randomly try EA again and much to my surprise, no lines and immediate access to a charger.

I've been 3 times in the past month or so and every time, no line, just pull in. Right now, 7pm, there are 4 of 5 chargers open

Is this trend happening generally? What's going on in your opinion?

I have found the same slowly happening in SoCal. The last few months I have been able to pull up and plug in immediately. Contrast to otherwise full chargers with a long queue over just a few months ago. I had a lot of Ioniqs and ID4s. I think the wave of 2 year free EAs is beginning to expire for those cars.

Even my kids pointed out the other day that there was no line. We didn’t need to charge but they noticed as we walked by from regular parking spots.

 

[dwfallin]

The few times ive tried lately have been pleasant/fast, we’re seeing more n more charging stations in the mid-south - a welcome change!! (We now have 2 ea spots in memphis - woo hoo)

 

[DeaneG]

Maybe a result of EA imposing idle fees?

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Does anyone know what is going on with other EV's relative to free charging? Is it still common among other brands on new sales, or have at least some of them moved away from that incentive, as Lucid has?

As for EA traffic, metro Phoenix is not bad as long as you avoid peak times of the day and the weekends. We had a fire at at one location where all four 350kW chargers were lost. Fortunately, another location that had been 'coming soon' for ages finally came on-line. During the day, it's interesting how often you run into rideshare drivers who charge multiple times daily. I usually go quite early to charge, and am often the only car there.

 

[HC_79]

Does anyone know what is going on with other EV's relative to free charging? Is it still common among other brands on new sales, or have at least some of them moved away from that incentive, as Lucid has?

As for EA traffic, metro Phoenix is not bad as long as you avoid peak times of the day and the weekends. We had a fire at at one location where all four 350kW chargers were lost. Fortunately, another location that had been 'coming soon' for ages finally came on-line. During the day, it's interesting how often you run into rideshare drivers who charge multiple times daily. I usually go quite early to charge, and am often the only car there.

VW Group, BMW, Kia, Mercedes & Genesis are still offering free charging of some kind but the sooner they get rid of it the better. ICE cars don't come with 3 years of free gas so an EV shouldn't come with free charging. I've used my free charging plan on road trips but I pay to charge at home mostly so it's frustrating to see all the penny-pinchers clogging up chargers selfishly so they can save a buck!

 

[idiot900]

Only used EA a few times in recent months but it’s actually worked perfectly fine each time. Although each time I had to wait in line for the better part of an hour. Wish that the free charging were limited to say 90% state of charge so people wouldn’t sit there slowly charging to 100%.

 

[californiaboy935]

I have had fantastic luck at EA Chargers for the life of my vehicle. Obviously when in downtown LA there will be a line 2 to 4 cars deep but at pretty much any EA charger that’s not right in the center of downtown, I don’t have a wait or perhaps a very small wait.

 

[Lucidale]

I would assume it’s due to a combination of free charging expiring, less units being made with CCS and Tesla chargers opening to other OEMs.

 

[borski]

I would assume it’s due to a combination of free charging expiring, less units being made with CCS and Tesla chargers opening to other OEMs.

I would assume it’s because they’re learning and improving, and infrastructure takes time to build.

 

[GMan]

It's odd as there's been no additional capacity added in this city, and, there's actually not been an improvement in down chargers either.

I think the combination of

• free charging expiring for a vast number of early adopters across EV brands
• Rental car companies moving away from EVs in their fleet, and
• Likely greater numbers of home chargers is probably leading to this greater availability (at least here).

It's nice to know EA is a reasonable option again for me