It was a beautiful day with ambient temperature 70 degrees with light wind. Travelling the 150 miles from Champaign to Chicago at 73 mph drained the battery 50 percent from a 100 percent charge. We had about 3.8 efficiency.
So I headed for EA's Lincolnwood charger, hidden at the edge of the town mall. It has three CCS chargers. One was out of order. The next one had a Chevy Bolt charging to 100 percent. The next one had a car plugged in with no driver nearby. Someone was charging a motorbike from the chademo charger. We sat there 20 minutes, but the guy in the Bolt wasn't going to leave until he reached 100 and the other driver did not return. During the 20 minutes I tried phoning EA to ask if the down charger simply needed a reboot, since the screen read "Please unplug cable." We were on hold the whole time. We gave up and left for our dinner commitment. None of this, other than the out-of-order charger was EAs fault.
After dinner we drove from the northside of Chicago to a charger at the Walmart in Joliet, three miles south of I-55. The first charger I plugged into would not authenticate. So I pulled forward to the next charger. It would not authenticate either. So I phoned EA and again was on hold for 20 minutes. Last year when I called EA the wait was never more than five minutes. EA also has a new policy of continuously repeating announcements about how to subscribe to its network while on hold. It easily can drive you crazy. I think the goal is to make you hang up. Finally a friendly agent answers. After pecking away on her keyboard she tells me the charger cable is defective and that I should use the other cable on that charger. It worked. I'm not sure why EA could not have sent someone simply to put a notice on the cable that it was out of order. Heck, they could have paid one of the Walmart employees to wrap red tape around it.
Strangely, an Urber driver in a Kia pulls up at the first charger we tried before pulling forward to the second charger. He plugs in and it authenticates just fine for him. It works like a charm. Same cable/charger we first tried.
Finally after charging for 20 minutes we headed for home. My partner said we never again are driving the Lucid to Chicago.
So I headed for EA's Lincolnwood charger, hidden at the edge of the town mall. It has three CCS chargers. One was out of order. The next one had a Chevy Bolt charging to 100 percent. The next one had a car plugged in with no driver nearby. Someone was charging a motorbike from the chademo charger. We sat there 20 minutes, but the guy in the Bolt wasn't going to leave until he reached 100 and the other driver did not return. During the 20 minutes I tried phoning EA to ask if the down charger simply needed a reboot, since the screen read "Please unplug cable." We were on hold the whole time. We gave up and left for our dinner commitment. None of this, other than the out-of-order charger was EAs fault.
After dinner we drove from the northside of Chicago to a charger at the Walmart in Joliet, three miles south of I-55. The first charger I plugged into would not authenticate. So I pulled forward to the next charger. It would not authenticate either. So I phoned EA and again was on hold for 20 minutes. Last year when I called EA the wait was never more than five minutes. EA also has a new policy of continuously repeating announcements about how to subscribe to its network while on hold. It easily can drive you crazy. I think the goal is to make you hang up. Finally a friendly agent answers. After pecking away on her keyboard she tells me the charger cable is defective and that I should use the other cable on that charger. It worked. I'm not sure why EA could not have sent someone simply to put a notice on the cable that it was out of order. Heck, they could have paid one of the Walmart employees to wrap red tape around it.
Strangely, an Urber driver in a Kia pulls up at the first charger we tried before pulling forward to the second charger. He plugs in and it authenticates just fine for him. It works like a charm. Same cable/charger we first tried.
Finally after charging for 20 minutes we headed for home. My partner said we never again are driving the Lucid to Chicago.
