EA free charging is a joke.

[RCP]

I mostly charge my Air Touring at home. Twice during the past month I have experimented with charging at the EA station in Palm Springs and twice it was a negative experience. Both times required a lengthly call to EA, and once I was asked for info that EA could be expected to know. ("You have a what? How do you spell Lucid? You have free charging?") The first time, after about 15 minutes of conversation and sending messages back and forth to the charger, I received the free EA charging. On the second occasion, after a 30 minute difficult-to-hear call to EA, I was unable to charge. The car is fantastic and a joy to drive. Very glad that I own the car, but for now, like many others, I'm hesitant to take it on a road trip requiring charging.

 

[stevelitchfieldpark]

When I go on a trip I'm prepared to pay at another charge station if there are problems at the EA station that I stop at instead of spending hours trying to get a free charge!

 

[RCP]

Yes, that's the way to do it.

 

[hmp10]

When I go on a trip I'm prepared to pay at another charge station if there are problems at the EA station that I stop at instead of spending hours trying to get a free charge!

A few weeks ago I had some time on my hands and decided to try ChargePoint so I would be prepared to use that as a backup to EA. It did not go well.

I went to the nearest one showing in my Nav system. The Nav system said the charger was "in use", but I figured I'd just wait until I could plug in. It was at a Harley dealer, and no one else was charging when I arrived. That was fortunate, as the charge cable was not long enough to reach the car unless I straddled two parking spaces to bring the left side of the car into perfect alignment with the cable outlet. I then loaded the ChargePoint app and set up an account with my credit card information.

When I tried to initiate charging nothing happened. After several tries I called the Customer Service number on the charging station. After a lengthy hold, I hung up and tried again to charge. No luck, so I sat through another hold to get a service rep on the line. When she finally came on line, she worked with me almost 15 minutes trying to initiate the charge. I finally asked her why she couldn't initiate the charge from her end, as she had my account information. She said she could and would do so. (Trying not to be rude, I didn't ask her why she didn't tell me that 15 minutes earlier.) She put me on hold. After a couple of minutes she came back to tell me that I was having problems because the charging station was out of service.

A friend who just bought a Chevy Bolt and is in queue to get his garage rigged for home charging is having to use CCS stations frequently right now. He has download five apps and opened five charging accounts (EA, ChargePoint, EVgo, Blink, and FP&L). The DCFC charging he finds to be working most consistently is at a City Mattress charging station operated by our local utility, Florida Power & Light.

 

[stevelitchfieldpark]

A few weeks ago I had some time on my hands and decided to try ChargePoint so I would be prepared to use that as a backup to EA. It did not go well.

I went to the nearest one showing in my Nav system. The Nav system said the charger was "in use", but I figured I'd just wait until I could plug in. It was at a Harley dealer, and no one else was charging when I arrived. That was fortunate, as the charge cable was not long enough to reach the car unless I straddled two parking spaces to bring the left side of the car into perfect alignment with the cable outlet. I then loaded the ChargePoint app and set up an account with my credit card information.

When I tried to initiate charging nothing happened. After several tries I called the Customer Service number on the charging station. After a lengthy hold, I hung up and tried again to charge. No luck, so I sat through another hold to get a service rep on the line. When she finally came on line, she worked with me almost 15 minutes trying to initiate the charge. I finally asked her why she couldn't initiate the charge from her end, as she had my account information. She said she could and would do so. (Trying not to be rude, I didn't ask her why she didn't tell me that 15 minutes earlier.) She put me on hold. After a couple of minutes she came back to tell me that I was having problems because the charging station was out of service.

A friend who just bought a Chevy Bolt and is in queue to get his garage rigged for home charging is having to use CCS stations frequently right now. He has download five apps and opened five charging accounts (EA, ChargePoint, EVgo, Blink, and FP&L). The DCFC charging he finds to be working most consistently is at a City Mattress charging station operated by our local utility, Florida Power & Light.

I should have pointed out that I don't recommend Chargepoint not just because of problems charging but most chargepoint stations are very slow. I would recommend RVgo though

 

[linnea1]

My stats show that 88% of the time I charge at home. 8% Tesla Superchargers and 4% hotel Tesla Destination chargers.

When you say 350 miles or less, that would be the Air GT - right? Guessing Touring is more around 300 or less?

My touring is rated for 410 miles of range I believe…

 

[Tesla2.0]

We just made the 900 mile trip from Ft. Pierce to Milton, Delaware. What a nightmare EA charging, or lack thereof was!! Every stop required (1) a call to EA, (2) multiple attempts to reconnect (3) extended conversations with EA reps while they processed the reboot of their charger(s) and (4) processing a complimentary charge. What should have been a 30-minute charge often took almost an hour (leaving out the time required to wait for one of the few working chargers to become available). The charging speeds ranged from 40kw to 165kw (once only). When you add in the range anxiety caused by the apprehension associated with the ever-present uncertainty surrounding an upcoming charge at an EA station, it was a horribly stressful trip.

What you experienced is mostly bc Lucid and EA has handshake issue for this Plug-N-Play process. The EVs without FREE EA don’t have that issue, just plug in, charge to app and go. Although I’ve seen some stalls are behaving very weirdly, wouldn’t let a Rivian plug in to pay, but it would let my Lucid Plug-N-Play free charge. Some EA has broken RFID charger, if you want to pay with credit card, too bad, you must use app to make stall reservation or only Lucid Plug-N-Play would work in that instance.

I road trip around Texas quite a bit and have only had one single experience where I got a charge above 150; I got so excited I took a screen shot (it was the station in Ennis, just south of Dallas). The station at Huntsville and Cedar Park NEVER WORK. I do call EA and report the stations but they're always the same when I return to try them. The 150kw units will work - the 350kw will not (unless you're in Ennis).

Enis was one of first stations to be revamped for new generation of EA stalls, long single dispenser with long retractable cable. It is my preferred stop going to Dallas. Huntsville is a joke, those old stations, don’t even bother try 350kW. When I see them, I just default go to the next 150kW for not bothering with headache. Also, Denton near Oklahoma border was a joke too.

I am not a fan of EA but when I have used it, it has worked as advertised. To date I have charged up over a megawatt worth at EA. But prefer the hassle free charging at home in my garage.

EA has been hassle free for me lately. 2200 miles road trip from CA to TX on Rivian, 11 of 13 stalls worked. The ones that doesn’t work, just move on to next stall instead of bothering to call EA. I can say I-10 corridor is good. Friends advised me to not drive that far road without Tesla Supercharging network, just ship Rivian. Nope, I did it with Rivian. Even in Texas multiple road trips on Hwy-45 with Lucid. it worked too!

I should have pointed out that I don't recommend Chargepoint not just because of problems charging but most chargepoint stations are very slow. I would recommend EVgo though

Even though EA is free, I would still like to wake up 100% charged on Level-2 ChargePoint at a road trip hotel —- free or $2/6kWh. Because any DCFC above 80% SOC is slow and not healthy to battery, why bother?! Pay and have piece of mind on battery longevity.

 

[Tesla2.0]

A lot of people’s EA headache can be reduced or eliminated if just download an Electrify America app. Check that EA app before you set destination to go there to save headache. I relied on ABRP and EA apps as my road trip companions. Also get ChargePoint and EVGo apps and account as backup.

Road trip is not dreadful if you plan ahead with these mobile apps.

Tesla SC network ONLY has their own brand to cover for Plug-N-Play charge, of course it’s smooth after years of perfection. EA has many brands and different protocols to interface, of course they have to program differently to deal with interfacing different brand scenarios. IMO, I wish EA can just charge every EV brand standardized using credit card indiscriminately. Then maybe we wouldn’t have this problem. Every brand who has FREE EA has some sort of problems. I know Polestar 2 has issue too initially get that FREE charge, Rivian doesn’t have FREE EA charge and didn’t experience handshake problem for me.

 

[Okie]

Is there any hope the charging station problem will significantly improve in the foreseeable future? I am expecting a 1,000 road trip in the next few months in my GT.

 

[blueice89]

Got your title: “Charged. With fraud.”

On the next American Greed

 

[borski]

Is there any hope the charging station problem will significantly improve in the foreseeable future? I am expecting a 1,000 road trip in the next few months in my GT.

I really haven’t had any significant issues, to be honest. And Tesla is starting to open up their network so it’s only going to get better from here.

Clearly people are having issues and EA has some significant work to do, but between them, EVGo, Chargepoint, Shell Recharge / Volta, and soon Tesla and Mercedes Benz, I’m not too worried about the future.

 

[HariK]

Yes, that's the way to do it.

And inform lucid CS about it and ask for compensation at the end of the trip.

 

[DeaneG]

My single data point on using a 63kW Chargpoint with my Air: it worked great, entirely as you'd hope. A relief, as EV-wise, we were in the middle of nowhere.

 

[maractwin]

Is there any hope the charging station problem will significantly improve in the foreseeable future? I am expecting a 1,000 road trip in the next few months in my GT.

In October we took our new AGT on a 7,000 mile road trip from Boston to Yellowstone and back. Three weeks of public charging, mostly at EA stations, and we only had one charging failure, and that one wasn't a big deal. We used ABRP set to "more frequent shorter stops" for planning and often charged above what it said we needed. So when we did encounter that one EA station that just didn't work, we had enough charge to go 60 miles to the next one. Our only range anxiety was in the wilds of Wyoming/Colorado where any chargers at all were hard to find. In one place we overnighted at a cheap motel next to a slow ChargePoint that got us fully charged for the next segment.

 

[MoniputerLM]

Buy the better car for 90% of your use and rent a car for the road trips IMO. I'd rather do that than have a worse vehicle just because the road trip charging is better. This doesn't hold completely if you don't have access to l2 charging at home.

I sort of agree. I charge at home and rarely take trips in the Lucid so EA is not an issue for me but if our lifestyle included a lot of family trips in a car, I would not have a non-Tesla EV just yet.

 

[Overcharged]

Three of the 6 chargers at my local facility are out of service tonight
I ended up waiting over 30 minutes before my turn
I called their customer service
The rep was nice but didn’t seem to have any info about what was or wasn’t working or when service was coming
She did say they are doing a lot of refurbishing
That seems strange as these stations can’t be very old

 

[t12g]

Is there any hope the charging station problem will significantly improve in the foreseeable future? I am expecting a 1,000 road trip in the next few months in my GT.

Foreseeable future? I'm optimistic that we will see significant improvement in the next decade.
In the next few months? Nah. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Treat it like an adventure and you'd be ok.