EA Megathread

[HPetek]

I charge at Electrify America, Sheets 1338 Freedom Rd Cranberry Twp PA 16066, at a 350 kW charger, but usually get only 69 kW max output. I wonder if this is a problem with this station, my charging process (I precondition), or with my car. Does anybody get anything close to 350 kW charging as advertised in Lucid literature?

 

[DeaneG]

I charge at Electrify America, Sheets 1338 Freedom Rd Cranberry Twp PA 16066, at a 350 kW charger, but usually get only 69 kW max output. I wonder if this is a problem with this station, my charging process (I precondition), or with my car. Does anybody get anything close to 350 kW charging as advertised in Lucid literature?

The car will show a message "power limited by station" or similar when this occurs. It's the typical case for me. If you move to a different dispenser or location, you can hope to do better.

 

[HPetek]

Thanks. I do not get such a message, but certainly trying another location can provide further at a points. I am not getting any useful response from Lucid.

 

[Golfhack]

Thanks. I do not get such a message, but certainly trying another location can provide further at a points. I am not getting any useful response from Lucid.

Many things influence this. What model Air do you have (Pure and Touring can only do 250kW), what was the temperature, what model EA charger (Signet is best), how many other cars were there, and most importantly, what was your state of charge when you started?
I have a Touring. 70kW is fairly normal for me if my SOC is above 50 and it’s cold. The best I’ve ever gotten is 140kW on a warm day with 20% SOC.
I agree that it should be higher than that and I’m hoping that EA and Lucid are working to improve it.

 

[Halodde]

There's a good chance I'm late to the party on this because I just got my car back a couple of days ago. But, yesterday when I charged at EA, for the first time, I noticed a message on the charger screen telling me the actual charging speed (which it has always done) AND it displayed a message saying "Charging speed requested by your vehicle." I found this really interesting because I had always thought it was EA that was not delivering enough speed. But, during my charge yesterday, the charging unit was consistently delivering speeds within 3-4 Kw of the speed requested by my car.

How long has EA been displaying this information? And have you noticed the same thing that the charging speed seems to be more limited by the car than by the charging unit?

Of course the conspiracy theorist in my has to wonder if someone at EA decided the units should always display a charging speed requested by your vehicle rate that is just above what the charger is delivering to keep people from blaming EA

 

[pjdcorp]

For every one who is turned off by mods trying to moderate the negativity, there are ten who are turned off by the incessant negativity. Statistically, the forum is far more negative than positive, as that is the nature of online forums in general, and product forums specifically. We try to moderate that as best we can.

I ask plenty of questions. I just do so with respect, as do most people here. I have posted plenty of workarounds and feedback, and @Bobby has how many workarounds and solutions named after him? He has yet to charge for his MagSafe wedge, despite materials and shipping, because he’s a nice dude who wants to be helpful. We all are. None of us get paid for this.

We are all on the same side. *All* we are asking for us a bit of moderation in *how* you say things, not in *what* you say. That should not be controversial.

A sensible, reasonable comment. Thank you.

 

[DTA]

There's a good chance I'm late to the party on this because I just got my car back a couple of days ago. But, yesterday when I charged at EA, for the first time, I noticed a message on the charger screen telling me the actual charging speed (which it has always done) AND it displayed a message saying "Charging speed requested by your vehicle." I found this really interesting because I had always thought it was EA that was not delivering enough speed. But, during my charge yesterday, the charging unit was consistently delivering speeds within 3-4 Kw of the speed requested by my car.

How long has EA been displaying this information? And have you noticed the same thing that the charging speed seems to be more limited by the car than by the charging unit?

Of course the conspiracy theorist in my has to wonder if someone at EA decided the units should always display a charging speed requested by your vehicle rate that is just above what the charger is delivering to keep people from blaming EA

I wouldn't depict you as late so much as just in time.. as you experience some of the nuances in the relationship between LUCID [trims] and EA. The concern you raise is interesting as I don't believe it's been raised before. In addition, I suspect it may be unique to your trim. Although I don't use EA for local/regional [daily] travel I have used the charges for trips and have never noticed the message you reference. Given the other challenges (e.g., unavailable, reduced kw translating to increase charging times, etc.) the "charging speed requested by your vehicle" is not one I have encountered. Should this be a common occurrence across all LUCID trims for EA there is [definitely] an issue to be resolved between the two brands to ensure what's being marketed & sold [by both] meets consumer expectations.

 

[DTA]

Recently I took the 336 mile trip from PHX to SoCal. Although I didn't experience any challenges with EA traveling there and/or during my stay, I did experience issues on my return. For those that have made the journey ..my issues arose at the Quartzite, AZ location. I won't belabor the issues that have been raised by others. However I am curios to know if anyone has been advised by EA of their network implementation strategy to build stations every (70) miles from one one another? And if so, if they can provide additional insights on their plans?
After having to contact EA while attempting to charge [in Quartzite] I was advised by the Rep of EA's charging infrastructure plans of expanding their charging stations to service (70) mile intervals on interstate highways. The I10 between SoCal and PHX is [presumably] one of the first stretches this is to occur yet I am curious to know if this has already began in other regions around the country and just surfacing here.

 

[hydbob]

I wouldn't depict you as late so much as just in time.. as you experience some of the nuances in the relationship between LUCID [trims] and EA. The concern you raise is interesting as I don't believe it's been raised before. In addition, I suspect it may be unique to your trim. Although I don't use EA for local/regional [daily] travel I have used the charges for trips and have never noticed the message you reference. Given the other challenges (e.g., unavailable, reduced kw translating to increase charging times, etc.) the "charging speed requested by your vehicle" is not one I have encountered. Should this be a common occurrence across all LUCID trims for EA there is [definitely] an issue to be resolved between the two brands to ensure what's being marketed & sold [by both] meets consumer expectations.

It's not on every EA charger either so it must be limited to certain hardware versions running different software.

 

[Halodde]

I wouldn't depict you as late so much as just in time.. as you experience some of the nuances in the relationship between LUCID [trims] and EA. The concern you raise is interesting as I don't believe it's been raised before. In addition, I suspect it may be unique to your trim. Although I don't use EA for local/regional [daily] travel I have used the charges for trips and have never noticed the message you reference. Given the other challenges (e.g., unavailable, reduced kw translating to increase charging times, etc.) the "charging speed requested by your vehicle" is not one I have encountered. Should this be a common occurrence across all LUCID trims for EA there is [definitely] an issue to be resolved between the two brands to ensure what's being marketed & sold [by both] meets consumer expectations.

It's not on every EA charger either so it must be limited to certain hardware versions running different software.

So you guys haven't seen that message before?

 

[hydbob]

So you guys haven't seen that message before?

Not on my local chargers nope! Next time you see it, take a look at what kind of charger it is, BTC, Signet, ABB, etc.

 

[Halodde]

I was so curious, I went back to test it out on other stalls. There's 3 350 Kw stalls and all are identical Signet from appearance. 2 of them display the speed requested by your vehicle and one does not. So, I guess it has to do with software versions of the chargers?

 

[efesese]

I wonder if they're limiting charging speeds because I'm a freeloader. I can never get anything even close to 150 even when charging from 350 station :-(

 

[Halodde]

That's probably not the case. But I have had the same thought lol. I've decided that there's just too much that goes into the charging process, too many variables that I don't/can't understand that determines any given charging speed and experience. Thankfully there's people a lot smarter than me figuring this stuff out!

 

[efesese]

That's probably not the case. But I have had the same thought lol. I've decided that there's just too much that goes into the charging process, too many variables that I don't/can't understand that determines any given charging speed and experience. Thankfully there's people a lot smarter than me figuring this stuff out!

I guess... at least I'm happy it's free for 3 years, woohoo!

 

[DTA]

I was so curious, I went back to test it out on other stalls. There's 3 350 Kw stalls and all are identical Signet from appearance. 2 of them display the speed requested by your vehicle and one does not. So, I guess it has to do with software versions of the chargers?

Good to note.

 

[DTA]

That's probably not the case. But I have had the same thought lol. I've decided that there's just too much that goes into the charging process, too many variables that I don't/can't understand that determines any given charging speed and experience. Thankfully there's people a lot smarter than me figuring this stuff out!

Although there are several variables that factor into the speed of charge from the Level 3 chargers, those variables should be consistent across the network. Moreover they should be transparent to us [the consumer]. Because of the maturity [or lack there] of the networks, each of the charging companies (i.e., EA, EVgo, Blink, ChargePoint, etc.) should provide a per kw rate consistent to +/- an advertised % of the charging station. Simply said, if you're at a 350 kw station you should be able to charge consistently at no less than [say] 85% for that charging unit. This, irrespective, of how many other units are at use adjacent to it or who manufactured the unit. The geographic location coupled to temperature or your EV's ability to receive are tangible variables to account for and these should be known as one takes delivery of their EV.

However, can you imagine what the gas station industry would be like if you showed up and fuel trickled out depending on the 'variables' that we speak of in the EV sector? Example - you're setting in line at Costco and (4) out of the (6) pumps is only providing droplets of gas versus the others which are only pumping at a 45% capacity due to the number of cars pumping gas at the same time. What upevil would occur if this was the norm?

I recognize the EV charging network will take time to grow, mature, and gain consistency. However, for those of us who have adopted the EV model early on should not rest on what is in place [now], but continue to raise awareness of what needs to be in place in order for the true benefits of EV ownership to be realized.
This isn't "rocket-science" stuff ..albeit different, and in some sense complex the ability to pull into a 350 kw ..or 150 kw charging station and receive the advertised level of charging rate should be as consistent as pulling into your typical gas station and receiving gasoline at the 'standard' flow rate.

 

[Shahman]

Also seeing a lot more, the available speed of this charger has been reduced. This is before I even plug in.

On my trip from Louisville to Little Rock, stopped 3 times to charge including the destination. Never saw above 110k. Sometime would see 90k only to have it drop to 40k when I checked in on it later mid charged at around 50% SOC. It was a 92-95° day.

 

[Halodde]

Although there are several variables that factor into the speed of charge from the Level 3 chargers, those variables should be consistent across the network. Moreover they should be transparent to us [the consumer]. Because of the maturity [or lack there] of the networks, each of the charging companies (i.e., EA, EVgo, Blink, ChargePoint, etc.) should provide a per kw rate consistent to +/- an advertised % of the charging station. Simply said, if you're at a 350 kw station you should be able to charge consistently at no less than [say] 85% for that charging unit. This, irrespective, of how many other units are at use adjacent to it or who manufactured the unit. The geographic location coupled to temperature or your EV's ability to receive are tangible variables to account for and these should be known as one takes delivery of their EV.

However, can you imagine what the gas station industry would be like if you showed up and fuel trickled out depending on the 'variables' that we speak of in the EV sector? Example - you're setting in line at Costco and (4) out of the (6) pumps is only providing droplets of gas versus the others which are only pumping at a 45% capacity due to the number of cars pumping gas at the same time. What upevil would occur if this was the norm?

I recognize the EV charging network will take time to grow, mature, and gain consistency. However, for those of us who have adopted the EV model early on should not rest on what is in place [now], but continue to raise awareness of what needs to be in place in order for the true benefits of EV ownership to be realized.
This isn't "rocket-science" stuff ..albeit different, and in some sense complex the ability to pull into a 350 kw ..or 150 kw charging station and receive the advertised level of charging rate should be as consistent as pulling into your typical gas station and receiving gasoline at the 'standard' flow rate.

Sure. I pretty much agree.

But that wasn't what started my line of thoughts on this thread. The issue that interested me is that our cars (or at least MY car) isn't requesting anywhere near the charging speed that I would have expected at a medium state of charge- at least not according to what was displayed on the EA charger.

Here's some more details on yesterday for clarification: I arrived at about 30% charge after a brief preconditioning of around 5-10 minutes with air temps in the mid to high 60's. I plugged into a 350 Kw charger in my Touring (presumably 250 Kw capacity) and the highest rate of charge I saw was about 163 Kw. There were at least 2 other vehicles charging during the time I was there so at least 3/4 stalls were in use (3 350 Kw stalls and 1 150 Kw stall with both CCS and CHAdeMO cables). Before I reached 70% SOC, my charging speed had dropped below 100 Kw.

All of that information is consistent with my frequent charging experiences there and at other chargers except for outlier sessions with other problems. However, this was the first time I saw the "Charging speed requested by your vehicle" rate. The entire time I was charging, the charging station was delivering within 3-4 Kw of the speed my vehicle was requesting. So, that lack of speed doesn't appear to be an issue with EA. My vehicle didn't really *want* much more speed than the charger delivered.

I've read in this forum and from other sources that vehicles reduce charging speed above 80% to protect the batteries. That makes sense to me and they might. But, clearly, I didn't understand that my car decreases the charging speed it wants from nearly the moment I plug it in and continues to decrease the requested charging speed throughout the remainder of the charge. It's not a plateau and then a decline. It's a nearly immediate peak speed of charging and then a decline in speed of charging for the rest of the charging session.

Just to be clear, I am not bashing Lucid or EA. I'm merely commenting on my new knowledge of how charging speed is determined which I'm sure many of you already knew. Sure, I think it would be great if the car could reach a higher speed of charge and stay there until 80% and then start to decline. But, as I said, there's people a lot smarter than me who have obviously agreed that it needs to be the way it is. Keep in mind that this is my first EV so I am continually learning. There's clearly room for improvement in how EV companies and charging networks promote/tout charging speeds just like there is in how they promote/tout range. My guess is that the general public has no clue that the charging speeds or ranges they read about are ONLY under ideal circumstances which they may likely never see or experience. Just one man's opinions.

 

[Boomer AZ]

Hhmmmmm. If I were an EV charger company and signed a fixed price contract with a maker of EVs to charge their vehicles, what actions could I take with my chargers to minimize my financial risk? An interesting think piece.