EA Megathread

[Shuasha]

Reviving this thread for a problem to see if anyone else has seen this:
When I precondition the battery and hook up to a 350kw charger the car gets a critical error and will not do anything until you reboot. I reported it to service but they said it was not a common or known issue. Charge rates are decent without precondition so I just don't precondition before charging.

This is what the owner is telling me, anyone else see this or heard about it?

Seems like that would be a problem if one were, for example, driving their used GT from Virginia to SLC...

 

[Volund]

Seems like that would be a problem if one were, for example, driving their used GT from Virginia to SLC...

He said it gets to 250 kw charging, doesn't hit 350 kw, so basically it just doesn't precondition properly

 

[windscar911]

He said it gets to 250 kw charging, doesn't hit 350 kw, so basically it just doesn't precondition properly

I think if it's displaying 250kw charge rate on the screen, it's likely working okay.

The car gets to 300+ only for a brief moment at very low battery charge levels (<20%) and quickly drops off into the 200s before dropping into the 170s around 50%.

 

[borski]

He said it gets to 250 kw charging, doesn't hit 350 kw, so basically it just doesn't precondition properly

It won’t always hit 350kW charging. I’m not sure what the owner is saying, but preconditioning shouldn’t cause any issues (and doesn’t for the rest of us). If it does, you’ve gotta get it checked by service.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

He said it gets to 250 kw charging, doesn't hit 350 kw, so basically it just doesn't precondition properly

The charge accepted is not the car’s problem, it’s what the station can deliver. That’s why you’ll routinely see “charging power limited by station” notices when the Lucid is asking for more than the station can give. Pre-condition just means optimizing the battery temperature, and it helps the car stay at its own charging curve. There’s no reason to not precondition if you’re going to DCFC, cuz the whole point is the F in DCFC: FAST. Meanwhile there’s zero reason to precondition for L2 charging.

 

[Volund]

He specifically said that the car gets an error and won't do anything until he reboots.
He has 3 other EV's so he knows a bit about it, and he said the only way to avoid the error is to 'not' precondition before he goes to a DC Fast Charger, and it maxes out at 250 kw (maybe because it's not preconditioned)
But he said don't precondition to avoid the error

 

[Volund]

But I will most definitely be contacting service about it to get it fixed

 

[windscar911]

He specifically said that the car gets an error and won't do anything until he reboots.
He has 3 other EV's so he knows a bit about it, and he said the only way to avoid the error is to 'not' precondition before he goes to a DC Fast Charger, and it maxes out at 250 kw (maybe because it's not preconditioned)
But he said don't precondition to avoid the error

Definitely sounds like it should be reported to service.

You should be ok on your trip though if that's the only issue with it.

 

[lsbuffs]

Seems like that would be a problem if one were, for example, driving their used GT from Virginia to SLC...

Perhaps something that would help with a cross country trip. Google Maps has been updated to show EV stations, allowing filtering based on plug compatibility.

https://mashable.com/article/google-maps-ev-charging-stations-fast-charging-plug?utm_campaign=trueAnthem: Trending Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3iMZ-E79AWd-hv3d-5-T008tRbR65ghN43QbHc2N51vfcCCB2T8Ur9HeY

 

[doon]

I visited an EA station in Frederick, Md yesterday and in an ironic twist was able to charge my GT without issue after talking with 2 Volkswagen ID.4 owners who were there but unable to charge! All 3 of us used the same evse but it only liked the Lucid

 

[DeaneG]

I visited an EA station in Frederick, Md yesterday and in an ironic twist was able to charge my GT without issue after talking with 2 Volkswagen ID.4 owners who were there but unable to charge! All 3 of us used the same evse but it only liked the Lucid

Could you hear the Twilight Zone theme music playing??

 

[doon]

Could you hear the Twilight Zone theme music playing??

Did you hear it too??

 

[Shuasha]

So far, so good with my whole 2 attempts to charge at the same station. We're taking the first trip in the car over this weekend and that will be the real test.

 

[DeaneG]

So far, so good with my whole 2 attempts to charge at the same station. We're taking the first trip in the car over this weekend and that will be the real test.

I think that if an Air changes fine at a particular station, it is likely to continue doing so.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I think that if an Air changes fine at a particular station, it is likely to continue doing so.

Yeah the inverse is true also. I have not been able to draw 1kw off my local EA at this hellhole Wal-Mart in 3 months. But most other EAs have worked for me.

 

[hmp10]

The car gets to 300+ only for a brief moment at very low battery charge levels (<20%) and quickly drops off into the 200s before dropping into the 170s around 50%.

Kyle Conner of "Out of Spec Motoring" uses an interesting strategy on his EV road trips. In order to optimize charging speed, he likes to run his cars down to a low state of charge and then charge them up only enough to get to the next charging station (with a bit of margin for unforeseen circumstances). This keeps the EVs in the faster parts of their charging curves, thus yielding shorter accumulated charging times over a multi-stop trip.

However, right now Tesla is probably the only really safe brand for this approach in many parts of the country, due to the ubiquity and reliability of their charging stations. It's a much greater risk right now with Electrify America stations, except perhaps in large urban areas with several EA locations. Not only are the EA locations further apart, you're likely to encounter one or more non-operational charging posts at every stop.

It's neat that the Lucid can take 350 kW charging for short stints in optimum conditions, but if you're taking your Lucid on a long road trip, it's best to plan for charging stopovers of longer duration -- in the 30-45 minute range. The good news is that the Air's range will mean you'll need fewer of them.

One of these days, the CCS charging infrastructure will catch up to Tesla's Supercharger network. And maybe, as Lucid gains fleet experience with its Air battery pack, they might move to more aggressive charging curves via OTA updates. But for now . . . .

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Kyle Conner of "Out of Spec Motoring" uses an interesting strategy on his EV road trips. In order to optimize charging speed, he likes to run his cars down to a low state of charge and then charge them up only enough to get to the next charging station (with a bit of margin for unforeseen circumstances). This keeps the EVs in the faster parts of their charging curves, thus yielding shorter accumulated charging times over a multi-stop trip.

However, right now Tesla is probably the only really safe brand for this approach in many parts of the country, due to the ubiquity and reliability of their charging stations. It's a much greater risk right now with Electrify America stations, except perhaps in large urban areas with several EA locations. Not only are the EA locations further apart, you're likely to encounter one or more non-operational charging posts at every stop.

It's neat that the Lucid can take 350 kW charging for short stints in optimum conditions, but if you're taking your Lucid on a long road trip, it's best to plan for charging stopovers of longer duration -- in the 30-45 minute range. The good news is that the Air's range will mean you'll need fewer of them.

One of these days, the CCS charging infrastructure will catch up to Tesla's Supercharger network. And maybe, as Lucid gains fleet experience with its Air battery pack, they might move to more aggressive charging curves via OTA updates. But for now . . . .

Yeah I would much prefer Kyle’s method as you’d get there faster, but you just can’t trust the charging infrastructure, so I’ll find I’m charging to 95% for road trips now just in case I get screwed. Don’t charging networks recognize they could fit in more customers if they were more reliable? The downtime on them combined with others leaving cuz there was a wait must make these DCFC even bigger money losers than they were before.

 

[DeaneG]

Kyle Conner of "Out of Spec Motoring" uses an interesting strategy on his EV road trips. In order to optimize charging speed, he likes to run his cars down to a low state of charge and then charge them up only enough to get to the next charging station (with a bit of margin for unforeseen circumstances). This keeps the EVs in the faster parts of their charging curves, thus yielding shorter accumulated charging times over a multi-stop trip....

That's standard EV road-trip strategy, not novel or new. It's a surprise to nearly all first-time EV owners, who expect to charge their car fully at each stop as you would a gas car, and then drive their car's EPA range to the next stop.

Arriving at a charger with 10-15% charge remaining and driving about half the car's EPA range to the next stop has been standard practice in Tesla land for many years. A Better Route Planner is based on this strategy. It also worked well on several 1000-mile road trips in my other CCS EV 12-18 months ago. But maybe not practical now with EA's situation.

 

[hmp10]

That's standard EV road-trip strategy, not novel or new. It's a surprise to nearly all first-time EV owners, who expect to charge their car fully at each stop as you would a gas car, and then drive their car's EPA range to the next stop.

I certainly see the logic of this, but there are some downsides. For one thing, fast charging puts more stress on the battery pack. A charging strategy that means doing all DCFC charging on the most aggressive part of the charging curve is something I would prefer to avoid as much as I can, for the same reason that I never charge up to 100% even on a road trip.

Also, the "short charging" strategy depends on a thoroughly reliable DCFC network on routes that are very unlikely to present you with considerable delays or detours. When we bought our first EV in 2015, even the Tesla Supercharging network was neither ubiquitous nor reliable enough for such a strategy in any parts of the country outside of southern and central California. So I formed a charging habit that is now hard to break, even with our 2021 Tesla and especially with our CCS Lucid.

Ironically, the growing number of Teslas on the road has actually begun to increase the risks of a "short charging" strategy. Even Kyle Conner has several times arrived at a Tesla Supercharger to find the wait periods for a free station excruciatingly long (and Tesla's on-screen report of stations available not reliable). When he could, he pressed on to the next station. On a long trip with multiple short charging stops, it wouldn't take many long waits in line to get a free station to wipe out the advantage of faster charging with more frequent stops.

 

[Keithmaj]

So... I have some questions about EA's current network infrastructure and was hoping someone on this Forum might have some insight. A 5/3/18 article (https://electrek.co/2018/05/03/electrify-america-map-charging-stations-network/) suggested EA had a "...goal for all 2000+ stations to be operational or under construction ... by the end of 2019". The current EA website suggests they now have 791 live stations and 90 more "coming soon". Any ideas on where I might get more info on those 90 stations or other planned locations? I'm intrigued with what might be driving their location strategy. Surprised how few stations are available in the DFW area.