EA positive story

Sandvinsd

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Air Grand Touring
Here is a positive story for EA with the Lucid. Coming back from NorCal for the holiday weekend, We stopped off at an EA at a Walmart in Santa Clarita after we got over the Grapevine. We were fully expecting to not get power due to the 100+ temp and the Flex Alert occurring at that time (CA has no reliable power since we are a third world nation state) I was also anticipating having issues since that is par for the course half of the time. There was one charger available as a Leaf pulled out (after not being able to get a charge) just when we arrived. We plugged into the 150 kw station and immediately pulled 173 kW! My battery had been preconditioned as I was coming down the Grapevine. The other cars, a Kia, Audi, Mustang MachE were only pulling 38 amps max on the 150 kW stations and the other Kia was only pulling 78 on the 350. They were all frustrated and astonished that I connected and pulled 178 kW from a ‘bad charger.’ I charged from 18 to 70% in about 24‘ and left since I had more than enough to get home after walking the dog and doing our bathroom breaks. The Audi pulled into my space when I left hoping for better results. I wonder if he did.
 
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Systems comparison

Audi eTron 396 volt
Tesla 450 volt
Kia 356 volt
Mach-E 450 volt

Tesla Supercharger network has highest speed of 250 kW. Lucid Air 924 volt system which can handle EA 350 kW and future proof of even higher speed without frying its battery pack.
If Lucid Air get on a fast charging station same time with other EVs, it will suck up more bandwidth than any EV on the streets. Another words, Lucid Air is a juice magnet unfair to other brand EVs sharing power load in same station.
 
Here is a positive story for EA with the Lucid. Coming back from NorCal for the holiday weekend, We stopped off at an EA at a Walmart in Santa Clarita after we got over the Grapevine. We were fully expecting to not get power due to the 100+ temp and the Flex Alert occurring at that time (CA has no reliable power since we are a third world nation state) I was also anticipating having issues since that is par for the course half of the time. There was one charger available as a Leaf pulled out (after not being able to get a charge) just when we arrived. We plugged into the 150 kw station and immediately pulled 173 kW! My battery had been preconditioned as I was coming down the Grapevine. The other cars, a Kia, Audi, Mustang MachE were only pulling 38 amps max on the 150 kW stations and the other Kia was only pulling 78 on the 350. They were all frustrated and astonished that I connected and pulled 178 kW from a ‘bad charger.’ I charged from 18 to 70% in about 24‘ and left since I had more than enough to get home after walking the dog and doing our bathroom breaks. The Audi pulled into my space when I left hoping for better results. I wonder if he did.
You got EXTREMELY lucky. That location is just down the road from my house. I checked it on Sunday and 3 chargers were flagged as unavailable, 2 were in use and the 350Kw was available. When the App says that particular 350Kw is available it's because the charger is online but won't actually start a charge. I've given up on that location and ended up just paying to charge at the EVGo at the Whole Foods down the road. Was 105 out and got the session going instantly with no issues

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I'm still hopeful Tesla opens their Supercharging network to other EVs. This could offer the best of both worlds: Supercharger ubiquity and reliability while driving the Air. I've been to nearly 150 different Superchargers nationwide and only had to change stalls three times because of an issue, like slower charging.
 
I'm still hopeful Tesla opens their Supercharging network to other EVs. This could offer the best of both worlds: Supercharger ubiquity and reliability while driving the Air. I've been to nearly 150 different Superchargers nationwide and only had to change stalls three times because of an issue, like slower charging.
The problem with the Supercharger network, as some have pointed out here, is that with Lucid’s higher voltage architecture, max charging speeds will be much slower for an Air plugged into one of those chargers. Unless Tesla upgrades the chargers while they are putting in the standard plugs.

Still, it’ll be nice to have the option to use Tesla chargers in a pinch.
 
The problem with the Supercharger network, as some have pointed out here, is that with Lucid’s higher voltage architecture, max charging speeds will be much slower for an Air plugged into one of those chargers. Unless Tesla upgrades the chargers while they are putting in the standard plugs.

Still, it’ll be nice to have the option to use Tesla chargers in a pinch.
I wonder if "real world" charging from a Supercharger will really be lower. I have not seen over 172KW from EA. Granted my experience is limited but it seems that very few people are seeing really high charging rates.
 
I wonder if "real world" charging from a Supercharger will really be lower. I have not seen over 172KW from EA. Granted my experience is limited but it seems that very few people are seeing really high charging rates.
It’s the Wunderbox that’s the issue. Lucid can only do 50Kw on a 400v charger.
 
From the Lucid Talks video on the Wunderbox so yeah, unless Tesla is changing the chargers voltage when rolling out CCS chargers none of us will be getting above 50Kw

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So it takes a 1000V charger to get the full 350kW?
Not 100% sure as the EA chargers are 800V. Lucid is yet to show anything over 305Kw so not sure if that's a limitation of the charger or Lucid being cautious pushing the battery too far until they have some real world stats and tweak the charging a little. Not sure if it's possible but if Lucid could pump 300Kw+ into the pack for 10 to 15 mins then scale it back to 50 to 100Kw or below it could be enough to get a significant burst of range in the first 15 mins and maybe enough to make you move on by slowing down the speed to not destroy the pack and clog up a charger. I'm no battery expert so could degrade the battery too much or cause it to catch on fire pumping that much power into it for 15 mins.

Could be a good way to avoid charger clog. Pump a shit tonne of energy into it for 15 mins then slow it right down to 50Kw. Get people moving. Probably not feasible though
 
You got EXTREMELY lucky. That location is just down the road from my house. I checked it on Sunday and 3 chargers were flagged as unavailable, 2 were in use and the 350Kw was available. When the App says that particular 350Kw is available it's because the charger is online but won't actually start a charge. I've given up on that location and ended up just paying to charge at the EVGo at the Whole Foods down the road. Was 105 out and got the session going instantly with no issues

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Good to note. That is the first time I have used that station.. The other two trips, I have stopped at the one nearby off of Valencia Blvd in Santa Clarita. Those have worked, but not of a very high speed for me.
 
Good to note. That is the first time I have used that station.. The other two trips, I have stopped at the one nearby off of Valencia Blvd in Santa Clarita. Those have worked, but not of a very high speed for me.
Yeah those one are 150’s only. Directly over the road is where the 3 x 350 EVGo’s are. I know they don’t come for free but given how unreliable EA is at least there’s some other 350’s in the area.
 
I had the opposite experience yesterday. I plugged into a 150, which didn’t work. I plugged into another one that charged at 62. Took me 32 minutes to go 40%, plus 5 minutes of fidgeting.

I’m making a point to call EA every time I see a problem charger. They do seem to have responsive customer service, but wish the chargers were more reliable.
 
Can’t complain about the EA customer service but they don’t do anything. The network reliability is getting worse with the more EV’s that are using it.
 
Not 100% sure as the EA chargers are 800V. Lucid is yet to show anything over 305Kw so not sure if that's a limitation of the charger or Lucid being cautious pushing the battery too far until they have some real world stats and tweak the charging a little. Not sure if it's possible but if Lucid could pump 300Kw+ into the pack for 10 to 15 mins then scale it back to 50 to 100Kw or below it could be enough to get a significant burst of range in the first 15 mins and maybe enough to make you move on by slowing down the speed to not destroy the pack and clog up a charger. I'm no battery expert so could degrade the battery too much or cause it to catch on fire pumping that much power into it for 15 mins.

Could be a good way to avoid charger clog. Pump a shit tonne of energy into it for 15 mins then slow it right down to 50Kw. Get people moving. Probably not feasible though
It’s 2nd law of thermodynamic
Heat always moves "downhill" from hotter objects to colder objects.

As lesser and empty battery collects more kW heat at faster ratio from bigger and fuller battery; inversely, it takes slower ratio process to transfer kW heat to fuller batter. (The slope of downhill changes as destination gets fuller)
 
I wonder if "real world" charging from a Supercharger will really be lower. I have not seen over 172KW from EA. Granted my experience is limited but it seems that very few people are seeing really high charging rates.
Saw 298kw once, 301 another time on preconditioned battery at around 14-18% SOC if memory serves correctly. When I hit 301 it failed 8 minutes later but then I switched plugs and got mid 200s until it tapered appropriately as SOC went up. It was also a very hot day so I think the cable just overheated. I’ve never got above 200 on the 350kw near me though regardless of SOC or preconditioning.
 

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I had the opposite experience yesterday. I plugged into a 150, which didn’t work. I plugged into another one that charged at 62. Took me 32 minutes to go 40%, plus 5 minutes of fidgeting.

I’m making a point to call EA every time I see a problem charger. They do seem to have responsive customer service, but wish the chargers were more reliable.
The last two times I called about a failed charger the number was busy, no kidding!
 
The next time I hit a low enough SOC I’m gonna see what the new EVGo 350kw can pull near me. These are priced per minute which is great if it’s really that fast. My main concern is the car’s fans work crazy HARD when you charge that fast, it makes me a bit nervous. There is no eternal life mechanical part, and those fans are mechanical. I’d personally rather charge slower and not beat the shit out of the car. Yeah plenty are worried about dings and scratches (me too), but sometimes I wonder if high kW DCFC is like driving the car off road. Something is gonna break sooner than you’d like…
 
The last two times I called about a failed charger the number was busy, no kidding!
About 20+ years ago I owned a Nissan. A friend of mine always went on about how great BMW customer service was. I told him that I had no idea how good Nissan customer service was because I never had to take my car in. Let’s hope EA gets to the point where we don’t have to experience their stellar customer service. 😂
 
I've only ever called EA one time with 41 charges...and I've been to the Walmart by @HC_79 three times too!
 
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