EA Problems

[Bunnylebowski]

Speaking of charging anxiety, I would love to get the group’s opinion . I live in a charging desert. I had planned on taking 2 trips this spring , one would bring me through Idaho , Utah and all of Nevada on the way to California. Looking at my PlugShare maps is discouraging. If EA stations do not reliably work I could be in a pickle, as most other options are level 2, it seems. And yes, I will have to stop in Winnemucca!!!
I really do not have anxiety about the car, I have anxiety about reliable charging stations. This is why Tesla has and will continue to have a huge advantage. This country needs to get its act together and improve infrastructure.
Anyway, does anyone have hope that EA will rectify their unreliability issues. I just keep on seeing more and more comments here and in PlugShare about stations not working. It’s really a shame.

The best part of road trips so far for me is finding level 2 chargers at hotels/breweries or somewhere you don’t mind stopping for a couple hours or overnight. I managed to do an entire round trip from Rhode Island to near Mt Washington in New Hampshire and driving around that area for 2 days with zero DCFC thanks to the hotel having a L2 plug (bring your Lucid L2 plug!). Worst case scenario there are often car dealers that have them though it sucks to sit for 2 hours just to get 60 miles or whatever, I find most L2 plugs are slower than my home 100amp circuit connected to the Lucid which gives 9kW 34 mi/hr.

 

[HariK]

Folks, not sure who can make some changes in the look and feel of the forum. I tried the light, dark themes and also the customization but in all the cases the date/time of the post is very hard to read unless the cursor is on it. However, the Joined date is very visible. Likewise the button to Report/edit/Delete is hard to read. Why is that?

 

[stratus]

The best part of road trips so far for me is finding level 2 chargers at hotels/breweries or somewhere you don’t mind stopping for a couple hours or overnight. I managed to do an entire round trip from Rhode Island to near Mt Washington in New Hampshire and driving around that area for 2 days with zero DCFC thanks to the hotel having a L2 plug (bring your Lucid L2 plug!). Worst case scenario there are often car dealers that have them though it sucks to sit for 2 hours just to get 60 miles or whatever, I find most L2 plugs are slower than my home 100amp circuit connected to the Lucid which gives 9kW 34 mi/hr.

Yes, that is a great alternative and would be a load of fun. The big constraint here is distances between nice towns in the desert.
Things can be extremely far apart here. We had joked about Winnemucca on this forum a few months back. I may have to revisit my affection for that odd little town in the near future, if I plan on heading to California.

It’s kind of amazing to read the number of problems people encounter on PlugShare.
I am getting back on my soapbox but why is the wealthiest and one of the most technologically advanced countries on earth not taking a lead on this? We know that a certain brand of anti-science politics and lack of foresight plays a huge role in that. I should just shut up.

 

[HariK]

Yes, that is a great alternative and would be a load of fun. The big constraint here is distances between nice towns in the desert.
Things can be extremely far apart here. We had joked about Winnemucca on this forum a few months back. I may have to revisit my affection for that odd little town in the near future, if I plan on heading to California.

It’s kind of amazing to read the number of problems people encounter on PlugShare.
I am getting back on my soapbox but why is the wealthiest and one of the most technologically advanced countries on earth not taking a lead on this? We know that a certain brand of anti-science politics and lack of foresight plays a huge role in that. I should just shut up.

We live in a huge country compared to the countries which deployed many DC fast chargers. Just to get DC fast chargers every 100 miles will mean 10 such stations on I-5 in CA alone I think. At some point when the average EV costs the same as average ICE car and the range is at least 250 miles, there will be a huge interest in EVs and therefore demand for DCFC.

 

[stratus]

We live in a huge country compared to the countries which deployed many DC fast chargers. Just to get DC fast chargers every 100 miles will mean 10 such stations on I-5 in CA alone I think. At some point when the average EV costs the same as average ICE car and the range is at least 250 miles, there will be a huge interest in EVs and therefore demand for DCFC.

You are correct. In my view, I think having that infrastructure earlier will significantly increase interest in EVs, so it is kind of like chicken or the egg, in a sense.

 

[Bill55]

Speaking of charging anxiety, I would love to get the group’s opinion . I live in a charging desert. I had planned on taking 2 trips this spring , one would bring me through Idaho , Utah and all of Nevada on the way to California. Looking at my PlugShare maps is discouraging. If EA stations do not reliably work I could be in a pickle, as most other options are level 2, it seems. And yes, I will have to stop in Winnemucca!!!
I really do not have anxiety about the car, I have anxiety about reliable charging stations. This is why Tesla has and will continue to have a huge advantage. This country needs to get its act together and improve infrastructure.
Anyway, does anyone have hope that EA will rectify their unreliability issues. I just keep on seeing more and more comments here and in PlugShare about stations not working. It’s really a shame.

I drove in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. I had success charging level 2 at RV parks overnight and staying at nearby hotels/cabins. I did not use EA much, but when I did I rolled in without much charge left a couple times. I think Lucid and EA will work this out soon. Prior to this last weekend, I had some difficulties at EA, but was always able to charge. EA hardware is not monolithic, so there are multiple solutions floating around, but it is absent the context of what equipment is installed At each location. I would love to have site by site info for EA of what equipment and software is installed. I’m sure that would bring a lot of clarity, but I don’t think EA will provide. We would need to create a google sheet and crowd source.

 

[hellolucid]

fwiw i was able to charge over the weekend at Hillsdale EA location. I was on 2.0.12.

 

[the1sen]

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I’m posting in this one of many threads as I have some updated info. I was lucky(unlucky) enough to visit my local EA site again and have a total failure on all chargers in front of an EA support person who was at the site who had just serviced the chargers and proved they worked. My problem is the same as @Bill55, payment is authorized just fine, but the charger itself throws a “vehicle protocol error” and that is why the vehicle cannot charge. Both EA phone support and in person EA tech basically proved everything is fine with the stations because they were just updated and are working with other cars and it seems to be on Lucid’s end with certain EA chargers. The tech said my location is second generation ABB units and those are actually pretty good. I’ve texted Lucid support, awaiting a response. The EA tech said they’d seen OTA causing this issue with Lucid and that there’s some reset signal Lucid can do to the car to clear the problem and get it to work (this is according to EA, not Lucid, so we shall see…). I’m on 2.0.20 software.

 

[NPN]

I’m posting in this one of many threads as I have some updated info. I was lucky(unlucky) enough to visit my local EA site again and have a total failure on all chargers in front of an EA support person who was at the site who had just serviced the chargers and proved they worked. My problem is the same as @Bill55, payment is authorized just fine, but the charger itself throws a “vehicle protocol error” and that is why the vehicle cannot charge. Both EA phone support and in person EA tech basically proved everything is fine with the stations because they were just updated and are working with other cars and it seems to be on Lucid’s end with certain EA chargers. The tech said my location is second generation ABB units and those are actually pretty good. I’ve texted Lucid support, awaiting a response. The EA tech said they’d seen OTA causing this issue with Lucid and that there’s some reset signal Lucid can do to the car to clear the problem and get it to work (this is according to EA, not Lucid, so we shall see…). I’m on 2.0.20 software.

I'm in the same situation exactly. Also on 2.0.20. Other local chargers including EVGo and Chargepoint work fine to charge as of yesterday (I went around checking them and setting up accounts as I have a long drive trip upcoming and wanted to ensure I could charge as needed without using EA). I got a text back from CC late last evening that says Lucid is "investigating the situation further" and "should any resolution be made available on our end we will look to add them in future updates. This is an ongoing incident which we are working with Electrify America to resolve"....

 

[Bill55]

I am happy to report that today I stopped at 3 EA stations. Columbia, SC, Walterboro south of 26 on 95, and Savannah off 95. At all 3 charging started within a minute of plugging in with no issues.

 

[tdub59]

Hard to swallow it being an EA problem when you’re watching any number of other EVs pulling up and charging without issue. I’m sticking with my conspiracy theory that Musk has purchased controlling shares of EA through various nefarious shell companies and is just jerking Peter’s chain..
That being said it would be nice if Lucid just did some sort of rebate on the car and screw the free charging. Would work especially good for folks like me that closest EA charger is over 40 miles away. I’d much rather have the option to just hit any working charger as opposed to wasting a day and pissing off my better half fighting with the “free” charging…not really “free” if your time is worth anything, not to mention the cost of a divorce..

 

[DeaneG]

Hard to swallow it being an EA problem when you’re watching any number of other EVs pulling up and charging without issue. I’m sticking with my conspiracy theory that Musk has purchased controlling shares of EA through various nefarious shell companies and is just jerking Peter’s chain..
That being said it would be nice if Lucid just did some sort of rebate on the car and screw the free charging. Would work especially good for folks like me that closest EA charger is over 40 miles away. I’d much rather have the option to just hit any working charger as opposed to wasting a day and pissing off my better half fighting with the “free” charging…not really “free” if your time is worth anything, not to mention the cost of a divorce..

I think Lucid will fix it soon.

 

[Bill55]

Hard to swallow it being an EA problem when you’re watching any number of other EVs pulling up and charging without issue. I’m sticking with my conspiracy theory that Musk has purchased controlling shares of EA through various nefarious shell companies and is just jerking Peter’s chain..
That being said it would be nice if Lucid just did some sort of rebate on the car and screw the free charging. Would work especially good for folks like me that closest EA charger is over 40 miles away. I’d much rather have the option to just hit any working charger as opposed to wasting a day and pissing off my better half fighting with the “free” charging…not really “free” if your time is worth anything, not to mention the cost of a divorce..

I agree with getting rid of free charging. It distorted the market. If the incentive was a credit for charging at home would make more sense. Free charging encourages use of a network that is Inadequate as it is. Of course I am going to use EA when I can, I feel like I have paid for it. Convenience is important also, I charge at home when not on the road and will use ChargePoint, EVgo, or whoever, but the free charging makes me feel like I’m over charged at non-EA sites.

 

[DeaneG]

I agree with getting rid of free charging. It distorted the market. If the incentive was a credit for charging at home would make more sense. Free charging encourages use of a network that is Inadequate as it is. Of course I am going to use EA when I can, I feel like I have paid for it. Convenience is important also, I charge at home when not on the road and will use ChargePoint, EVgo, or whoever, but the free charging makes me feel like I’m over charged at non-EA sites.

The problem I have with free charging is that you get a lot of urbanites who bought an EV without thinking about how they'll charge at home. Then they go to public fast chargers and clog them up. Until the infrastructure improves by about 10x, this isn't a sustainable strategy.

 

[Bel]

I agree with getting rid of free charging. It distorted the market. If the incentive was a credit for charging at home would make more sense. Free charging encourages use of a network that is Inadequate as it is. Of course I am going to use EA when I can, I feel like I have paid for it. Convenience is important also, I charge at home when not on the road and will use ChargePoint, EVgo, or whoever, but the free charging makes me feel like I’m over charged at non-EA sites.

I agree. When my agt was delivered to my home two weeks ago i brought the lucid delivery person to ea. Although she had some direct phone numbers to lucid and ea we couldnt get free charging working. It worked flawlessly with credit card and has ever since. Lucid will pick up my agt in two weeks and keep it for a week to fix all descrepencies it was delivered with and lets see if they can get ea working.

 

[Bill55]

One of the EA stations I charged at today had a Tesla supercharger station nearby, 10 stations all empty. EA there was my Lucid, a Rivian, and a Kia. A ford lightning pulled in as I was leaving.

 

[Volund]

I’m really, really bummed for you. I was planning on using my GT Air’s long legs by going on long road trips. Now, I’m not so sure. I’m wondering whether I should just go back to road tripping in one of my Teslas. I’ll have to stop and charge every 180 to 190 miles but at least I can count on superchargers being always available and always operational.

“Zero planning” is what we should be able to do, if EA’s charging network were a patch on Tesla’s superchargers.

Discouraging report indeed. I’m sorry you’re having to go through this.

Is this something a Teslatap adapter would at least help resolve? With Tesla super chargers being reliable and also everywhere, taking a tap may help in emergencies to use one of the super chargers, right?

Nevermind, the Teslatap is for AC charging. Aren't there adapters to convert the Tesla superchargers so we can use their DC fast chargers?

 

[Bill55]

I think Lucid will fix it soon.

I wish Lucid would be more forthcoming. Did I charge successfully today because the problem is fixed or because of different EA hardware? How confident can I be in the next EA site. Right now I’m reluctant to go below

Is this something a Teslatap adapter would at least help resolve? With Tesla super chargers being reliable and also everywhere, taking a tap may help in emergencies to use one of the super chargers, right?

The Tesla Tap only works for Tesla destination chargers (level 2). I have one in the car and have used it many times. Elon has indicated that Tesla will open the supercharger stations, but for USA, there are no details or timeline.

 

[Bill55]

Charging at an EA station that is not at a Walmart. The Avenues Mall in Jacksonville, FL. Tried a 350kW to start. Charge error then second try a start error. Moved to a 150kW and it worked first time. A Mach-e then pulled into the 350 and started charging no issues. There is still something going on EA/Lucid. Happy to be able to charge. 4/4 on this trip so far.