Egg on Face Edition

[hmp10]

Electrify America has ignited a firestorm by shutting down chargers along I-95 on Labor Day to commence installation of upgraded equipment. There is debate, among other things, about whether EA gave users adequate notice of such a widespread shutdown on a major holiday.

Electrify America's Statement: Hardware Upgrades At 56 Charging Sites

We recently told you about Electrify America shutting down its charging stations over a 500-mile stretch of highway. It was intentional, for upgrades.

insideevs.com

 

[BlindPass]

Brutal imo. Is this a product of EA being born from an ICE manufacturer? Probably not, and rather just standard incompetence, but it does give fodder to those that champion the Tesla ecosystem.

I’ve hoped for utilities to get into the charging space, both DC and home, particularly those within wholesale power market organizations. The transmission, distribution, power price gradients and arbitrage is their domain. They also have the regulatory environment to set and apply the analogous “gas tax”. They should exploit, but I know innovative isn’t exactly in their DNA. Instead battery pack manufacturers, err EV manufacturers, seem to dominate, the end utilities will fall back on regulators for protection of their existence.