Electrify America gets a new VP of technology

[Tesla2.0]

I just found out today Rivian Adventure Network is online in Texas. Im sure they will open to all CCS to tap into NEVI fund in coming months. I’m going to test soon with Tesla SCN + MagicDock on coming road trip.

 

[DeaneG]

That 12-stall location at New Braunfels is a great start.

 

[Tesla2.0]

That 12-stall location at New Braunfels is a great start.

That New Braunfeld/San Marcus location is Volta network at Premium Outlet. Good for shopping. Austin/Rock Rock location has solid 10 stalls EA.

I just feel blessed to have option of skipping bad stations with Air’s range. Can you imagine Bolt have to stop at most stations in between major cities?

 

[Drendino]

The more I think about it, US GOV should have just fined VW 2 billion dollars. Now we are left with such incompetence from EA its unimaginable that a modern well funded company can mess up so much and not care about it!

I agree and think they need to re-open the whole investigation and potentially fine them 4 billion if they can prove negligence and/or corruption. The whole thing feels filthy to me.

 

[DeaneG]

I agree and think they need to re-open the whole investigation and potentially fine them 4 billion if they can prove negligence and/or corruption. The whole thing feels filthy to me.

They'd just declare bankruptcy and walk away.

 

[Drendino]

They'd just declare bankruptcy and walk away.

Not before the top brass received performance bonuses.

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

@Drendino Sorry, I could not disagree more. You are just angry because EA is a massively flawed and semi competent company. Failing in many areas, yes. Negligence? Corruption? Nonsense. Was EA and USDOJ Stupid to think a massive new DCFC network was straightforward? That's a given. USDOJ approved the settlement. Everyone thought it could work. I read it and thought it was an amazing attempt at doing something that actually could help the climate. Guess what? They were all wrong. Ten thousand bankruptcies a year show that is a common mistake. Get.over.it. Enjoy your amazing Lucid.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.". Hanlon's Razor

There is very little deliberate wickedness in the world. The stupidity of our selfishness gives much the same results indeed, but in the ethical laboratory it shows a different nature. H.G Wells

misunderstandings and lethargy perhaps produce more wrong in the world than deceit and malice do. At any rate, the latter two are certainly rarer. Johan Wolfgang Van Goethe. 1794

 

[Tesla2.0]

They'd just declare bankruptcy and walk away.

What if this new EA’s VP from Rivian can just assist EA be acquired by Rivian of their 850 stations? This would be great strategic move!

Rivian is trying to build their own 600 stations network with 3500+ stalls in coming 2 years. Rivian stalls are just plug and play like Tesla SCN. They also just now made Plug N Play move with EVGo. Rivian never made any deal with EA, their native navigation doesn’t show any EA station stall status unlike Lucid Air does.

I think Rivian probably knew EA scalability and saved money making deal with EA. Instead, later made their own network and listened to their customers experience and adopted NACS to smooth road tripping experience for further changing expansion.

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

They'd just declare bankruptcy and walk away.

I thought I read Elon almost went bust doing Superchargers. And his motivation for SC was not to have the best charger network but to sell his cars and not lose billions in Tesla. For many decades, ESSO and Standard and Mobil stations were not primarily about gas, it was all about $$ spent on service, tires, brakes. hence they were called SERVICE stations.

I wonder if the DCFC only location model is flawed as unsupportable financially.

@borski or @joec had a great idea: Starbucks should do DCFC alongside pound cake and fru fru Lattes

 

[Drendino]

@Drendino Sorry, I could not disagree more. You are just angry because EA is a massively flawed and semi competent company. Failing in many areas, yes. Negligence? Corruption? Nonsense. Was EA and USDOJ Stupid to think a massive new DCFC network was straightforward? That's a given. USDOJ approved the settlement. Everyone thought it could work. I read it and thought it was an amazing attempt at doing something that actually could help the climate. Guess what? They were all wrong. Ten thousand bankruptcies a year show that is a common mistake. Get.over.it. Enjoy your amazing Lucid.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.". Hanlon's Razor

There is very little deliberate wickedness in the world. The stupidity of our selfishness gives much the same results indeed, but in the ethical laboratory it shows a different nature. H.G Wells

misunderstandings and lethargy perhaps produce more wrong in the world than deceit and malice do. At any rate, the latter two are certainly rarer. Johan Wolfgang Van Goethe. 1794

With all do respect, assuming that a company, who already got caught cheating on emissions has somehow rehabilitated itself by buying a charging infrastructure is a stretch. Many people believe that this company may be intentionally failing, so it can file bankruptcy and walk away from the whole thing. It’s a losing proposition, which is why Ford and Rivian voted with their dollars and walked away from it.

Have they lived up to their end of the settlement? I don’t know, let’s take a look and see if there is negligence. Corruption has already been proved, which is the “why” behind the whole EA purchase in the first place. As the saying goes. “Fool me once…we won’t get fooled again”.

 

[EVCar]

With all do respect, assuming that a company, who already got caught cheating on emissions has somehow rehabilitated itself by buying a charging infrastructure is a stretch. Many people believe that this company may be intentionally failing, so it can file bankruptcy and walk away from the whole thing. It’s a losing proposition, which is why Ford and Rivian voted with their dollars and walked away from it.

Have they lived up to their end of the settlement? I don’t know, let’s take a look and see if there is negligence. Corruption has already been proved, which is the “why” behind the whole EA purchase in the first place. As the saying goes. “Fool me once…we won’t get fooled again”.

Some time ago, MB reportedly said EV owners deserve better amenities than the far corner of the parking lot, next to the dumpster. That's why they were going to build their own network..

 

[EVCar]

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.". Hanlon's Razor

There is very little deliberate wickedness in the world. The stupidity of our selfishness gives much the same results indeed, but in the ethical laboratory it shows a different nature. H.G Wells

misunderstandings and lethargy perhaps produce more wrong in the world than deceit and malice do. At any rate, the latter two are certainly rarer. Johan Wolfgang Van Goethe. 1794

For levity, how about this quotation: "Things that don't pass the smell test are usually ... rotten. Lucid's Owners Forum 2023"

 

[Sandvinsd]

Some time ago, MB reportedly said EV owners deserve better amenities than the far corner of the parking lot, next to the dumpster. That's why they were going to build their own network..

I actually like the stations at are at the far corner of the parking lot. Never see an ICE car try to park in the EV spots when it is farther away from the store entrance.

 

[joec]

I thought I read Elon almost went bust doing Superchargers. And his motivation for SC was not to have the best charger network but to sell his cars and not lose billions in Tesla. For many decades, ESSO and Standard and Mobil stations were not primarily about gas, it was all about $$ spent on service, tires, brakes. hence they were called SERVICE stations.

I wonder if the DCFC only location model is flawed as unsupportable financially.

@borski or @joec had a great idea: Starbucks should do DCFC alongside pound cake and fru fru Lattes

Yep, that was me. I think someone is going to eventually figure out that charging is a loss leader. Use it to get a captive audience for 25-30 minutes and sell them all sorts of other stuff.

A shady, cool / warm place to sit that's sheltered from the elements would be a start.

The good news is beating even the "best" network (Tesla's) should be a piece of cake. Most Superchargers offer little to nothing to do beyond watching YouTube inside your own car.

 

[Bill55]

EVERYONE likes to talk about the charging, and road tripping and EPA range. Even with the out of spec guys, that was the focus...

Not once in the comparison videos was it mentioned that the Lucid could basically carry 3x more baggage than the other cars, is much quieter, has as good suspension, steering and handling as a Porsche, has massage seats and way more creature comfort. Can have 3 full sized comfortable adults in the back, AND is basically a generator on wheels for when V2H comes out. How many Tesla Powerwalls is that?

So if EA can get their charging down maybe people Will stop focusing on the problems and actually move onto other things that make this car so damn good!!!

99% of the press coverage is about 1% of the driving experience. My last couple road trips I was able to do without DC fast charging due to the range of the Lucid and Level 2 at my destination.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Not now, no. EA does not disclose anything publicly. I have to assume some federal agency is watching over them, but if so the results have been remarkably poor to date. Should be improving over the next 6-12 months as EA consolidates to just one or two DCFC equipment suppliers and builds an inventory of spare parts.

EA does indeed publish public disclosures.
Sort of...

More specifically, so far I have reviewed (but not very carefully, since although I analyze this kind of stuff for work, I'm analyzing EA for fun -- or at least as a way to get out my frustrations at them) --

Consent decree:

https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2016-10/documents/amended20lpartial-cd.pdf

... which sets the framework for the $2b that VAG has to spend on charging infrastructure and related EV initiatives.

Investment plans, covering (IIRC) 30-month periods:

ZEV Investment Plans | California Air Resources Board

Electrify America's ZEV Investment Plans regarding its implementation of Volkswagen's ZEV Investment Commitment in California. ZEV Investment Cycles ZEV Investment Plans Cycle 3 ZEV Investment Plan Cycle 3 ZEV Investment Plan Cycle 2 ZEV Investment Plan

ww2.arb.ca.gov

... setting out the specifics, including such laughable moments as (and pls don't sue me if you spray a mouthful of coffee over your computer or choke on your lunch):

"Electrify America recognizes that customer experience is a critical element to PEV adoption and is committed to industry-leading customer service and station maintenance and repair. To this end,​

Electrify America has established contractual requirements to reasonably resolve critical issues with all stations within a maximum of 72 hours."​

Quarterly reports:

Electrify America Reports | California Air Resources Board

Links to each report that Electrify America has posted regarding its implementation of Volkswagen's ZEV Investment Commitment in California are below. Covered Period Electrify America

ww2.arb.ca.gov

.... which include kWh tallies, as well as station utilization ratios (totally worthless, since include the wee hours of the morning), yet nothing (at least that I can find so far) indicated what % of stations had, say, 90% of their units operating at their stated kW rating for 90% of the covered period. (I suspect EA has no idea what the answer is to that?)

 

[Jonathan S.]

The more I think about it, US GOV should have just fined VW 2 billion dollars. Now we are left with such incompetence from EA its unimaginable that a modern well funded company can mess up so much and not care about it!

Mess up? Sure, from the perspective of frustrated CCS1 EV owners.
But the sole purpose of this $2b-funded company is to spend $2b on charging infrastructure and related EV initiatives.
And EA is doing a great job of ... spending money.

I would have thought that given how EA has to spend that money on charging infrastructure, it would care about reliability so as to generate some net operating income, even if that operating income would never provide anything approaching a market-based return on invested capital (i.e., that $2b required under the consent decree).
But apparently EA doesn't think that way, whether for reasons of simple incompetence, or perhaps b/c it's better for them financially to buy chargers that don't work reliably and then not to bother trying much to fix them, given that any incremental charging revenue might be less than a comprehensive maintenance and repair program. The other big unknown are the terms with all the partner car company free charging programs.

Note though that any civil penalty paid by VAG (or any other CAA violations by anyone else) just go into the U.S. Treasury, not for any environmental purposes.
So that $2b would have merely reduced the national debt by $2b.

However, my hunch is that the CCS1 DCFC network would be better today had EA not come into existence, since other existing networks would have expanded in the absence of EA.

 

[Jonathan S.]

[...]

In retrospect 75% of VW's money that went to fund EA should have similarly gone to EVGo, Chargepoint, etc.

Yes, might have been better if the bulk of it had gone to subsidize for-profit companies with existing CCS1 DCFC network who would care more about reliability.

 

[Bill55]

Yes, might have been better if the bulk of it had gone to subsidize for-profit companies with existing CCS1 DCFC network who would care more about reliability.

Free charging is a detriment. Some amount is being paid up front and delivering less energy can increase margins. I think level 3 charging being expensive and level 2 being free and plentiful at 19.2 kW would satisfy 90% of all trips faster and for less money.

 

[Babyrocko1908]

Stopped by the Philadelphia Premium Outlets (not really even close to Philly) to satisfy my wife’s need to exchange an mis-sized garment. Figured, EA 150s are here. Why not grab some free charge and throw in a charging tutorial for my wife.

Pulled up to charger #4. Blazingly hot sun (by PA standards). Showed her how to be close enough for cord to reach. Grab cable with 2 hands to manage stiffness. Insert into charging port and witness free, self-initiating charge…..but nothing happened.

Unplugged and replugged to insure good contact. Nope. Nice lady charging a Kia 2 stalls down tried to coach me. “You need to use the EA app.“ After informing her it should initiate the charge without the EA app, I was forced to swallow my pride and try that. Nope. The app DID inform me that the charger I was using was “unavailable“. Doh! Now who needs a tutorial…

Moved 1 charger over and pulled an initial 104kw, which I’m sure tapered off as it approached 80%, but who knows. At that point, I was shopping. View attachment 14290

Was this the EA in Pottstown with the lovely "world class" view of the Limerick Nuclear Power plant?