Electrify America gets a new VP of technology

[DeaneG]

Electrify America gets a new VP of technology, ex-MIT and Rivian. Great news IMO.

https://media.electrifyamerica.com/en-us/releases/225

 

[Halodde]

Electrify America gets a new VP of technology, ex-MIT and Rivian. Great news IMO.

https://media.electrifyamerica.com/en-us/releases/225

 

[Bobby]

I sincerely hope they find a way to improve. Could you imagine the difference it would make of all of the stations simply worked as they should?

 

[EVCar]

Electrify America gets a new VP of technology, ex-MIT and Rivian. Great news IMO.

https://media.electrifyamerica.com/en-us/releases/225

Good pedigree with Carnegie and MIT on his CV.
Hope he'll elevate EA to the expectation.

 

[ColoradoKent]

I am always skeptical of people with job experience with many companies. Can't he hold a job or is he constantly trying to better himself? We shall see.

 

[Sid432]

It seems Michel is Kyle Conner's close friend. It would be interesting to see if any significant changes/reliability in Charging infrastructure

 

[DeaneG]

I am always skeptical of people with job experience with many companies. Can't he hold a job or is he constantly trying to better himself? We shall see.

It's common on the West Coast to move around. No longer viewed as a bad thing unless a candidate has accumulated a bunch of 1-year stints.

 

[JerseyStrong]

Unfortunately this has not lived up to its promise.
A core component of the technology team is the Center of Excellence – established in 2017 - where the company has conducted more than 8,000 hours of compatibility testing with automakers of new and future electric vehicles.

Hope he can rectify the compatability issues.

 

[BradSholl]

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.

 

[DeaneG]

...
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…

OT, but I wish EA's chargers more clearly indicated when they are inoperative.

 

[victoryroad]

Sounds promising. Is there any available measure of EA's network performance? Surely EA has metrics, but are there any publicly available statistics? The new person definitely has a lot of work ahead of him.

 

[DeaneG]

Sounds promising. Is there any available measure of EA's network performance? Surely EA has metrics, but are there any publicly available statistics? The new person definitely has a lot of work ahead of him.

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.

 

[quantum]

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!

 

[Volund]

I sincerely hope they find a way to improve. Could you imagine the difference it would make of all of the stations simply worked as they should?

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!!!

 

[quantum]

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!!!

Agree, most youtube amateur reviewers don't get the big picture. NACS is just a plug for older tecnology EV's. Not for 700-900V technology. It gave an opportunity for those " lesser EV's" to market themselves as being more relevant in the future. The future is higher voltage. Unfortunately Tesla is trying to make that less relevant.

 

[borski]

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

Actually sounds like it was the perfect tutorial.

 

[Bus Driver]

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!!!

I hear ‘ya, and I’m completely with you. And all this obsessive teeth gnashing on the inadequacy of EA’s DCFC network seems out of all proportion to the way most of us drive our Lucids in our day-to-day lives. Until we ourselves go on our yearly 1000 plus mile road trip, and have to rely on that very network.

Last July my boyfriend and I completed our yearly drive from San Diego CA to Denver CO, for the first time in my Air GT. A roundtrip distance of over 2200 statute miles. I was going to do a write up of our driving and charging experiences but instead I’ve elected to relate one short but revealing conversation my partner and I had just after I had just finished charging the car close to 100%, in preparation for the first leg of the trip BACK to San Diego. I think it sums up the maddeningly inconsistent, wildly unpredictable, worrying and at-times vexing nature of road tripping when not relying on Tesla’s superchcarger network:

Me, completely besotted, blindly devoted Lucid owner - “see, for as long as we keep our speed below 80 mph, this car will let us drive close to 400 miles before we’ll have to worry about charging!”

Partner, unconvinced of the charms of EV road-tripping, and an avowed Lucid hater - “yeah, but what are you gonna with this thing when you get there?”

I didn’t have a confidence inspiring answer for him.

 

[Tesla2.0]

I hear ‘ya, and I’m completely with you. And all this obsessive teeth gnashing on the inadequacy of EA’s DCFC network seems out of all proportion to the way most of us drive our Lucids in our day-to-day lives. Until we ourselves go on our yearly 1000 plus mile road trip, and have to rely on that very network.

Last July my boyfriend and I completed our yearly drive from San Diego CA to Denver CO, for the first time in my Air GT. A roundtrip distance of over 2200 statute miles. I was going to do a write up of our driving and charging experiences but instead I’ve elected to relate one short but revealing conversation my partner and I had just after I had just finished charging the car close to 100%, in preparation for the first leg of the trip BACK to San Diego. I think it sums up the maddeningly inconsistent, wildly unpredictable, worrying and at-times vexing nature of road tripping when not relying on Tesla’s superchcarger network:

Me, completely besotted, blindly devoted Lucid owner - “see, for as long as we keep our speed below 80 mph, this car will let us drive close to 400 miles before we’ll have to worry about charging!”

Partner, unconvinced of the charms of EV road-tripping, and an avowed Lucid hater - “yeah, but what are you gonna with this thing when you get there?”

I didn’t have a confidence inspiring answer for him.

“Don’t hate the car, hate the network.”

I’m sure more networks will show up and expand next 3 years.

 

[borski]

I hear ‘ya, and I’m completely with you. And all this obsessive teeth gnashing on the inadequacy of EA’s DCFC network seems out of all proportion to the way most of us drive our Lucids in our day-to-day lives. Until we ourselves go on our yearly 1000 plus mile road trip, and have to rely on that very network.

Last July my boyfriend and I completed our yearly drive from San Diego CA to Denver CO, for the first time in my Air GT. A roundtrip distance of over 2200 statute miles. I was going to do a write up of our driving and charging experiences but instead I’ve elected to relate one short but revealing conversation my partner and I had just after I had just finished charging the car close to 100%, in preparation for the first leg of the trip BACK to San Diego. I think it sums up the maddeningly inconsistent, wildly unpredictable, worrying and at-times vexing nature of road tripping when not relying on Tesla’s superchcarger network:

Me, completely besotted, blindly devoted Lucid owner - “see, for as long as we keep our speed below 80 mph, this car will let us drive close to 400 miles before we’ll have to worry about charging!”

Partner, unconvinced of the charms of EV road-tripping, and an avowed Lucid hater - “yeah, but what are you gonna with this thing when you get there?”

I didn’t have a confidence inspiring answer for him.

Charge at an EVGo. Plenty in CA that work great.

 

[DeaneG]

Several states have begun to award contracts for DCFC installation with NEVI funds, notably including Tesla.
This means that Tesla will support 920V charging and CCS, at least for those new NEVI sites, because NEVI funding requires it.

One state award I saw allocated the maximum 25% of its funds to Tesla, along with a further workaround allocation to a couple other charging providers who it appears will be using Tesla hardware. Maybe to get around their own 25% limitation on the amount of funding that could go to any one provider.

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