Electrify America is enraging EV owners

[hmp10]

"Motor Trend" named the Lucid Air "Car of the Year" and has consistently loved the car in subsequent reviews. Then they took one on a long road trip where many stretches left them reliant on Electrify America, and this is what they wrote:

The Lucid Air EV Should Be a Road-Trip Champ. Our 2,300-Mile Trip Exposed a Problem

A drive from Michigan to LA was should highlight Lucid’s long range and fast charging. It reminded us of the last great hurdle to mass EV adoption instead.

www.motortrend.com

The aggravation of Electrify America so occupied their attention that they didn't have a single word to say about driving or riding in the car outside of the charging experience. As they noted in this article, Lucid is being dragged down by its association with Electrify America and its failure to assist/advise customers about how to deal with EA charging issues.

 

[Tesla2.0]

"Motor Trend" named the Lucid Air "Car of the Year" and has consistently loved the car in subsequent reviews. Then they took one on a long road trip where many stretches left them reliant on Electrify America, and this is what they wrote:

The Lucid Air EV Should Be a Road-Trip Champ. Our 2,300-Mile Trip Exposed a Problem

A drive from Michigan to LA was should highlight Lucid’s long range and fast charging. It reminded us of the last great hurdle to mass EV adoption instead.

www.motortrend.com

The aggravation of Electrify America so occupied their attention that they didn't have a single word to say about driving or riding in the car outside of the charging experience. As they noted in this article, Lucid is being dragged down by its association with Electrify America and its failure to assist/advise customers about how to deal with EA charging issues.

Sadly it is reality. Signet surge in EA charging happens to all 800+ volt brands EVs, but it happens to Lucid Air the most. I didn’t have EA Signet surge on 400 volt R1S, I don’t need to use EA as much as other brands with AGT, but with the rate of new EVs are being sold and Tesla is expanding their TSCN at higher speed. EA is not doing proper service to CCS cars at maintenance aspect and expansion rate level. We need more CCS network brands or let NASC takes over for road tripping.

I was very glad to learn 7 auto-makers consortium this week. The next couple years will be better for infrastructure. Meanwhile, EA let just many CCS EV sales down.

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

I am sorry , I still think it will be a colossal cluster F when Superchargers fully open to non Teslas. What makes the Superchargers great now is the totally closed loop Apple like environment. Cradle to grave. And in my uneducated opinion, Tesla owners have a decent tech clue. Hyundai Ford, Volvo and Kia drivers don't. What happens when you have 20 brands with 20 Sets of software and handshakes show up at a supercharger used to one. It sounds like early Android. I really hope I am wrong. Will bringing non Tesla cars to the Superchargers just bring them down to our shitty level? Misery loves company.

That said, with my fancy Lucid, I always can only charge at half the rate or less of every other car parked near me at the EA pedestals. Me: 70; ID.4 next to me: 150. Same with E-tron, Hyundai, Polestar. Cars that cost about half of mine are charging at twice the rate.

I should not complain. at least I always find an open working charger. If 60kwh is working.

I understand that Lucid has no where else to go for robust charging associations. But I am now believing Lucid has real complicity for the shitty charging experience we almost always have at the working EA chargers we find.

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

... 7 auto-makers consortium this week. The next couple years will be better for infrastructure.

As my German grandmother would say: from your lips to God's ears.

 

[EVCar]

To quote the Motor Trend article, this is a 10-cent charging experience for the 6-figure car.

 

[Tesla2.0]

I am sorry , I still think it will be a colossal cluster F when Superchargers fully open to non Teslas. What makes the Superchargers great now is the totally closed loop Apple like environment. Cradle to grave. And in my uneducated opinion, Tesla owners have a decent tech clue. Hyundai Ford, Volvo and Kia drivers don't. What happens when you have 20 brands with 20 Sets of software and handshakes show up at a supercharger used to one. It sounds like early Android. I really hope I am wrong. Will bringing non Tesla cars to the Superchargers just bring them down to our shitty level? Misery loves company.

That said, with my fancy Lucid, I always can only charge at half the rate or less of every other car parked near me at the EA pedestals. Me: 70; ID.4 next to me: 150. Same with E-tron, Hyundai, Polestar. Cars that cost about half of mine are charging at twice the rate.

I should not complain. at least I always find an open working charger. If 60kwh is working.

I understand that Lucid has no where else to go for robust charging associations. But I am now believing Lucid has real complicity for the shitty charging experience we almost always have at the working EA chargers we find.

I think we need a special 800+ volt charging network just for Lucid, Hyundai, Porsche and upcoming Lotus.

 

[SDHacker]

But I am now believing Lucid has real complicity for the shitty charging experience we almost always have at the working EA chargers we find.

My experience with EA on a road trip over 3600 miles was pretty good. One 350 charger was slow (<60) but when I switched to a 150 at the same location, got 170. The other 350s on the trip all gave me at least 250 initial rate and the couple of 150s I used were also good. 2 of the stations, I had to use the Lucid app to start the charging session. One 350 charger stopped in the middle of my session while I was eating lunch and I had to walk a couple of blocks back to the charger to restart the session. But when I get back home, the local EA 150 only gave me a max of 66 and other stations were occupied so I couldn't switch (finished grocery shopping and just stopped the session @ 44%). So I was really fortunate and happy with the EA performance on my road trip. Locally, it is so random. One day, great, another day, OK, and another day, poor. with the majority in the OK to poor range.

 

[MorganB]

There has to be some better PR speech to bolster public confidence than stating Lucid is better off for AC charging at home. Rivian has its Rivian Adventure Network and is still announcing adopting NASC news to please its early adopters. I think it doesn’t hurt for Lucid to join upcoming 7 automaker alliance charging network than being indifferent. At least do something to show care to frustrated Lucid owners than quietly letting media assault the brand. Just my 2c.

Could Lucid be under some sort of contractual obligation with EA that would prevent them from joining the alliance?

 

[DeaneG]

Could Lucid be under some sort of contractual obligation with EA that would prevent them from joining the alliance?

Likely just a need to contribute cash.

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

Could Lucid be under some sort of contractual obligation with EA that would prevent them from joining the alliance?

Doubt it. Lucid clearly states that EA use is a just promotional benefit -- only. Important legal distinction. Guessing Lucid buys or guarantees x number of megawatts and gives VIN numbers to EA. Lucid gets a bulk kWh rate, cheaper to EA with no per session billing or CC collection or bad accounts. Lucid could get kWh for one tenth of retail rates.

I've written promotion contracts. Typically just a bulk purchase or flat rate with minium. The only thing that MIGHT hold Lucid back from the alliance would be if it has a guaranteed long term big min purchase agreement. I doubt that. Most are pay as you go.

Even if it joins the alliance going forward, it still has thousands of grandfathered cars with the EA promotion. Lucid will not be done with EA for years.

 

[Volund]

My experience with EA on a road trip over 3600 miles was pretty good. One 350 charger was slow (<60) but when I switched to a 150 at the same location, got 170. The other 350s on the trip all gave me at least 250 initial rate and the couple of 150s I used were also good. 2 of the stations, I had to use the Lucid app to start the charging session. One 350 charger stopped in the middle of my session while I was eating lunch and I had to walk a couple of blocks back to the charger to restart the session. But when I get back home, the local EA 150 only gave me a max of 66 and other stations were occupied so I couldn't switch (finished grocery shopping and just stopped the session @ 44%). So I was really fortunate and happy with the EA performance on my road trip. Locally, it is so random. One day, great, another day, OK, and another day, poor. with the majority in the OK to poor range.

I had 0 issues on my road trip last November from DC to Utah. I think things really got worse after that all around, or I juet got lucky

 

[cyberwife]

We have had a particularly bad EA week. We had three days of taking the Lucid to charging stations and not being able to charge. Day 1 we went to our normal charging station and out of the 4 chargers we have only ever been able to get 2 of them to recognize our Lucid since we got the car last November. One of those units was occupied by someone who was fully charged but not returning to their car for the 45 minutes we were there - GRRRRR. The other unit we have had success with before would not recognize our car! We were on hold with EA for 20 minutes and finally got a gal who tried rebooting and sending direct signals, etc. etc. - no luck - the chargers (we tried 2) - were just not going to recognize our car no matter what method we tried. On day 2- I was pretty upset when I used both the Lucid app and the EA app to look at the availability of the chargers before driving there. I drove to THREE different EA locations and neither app was accurate and I got different information from each app, so not consistent or accurate. This ranged from telling me there were 4 chargers "available" and getting there to find out that ALL FOUR were out of service - at next place, it said 2 chargers available, got there and one was out of service and the other one I could get through authentication and it showed the charging bar with the percentage and it wouldn't give me power - just showed 0kw-, on to the last one - telling me that charger 1 was in use, when it was not in use and charger 4 was available when it was clearly in use (note this was while I was standing in front of the station - I realize that you cannot use these apps to tell you if a charger is in use or not in use and expect it will still be open by the time you drive there - as cars come and go constantly and most certainly would not be a feature you could count on). I ended up plugging into a charger there but it was only delivering around 50kw on a 150kw charger. I would expect that if chargers are down - they should show as not available on these apps. I took photos at each charger and location to show the inaccuracies along with screen shots. I am going to be sending these to Lucid. What good are these apps if the accuracy is this low? Day 3 - went to our regular EA near our home and again all 4 chargers were down, but there was a tech there saying he was upgrading the 150's to higher speed 350kw chargers, but he had one that was still operational. He cleared it so that anyone could just plug in and charge with no authentication or payment required - and guess what - it still would not charge our Lucid! We ended up charging at home. Then today we charged out of town and at a super high speed 350kw and got around 120kw - so I am not encouraged that these new high speed units will actually deliver. The frustration is real.

 

[Lucken]

"Motor Trend" named the Lucid Air "Car of the Year" and has consistently loved the car in subsequent reviews. Then they took one on a long road trip where many stretches left them reliant on Electrify America, and this is what they wrote:

The Lucid Air EV Should Be a Road-Trip Champ. Our 2,300-Mile Trip Exposed a Problem

A drive from Michigan to LA was should highlight Lucid’s long range and fast charging. It reminded us of the last great hurdle to mass EV adoption instead.

www.motortrend.com

The aggravation of Electrify America so occupied their attention that they didn't have a single word to say about driving or riding in the car outside of the charging experience. As they noted in this article, Lucid is being dragged down by its association with Electrify America and its failure to assist/advise customers about how to deal with EA charging issues.

Who can blame Motor Trend? It's most certainly not just Lucid that's being dogged by these issues, it's all EVs. The marked deteriorating of EA on Long Island is notable. The location near me, consisting of 4, 150kW chargers, has only 1 working at relatively decent speeds (90-95kW). One has the familiar 'plug in first' screen but never recognizes that any car has actually plugged in, as the screen never changes. I've reported this location on at least 3 occasions and nothing is done. The other 2 chargers are outputting from 34-50kW.

When I speak with drivers from NJ, I get very similar stories. EA is truly becoming a joke in this area. Those that report they almost never have issues with EA should consider themselves very lucky.

A new 350kW station opened not too far from me and was great at first. Of course that was 4 weeks ago. Deterioration has already set in and drivers are reporting 2 of the 4 chargers not working properly. I've said it before, EA will single-handedly help thwart the growth of EVs.

 

[hmp10]

Who can blame Motor Trend?

It's just so depressing. "Motor Trend" has been a huge fan of the car itself from the get-go and probably done more than any other journalistic source to support the brand. Yet on a 2300-mile trip in which the Lucid's virtues as a sport touring sedan should have been front and center, the CCS charging experience -- especially on stretches where EA was the only choice -- was so atrocious that the entire report on the trip became about the charging issues, with not a single word devoted to the car itself and it world-class power, handling, ride, space, and luxury.

Lucid has been plagued with the trials of Job: Covid-related supply chain disruptions and its interference with component development, inflation, EV sales slowdowns, loss of federal tax credit. Yet they brought a car to market that has uniformly wowed the automotive engineering world and the press that reports on that world.

And, now, the shit show that is Electrify America seems aimed at delivering the most lasting blow of all.

Lucid needs to remove all reference to Electrify America charging from its website and marketing and to move as quickly as possible to associate itself with the growing attention to NACS and, if possible, get onboard with the plans being jointly developed by seven other EV manufacturers. I know Rawlinson has explained how little of an advance NACS really signifies from a technical standpoint. But he needs to talk less like an engineer and more like a marketing man on this issue. This association with Electrify America may be the stone this albatross can no longer bear.

 

[DBV]

That is really too bad about the Motor Trend story. You would think with Out of Spec and MotorTrend pounding on this that EA and Lucid would do something quickly to make it better. I get so close of buying a Lucid, but then read stories like this and scares me away, especially since I travel in the Midwest and NE. It has to get more reliable than this and fast.

 

[Tesla2.0]

… I know Rawlinson has explained how little of an advance NACS really signifies from a technical standpoint. But he needs to talk less like an engineer and more like a marketing man on this issue. This association with Electrify America may be the stone this albatross can no longer bear.

I have been refraining as much from the negatives of my opinion. We all love our Air, hard not to love this car after driving it. But fortune 1000 CEOs need to bolster confidence to market and Wall Street, not nerdy talk. Guys like Kyle Connor or Sandy Munroe are not it. CEO almost have to be con artist to sell (con = confidence) just like Washington DC politicians.

 

[hmp10]

That is really too bad about the Motor Trend story. You would think with Out of Spec and MotorTrend pounding on this that EA and Lucid would do something quickly to make it better. I get so close of buying a Lucid, but then read stories like this and scares me away, especially since I travel in the Midwest and NE. It has to get more reliable than this and fast.

Your view is completely understandable and why I so worry about what EA is doing to Lucid's reputation.

Even heavily-followed people such as Marquess Brownlee, who recognize that Lucid makes a better car than Tesla, are going so far as recommending that EV buyers still go with Tesla until the CCS charging issues are addressed.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I swung by an EA station at a bank that was pretty crowded small lot. One of the chargers was unusable as it was on the right side of the vehicle but so far back that the cable wouldn’t reach even if I could have backed in, lot layout didn't even allow this. Had to wait for another spot, plugged in and amazingly the vehicle started charging right away but pretty slow 50kW or so. Meanwhile a Taycan next to me wouldn’t charge (he tried my cable first) and in speaking to the owner (older guy with alcohol breath!) he said the car was dead and wouldn’t move. He had to leave the car blocking one of the 4 working spots!

 

[hydbob]

Your view is completely understandable and why I so worry about what EA is doing to Lucid's reputation.

Even heavily-followed people such as Marquess Brownlee, who recognize that Lucid makes a better car than Tesla, are going so far as recommending that EV buyers still go with Tesla until the CCS charging issues are addressed.

Do these heavily-followed people use a caveat that if you are home charging the majority of the time, then it doesn't make a difference?

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Do these heavily-followed people use a caveat that if you are home charging the majority of the time, then it doesn't make a difference?

That message doesn’t drive rage and clicks… that’s how the $$$ is made.