I'll try to snag some pics when I experience it next, but basically the failure looks like:
1) Plug in EA charge cable
2) EA screen acknowledges car connection, spinny wheel spins to indicate they're communicating with each other
3) EA screen directs to a payment page offering me options like CC, account, etc
4) Unplug and try again repeating steps 1-3 over (often) 6+ attempts over (often) 5+ minutes
As you say, when it works it just requires plugging in the cable and that's that, so it seems like something is getting lost in the handshake (is that the correct term?) between charger/car. I've yet to have the problem take longer to resolve than the time it takes to get someone on the line from EA customer support, at which point I just hang up, though maybe I should stay on the line and see if they can tell what's happening.
Thx for listening!