Electrify America Issues

[Tesla2.0]

egads - this is giving me roadrtip anxiety and i haven't even picked up my vehicle yet! right off the bat i'm planning an 800 mile trip (reston, va to memphis) but now starting to question that idea! i like the idea of having another provider as a backup plan - any suggestions for one thats reliable and compatible? also - suggestions on 3rd party app to find closest compatible charging stations? i just starting looking at plugshare and it looks pretty good... thanks in advance!

EVGo and ChargePoint network

Download PlugShare and ABRP on your phone to browse alternative options for backup.

 

[Sandvinsd]

EVGo and ChargePoint network

Download PlugShare and ABRP on your phone to browse alternative options for backup.

Yes. Download others. I have 9 different EV charging network apps on my phone in addition to PlugShare and ABRP. We all want to take advantage of the free charging on a trip, but sometimes…… It will be a mixed blessing when the free charging is over. Yes, my fuel won’t be free, but I won’t be be looking for EA chargers and can charge with the cheapest, best performing network, which most likely will NOT be EA.

 

[maractwin]

Get the phone apps PlugShare and A Better Route Planner. Both are better at finding charging stations than the Lucid's built-in nav. And you can check reviews on PlugShare to see if a given charger has been working for people.

 

[Tesla2.0]

Get the phone apps PlugShare and A Better Route Planner. Both are better at finding charging stations than the Lucid's built-in nav. And you can check reviews on PlugShare to see if a given charger has been working for people.

But having Lucid native navigation set a DCFC destination will have the car remind you to start battery conditioning 20 minutes before you arrive at the station.

 

[HariK]

Get the phone apps PlugShare and A Better Route Planner. Both are better at finding charging stations than the Lucid's built-in nav. And you can check reviews on PlugShare to see if a given charger has been working for people.

Plugshare reviews were great for other cars at EA and Lucid had issues 2 out of 3 times I tried.

 

[Tesla2.0]

There is also this “Chargeway” app good at looking for charging stations. Available stations are…

And other small networks…

 

[smead]

I have access to two different stations, one with all new 350's and the other with 150's. I can get an 80% charge faster on the 150's than I can with the 350's. I can only get to about 50% on the 350's before I get impatient (after about 30 minutes of charging from 20%). The charge rate drops significantly at that time. With the 150's, I can typically charge from 20% to 80% in 30 minutes. Battery preconditioning doesn't seem to make a difference at all.

Update: I tried one of the 350's again yesterday and had a much better experience than the previous 3 or 4 times.

Started charging at 21% and it kicked off at a charge rate of 145kwh. It stayed there for the first 10 minutes or so and then slowly started going down. When it completed at my 80% charge capacity target, the charge rate was 88kwh. Total time to charge was 34 minutes. There are 2 other 350's at the EA site and both were in use.

While substantially lower than the maximum charge rate of 350, it was definitely the fastest I've ever had a charge at one of the EA stations. Not sure what changed, but it was a decent experience. I'll post again on my next 350 attempt.

 

[DeaneG]

Please excuse the pedantic post, but:

Kilowatts (kW) is the rate of power delivery from the charger. As in "my car is charging at 127 kW."

Kilowatt-hours (kWh) is the total amount of energy contained in your car's battery, or delivered by the charger. It's the accumulation of power over time. Example "I just charged at 50kW for two hours, and put 100kWh into my car."

Charging stations are usually 50 kiloWatts (kW), 150kW, or 350kW maximum output power How many kiloWatt-hours (kWh) you get from them depends onhow much power the car requests, how much the station actually delivers, accumulated over the amount of time you are plugged in. If for example the charger delivers a constant 75kW, in two hours it will have delivered 150kWh into your car.

 

[hydbob]

Here's my most recent charge right now. Pulled up, PnC worked.

 

[DeaneG]

Here's my most recent charge right now. Pulled up, PnC worked.

View attachment 9547

Which station is this? I wish there were more Lucid - specific comments in plugshare postings. But I'm usually busy while/after charging and don't make the effort.

 

[hydbob]

Which station is this? I wish there were more Lucid - specific comments in plugshare postings. But I'm usually busy while/after charging and don't make the effort.

 

[bhramabull]

Hey folks. Long one here based on the horrid experience with EA's absolute shady business practices that I just experienced yesterday.
So I took the Lucid to my regular spot here in Phoenix where plug-n-charge has been working just fine since I've had the car. Yesterday however things went very different. I plugged the cable in the car and got the dreaded Authentication Error. Frustrated as I was thinking my lucks' finally run out, I re-plugged the cable and this time to my shock and surprise - I got a message on my main screen saying something along the lines of "Please use the 'providers' app and/or charging screen at the station to initiate charging" (NOT the Lucid app as happens sometimes at certain locations).
Right away I'm thinking how would the EA app know anything about my Lucid. Now, I do use the EA app to frequently charge my wife's Hyundai Ioniq 5 (also gives 2 years free charging with EA) but that also means I went through a full on registration process linking that car with EA's portal/app/website.
However, I thought perhaps Lucid has finally engaged EA in using their app for charging vs. the plug-n-charge. I picked my stall and 'swiped to charge' and VOILA, the charging begins. I checked the screen a couple of times to ensure I am NOT BEING BILLED, and the screen certainly said I was not. Right after I finished charging, checked the very last pricing screen upon unplugging the cable and it said total session cost - $0.00
Checked my EA charge history upon arriving home and of course I was charged the entire session fee and it also reflected on the CC I have on file with EA. Called them up - and they said it's my fault that I proceeded to charge a Lucid on Hyundai's plan and said no refunds, sorry!. Totally ignoring when I brought up -
1) their screen kept telling me about the cost being free
2) Neither the app nor the screen warned me about charging another car other than the Hyundai
3) EA not even knowing which / whose car on Earth am I charging
4) Me just following their own prompts they're sending to the Lucid screen!
Called Lucid and of course they noted the complaint and said they'd refund me!

 

[SDHacker]

Please excuse the pedantic post, but:

Kilowatts (kW) is the rate of power delivery from the charger. As in "my car is charging at 127 kW."

Kilowatt-hours (kWh) is the total amount of energy contained in your car's battery, or delivered by the charger. It's the accumulation of power over time. Example "I just charged at 50kW for two hours, and put 100kWh into my car."

Charging stations are usually 50 kiloWatts (kW), 150kW, or 350kW maximum output power How many kiloWatt-hours (kWh) you get from them depends onhow much power the car requests, how much the station actually delivers, accumulated over the amount of time you are plugged in. If for example the charger delivers a constant 75kW, in two hours it will have delivered 150kWh into your car.

Don’t know if I’ll remember this but it was very clearly written

 

[Tesla2.0]

Hey folks. Long one here based on the horrid experience with EA's absolute shady business practices that I just experienced yesterday.
So I took the Lucid to my regular spot here in Phoenix where plug-n-charge has been working just fine since I've had the car. Yesterday however things went very different. I plugged the cable in the car and got the dreaded Authentication Error. Frustrated as I was thinking my lucks' finally run out, I re-plugged the cable and this time to my shock and surprise - I got a message on my main screen saying something along the lines of "Please use the 'providers' app and/or charging screen at the station to initiate charging" (NOT the Lucid app as happens sometimes at certain locations).
Right away I'm thinking how would the EA app know anything about my Lucid. Now, I do use the EA app to frequently charge my wife's Hyundai Ioniq 5 (also gives 2 years free charging with EA) but that also means I went through a full on registration process linking that car with EA's portal/app/website.
However, I thought perhaps Lucid has finally engaged EA in using their app for charging vs. the plug-n-charge. I picked my stall and 'swiped to charge' and VOILA, the charging begins. I checked the screen a couple of times to ensure I am NOT BEING BILLED, and the screen certainly said I was not. Right after I finished charging, checked the very last pricing screen upon unplugging the cable and it said total session cost - $0.00
Checked my EA charge history upon arriving home and of course I was charged the entire session fee and it also reflected on the CC I have on file with EA. Called them up - and they said it's my fault that I proceeded to charge a Lucid on Hyundai's plan and said no refunds, sorry!. Totally ignoring when I brought up -
1) their screen kept telling me about the cost being free
2) Neither the app nor the screen warned me about charging another car other than the Hyundai
3) EA not even knowing which / whose car on Earth am I charging
4) Me just following their own prompts they're sending to the Lucid screen!
Called Lucid and of course they noted the complaint and said they'd refund me!

Been there done that. I don’t think EA was intentionally scamming you. Their invoicing system and handshake system sucks. I get random charge or pass with other car EA app.

What you do next time you encounter this situation is 2 options.

- Change stall to see another dispenser doesn’t give you handshake issue.

- Call 1-800 # on that stall and tell them your issue with Lucid. They can remotely set pass thru and give you free charge.

 

[Ampere]

I write a newspaper column about technology. I mentioned problems with EA chargers in a recent column. This is the response from one reader:

"There was only one check in from a Lucid driver. Complained about 20 kw charge speed, most other revs were doing fine, including 800v cars charging in the upper 100s kw. (Maybe the Lucid software has an issue)
I’ve charged 48 times at EA. Worked every time. A few times (3?) one charger was slow and the others OK. Once the location was being serviced but inspire of being offline could still be started with an RFID credit card. "

He told me he just made a road-trip from central Illinois to Florida with an EV and used the PlugShare app to locate chargers.

So what this reader is implying is that the problem may be as much with Lucid as with EA. I'm just putting this out there and not saying whether he is correct.
Either another bug in the Lucid software that needs to be addressed, or a larger issue between EA and Lucid on the corporate level.

 

[DeaneG]

...So what this reader is implying is that the problem may be as much with Lucid as with EA. I'm just putting this out there and not saying whether he is correct.
Either another bug in the Lucid software that needs to be addressed, or a larger issue between EA and Lucid on the corporate level.

My Air clearly had a problem with some EA dispensers where other automaker's cars charged just fine after I gave up. OTA software release notes a couple months ago mentioned improved charging interoperability; I'm hoping the change improved charging reliability with EA.

 

[smead]

Please excuse the pedantic post, but:

Kilowatts (kW) is the rate of power delivery from the charger. As in "my car is charging at 127 kW."

Kilowatt-hours (kWh) is the total amount of energy contained in your car's battery, or delivered by the charger. It's the accumulation of power over time. Example "I just charged at 50kW for two hours, and put 100kWh into my car."

Charging stations are usually 50 kiloWatts (kW), 150kW, or 350kW maximum output power How many kiloWatt-hours (kWh) you get from them depends onhow much power the car requests, how much the station actually delivers, accumulated over the amount of time you are plugged in. If for example the charger delivers a constant 75kW, in two hours it will have delivered 150kWh into your car.

Duly noted.

 

[noobzilla]

Just wasted 45 mins trying to charge at EA. Two stations not working properly. If they are getting taxpayer money to install them they should also get penalty for shitty stations

 

[noobzilla]

Yay find one that's working! Says up to 150kw but it's charging at 9kw! I mean it's not wrong since it's "up to". I hope my home charger gets installed soon so I dont have to deal with s***rify america

 

[DeaneG]

Just wasted 45 mins trying to charge at EA. Two stations not working properly. If they are getting taxpayer money to install them they should also get penalty for shitty stations

I tried emailing the fed dept responsible for overseeing EA, and didn't get a response. Not sure anyone is watching.