Electrify America Issues

[rgthau]

VERY Angry with Electrify America... the app and the map showed 3 out of 4 chargers available at Pacific Grove. I drove there with 40 miles left to charge up... when I got there only one charger was working -- and it was in use for the next hour per the owner. ALL the rest were out of order. Called Electrify America to ask for help. they put me through the drill, going from one to another. at the end of a half hour, they apologized and said someone would fix it -- but they said that 2 weeks ago about one that was down. USELESS service if they can't make things work!!!!!

 

[Tesla2.0]

I recently signed up EVGo just for back up. I also have ChargePoint account. I suggest have more options and let go of frustrating at EA. Frustration lead to bad health, just not worth it.

 

[rgthau]

I recently signed up EVGo just for back up. I also have ChargePoint account. I suggest have more options and let go of frustrating at EA. Frustration lead to bad health, just not worth it.

yup, I have them all... just no chargers locally other than EA -- which really doesn't count as a charger since none work

 

[noobzilla]

If paying were the only issue, no problem, I'd pay. The EA symptom I had in Tahoe was repeated charging errors after a few seconds, with both the car and the station saying to unplug. This went on for about an hour on the phone with EA, with my phone calls dropping around ten times, the car taking over the phone connection while I'm outside, reboots of car and charger not helping, the car's charge port door automatically closing just as EA is telling me to plug in, and other brands of EVs coming, charging, and going from the same stations I'd failed at.

After talking to several other owners yesterday, I realized that my experience was probably an exception rather than a typical occurrence. So I'll try another road trip soon, and hope for better.

I had this problem very recently. I cant charge and keeps disconnecting. I tried a lot of things but gave up and moved to another spot when it opened. Worked fine. Another EV arrive and charged no problem first try on my previous spot...

 

[rgthau]

If paying were the only issue, no problem, I'd pay. The EA symptom I had in Tahoe was repeated charging errors after a few seconds, with both the car and the station saying to unplug. This went on for about an hour on the phone with EA, with my phone calls dropping around ten times, the car taking over the phone connection while I'm outside, reboots of car and charger not helping, the car's charge port door automatically closing just as EA is telling me to plug in, and other brands of EVs coming, charging, and going from the same stations I'd failed at.

After talking to several other owners yesterday, I realized that my experience was probably an exception rather than a typical occurrence. So I'll try another road trip soon, and hope for better.

unfortunately, your experience is the same as mine... the car and charger saying to unplug... this happened at two different chargers... no-one was able to use these, and EA support was of NO help.

 

[rgthau]

I think its beyond journalists. Whilst Kyle Conner is far from a journalist he's got contacts at EA, EVGo etc. he said on a recent podcast that when he contacts EVGo with issues they seem to genuinely care about the EV Charging experience but when contacting EA he said they simply don't care. This isn't contacting customer service, these are higher ups that he's messaging directly. Just look at "RateYourCharge" on Twitter and you can see how bad it really is.

I'd gladly send a template letter to my local legislators but given the fact that Lucid and others had a seat at the table with the White House it would be nice if they could raise the red flag also. Complaints coming from companies certainly carry more weight than the consumer trying to get government awareness.

AMEN... send us the template and I will gladly send it out... I am extremely frustrated with the lack of responsiveness by EA and failure of their equipment (and lack of ability to fix it).

 

[magesh]

So ... this happened to me yday and another EA rant unfortunately.

Pulled up to one of the 4 EA (all 150kw) chargers, plugged in and within a minute a Ioniq pulls up and charges from the same 'bank/row'. I see my speed drop to 47kw and not thrilled with the Ioniq driver, since she could have pulled into the other slots. My car was now showing to reach about 80% I needed to sit in there for about 1hr 20 minutes ... and it was about 32F outside. (Too damn cold fot this guy coming in from 30C climate).

I unplugged and moved to the other slots hoping to get a quick charge in. Damn. None of them worked. It connected & disconnected immly. Pissed and I had to go back to the first one and wait it out for about an hour to get about 60% SOC, with 47KwH and 3 mile/min charge rate.

So ... Q for you all: Can we raise a petition/query/complaint to Lucid? Since EA is unwilling to respond and *this* is a Lucid forum, should we not flag it to Lucid? I know Lucid employees are reading this & are sympathetic; but if we use other charging stations like Chargepoint, EVgo, etc ... will Lucid compensate us back?

Wondering what would be a reasonable solution to this ongoing issue. Having a car that can travel 500+ miles is all dandy; but if there is no place to charge during a drive, then what's the point?

 

[maractwin]

Just to present another experience: charging largely just works for me. I've charged at EA maybe 30 times in the 4 months I've had my Lucid, and all but one time it has worked. I've used ChargePoint and EVGo too. I've done several road trips in my Lucid and don't hesitate to take it.

 

[DeaneG]

Supposedly the 150kW EA chargers do not share power. But there might be some demand management for the entire site that limits total delivered power.

 

[HC_79]

Pulled up to one of the 4 EA (all 150kw) chargers, plugged in and within a minute a Ioniq pulls up and charges from the same 'bank/row'. I see my speed drop to 47kw and not thrilled with the Ioniq driver, since she could have pulled into the other slots

To be fair, it's not her fault. I don't think people should be expected to know the ins and outs of amps, volts, power sharing to simply charge a car. I also thought, the 150's weren't power limited.

Welcome to the new reality though. EA's new 350Kw chargers seem to be going with the balanced power approach over dedicated so the moment someone pulls up next to someone they're going to be automatically derated. I see arguments happening if other chargers are free and someone pulls up right beside.

 

[DeaneG]

...EA's new 350Kw chargers seem to be going with the balanced power approach over dedicated so the moment someone pulls up next to someone they're going to be automatically derated. I see arguments happening if other chargers are free and someone pulls up right beside.

On the positive side, the new 350kW stations share power in a pretty fine-grained and dynamic manner, so that if one car has moved past the fat part of its charging curve and is pulling only 100kW, the other vehicle plugged into the paired dispenser has access to 250kW.

This arrangement may eventually obsolete dedicated 150kW charging stations in favor of all stations capable of 350kW, which I think is better from any perspective.

 

[ggrooms]

Where are you located? I’ve taken plenty of road trips with no issues and sold both my ICE cars.

Gainesville, FL, b/t software and charging fears, I‘ve only taken the AGT more than 50 miles from home twice. Lucid 800# and mobile tech people are absolutely the best, always polite and patient and unfortunately the mobile techs have been to my house 5-6 times and never a single complaint.

 

[TakeDuo]

Baker, CA right now. The 350kW chargers are empty except me. 12% SoC and “limited by charging station” appeared on my dash. 98 kW that rapidly dropped to 21kW before I had enough. Switched over to the old-style 150s. 52% SoC and cranking 117kW. Makes no sense…. Only one other car here with 12 chargers

 

[HC_79]

Baker, CA right now. The 350kW chargers are empty except me. 12% SoC and “limited by charging station” appeared on my dash. 98 kW that rapidly dropped to 21kW before I had enough. Switched over to the old-style 150s. 52% SoC and cranking 117kW. Makes no sense…. Only one other car here with 12 chargers

Makes perfect sense……. The EA charging network is absolute shit!

 

[pjdcorp]

On the positive side, the new 350kW stations share power in a pretty fine-grained and dynamic manner, so that if one car has moved past the fat part of its charging curve and is pulling only 100kW, the other vehicle plugged into the paired dispenser has access to 250kW.

This arrangement may eventually obsolete dedicated 150kW charging stations in favor of all stations capable of 350kW, which I think is better from any perspective.

What do you mean ONLY 100kw're a ? I've gotten 154kw once. Every other time I've been happy when it (a) connects, (2) does not drop me & 3 continues at perhaps 80-100kw until I reach 80%.. You're a ,lucky man.

 

[EricM]

Anyone experience anything like this??
https://www.teslarati.com/rivian-fo...KizcJZgKmlSgb4EyJTBX3zxvHyIJArvqQ3lNmQeRgiuYQ

Kinda… at the Hancock, NY station, I heard a loud bang (almost like a gunshot) coming from the cabinets a few seconds after I began charging. The car charged fine and I had no issues but I reported the event.

 

[DeaneG]

What do you mean ONLY 100kw're a ? I've gotten 154kw once. Every other time I've been happy when it (a) connects, (2) does not drop me & 3 continues at perhaps 80-100kw until I reach 80%.. You're a ,lucky man.

I haven't been to an EA for over a year, but we nearly always used to hit 145kW (our car's limit). Times have changed.

 

[magesh]

Just saw this. If somebody can validate the authenticity of this article, that would be helpful.

Electrify America faces more issues as Rivian R1T gets "fried" at station in California

Electrify America has had their share of issues lately, from unreliable chargers that are frequently out of service to chargers that are just weeks old being ripped out and removed with no explanation from the [...]

driveteslacanada.ca

 

[HC_79]

That’s not the only car it’s happened to. I’m not 100% sure if it’s just Rivians or other vehicles but this is about the 3rd or 4th story I’ve read about this type of thing happening. 99% sure it’s all been on Rivians though.

 

[noobzilla]

Wow. Those EA frying EVs are serious concern! I think I will stop using them once I get my EV charger installed or am I overreacting? EA seems plagued with issues. My estimated charging cost for 100k miles is $4000.