OC Owners -where are you charging with EA last week and this week - I am finding virtually no working chargers in North and Central OC

[cyberwife]

The last 2 weeks have been super frustrating. EA is really making the charging package that we all "bought" (supposedly free, but we paid a premium price for the car which I am sure took the 3 years of 'free' charging into consideration when calculating that price) when we bought our Lucids a waste of effort and money. I think that Lucid really needs to look at an alternative agreement with a different charging service as EA appears to be incapable of maintaining their stations.

1. Lucid app with the charging locations does not match the information on the EA app and NEITHER match what is actually happening at the chargers. I took pictures this last week of this happening at three different EA locations. Chargers that were not online were showing as "available" and chargers that were in use were showing as "available" while ones that said they were "in use" were either not being used or were offline. It's very frustrating to have the apps not be accurate and then double frustrating when they don't have matching information. This could really put a damper on one's trip if you are counting on the apps to give you reliable information on where to stop and charge.
2. We usually charge at The Block in Orange and of the 5 chargers there only chargers 1 and 2 will work for us. We have tried using 3 and 4 and they look like they are going to work, they acknowledge that we are on the Lucid charging plan it gets clear to the screen where it says the price is 0.00 and then it says "please unplug and start a new charging session". We have called EA and been on hold for 20 minutes trying to get help - we have had the EA rep send a signal to the charger and done numerous "tips" that they have given us - all to no avail on multiple occasions since we got our car in Nov of 22. We pull out and the next guy pulls in and charges just fine. Well, it's been longer than 10 days and charger 1 has been out of service the entire time and now charger 2 is also giving us a slightly different charging error. We were told one day when we went to try yet again to charge, that this station is supposed to be getting the 350 chargers - so I guess they just decided not to fix what is there?? The only other Lucid I have seen there charging was on charger 2 so I have to assume that chargers 3 and 4 are not friendly to ANY Lucid, not just us?
3. So at one point we had to charge so we drove to Garden Grove after looking at the app and seeing there were 2 out of 3 chargers "available" - nope - the charger they claimed was available was out of service and the other one was being used. I am talking about real time - I was standing in front of these units and pulling up both Lucid and EA apps and both were inaccurate and did not match each other. I really needed a charge as I was about to fall below 10% which then requires us to charge on the slow charger to get it charged up enough to take a 150 charger. I pulled up beside a Tesla who was plugged in at the disabled charger at the front of the store. They were over 45 minutes past their 100% charge! I ran into Ralphs to get a few things and when I came back out they were over 1 hour in that spot with a 100% charge. I was furious. I wrote them a note and left it on their car that they needed to be aware that OTHER people need to charge their cars! And to top it off I don't even know if that charger would recognize my car of not. I already knew not to go to the 5 charger station in Anaheim, as another guy wiaiting for the charger in use, said he had just come from there and all FIVE chargers were out of service! I went home and plugged in for the night.
4. Previous event to this last week I had gone to 3 charging stations - in Orange, Cypress, and Garden Grove - yup - all of them were out of service even though both apps were claiming they had at least one charger operational - two of them according to Lucid app. UGH I am so frustrated and disappointed. I am looking at the app now and in Central and North OC - almost every station is down to just 1 or 2 chargers available, some are even ZERO - and who knows if that is accurate or not. What is going on? Where is everyone charging in North and Central OC these days? Why are so many chargers down and not promptly being repaired?

 

[hydbob]

I think you would be a lot less frustrated by using EVGo instead. Just because it's free, doesn't mean it's worth it.

 

[EVCar]

We‘ve used DCFC very sparingly, but I’m with cyberwife.
This EA thing is really not free. We all pay for it.
I know our attorney in residence has parsed this into a promotion , thereby absolving EA and manufacturers from this EA mess.
I’m sure legally it’s an ironclad thing and nobody can do anything about it.
But, really, does this pass the smell test?
We all can afford to pay elsewhere to get the service but that‘s not what I was told.
Nobody, be it Lucid, MB, BMW, or whatever, has told their customers that they can get free charging but they’re welcomed to pay out of pocket to avoid the stress.

 

[DeaneG]

I agree that Lucid set an expectation that Electrify America couldn't meet. And it's terrible. But aside from that, I would not own an EV of any brand unless I had a home charging setup.

 

[hydbob]

We‘ve used DCFC very sparingly, but I’m with cyberwife.
This EA thing is really not free. We all pay for it.
I know our attorney in residence has parsed this into a promotion , thereby absolving EA and manufacturers from this EA mess.
I’m sure legally it’s an ironclad thing and nobody can do anything about it.
But, really, does this pass the smell test?
We all can afford to pay elsewhere to get the service but that‘s not what I was told.
Nobody, be it Lucid, MB, BMW, or whatever, has told their customers that they can get free charging but they’re welcomed to pay out of pocket to avoid the stress.

EA honestly used to be more reliable when Lucid first started delivering cars. I'm almost 2 years into my promotion and haven't had more than 5 instances where I've had an issue charging. It's really a localized issue that EA needs to figure out.

 

[DeaneG]

EA honestly used to be more reliable when Lucid first started delivering cars. I'm almost 2 years into my promotion and haven't had more than 5 instances where I've had an issue charging. It's really a localized issue that EA needs to figure out.

My plug-in success rate at EA chargers over the last year (getting a charge that didn't fault out, and at the power level expected) is roughly 30%.

 

[EVCar]

EA honestly used to be more reliable when Lucid first started delivering cars. I'm almost 2 years into my promotion and haven't had more than 5 instances where I've had an issue charging. It's really a localized issue that EA needs to figure out.

Great to hear that there are bright spots in the EA annals. So potentially, there's some hope here.
For me, it's about half-half, with the Quartzsite and Riverside locations being the troubled spots.
In fact, last time I drove to So Cal, I just took an ICE to free myself from all the planning for charging stations.

 

[Neurio]

I went home and plugged in for the night.

This is the key line. The free EA, while a nice bonus, should not be relied upon in its current state. You have the ability to charge at home, so you shouldn't let the frustrations of EA's failures get to you that much. Does it need to improve? Yes, of course. But as many people have stated here repeatedly, the idea of owning an EV is to perform as much charging at home as possible, for multiple reasons (level 2 is less stressful on the battery than level 3, not clogging up DCFC chargers for those who need them, etc.).

 

[SDHacker]

Have you tried the Walmart off the 5 at Euclid?

 

[joec]

I will say again that I have had 100% success rate with EA, as far as walking away with the charge I needed. I've had a few authentication problems that I was able to resolve in minutes, and my speed was a bit underwhelming once or twice, but these EA "disasters" are truly location-specific.

Which sucks if you need to charge in those locations.

Lucid needs to break ties from EA as soon as possible, regardless. Not only because these instances of bad charging experience are damaging the brand, but because encouraging people to use fast DC fast charging instead of charging at home is just the wrong incentive, both from an environmental and infrastructure standpoint.

There are other "perks" Lucid could offer that would be under its own control.

 

[borski]

I agree that Lucid set an expectation that Electrify America couldn't meet.

They didn’t though; EA set the expectations EA couldn’t meet.

 

[Bobby]

I’m sure Lucid would like nothing more than for EA to work properly and reliably.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Have you tried the Walmart off the 5 at Euclid?

I’m actually going to try that location today. I need to go to Long Beach for an automotive focus group and both of the EA stations near me have only 2 of 4 stations working each! The EA app shows “only” 2 of 10 broken at the Euclid location. Sad that 80% working is considered “good”

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I will say again that I have had 100% success rate with EA, as far as walking away with the charge I needed. I've had a few authentication problems that I was able to resolve in minutes, and my speed was a bit underwhelming once or twice, but these EA "disasters" are truly location-specific.

Which sucks if you need to charge in those locations.

Lucid needs to break ties from EA as soon as possible, regardless. Not only because these instances of bad charging experience are damaging the brand, but because encouraging people to use fast DC fast charging instead of charging at home is just the wrong incentive, both from an environmental and infrastructure standpoint.

There are other "perks" Lucid could offer that would be under its own control.

It would be interesting to see what Lucid is paying EA. And instead just give each owner the equivalent in charging credits to use as they please.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Have you tried the Walmart off the 5 at Euclid?

I charged at that location tonight. Very busy, 8 of 10 chargers were working, I only waited a few minutes, plug and charge worked the first time! When I left, 3 cars were waiting… this was at 10 pm!!

 

[cyberwife]

Have you tried the Walmart off the 5 at Euclid?

I went here today after trying The Block again and Garden Grove Ralph's. At both locations i was able to get one 150 charger working at less than 50Kw, which was stupid slow. While at the Block I called EA who came up with all kinds of silly reasons why the charger was only giving me 51kw. There was a tech at Ralph's and I asked why all the chargers at both locations were running at 37-50 kw....he said that EA reduces down the charging power based on infrastructure and power usage. So does this mean that during the day during high power use on the entire grid that the chargers won't operate at the higher charging levels? He told me to go to Walmart on Euclid as that is always working. He admitted that EA is not fixing any problems at chargers that they intend to replace, which is why The Block is down several chargers. I head to Euclid Walmart, pull into the one hyper charger, excited its actually working and open - it gives me a charging error, I unplug my car and the screen comes up as the entire unit is unavailable. I almost lost my my mind! I drove around to an ultra 150 and thank God it worked otherwise I may have just given up on EA forever.

Yes, I have a home charger as back up but I want to charge for "free" or as I see it "prepaid" charging as was promised by Lucid.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I went here today after trying The Block again and Garden Grove Ralph's. At both locations i was able to get one 150 charger working at less than 50Kw, which was stupid slow. While at the Block I called EA who came up with all kinds of silly reasons why the charger was only giving me 51kw. There was a tech at Ralph's and I asked why all the chargers at both locations were running at 37-50 kw....he said that EA reduces down the charging power based on infrastructure and power usage. So does this mean that during the day during high power use on the entire grid that the chargers won't operate at the higher charging levels? He told me to go to Walmart on Euclid as that is always working. He admitted that EA is not fixing any problems at chargers that they intend to replace, which is why The Block is down several chargers. I head to Euclid Walmart, pull into the one hyper charger, excited its actually working and open - it gives me a charging error, I unplug my car and the screen comes up as the entire unit is unavailable. I almost lost my my mind! I drove around to an ultra 150 and thank God it worked otherwise I may have just given up on EA forever.

Yes, I have a home charger as back up but I want to charge for "free" or as I see it "prepaid" charging as was promised by Lucid.

I just used a 350 charger today at the Euclid location, unit 7. Worked first try, because I was at around 50%, it started at about 160, then tapered off.

 

[Bobby]

Yes, I have a home charger as back up but I want to charge for "free" or as I see it "prepaid" charging as was promised by Lucid.

I certainly understand the motivation to save money on electricity. But, in this case, is the amount saved worth the stress it obviously causes you?

 

[EVCar]

I just used a 350 charger today at the Euclid location, unit 7. Worked first try, because I was at around 50%, it started at about 160, then tapered off.

I may be in that area next month. What's the cross street for this station? Thanks.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I may be in that area next month. What's the cross street for this station? Thanks.

Euclid and 5 Fwy