Why America’s EV chargers keep breaking .... article on Politico website

[Bobby]

I agree. 150-160 is nothing to sneeze at. I could have helped myself by not forgetting to charge to full before leaving home. Then we may have been able to do the first leg without charging.

There have been several articles that concluded that the 350 versus 150 is not that much of a difference in the real world due to the current charging curve on our cars.

 

[Thinjake]

There have been several articles that concluded that the 350 versus 150 is not that much of a difference in the real world due to the current charging curve on our cars.

And I believe that is an issue that needs to b addressed as well. It is my understanding that EVs begin to slow the charge as they get "fuller." Why not allow maximum speed charging until 95%? It should work like ICE fill ups....maximum flow until last few percentages.

Why limit any car until almost full?

 

[joec]

And I believe that is an issue that needs to b addressed as well. It is my understanding that EVs begin to slow the charge as they get "fuller." Why not allow maximum speed charging until 95%? It should work like ICE fill ups....maximum flow until last few percentages.

Why limit any car until almost full?

Because that's not how the physics of batteries work. The hotter that battery gets while charging, the more damage you are doing to it. Allowing fastest speeds all the way up to 95 would no doubt shorten the life of the battery.

The curve could be tweaked to allow slightly more speed for longer than it is currently, I'm sure. But given Lucid is guaranteeing the battery will still hold a certain percentage of its charge for a number of years, they aren't about to risk millions in warranty claims as batteries fail to meet that.

 

[sk8ndad]

My approach to trips has been to charge at lunch. I set the car to 90%, go eat and when I come back, it is between 80 and 90. Perfect, next charge after I get to hotel at night

 

[Sandvinsd]

On my trips, if I need a bathroom stop, I plan it at a charger location. Get a 10-15 “juice and go“ stop. Then have a longer stop at Lunch where I would get it to about 80% by the time I finish and then move on. Seems to work well, except when I get a line at the urban locations and have to wait an hour for someone to go to 100% (Gainesville, FL), or only one plug out of the four stations works and another car is using it (Lordsburg NM) or after trying three different stations, the EA 350 kW charger pumps out a whopping 25kW, (Stanford, VA).

 

[EricM]

I think you just described Elon Musk and Tesla. It seems Ford and GM have realized that the most difficult EV problem (battery capacity and charging) has already been solved by Tesla. When Lucid has access to Tesla Super chargers....will be AMAZING!!!

Disclaimer: I absolutely love my Lucid Air Touring. I am really happy I bought a Lucid rather than another Model S. No regrets!!!

Not really. Since Lucid has a 900V architecture, you’ll only get 50kW from a Supercharger (we have the Superchargers with the MagicDock CCS connector here in NY and I’ve used them). The other frustration is that the Supercharger cord is so short that you have to park sideways and take up three spots just to use one.

 

[EVtogo]

Electrify America was created by the Volkswagen Group. The Volkswagen Group has announced plans to transition their entire line to electrification in the coming years, which will require EV charging stations, not petrol pumps. If the theory is that private capital incentives are the only way to get a reliable charging network, please explain the hot mess that is Electrify America for the past five years.

Electrify America was formed as part of the solution for VW's Dieselgate scandal. Essentially it was forced upon them. Given the dynamics of the electricity industry (it is a regulated monopoly so reselling at a premium is difficult and regulated by literally thousands of utilities across the US). Personally I'm hoping Lucid strikes a deal with Tesla to gain access to their Supercharger network and then rolling the dice on EA.

 

[Bobby]

Electrify America was formed as part of the solution for VW's Dieselgate scandal. Essentially it was forced upon them. Given the dynamics of the electricity industry (it is a regulated monopoly so reselling at a premium is difficult and regulated by literally thousands of utilities across the US). Personally I'm hoping Lucid strikes a deal with Tesla to gain access to their Supercharger network and then rolling the dice on EA.

You do know that your car will charge at maximum 50 using the current Tesla chargers.

 

[sk8ndad]

I have found that my charging experiences at Electrify America charges have significantly improved over the last month.

 

[Bobby]

I have found that my charging experiences at Electrify America charges have significantly improved over the last month.

It’s very location dependent. Lately I have found that overcrowding and waiting are the biggest issue. Simply not enough chargers per station.

 

[sk8ndad]

It’s very location dependent. Lately I have found that overcrowding and waiting are the biggest issue. Simply not enough chargers per station.

I have many choices, so I guess I'm lucky,

 

[sk8ndad]

These are between 2 and 8 miles from my house

 

[ColoradoKent]

Seems you are lucky in CA. Try planning a trip from Grand Junction, CO to Flagstaff, AZ using only EA..

 

[AirPlur]

These are between 2 and 8 miles from my house

View attachment 15748

STAY AWAY FROM MY LOS GATOS BANK OF AMERICA CHARGING STATION! (that also happens to pair perfectly with a quaint 30 min walk through downtown). J/k say hi if you see my username license plate And yeah, I've been lucky myself as I've only had one faulty charger experience in the south bay. Yet to receive anything north of 150 kWh but that would just cut short my walk anyway, and I'm now learning that due to heat/battery management charge curves, it'd likely be a short peak following along the thermal safe zone charge rate.

 

[Adnillien]

Seems you are lucky in CA. Try planning a trip from Grand Junction, CO to Flagstaff, AZ using only EA..

Even if you expand beyond EA, try finding a charger that can deliver more than 62kW on this route.

 

[sk8ndad]

STAY AWAY FROM MY LOS GATOS BANK OF AMERICA CHARGING STATION! (that also happens to pair perfectly with a quaint 30 min walk through downtown). J/k say hi if you see my username license plate And yeah, I've been lucky myself as I've only had one faulty charger experience in the south bay. Yet to receive anything north of 150 kWh but that would just cut short my walk anyway, and I'm now learning that due to heat/battery management charge curves, it'd likely be a short peak following along the thermal safe zone charge rate.

What is your SOC when you begin? On a 150, I almost always start at ~175, but I'm usually below 20% when I start and about 35 minutes to hit 80%. Nice time for a walk.

 

[AirPlur]

What is your SOC when you begin? On a 150, I almost always start at ~175, but I'm usually below 20% when I start and about 35 minutes to hit 80%. Nice time for a walk.

Usually around 20% (80 miles) remaining, and I don't think I've seen it exceed 150, but generally it settles in around 120 and finishes in the 90s. I've also not done any close observation of pre-conditioning versus not, but will try to pay attention to that next time. I suppose that's the one disadvantage I have in that my EA chargers are too close for me to have time to pre-condition (boo-hoo)

 

[Dhimiter]

Politico article on EV fast chargers

sum it up:
1. home chargers work.
2. Tesla superchargers work, mostly.
3. All other DC fast chargers are unreliable.
4. No penalty for broken chargers; no profit incentive for fixing chargers.
5. "Without accountability, problems are likely to persist."

excerpt:

"Last year, researchers visited every public fast charger in the San Francisco Bay Area and found that almost 23 percent of them had “unresponsive or unavailable screens, payment system failures, charge initiation failures, network failures, or broken connectors.” And in a survey of EV drivers, the auto consultancy J.D. Power found the public charging network “plagued with non-functioning stations.” One in five sessions failed to deliver a charge. Almost three-quarters of those failures involved a station that malfunctioned or was offline. "


Thoughts and prayers anyone ?

I wonder if the state of CCS chargers in Europe is better. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect it is. So what are the differences?

 

[RCLAUSSEN]

I doubt we will use EA, why when we can plug in our garage. Look at where they are, Dallas has 7 million residents and we have 4 around the city, it would take 45+ minutes without traffic to get to any of them as I live in the city...don't think we will ever use EA unless we are on a road trip. Grateful for the range on this car.

 

[BACamster]

I doubt we will use EA, why when we can plug in our garage. Look at where they are, Dallas has 7 million residents and we have 4 around the city, it would take 45+ minutes without traffic to get to any of them as I live in the city...don't think we will ever use EA unless we are on a road trip. Grateful for the range on this car.

I guess EA has a bigger present in CA. Within 5 miles radius of where I live, there are 4 EA sites. Thus far, I haven't had any horror stories with charging session with any of the four sites.