Will EA be the death of EVs?

[Lucken]

OK, just a bit of an exaggeration, but...

My wife and I took a ride out to East Brunswick, NJ, to visit her sister, about 110 miles from us. Coming back, although I could have easily made it on my i4's initial charge, I decided to try an EA station very close to my wife's sister's house. The experience here was not unlike our experience on Thanksgiving day, with multiple inoperative EA chargers.

Two drivers, who absolutely needed a charge, were beyond furious. One driver had a similar story to one I heard on Thanksgiving day. This was his third EA charger location in NJ he had tried. At the other two, one location was totally inoperative and the other had only 2 of 8 units working, with both functioning units occupied. He told me he regretted buying an EV. This is an absolutely dismal state of affairs for this horrid network of chargers.

I haven't really experienced this on Long Island, but it seems New Jersey is an entirely different story. As I always do when I encounter a bad charger, I called EA to report it as a courtesy to the next driver that might use this location. The agent told me they had the infamous 'trouble ticket' out on the two chargers I tried and it would be tended to shortly. Right.

My wife, who had always been a strong advocate of having 1 EV and one ICE vehicle, turned to me while I was being connected to the EA agent and said, "This is precisely why I don't want two EVs". Who can argue with that logic? Given the circumstances of our last 2 visits to NJ EA chargers, certainly not me.

It seems to me the network is actually deteriorating and not improving. Perhaps I'm wrong. However if these kinds of charging experiences get around, it will have a sobering effect on EV sales. I might think twice or three times taking a trip from NY to Florida. I used to think it would be a piece of cake given all the EA chargers off of i95, but now I wonder.

 

[hydbob]

I don't think EVs will fail, but it just prolongs the life of ICE phaseout. EVs are still much better for any in town stuff where you can charge at home. I wonder how many of these new EV owners have bought one expecting to only use fast chargers, only to discover, it's not reliable enough and get frustrated. Obvious, they did not do enough research into EVs in general.

 

[CLTGT]

I decided against taking the Lucid on my current trip from Charlotte to New Orleans based mostly on the worry over charger availability. My wife wanted to stop in Laurel, MS which determined our route.

We took the Alpha Stelvio she has as a rental while her GLS 450 is being repaired after hitting a deer.

I think the Lucid would have actually packed better and been more comfortable, but the charging network on the route as well as in New Orleans did not give me a good feeling.

 

[xponents]

OK, just a bit of an exaggeration, but...

My wife and I took a ride out to East Brunswick, NJ, to visit her sister, about 110 miles from us. Coming back, although I could have easily made it on my i4's initial charge, I decided to try an EA station very close to my wife's sister's house. The experience here was not unlike our experience on Thanksgiving day, with multiple inoperative EA chargers.

Two drivers, who absolutely needed a charge, were beyond furious. One driver had a similar story to one I heard on Thanksgiving day. This was his third EA charger location in NJ he had tried. At the other two, one location was totally inoperative and the other had only 2 of 8 units working, with both functioning units occupied. He told me he regretted buying an EV. This is an absolutely dismal state of affairs for this horrid network of chargers.

I haven't really experienced this on Long Island, but it seems New Jersey is an entirely different story. As I always do when I encounter a bad charger, I called EA to report it as a courtesy to the next driver that might use this location. The agent told me they had the infamous 'trouble ticket' out on the two chargers I tried and it would be tended to shortly. Right.

My wife, who had always been a strong advocate of having 1 EV and one ICE vehicle, turned to me while I was being connected to the EA agent and said, "This is precisely why I don't want two EVs". Who can argue with that logic? Given the circumstances of our last 2 visits to NJ EA chargers, certainly not me.

It seems to me the network is actually deteriorating and not improving. Perhaps I'm wrong. However if these kinds of charging experiences get around, it will have a sobering effect on EV sales. I might think twice or three times taking a trip from NY to Florida. I used to think it would be a piece of cake given all the EA chargers off of i95, but now I wonder.

Woah! Only about 5 miles from edison, where I am.

 

[Lucken]

I decided against taking the Lucid on my current trip from Charlotte to New Orleans based mostly on the worry over charger availability. My wife wanted to stop in Laurel, MS which determined our route.

We took the Alpha Stelvio she has as a rental while her GLS 450 is being repaired after hitting a deer.

I think the Lucid would have actually packed better and been more comfortable, but the charging network on the route as well as in New Orleans did not give me a good feeling.

We shouldn't kid ourselves, this is a real issue. When people see the reality, whether they've researched or not, it's going to put a damper on their EV travel plans.

I always get asked the question, "Can you drive from here to ____". I've usually answered 'yes' depending upon the location, but I've done that based on the fact that my local EA experience has generally been good and the map of EA locations for some of the places I've been asked has been sufficient.

However what appears to me to be the deteriorating reliability of the EA network (I don't know how reliable the EVGo chargers are), and my recent experiences in NJ, seeing how disgusted EV owners are getting, it does make you stop and think.

 

[LucidNJ]

OK, just a bit of an exaggeration, but...

My wife and I took a ride out to East Brunswick, NJ, to visit her sister, about 110 miles from us. Coming back, although I could have easily made it on my i4's initial charge, I decided to try an EA station very close to my wife's sister's house. The experience here was not unlike our experience on Thanksgiving day, with multiple inoperative EA chargers.

Two drivers, who absolutely needed a charge, were beyond furious. One driver had a similar story to one I heard on Thanksgiving day. This was his third EA charger location in NJ he had tried. At the other two, one location was totally inoperative and the other had only 2 of 8 units working, with both functioning units occupied. He told me he regretted buying an EV. This is an absolutely dismal state of affairs for this horrid network of chargers.

I haven't really experienced this on Long Island, but it seems New Jersey is an entirely different story. As I always do when I encounter a bad charger, I called EA to report it as a courtesy to the next driver that might use this location. The agent told me they had the infamous 'trouble ticket' out on the two chargers I tried and it would be tended to shortly. Right.

My wife, who had always been a strong advocate of having 1 EV and one ICE vehicle, turned to me while I was being connected to the EA agent and said, "This is precisely why I don't want two EVs". Who can argue with that logic? Given the circumstances of our last 2 visits to NJ EA chargers, certainly not me.

It seems to me the network is actually deteriorating and not improving. Perhaps I'm wrong. However if these kinds of charging experiences get around, it will have a sobering effect on EV sales. I might think twice or three times taking a trip from NY to Florida. I used to think it would be a piece of cake given all the EA chargers off of i95, but now I wonder.

Was this the charger at the Brunswick Square mall? I was hoping to rely on that one or the one at the Freehold Mall for my DCFC whenever I get my Touring. Hopefully they get that charger fixed up. Not holding my breath on that.

 

[DeaneG]

Was this the charger at the Brunswick Square mall? I was hoping to rely on that one or the one at the Freehold Mall for my DCFC whenever I get my Touring. Hopefully they get that charger fixed up. Not holding my breath on that.

Life will be much more pleasant with a level 2 charger at home. How would it be if you had to go to a charging store to recharge your cell phone?

 

[LucidNJ]

Life will be much more pleasant with a level 2 charger at home. How would it be if you had to go to a charging store to recharge your cell phone?

Oh for sure. 100% agree with you. I have the electrician coming in tomorrow to install my level 2 charger at home. Was mainly relying on these for level 3 charging when needed.

 

[Thinjake]

Here is an interesting solution. I am not sure it will work out, but interesting nonetheless.

This Mark Cuban-backed $110 million startup wants to make charging your EV like ordering takeout

SparkCharge CEO Josh Aviv came up with his idea for portable batteries to charge electric vehicles as college student. Now, his startup is worth $110 million, he says.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Well then I am in EV heaven.

My local EV 150 charger is six miles from home, and has worked flawlessly every time (for me, not for all who visit).

Yesterday I powered up Betty (LCHCS) and plugged into a 75% full Luci to test it. went to 16Kv. Much joy ensued.

I have had not a single software issue. Both my issues were mechanical: bad video module ... diagnosed by mobile service and replaced in a week: multiple faults warning cascade, diagnosed as loose ground connection on a 12v battery, by mobile service technician and repaired right in front of my eyes with a twist of a wrench. I'm thinking the voltage spikes sent out by the loose wire may have been what took out the video module...if that was the case then the only fault with my car is somebody did not properly torque the screw on the ground wire.

Software version 2.0.47. The car is flawless.

I don't understand the issue of range anxiety / EA charger availability. Aren't their a bunch of retail chargers out there? I thought we just go to EA first because we already paid for three years? So we're supposed to drive ourselves nuts ignoring a nearby "not EA" charger just to save $20 ? What am I missing here ?

 

[HC_79]

I don't understand the issue of range anxiety / EA charger availability. Aren't their a bunch of retail chargers out there? I thought we just go to EA first because we already paid for three years? So we're supposed to drive ourselves nuts ignoring a nearby "not EA" charger just to save $20 ? What am I missing here ?

Long story short, EA has the monopoly of DCFC across the US

Outside of EA, charger speeds of 150Kw and above are either non-existent or very few and far between. I believe ChargePoint has just started to deploy some chargers above the 50Kw that is most of their network across the country. EVGo has also been moving from the standard 50/100Kw chargers to 350's also but EA definitely has a head start on this. When I road trip from LA to SF using the I5, EA is the only provider on that highway corridor so you have no choice but to use them. So outside of charger reliability you also have to battle it out to secure a free one because they only deploy 4 to 6 chargers per location on average. I've found on weekends people are lined up 80% of the time because all the chargers are full. So when you add in the fact that chargers are either speed limited or just don't outright work, the ripple effect is long waiting times. I pulled into an EA location that only had 1 of 4 chargers working with a line up of 4 cars. Even being generous, I would've had to wait minimum 2 hours at that location to use the charger.

I really hope that Tesla opens its network sooner rather than later, people flock to them and EA goes broke. At this point in time they're on reset 3.0 and still can't get it right so it's never going to improve and none of us should reward poor behavior. Unfortunately, at this point in time we really have no choice until Tesla opens up its network or a bigger competitor comes in to seriously compete with EA.

 

[deepakb]

Is the EA the only charging solution available in these areas? I know EA provides free charging, but if it fails there are other fall backs available isn't it? If it is only EA the sole controller of all non-Tesla charging then it makes sense to think about EV Vs ICE. But to be fair, so far i have used two EA stations in my area and they worked fine. I also used charge point stations twice and paid for the charging.

 

[HC_79]

EVGo on the i5

EA on the I5

You have no choice but to use them or take a longer route to avoid them.

 

[Thinjake]

You have no choice but to use them or take a longer route to avoid them.

We are the exact opposite here. The first map is EA within 100 miles of me. The second map is Chargepoint within 20 miles of me:

 

[Lucken]

Was this the charger at the Brunswick Square mall? I was hoping to rely on that one or the one at the Freehold Mall for my DCFC whenever I get my Touring. Hopefully they get that charger fixed up. Not holding my breath on that.

I'm not sure what the name of the mall is, but it was at a Walmart off of Tices Lane. When I got home I looked it up on PlugShare and it got an abysmal 4.3 rating. This just isn't good.

 

[LucidNJ]

I'm not sure what the name of the mall is, but it was at a Walmart off of Tices Lane. When I got home I looked it up on PlugShare and it got an abysmal 4.3 rating. This just isn't good.

Yikes. That's terrible!

 

[borski]

Overall: charging will get better with time. Shell is starting to add recharge stations, EA will eventually get their act together, EVGo and Chargepoint are growing, Tesla will open up their stations to CCS, and so on. The US just passed a massive bill for infrastructure that will go a long way also. It’ll be fine.

I haven’t had issues on trips, and EA has always worked for me, but I’ve also used EVgo with no issues either.

Basically, as with anything else, it will just take time to overtake ICE, but it overtaking ICE and gas stations is an eventual inevitability, in my book.

 

[hydbob]

We are the exact opposite here. The first map is EA within 100 miles of me. The second map is Chargepoint within 20 miles of me:

View attachment 7913 View attachment 7914

Chargepoint includes L2 chargers. If you restrict it to 100kw or higher I bet your map gets way less dense.

 

[Thinjake]

Chargepoint includes L2 chargers. If you restrict it to 100kw or higher I bet your map gets way less dense.

True, but still 24 within 20 miles

 

[hellolucid]

Tesla will open up their stations to CCS, and so on.

I don’t think that’s happening. There were reports that said it will happen before end of the year but there is no news about it. Tesla instead came up with an open connector so the onus is on the car manufacturer to use them.