Electrify America Chargers

[Esprit1st]

Today I charged at EA for the first time.

Here a couple of things that I encountered:
At first I wanted to use my CC only to pay. However the charger asked me to make a choice after I swiped/chip the card. But there was no choice to make. So it didn't work!

So I tried to sign up through the app. Servers were not responding!

I then called the support number on the charger. The lady was very nice and helpful, reset the charger for me and it then accepted my card and started charging.

However BEWARE the known tier 2 rate issue with EA! The Kona reports a charging rate capability of 78kW to the charger, putting it in the $0.69/min rate. The max charge rate I received was only 71kW. At that rate I should be charged only $0.25/min! The tier changes at 75kW!

So for my 21 minute charge I payed $16 (taxes and $1 connection fee) instead of about $7!

So if possible at all, avoid EA 150kW chargers until that issue is resolved (hopefully!)

After all that I signed up with EA (not sure that it was worth it). I had issues with the app reporting wrong plans and pricing during the sign up process.

It wouldn't let me course between the normal and plus plan. The plus plan costs $4/month and had no connection fee and lower charge prices.

However during the soup process it showed me that I chose the normal plan but with that monthly fee and the connection fee (super weird). It still doesn't show different charging prices either. Both plans show up with $0.25 / $0.69 / $0.99 charging fees for the three tiers of up to 75kW / 150kW / 350kW.

So they definitely have to fix some bugs!

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

 

[electriceddy]

Today I charged at EA for the first time.

Here a couple of things that I encountered:
At first I wanted to use my CC only to pay. However the charger asked me to make a choice after I swiped/chip the card. But there was no choice to make. So it didn't work!

So I tried to sign up through the app. Servers were not responding!

I then called the support number on the charger. The lady was very nice and helpful, reset the charger for me and it then accepted my card and started charging.

However BEWARE the known tier 2 rate issue with EA! The Kona reports a charging rate capability of 78kW to the charger, putting it in the $0.69/min rate. The max charge rate I received was only 71kW. At that rate I should be charged only $0.25/min! The tier changes at 75kW!

So for my 21 minute charge I payed $16 (taxes and $1 connection fee) instead of about $7!

So if possible at all, avoid EA 150kW chargers until that issue is resolved (hopefully!)

After all that I signed up with EA (not sure that it was worth it). I had issues with the app reporting wrong plans and pricing during the sign up process.

It wouldn't let me course between the normal and plus plan. The plus plan costs $4/month and had no connection fee and lower charge prices.

However during the soup process it showed me that I chose the normal plan but with that monthly fee and the connection fee (super weird). It still doesn't show different charging prices either. Both plans show up with $0.25 / $0.69 / $0.99 charging fees for the three tiers of up to 75kW / 150kW / 350kW.

So they definitely have to fix some bugs!

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

This issue has been discussed here:
https://insideevsforum.com/communit...y-america-clarified-their-unfair-policy.5985/
and recognized nationally here:
https://www.torquenews.com/7893/new...ev-hyundai-kona-electric-owners#comment-78644
Good advice to avoid these chargers until the rates (or software ) has been revised.

 

[Esprit1st]

I made sure to let them know. I sent a message, they called me back and were pretty nice and understanding about it and assured me that the feedback is going up the chain.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

 

[popnfrresh]

Ive had nothing but issues with EA.

Their pass+ program says you get a discount on the charging, but you dont always. Both sites didnt offer a discount and charged the pass and non member the same price.

It usually takes 15 minutes at minimum to get it started. Always makes you unplug, and replug. MULTIPLE TIMES. The payment NFC sensor is either not sensitive enough or just doesnt work.

Last charge, I walked away from the car to use the bathroom, and I notice I got a message the session was stopped ( it was charging for 5 minutes 23 seconds and I was charged for 6 minutes )and I had 2 minutes to unplug or I was charged their idle fee. Had to sprint back to the car to restart the session. Not only did it waste my time and make an out of shape person sprint, but they charged you for time you didnt use due to their issue stopping the charge.

Customer support is super polite, but useless. They will just apologize to you nonstop and offer nothing to compensate you for your time, your effort, or your wasted money. I just disputed their charges with the bank and got an email saying they were refunded and the case was closed.

 

[FloridaSun]

I hope that the pricing tier issue will be resolved soon.. If I use EA, I usually look for their 50kw chargers as that way, you will get the lower tier rate. Luckily, the closest EA charger in my area has a 15 cents per minute cost and no connection fee, even with the membership with no monthly fee. The chargers are 150kw and 350kw but currently limited to 50kw. Their chargers also have huge reliability issues.. At the station that I use on occasion, they have a total of 8 chargers and 6 of them don't work.. 1 of them is turned off and 5 of them won't initiate charge. That leaves 2 that are reliable. BOTH of those that are reliable end the charging session with an error instead of a charging complete message. Good thing is that they are cheap. I do have $16 remaining in my EA wallet which gets automatically re-filled at $5..

 

[Esprit1st]

Just to throw in my ¢2. I just got an email from blink. They changed their pricing structure from minute based to kwh based. Privately operated chargers might be different though. But that's a good change and I hope other providers will follow soon.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

 

[FloridaSun]

Just to throw in my ¢2. I just got an email from blink. They changed their pricing structure from minute based to kwh based. Privately operated chargers might be different though. But that's a good change and I hope other providers will follow soon.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

Here in Florida, they charge like 49 cents per kwh.. That's quite expensive, even the 39 cents rate for members..
If it was .39 cents per kwh for a Level 3, that would be reasonable but I have not seen any Level 3 Blink chargers in my area.. All of those are Level 2 and I have NEVER paid for Level 2 charging as there are too many free ones out there..

 

[hobbit]

In my various machinations so far to sign up with a couple of networks
I've made sure to tell everyone I've talked to that 1> time-based pricing
is completely unfair and needs to change ASAP, and 2> they need to
start thinking like critical infrastructure and instead of apologies and
excuses all day, make their stuff *reliable* and *accessible*. When
peoples' finances and schedules are on the line, you don't let servers
randomly go offline without having proper failover in place.

Sheez. I dread my first real long roadtrip, whenever it happens..

_H*

 

[ericy]

In my various machinations so far to sign up with a couple of networks
I've made sure to tell everyone I've talked to that 1> time-based pricing
is completely unfair and needs to change ASAP, and 2> they need to
start thinking like critical infrastructure and instead of apologies and
excuses all day, make their stuff *reliable* and *accessible*. When
peoples' finances and schedules are on the line, you don't let servers
randomly go offline without having proper failover in place.

Sheez. I dread my first real long roadtrip, whenever it happens..

_H*

For what it us worth, EVgo opened a new 80kW charger that us only 30 cents a minute. If it weren't for the fact that I had a free 50kW nearby, I might even use it.

The price doesn't seem that bad for 80kW. I would only bother with it if I was well below 50%, and I was pressed for time.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Inside EVs mobile app

 

[FloridaSun]

For what it us worth, EVgo opened a new 80kW charger that us only 30 cents a minute. If it weren't for the fact that I had a free 50kW nearby, I might even use it.

The price doesn't seem that bad for 80kW. I would only bother with it if I was well below 50%, and I was pressed for time.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Inside EVs mobile app

That's a good price for 80kw.. Would definitely use that if there was one of those around here.. All we have are the 40kw units at 35 cents per minute.

 

[ehatch]

Ive had nothing but issues with EA.

Their pass+ program says you get a discount on the charging, but you dont always. Both sites didnt offer a discount and charged the pass and non member the same price.

It usually takes 15 minutes at minimum to get it started. Always makes you unplug, and replug. MULTIPLE TIMES. The payment NFC sensor is either not sensitive enough or just doesnt work.

Last charge, I walked away from the car to use the bathroom, and I notice I got a message the session was stopped ( it was charging for 5 minutes 23 seconds and I was charged for 6 minutes )and I had 2 minutes to unplug or I was charged their idle fee. Had to sprint back to the car to restart the session. Not only did it waste my time and make an out of shape person sprint, but they charged you for time you didnt use due to their issue stopping the charge.

Customer support is super polite, but useless. They will just apologize to you nonstop and offer nothing to compensate you for your time, your effort, or your wasted money. I just disputed their charges with the bank and got an email saying they were refunded and the case was closed.

The issues with EA underscore why charging should be based kWh fees.Plus they should be regulated close to the utility rate,including: 24 x 7 up time,networked, roll over capabilities,redundancy beyond 2 units per site.It's going to be 2020,well past the experimental stage for EV adoption. There are some time based DCFC that charge EVs $15 [25kWh],depending on the EV charge speed,some drivers will get about 150km/93 miles.

 

[ehatch]

I hope that the pricing tier issue will be resolved soon.. If I use EA, I usually look for their 50kw chargers as that way, you will get the lower tier rate. Luckily, the closest EA charger in my area has a 15 cents per minute cost and no connection fee, even with the membership with no monthly fee. The chargers are 150kw and 350kw but currently limited to 50kw. Their chargers also have huge reliability issues.. At the station that I use on occasion, they have a total of 8 chargers and 6 of them don't work.. 1 of them is turned off and 5 of them won't initiate charge. That leaves 2 that are reliable. BOTH of those that are reliable end the charging session with an error instead of a charging complete message. Good thing is that they are cheap. I do have $16 remaining in my EA wallet which gets automatically re-filled at $5..

Other thought, Hyundai should send out a firmware update,and let their Konas charge at peak, 100kw. What they advertised. Li degradation, there's head room in it to degrade,suspect we have closer to a 70kw.

 

[electriceddy]

Other thought, Hyundai should send out a firmware update,and let their Konas charge at peak, 100kw. What they advertised. Li degradation, there's head room in it to degrade,suspect we have closer to a 70kw.

I might be wrong but I don't recall Hyundai ever advertising a 100 kW rate, fastest DC rate @ 77kW:
https://ev-database.org/car/1126/Hyundai-Kona-Electric-64-kWh
Unless you have a reference to an advertised 100 kW

 

[ehatch]

I might be wrong but I don't recall Hyundai ever advertising a 100 kW rate, fastest DC rate @ 77kW:
https://ev-database.org/car/1126/Hyundai-Kona-Electric-64-kWh
Unless you have a reference to an advertised 100 kW

Few blogs, automotive reviews mentioned the 100 kw charging speed.I think Bjorn Nyland was the first reviewer to test the charge rate speed,and found it maxed out at about 70 kw before throttling limit started. Hyundai Canada brochure states the charge speed,page 16.

 

[Pushmi-Pullyu]

It's really disheartening to read the numerous reports about problems with using EA charging, given that it's the most widespread non-Tesla EV fast-charging network in some areas, and probably soon that will be true nationwide.

It's easy to say "Well, this is the sort of thing early adopters have to put up with, and in a few more years competition will improve the situation." Hopefully that's true, but it doesn't at all help people who want to use their BEV for a road trip today.

Sad to say, altho I'm an EV advocate, if I was going to take a road trip on a vacation, I'd rather rent a gasmobile for the trip so I wouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing.

​

 

[Jimct]

It's really disheartening to read the numerous reports about problems with using EA charging, given that it's the most widespread non-Tesla EV fast-charging network in some areas, and probably soon that will be true nationwide.

It's easy to say "Well, this is the sort of thing early adopters have to put up with, and in a few more years competition will improve the situation." Hopefully that's true, but it doesn't at all help people who want to use their BEV for a road trip today.

Sad to say, altho I'm an EV advocate, if I was going to take a road trip on a vacation, I'd rather rent a gasmobile for the trip so I wouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing.

​

I'm with you, for now we pretty much limit our use of the EV to the home charge radius, our gas vehicle for longer trips. Eventually as the popularity of EV's takes hold it will get the attention of the Federal and state governments who will inevitably regulate (and tax) the delivery of Kwh's. A logical standard would be cost per Kwh, not time based.

 

[SkookumPete]

Few blogs, automotive reviews mentioned the 100 kw charging speed.I think Bjorn Nyland was the first reviewer to test the charge rate speed,and found it maxed out at about 70 kw before throttling limit started. Hyundai Canada brochure states the charge speed,page 16.

View attachment 6791

I believe this has been touched on elsewhere. Apart from that brochure, I've seen no official claim that the maximum charging rate is 100 kW. The reviewers got fooled by a sneaky reference in the original specs to charging times on a 100 kW charger. Whoever wrote that brochure made the same mistake. Obviously it should be corrected, unless there's something we don't know about the 2020 model.

 

[ericy]

The issues with EA underscore why charging should be based kWh fees.Plus they should be regulated close to the utility rate,including: 24 x 7 up time,networked, roll over capabilities,redundancy beyond 2 units per site.It's going to be 2020,well past the experimental stage for EV adoption. There are some time based DCFC that charge EVs $15 [25kWh],depending on the EV charge speed,some drivers will get about 150km/93 miles.

To an extent I would agree, but pure kWh based pricing would encourage people to hog chargers and perhaps even charge to 100% instead of stopping at 80%. Idle fees would encourage people to move on once their charge session was complete. I am wondering if a hybrid approach with both a flat per-minute fee (certainly less than 0.20$/min) and a per kWh fee would work.

I was playing with abetterrouteplanner - try and plan something from Minneapolis to Washington DC, and it had you use an EA charger to charge from 10% to 100% on an EA charger (somewhere near Chicago, if I recall correctly). I assume that it knows the taper curve for the Kona, and yes there were intermediate charging stations available which made this recommended stop even more absurd.

 

[FISHEV]

I've had good service from Electrify America's new SC's. I can only use the single legacy Chademo adapter for older tech cars like Leaf and Tesla but it works all time, gives solid 50kW/200 mph.

Due to EA charging by time, you have to watch what the charger is putting out. If less than 50kW, I've called and EA made price adjustments in real time to compensate.

 

[Mywifeskona]

Today I charged at EA for the first time.

Here a couple of things that I encountered:
At first I wanted to use my CC only to pay. However the charger asked me to make a choice after I swiped/chip the card. But there was no choice to make. So it didn't work!

So I tried to sign up through the app. Servers were not responding!

I then called the support number on the charger. The lady was very nice and helpful, reset the charger for me and it then accepted my card and started charging.

However BEWARE the known tier 2 rate issue with EA! The Kona reports a charging rate capability of 78kW to the charger, putting it in the $0.69/min rate. The max charge rate I received was only 71kW. At that rate I should be charged only $0.25/min! The tier changes at 75kW!

So for my 21 minute charge I payed $16 (taxes and $1 connection fee) instead of about $7!

So if possible at all, avoid EA 150kW chargers until that issue is resolved (hopefully!)

After all that I signed up with EA (not sure that it was worth it). I had issues with the app reporting wrong plans and pricing during the sign up process.

It wouldn't let me course between the normal and plus plan. The plus plan costs $4/month and had no connection fee and lower charge prices.

However during the soup process it showed me that I chose the normal plan but with that monthly fee and the connection fee (super weird). It still doesn't show different charging prices either. Both plans show up with $0.25 / $0.69 / $0.99 charging fees for the three tiers of up to 75kW / 150kW / 350kW.

So they definitely have to fix some bugs!

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

Today I charged at EA for the first time.

Here a couple of things that I encountered:
At first I wanted to use my CC only to pay. However the charger asked me to make a choice after I swiped/chip the card. But there was no choice to make. So it didn't work!

So I tried to sign up through the app. Servers were not responding!

I then called the support number on the charger. The lady was very nice and helpful, reset the charger for me and it then accepted my card and started charging.

However BEWARE the known tier 2 rate issue with EA! The Kona reports a charging rate capability of 78kW to the charger, putting it in the $0.69/min rate. The max charge rate I received was only 71kW. At that rate I should be charged only $0.25/min! The tier changes at 75kW!

So for my 21 minute charge I payed $16 (taxes and $1 connection fee) instead of about $7!

So if possible at all, avoid EA 150kW chargers until that issue is resolved (hopefully!)

After all that I signed up with EA (not sure that it was worth it). I had issues with the app reporting wrong plans and pricing during the sign up process.

It wouldn't let me course between the normal and plus plan. The plus plan costs $4/month and had no connection fee and lower charge prices.

However during the soup process it showed me that I chose the normal plan but with that monthly fee and the connection fee (super weird). It still doesn't show different charging prices either. Both plans show up with $0.25 / $0.69 / $0.99 charging fees for the three tiers of up to 75kW / 150kW / 350kW.

So they definitely have to fix some bugs!

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

EA is the result of Volkswagen’s settlement with the U.S. for its dieselgate conspiracy. Looks like our duly appointed members of the EPA are going to let them gouge the American public with an outlandish pricing structure.

I will avoid their chargers like the plague.