I got home from a long haul up from FL yesterday, and the trip certainly had its Moments. Particularly with chargers and their support, notably Electrify America. I'm debating making this into a longer writeup and putting it in my DCFC or maybe a "roadtrips" section on techno-fandom, but for now... To their credit, EA has been doing a lot better overall. Since fixing the CCS "threshold" rate problem and moving to kWh-based billing in states where they can, pricing has been more reasonable, and especially when contrasted to what people have been paying for gas recently. Their stuff works for the most part, and failing units usually have a "backup" at the 4-station or larger deployments. A frequent problem is that the credit-card readers go offline, and they still refuse to realize that it is quite possible to have a device that is *not* tied to Google or Apple and thus unable to download their stupid app. They really should engage in a roaming agreement with Chargepoint or EVgo or whatever and enable the RFID readers that all of their ABB heads look like they have already. But this time, a *lot* of units were just plain down. At one site, one out of 4 was working at all, and some guy was going to be on it for a good hour. Some of which I spent first waiting for EA support to answer, because their callcenters are getting slammed and they haven't hired enough people, and then explaining how the credit-reader on a second unit was dead even though the charger *looked* like it was ready to work after getting rebooted, and I couldn't use their app, etc etc. The rep was *finally* able to start a free charge remotely [because the department who could accept payment card details over the phone was out to lunch or something] and then it was only delivering 30 kW or so. I sat there seething about this and trying to convince them that they needed to roll repair YESTERDAY on thjs critical right-off-the-interstate site, pulled in enough to get me up the road to the next option, and fled. As much as CCS buildout has been proceeding, it may be likely that EV sales are already outstripping the new infrastructure to properly support them. In a conversation the next day while reporting another observed problem, one rep gave me a plausible explanation for why EA is so hosed up recently: heat. Apparently they've been losing a lot of units in the recent heat waves, often in ways that need backordered parts to fix. So maybe there are some unanticipated design issues in these things, especially in the older deployments. And they're getting more cars that can accept higher power now, so that might be another factor. On the bright side, on this trip I spotted not one but TWO Rivians, on two different days! Chatted with the owners, they're really pleased so far. Not so much on efficiency, though; one of them said he gets maybe 2.6 miles/kWh on a good day... contrast to me, healthily north of 4.0 in the Kona all the way up, at normal highway speeds either side of ~70. _H*
Nice write up, thanks for sharing. I firmly believe that sales of CCS cars has already outstripped the growth of CXS chargers. I am seeing more and more congestion lately. Last weekend there were 9 cars in Albany NY lined up to use 6 EA stalls (6 charging, 3 waiting). Of those 9, two were Rivian R1Ts! Other models also represented: Kona, Mini SE, Bolt, ID.4, and MachE. It is great to see the variety which I am sure is helping spur the growth. I predict that congestion will get much worse before it gets better. By mid decade we may see some pushback on sales as word gets out about how congested chargers are. I can see many people reverting to an ICEV after a 3 year lease, for example. Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Personally, I would prefer every EV dealer required to have a 24x7, fast DC charger on their property. Buying an EV also buys the charging network and the dealers need another revenue stream. After all, Tesla treats their EVs as part of a system including the SuperChargers. The others are willing to abandon their customers to careless and often unskilled third parties. Bob Wilson
Most dealers that do EVs seem to have a level2 or two on premises, at least... but I stopped at a Hyundai dealership in Harrisburg PA a month ago, which had two 62kW Chargepoints right out front, which they leave available 24x7! Some dealerships have wheezy 25 kW Bosch units, often mounted in some back corner of the service building and either ICEd in and/or powered off or inaccessible at night. Bob, that's a nice idea, but currently very rare to find one with enough clue to make it happen. I think I remember reading that Tesla had a lot of Supercharger congestion a while back in California especially, near some of the major metro areas. Did they build out more? At least the EV market is not *wholly* dependent on CCS, since a lot of people "gas up" at home and stay mostly local. So the demand volume dynamics are still going to be a little different than with petrol stations. _H*
There has been some growth. For example, travel between Huntsville AL and Coffeyville KS: March 2019, 240 mi range, Tesla Model 3 Athens, AL (150 kW) Tupelo, MS (150 kW) Memphis, TN (150 kW) Little Rock, AR (150 kW) Tusla, OK (150 kW) Joplin, MO (150 kW) August 2022, 220 mi range, Tesla Model 3 Huntsville, AL (250 kW) Athens, AL (150 kW) Tupelo, MS (150 kW) Memphis, TN (150 kW) Brinkley, AR (250 kW) Little Rock, AR (150 kW) Tusla, OK (150 kW) Ozark, AR (250 kW) Lowell, AR (250 kW) Joplin, MO (upgraded 250 kW) My Tesla battery degradation, (220 - 240) / 240 = -8.3%, has been slower than the rate of SuperCharger expansion, 10 / 6 = 167% along this route. Due to battery degradation, there is now one marginal segment, 205 mi between Huntsville and Memphis. New, the Tesla could span the 205 mi segment with 100% SOC and have 35 miles of reserve. Now I have to either divert and add 40 miles to Tupelo MS or do a one hour, L2 session in Corinth MS. Taking a break in Corinth is more refreshing than driving the extra 40 miles to Tupelo. Bob Wilson
Wait a minute here....are you saying that EA's commitment to quality and customer satisfaction is not satisfactory? "it is not about what we have accomplished, but where we are heading" Must have been at the end of the 2 month testing schedule
This person had problems traveling the west coast. https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/electrify-america-is-on-a-roll.45542/
Huh, that press release from EA seems to carry a date near the bottom of "8/23/2002", but references dates in 2021. Can they not even get *that* much right? _H*
Just because it's fun, here's a shot of how I found one charger at a Duke Energy / Greenlots deployment near Wildwood FL. Not EA related, but still kind of a fail. The latch rod actuator was in the "closed" position and locked, so there was no way to simply close and button up the cabinet to push in the safety sense switch at the top. I was already on the other charger of the pair, or it might have been tempting to see if I could make this work with a little fiddling ... instead, I called it in, and relayed the fact that I received from a guy who pulled his Bolt in *just* then, that this door had been flapping for several days already. _H*
If these networks can't keep their stations in working order it's going to piss off a lot of people and eventually start to hurt EV sales. I don't really do road trips here in Hawaii but I must say the ChargePoint L2 station at my local Target store (free for the first 2 hours) has always worked flawlessly.
I have used that charger. There are some pretty sparse pickings in Harrisburg. When I was there, two cars were charging (one was a polestar at 99%. The driver nowhere to be seen ). There was also another driver in line before me. I ended up leaving without a charge (the L2 they also had was only putting out 2kW!). I came back later when the line was shorter. This is yet another example of demand outstripping supply. And I’m sorry, but I think that chargers at dealership are a terrible user experience. That alone will drive lots of people back to their ICEVs. Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Had to report Blink in Murfreesboro TN when they failed to process my credit card. My wife could not get a charge for her BMW i3-REx. Bob Wilson