The latest from EA : https://insideevs.com/news/389891/exclusive-interview-electrify-america-problems-solutions/ A small paragraph at the end (other topics) about the overage charges relating to Kona and Niro - "Electrify America is aware of this and has promised to have the issue resolved soon" Correlative to that resolution is when I will consider using their >50kW chargers, Electrify Canada included
I have an upcoming trip in March from Central Florida to Raleigh/NC. At the current EA rates and the lack of 50kw EA chargers on the route (except for destination. There are 2 locations with EA 50kw chargers in Raleigh), I will fly instead of driving. It would cost me about $150 round trip with the Kona using EA while plane tickets are about $100 for the round trip.
I just used electrify America chargers for the first time today and all I can say is wowser! Six fairly new looking chargers ranging from 50 to 350 kW devices and I couldn’t get any of them to work! I called their support line and the tech basically suggested I try a different charger! While I was there a Nissan leaf owner pulled in and he had trouble getting it to start to. Took him three times. Eventually I gave up and went 3 miles down the road to an EVgo charger which worked flawlessly. EA really seems to have some problems with their chargers. It just shouldn’t be that hard.
I heard that the trick with the 350kw chargers is that you have to lift up the cable to remove tension on the connection as the cooled cable is so heavy that it pulls on the plug, causing a bad connection. Once charging starts, you can release the cable.
Hmm. Interesting. I did try a credit card. It seemed like that shouldn’t be a problem since the chargers all appeared so new.
I was able to use 150 or 350. The 350 seemed to be going slowly (30 kw or so) so I switched to a 150 and was pulling 75 kw. So I'm guessing your car might work on other 350s, that one might have just had an issue?
I used the app and NFC on my phone for the 4 times I used EA chargers on my recent long trip. In all cases it worked flawlessly.
Electrify Canada increases installation of DC fast chargers to 90 (from 20): https://insideevs.com/news/393120/electrify-canada-canadian-tire-fast-charge-locations/ Great news for travel convenience, bad news for the wallet. Already 10% higher cost than Electrify America with the tier pricing, hopefully an eventual shift to per kWh rates would provide affordable use of these units. I guess we will wait and see just how many people use them with the present price structure. or The alternate would be to contact the Minister of Natural Resources (who provided 2.7 million dollars in funding towards the cost and installation of the fast chargers under the federal governments Electric Vehicle and Alternative Fuel infrastructure Deployment initiative).
Man the Electrify Canada pricing is brutal. Petro Canada looks sweet in comparison. I did a little math, looks like a session for a 30Kw charge at average charge rate of 54 Kw/h would cost around $26 for the Kona at Electrify Canada's drop in rate of .77/min +$1 session charge vs $11 at petrocan (.33/min). Compared to $8 for a Model 3 getting the same 30 Kw charge at .44/min but with average charge rate of 100+ kw/hr on the Tesla supercharger network. I guess Tesla for the win if you drive long distance.
No kidding, it would be cheaper for me to drive our 5.7 liter V8 Toyota Tundra than the Kona EV fueled by Electrify Canada!!!
This price gouging has to stop. It really looks bad as incentive to switch to BEV and is embarrassing. Tesla has it right supercharger rate at $0.22 per minute < 60 kW in Canada. Why are we charged a major penalty for opting to drive an alternate manufacture?
They charge that much because, in this "early adopter" phase of the EV revolution, they can. As the EV revolution progresses and more BEVs appear on the road, competition will drive fast-charging prices down to something more reasonable.
And it pays faster for equipment and energy used. Remember that drawing 150kW or 70kW is more expensive than drawing 7kW. Definitely!
Yes, well, to be fair, they have to charge a much higher fee than your local utility company, if the charger sits idle for long periods between customers. If the usage is low, then their overhead -- and their profit margin, if any -- is spread over rather few customers. Of course, as an EV advocate, I'm not required to actually be fair. I make no apologies for being biased in favor of EVs and their owners! Furthermore, low usage doesn't explain why one company would charge so much more than another. With higher usage, the companies owning the charger will be able to afford to lower prices. So that's yet another reason to hope EV adoption increases rapidly!
Yes I think you correct with the exception being smaller markets like Canada where 1-3 large players like Electrify Canada will set up shop and form oligopolies that dictate ridiculous pricing under the guise that without ridiculous pricing there is no way they can continue to expand(despite generous taxpayer subsidies) and that ridiculous prices are somehow justified by wholesale costs outside of their control even though this very same wholesale commodity is somehow retailed much more competitively below 49th parallel. This continues for years if not decades until utter public disgust and a regulatory body finally says enough(mostly ineffectually and symbolically). Sadly I see a very direct parallel to our current telecommunications and oil industries.