Educate me - charging in Washington state, Oregon, California

In Washington state, Electrify America and EVgo are the two main DC charger operators west of the Cascade mountains. ChargePoint, SemaConnect, Volta, and now Flo is moving into the area are the L2 operators.

To get the best rate, you will have to sign up for a membership which you should be able to cancel when you get home.

I suggest you contact these operators to see if a RFID card is available and if you can use your Canadian credit card or a prepaid card with USD currency.

 

I would definitely suggest using PlugShare to scout what's prevalent in the places you expect to travel, then download any apps that may be relevant. The worst case scenario is that you download an app you end up not using. Even if you're not paying with the app, they'll often give you useful info like current status. Personally, I've found the reviews on PlugShare to often contain useful cautions about stations that aren't well maintained, etc. Volta, which generally offers 2 hours of free L2 charging, is pretty prevalent in parts of California, including the Bay Area. If you don't need a fast charge, free is my favorite price.

 

Keep an eye on road closures due to fires.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/interstate-5-road-closures-listed-as-long-term/ar-AA11wV82?li=BBnb7Kz

 

I think plugshare lets you filter by rating, doesn't it? I would filter by sites only above an 8.0, along with CCS.

In my little area, we have found Chargepoint has the most reliable chargers - but they tend to max out around 50-62.5 kW. EA has the fastest, but half seem broken. I'm in Eastern CA, so probably not an area you will be anyway.

 

Yes, you can filter by minimum plug score.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

My only experience with ChargePoint is their L2 chargers here in Hilo -- they're in the Target and WalMart parking lots, free for the first 2 hours -- and I've never seen one not in working order. They're frequently busy -- people do like free stuff -- but 100% reliable.

 

Just as a thought I wouldn't trust EA card readers. I've always used the APP. Over and over I see videos where folks say the card readers didn't work. Which is odd, because card readers shouldn't be hard. I can't think of the last gas station where the card reader didn't work. Ymmv.

 

The L2 chargers here is Washington state don't not require an app to charge. You simply plug your car in and it starts charging. I've used them several times since it's free.

The DC chargers may require the app. There is only three DC chargers in Seattle and it looks like they are often broken.

The only good reason to use Volta is that it's there and it's its free at least for L2 charging. However, there is no good reason to go out of your way to use one.

 

A key factor to not overlook is almost all gas stations are attended, so there is daily attention to the working state of the pumps (and card readers). As soon as one breaks (and they do), a service call is made and a service technician goes on site to fix things.

 

AFAIK, Electrify America doesn't have its own RFID card like Chargepoint (and the dreaded Blink). Also, EA doesn't accept all credit cards. The Payment & Membership tab on the EA's Mobile FAQ says: "Electrify America accepts Visa and MasterCard credit cards and debit cards, as well as American Express." So not the Discover card.

I was lucky last week when I made a 550-mile round trip in Michigan because the EA charging stations at the Meijer's stores in Bay City and Cadillac were "complimentary," which saved me about $40 charging my MINI Cooper SE. A message on the charging stations' screen explained that EA was about to switch to new network software, so perhaps the old billing software wasn't working and they decided it was better to provide free charging than to deny all charging due to a problem on their end.

 

I was a regular user of Volta chargers when I lived in San Francisco (until January) and they never required an app to use the L2 chargers, except for the ones in front of their SF headquarters. My problem with Volta, though, was that they seemed to be out of service a lot.

 

How annoying. But at least for Chargepoint the app should be all you need. Probably for the others, too, but I don't have personal experience.

 

Funny. I've never had my phone hacked but have had credit cards stolen and used even after I called to cancel them, leading to a couple months of misery. I guess we all cope based on our own traumatic experiences lol. But it sucks that ChargePoint screwed up -- I hope they get you your RFID card quickly.