At about 1,000 miles on this ID4 we did our first longer trip that needed en route recharging. In Bellevue WA the EA chargers were hard to find. After parking elsewhere, walking back and forth with cell app in hand, searching, I finally spotted them tucked away underground parking garage, not visible to a drive by. Several chargers were open. Short “hoses” and tight stalls made the approach more difficult than my home Level 2, but doable. I’d run the battery down to about 40% and expected to see charging start at about 110 kw, but it only ran between 55 and 60. So 30 minutes did not give enough kw to get home. I called EA, was on hold a while, then dropped. Called again. Got a helpful person. Learned a few things. She traced the charger, saw that recent use had all been slow, concluded it probably indicated a fault in the charger, so initiated the repair, which could take a couple days or longer depending complexity. She was unable to reset my account to allow a second session immediately to make up for the inadequate charge. She said it takes 2 to 3 hours before I can get another free 30 minute session. But you can’t tell until the very end of a session whether it will be free. I pushed a little, she dug further into my account, then reported that a 1 more hour wait would suffice this time. So I drove on to Ellensburg. She’d also said one can report problems quickly (no long phone wait for a person) by using the EA app or web page. (True.) And reporting does help get a problem solved sooner. Also, in future, if a charger is slow, stop that session and try another nearby charger. If you only used 2 minutes the first time, you will automatically get the remaining free 28 minutes at an adjacent charger. Later, in Ellensburg, the first charger I carefully backed up to turned out to not be working. The second charger worked and did dispense faster, after a couple initial slower minutes. But the “stop charge” button would not respond, and a double unlock click on the ID4 remote did not stop the charge, so the only way to stop it early was from the in-car screen. Which I was able to quickly report thru the app. Lessons learned: Trying to pre plan a long trip only partly works. Your intended station may be full, or down, or slow. The EA app does work nicely to look for alternate EA stations further on your route, and with CarPlay does a good job of offering Map navigation to that next unplanned station when you get near to that town. Yes, the car battery is capable of charging faster when emptier, so there is merit to planning a longer drive before your next stop; but I am left less confident of that strategy since EA chargers are less reliable than I’d thought. You may end up needing to spend longer trying to charge, or paying for extra minutes at a defectively show charger, or searching for an unplanned station at an extra stop. To help offset these uncertainties I just ordered a Tesla tap mini; perhaps some day it will make a needed Tesla destination or home charger available when EA doesn’t come thru as hoped. Despite all of this, the long day of ID4 driving was a pleasure. Those bright headlights are amazingly helpful at night for aging eyes. The quiet efficient ride is relaxing. Driving past those $6/gallon gas stations is a kick.
It is always worthwhile to check the recent comments in Plugshare before you even set out - just to give you a rough idea what other people are seeing. You can also check the EA app - it will tell you the status of individual cabinets, but it won't tell you if there is a charger fault resulting in slow charging. I would note that if you start charging at 40%, you won't get the really high charge rates. It isn't easy to really manage this, but if your initial SOC was < 20%, you would likely see ~120kW if the charger was functioning correctly.
