After 5 years "plugged in" I used a point of sale charger. A recent 250 mile round-trip left me concerned about range in colder weather. Charge finder identified a suitable fast charger at a Walmart near our destination. While I have charged away from home e in the past, it was either at 120vac or free L2. It was time to try a high speed charger. The vehicles a 2019 KIA Niro EV which lists a maximum charging rate ofor 55 kW/h on AC fast chargers. It took 26 minutes to add 80 miles of range from 50% to 80% charge on the battery. No app required, plug in and pay with a credit card. At $0.16/ minute it was close to the cost of home charging on L2 7.7 kW/h It couldn't have been easier.
From what network was this wonderful charging station? Yesterday, on my first long EV trip, I spent 50 minutes trying to figure out how to get a Blink DCFC charging station to start using their app. The version of their app, which I downloaded yesterday for this trip, didn't display a list of the charging stations like the one on their FAQ. No YouTube videos showed me how to get a charge started. I called their support number and instead of getting a person, it asked me for a "conference code!" Then I checked the Blink map of their charging stations, this pair wasn't even on that map!! Fortunately, I was able to make it to an Electrify America charging station in another town, arriving with 15% left in my MINI Cooper SE's battery. To my delight, the EA DCFC was not only working, but it was free! Perhaps "Blink" isn't the best name for an essential infrastructure service company like this.
This was an Electrify America charger (one of 8 plugs available - all working) in my neighborhood. It was a test case, not a roadtrip.
