EA (Electrify America) Sucks - that is all

[masmole]

My Porsche account is all set and ready for the complimentary charging. I have now tried three different EA charging stations within the city limits of Chicago (2 at 2 different Target store lots, and 1 at a Bank of America lot, and even tried all the charging stalls at each station (at least all the ones that were not already occupied). Plug-and-charge didn’t work for any of them, and neither could a charge be initiated from the Porsche app. The app kept saying “unable to reach server. try again later” or something like that. I even had EA customer service guide me through each step to make sure I wasn’t doing it wrong, and still no dice. Eventually, the EA person just asked for my name, the last 8 digits of my VIN, and the charger stall number, and she activated a complimentary charge remotely. A big time suck. What an awful experience. I’ve visited a friend in California who has had a Taycan for a couple of years now and we’ve always had no issues with the EA chargers all over that state, but no bueno with the EA chargers here in Chicago so far. Perhaps the chargers here are just old, haven’t been updated or even maintained. because they’re not as in-demand as those in California. Anyhow, I had low expectations with EA to begin with. Good thing my decision to buy a Taycan didn’t hinge on the reliability of EA’s network in my area. I had no plans to do regular fast charges anyway, and no plans for road trips with the Taycan either. Just wanted to experiment with the local EA chargers for kicks.

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[Archimedes]

I don’t think it’s safe to assume that these plug and charge issues are always EAs fault vs Porsche. Porsche can’t get my MyPorsche account straight, to the point that I’ve just given up trying.

 

[Toodal00]

My Porsche account is all set and ready for the complimentary charging. I have now tried three different EA charging stations within the city limits of Chicago (2 at 2 different Target store lots, and 1 at a Bank of America lot, and even tried all the charging stalls at each station (at least all the ones that were not already occupied). Plug-and-charge didn’t work for any of them, and neither could a charge be initiated from the Porsche app. The app kept saying “unable to reach server. try again later” or something like that. I even had EA customer service guide me through each step to make sure I wasn’t doing it wrong, and still no dice. Eventually, the EA person just asked for my name, the last 8 digits of my VIN, and the charger stall number, and she activated a complimentary charge remotely. A big time suck. What an awful experience. I’ve visited a friend in California who has had a Taycan for a couple of years now and we’ve always had no issues with the EA chargers all over that state, but no bueno with the EA chargers here in Chicago so far. Perhaps the chargers here are just old, haven’t been updated or even maintained. because they’re not as in-demand as those in California. Anyhow, I had low expectations with EA to begin with. Good thing my decision to buy a Taycan didn’t hinge on the reliability of EA’s network in my area. I had no plans to do regular fast charges anyway, and no plans for road trips with the Taycan either. Just wanted to experiment with the local EA chargers for kicks.

the app has been having a issue since dec 8th i noticed. would not reach server for me either and I had to call and have them turn on the charger, first time in a year this has occurred.

 

[daveo4EV]

did you try deleting and reinstalling the app - that cleared some fault up for me -but then you can run into other problems.

 

[Tooney]

,,,

You have a new Taycan. Most likely the problem is on Porsche's end, not EAs, if you have never ever been able to get a charge from any EA site using Porsche charging service.

A couple things to try:
Use EA app - you don't have to be registered - to check the status of individual EA charging stations. Also use MyPorsche app - the maps function - to check charging station status. If MyPorsche status for stations shows ?, it's an indication that the station is not working and/or Porsche charging will not work at it.

Contact Porsche NA about the problem and let them know you have not been able to charge at any EA station with your new car. Porsche may need to do something on back end to enable service for your car. I've found that I need to keep calling Porsche NA for status about an open problem, rather than relying on them to contact me back with status. Once you have opened the matter with Porsche NA, ask your dealer to escalate resolution of that problem with Porsche NA.

 

[Genyosai]

80 minutes wasted today trying to get my local EA stations to charge my 2020 Taycan Turbo - what a joke!

customer support is nice, friendly, polite and professional - but ultimately the following vehicle's could not charge today:

• my 2020 Taycan Turbo
• a brand new shiny Lucid Air
• VW ID.4
• KIa something
• Mach-E
• Chevy Bolt

4 out of 4 stations dysfunctional - EA customer support "shows" them as online and functional - all failing with the same error - EA agent tries and tells me it must be my car - I tell her other cars can't charge and I just completed a charge in Los Gatos, CA - and she's bewildered as to what to tell me.

they will put in a "trouble ticket" and suggested I try again in a week or so when they get out to diagnose the situation.

OMG soooooo bad - just so so so so bad…

brand new Lucid Air owner (less than 12 hours old) - travels a lot - transitioned from a Tesla Model S - all their driving is "long distance" - is now horrified by their purchase - has used the Supercharger network for years - never occurred to her the fast charging "couldn't work"…

OMG this is just so bad.

words fail me.

"Bad" is an understatement. I've concluded that there are no good EV options. What I mean by that is:

* Tesla hands-down has the best, most reliable, worry-free fast-charging network. Period! But, [imo] the cars are "blah" and service is horrible (I speak from experience, we had 6 Teslas before giving up).

* Other manufacturers offer better built, more stylish EVs, but the fast charging network (as you put it), SUCKS! EA is SO unreliable it's worrisome, especially as much as we travel. You really never know if you're going to get there, and if it's a long distance trip in which we HAVE to be someplace by a certain time, we simply take the ICEv.

What's worse is that EA is now on their 3rd hardware refresh. Gen3 hardware, if you will, and quite frankly, that hardware seems to be a step backwards.

Our first non-Tesla EV was our Audi e-tron 55 Prestige in 2019. Little did we know how bad EA was at the time. We ended up seriously delayed... stranded several times. It got to the place I'd try and find routes to our destinations that had EVGo 50kw stations near the EAs in case the EA station was totally offline (despite what the app said). That was much harder to do for the Columbia, SC to Austin, TX trip we took in 2020. What a nerve-racking experience... not knowing if the next stop will work, so you stop at EVERY EA along the way and charge to 100% just in case.

Well, in September 2020 EA started replacing the HORRIBLE Efacet units with the much newer Signet units. Since then they've been "better", but they didn't replace all the older Signet and ABB units.

Now, they have the Gen3 hardware made by either BTC or Signet to replace the older Signet and ABB units. This is NOT going well!

We recently got back from a 5,934mi trip in our e-tron GT. Even though we encountered many broken stations, and stations that would not deliver the full power, we made it from the East Coast to the Grand Canyon and back never having an issue where we needed to call support.

However! The 3 Gen3 stations we encountered were the most problematic. These brand new stations/hardware already failing in less than 2 weeks after installations.

2 of the new stations wouldn't deliver more than 35kw. At 1 of those stations I had a stall to over-boost (if you will) my car causing it to stop charging with a "charing system error". Thankfully I carry my OBDEleven device with me for foolishness like this. I read the code which stated "incompatible DCFC". I had to clear the code before the car would fast charge again. Then, 1 of the new stations only had 1 working stall, and it was the stall that they DON'T replace because of the CHAdeMO connector. The other 3, brand new 350kw units were already broken.

I'm not the only one having problems with the Gen3 hardware. There are reports of Rivian vehicles being bricked by the over-boost situation, and there are reports of other e-tron GTs and Taycans being affected by the over-boost problem. There's also an F150 Lightening that went berserk after being over-boosted... I haven't seen the latest on that because the vehicle had to be towed from the station.

So Gen3 really scares me considering it's what's replacing all the 1st Gen Signet and ABB units. So much so that, like the Taycan owner that was at the Greenville, SC location with me two weeks ago, I'm considering selling my GT and just driving the ICEVs again until something better comes along.

I hear Kempower is coming to the US. Maybe they'll be better. Bjorn Nyland seems to have 100% success with them in Norway.

 

[chenner]

So Gen3 really scares me considering it's what's replacing all the 1st Gen Signet and ABB units. So much so that, like the Taycan owner that was at the Greenville, SC location with me two weeks ago, I'm considering selling my GT and just driving the ICEVs again until something better comes along.

Unfortunately, I think we've reached that tipping point where the number of EV's hitting the road have greatly outnumbered the amount of fast charges needed to support them.

Tesla always has a large number of charging stations where EA only seems to have 4 in almost all cases. Add to this broken units, slow charging cars like the Bolt and Hybrids, and then just bad etiquette or uninformed new EV owners and I predict that road trips over the next two years will be just a poor experience.

The two busiest EA stations near me are Asheville and Greenville and not only are those stations in poor high traffic locations but there are only 4 stations and they are always full. Unfortunately, I can't make it past Asheville without needing to charge when I head in that direction on a road trip.

As much as I love my Taycan I've decided that I'll only keep it if Tesla opens up their network to other EV's. If they don't then I see a LR Model S in my future.

 

[Genyosai]

but they are also tearing out entire stations and replacing the junk hardware with better stuff. Choosing Thanksgiving week to do so is also questionable.

The Gen3 Signet / BTC units seem to be a step backwards. The Gen2 Signets that replaced the original Efacets seem to be the most reliable.

Gen3s (newest installations), are going offline within a couple of weeks, only delivering up to 35kw, and/or are over-boosting cars and causing charging faults.

These things are still running Windows for crying out loud (photos below are the Gen3 hardware and are located at the recently upgraded station in Greenville, SC where I live)! It's no wonder they're so unreliable. Windows is not robust/ bulletproof / resilient enough for this.



I one pulled up to a stall in Hammond, LA to find it sitting at the Windows Desktop. They hadn't even bothered to disable the start menu via GPO, so I restarted the darned thing myself.

EA is a joke!

 

[ClubIsolation]

slow charging yes - fast charging no.

how fast does a Taycan charge with the slow Tesla charging?

 

[Genyosai]

Unfortunately, I think we've reached that tipping point where the number of EV's hitting the road have greatly outnumbered the amount of fast charges needed to support them.

Tesla always has a large number of charging stations where EA only seems to have 4 in almost all cases. Add to this broken units, slow charging cars like the Bolt and Hybrids, and then just bad etiquette or uninformed new EV owners and I predict that road trips over the next two years will be just a poor experience.

The two busiest EA stations near me are Asheville and Greenville and not only are those stations in poor high traffic locations but there are only 4 stations and they are always full. Unfortunately, I can't make it past Asheville without needing to charge when I head in that direction on a road trip.

As much as I love my Taycan I've decided that I'll only keep it if Tesla opens up their network to other EV's. If they don't then I see a LR Model S in my future.

I'm in upstate South Carolina and know the Asheville and Greenville locations well.

Asheville runs the Gen2 Signets and have always been reliable for me. These units are the most reliable of the bunch even though Gen3 is rolling out.

Greenville, as I'm sure you know, recently "downgraded" (imo) to the Gen3 hardware. All stalls are down except the CHAdeMO stall, which they don't replace (older ABB unit). Two weeks ago they were all (but 1) working, if you can call delivering 35kw working.

As for Tesla opening up the Supercharger Network. I'm a huge proponent for this. Have been since before leaving Tesla for the e-tron vehicles. But the more I think about it, if I were Elon, I wouldn't do it. At least not right now.

There are so many GREAT EVs on the market now, better (imo) than Tesla from a build/quality/styling/support standpoint. But as it stands, the experience of owning those cars is tainted by the poor DCFC experience. So until DCFC is as much a non-issue for non-Tesla EVs as it is for Tesla, why should Elon give other manufacturers a leg-up and potentially help themselves lose sales?

Elon should keep the Supercharger network exclusive to Telsa since there's no other DCFC competition in the US. Your last sentence is testament to this

"If they don't then I see a LR Model S in my future"

 

[Genyosai]

how fast does a Taycan charge with the slow Tesla charging?

If you mean charging your Taycan on a Tesla Destination/wall charger with the Lectron adapter, you could get up to 11.5kw if it's on a 48A circuit.


There's no adapter to allow you to use a Tesla Supercharger. In addition, there's no way for a non-Tesla (in the US) to start a Tesla Supercharger charging session.

Here I am at the Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon 2 weeks ago using my Lectron Adapter on a Tesla Destination Charger.

Again in Sedona, AZ.

This adapter is super handy if you travel a lot like we do.

We just did a 5,934mi trip from SC to MD to AZ to SC a few weeks ago.

Easy as Tesla? NO! But we made it.

 

[daveo4EV]

how fast does a Taycan charge with the slow Tesla charging?

up to 11 kw or 19.2 kw if you have the 19.2 kw option - Tesla slow chargers at hotels and businesses range from 16 to 80 amps (3kw to 19.2 kw)

 

[chenner]

I totally agree - I wouldn't do it if I was Elon either. He'd be giving away his competitive advantage. But he's already stated that he would. So I'm hoping that he does because it's good for all of us non-Tesla owners but not so good for Tesla owners (we have a Model Y as well).

Since we're on the topic, I wish that EA (and everybody else who offers a charger including hotels) would locate them farther away from the main entrance. It just causes too much traffic (like in Asheville) and we don't need to give EV haters another reason to hate them.

Hotels that locate them near the entrance always leads to the spots being ICE'd. Especially if you're not arriving there until late at night you can almost be certain that it'll be ICE'd.

I'm in upstate South Carolina and know the Asheville and Greenville locations well.

Asheville runs the Gen2 Signets and have always been reliable for me. These units are the most reliable of the bunch even though Gen3 is rolling out.

Greenville, as I'm sure you know, recently "downgraded" (imo) to the Gen3 hardware. All stalls are down except the CHAdeMO stall, which they don't replace (older ABB unit). Two weeks ago they were all (but 1) working, if you can call delivering 35kw working.

As for Tesla opening up the Supercharger Network. I'm a huge proponent for this. Have been since before leaving Tesla for the e-tron vehicles. But the more I think about it, if I were Elon, I wouldn't do it. At least not right now.

There are so many GREAT EVs on the market now, better (imo) than Tesla from a build/quality/styling/support standpoint. But as it stands, the experience of owning those cars is tainted by the poor DCFC experience. So until DCFC is as much a non-issue for non-Tesla EVs as it is for Tesla, why should Elon give other manufacturers a leg-up and potentially help themselves lose sales?

Elon should keep the Supercharger network exclusive to Telsa since there's no other DCFC competition in the US. Your last sentence is testament to this

"If they don't then I see a LR Model S in my future"

 

[ClubIsolation]

Well, I can't wait to take my "well charged" Taycan GTS which should show up today or tomorrow out to nearby charging stations and see what happens. For the most part, 99% of the time, the car is an "in town" car for me and will just be charged at home, so I'm not worried about it much. But i need to discover if this stuff works or not.

 

[Genyosai]

But he's already stated that he would. So I'm hoping that he does because it's good for all of us non-Tesla owners but not so good for Tesla owners (we have a Model Y as well).

Elon says, and has said lots of things

As for your Y, we got rid of our last Tesla the first part of 2021. Since the EA experience (2019 to now), I've been trying to get my wife to reconsider Tesla, but Woman Scorn is an understatement.

Not only did we have quite the issues with our Teslas (I won't get into them all), our nearest service center (100mi one-way) is not good. So, it often was always colossal waste of time taking cars for repairs as none of our service requests presented the mobile service option... ever.

But the straw that broke the camel's back was in 2019. I was 500mi out of town on business, and one cold, rainy night our Model S90D put my wife out. 12v died without warning.

No problem, right? Just touch the "T" icon and call Tesla roadside service.

My wife called me in tears stating that "Tesla won't talk to me". This didn't sound right, surely my wife wasn't telling me something correctly, or she'd misunderstood something.

Nope. Tesla Roadside service would not talk to her because her name was not on the account. She got me on the phone in a 3-way call, luckily because I was in Maplesville, AL at a client's manufacturing facility with extremely poor cell reception. I handled the car from there and got her towed home. But afterwards it took a week to get an appointment for a 12v replacement!

A 12v battery... a week!

Additionally, I complained to Tesla about a) having never been told during a delivery that Roadside would only talk to whomever's name was on the account, b) the fact that (at the time) there was no place to add another driver to the account. I gave them this example: so if my kids ever drive the car, they can't get Roadside support? Because there's no place to add additional drivers.

That changed not too long afterwards. I like to think I had something to do with that lol. But my wife doesn't care. That one bad experience burned the bridge between her and Telsa lol.

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