Another successful PnC trip but oddity re ChargePoint destination charger

[ciaranob]

Hi all - well completed yet another 500 mile+ round trip in Texas with again Zero issues getting PnC to work immediately (no intervention at all required), this time at two separate EA stations (Alleyton/Columbus and Katy). I'm batting 100% success to date with (including multiple repeat visits to) 9 EA stations now over a period of 1.5 years.

The Alleyton Charge station had one 150 kW unit down undergoing maintenance (taped off) - thankfully the 350 kW unit working fine - it was immediately available for use when we pulled up on both occasions, outbound and on our return trip.

The unusual thing that happened on this trip was related to our stay at an apartment complex rental along the River Walk in San Antonio which offered both 1) a private (residents only) secure garage and 2) on-site EV charging by ChargePoint.

However when we got there and attempted to hook up the car, despite my ChargePoint app seamlessly and immediately communicating with the charger and initiating the payment process recognizing my card, right before verification, the process was interrupted and the charger stated that this unit had restricted access!

Now if you search for this ChargePoint station on say Plugshare or within the ChargePoint app itself, it does not show up. I assumed this was simply because it was a private garage for residents only but in fact it seems that, more than this, only residents are registered to this Charger and even guests to the complex cannot apparently use it. We solved this by having the owner of the property come to the garage and initiate a charge with his app and I refunded the cost later (apparently we were the first of his guests to have an EV - its a rel. new complex).

Nonetheless a bit of a weird one to me - a first for sure and something to maybe watch out for if/when you might book similar properties with private EV chargers. Again, the ChargePoint was owned by CP themselves and not the property nor the residents - the only rationale for this setup perhaps to ensure residents get access and that it is not tied up by non-resident guests/others (still a bit odd as surely the majority of guests would be visiting residents or like us renting!).

The apartment owner drove a Karma Revero which is an hybrid version of the original Fisker designed Karma full EV - this alternate launched in ca 2016-17 in the US by the new Chinese Karma Automotive ownership - not a bad looking car up close albeit clearly a step away from the original Karma concept. Not sure but this might be the 2020 GT version with a BMW i8 engine and a 28 kW battery - total power 536 HP (400 kW) from two electric motors on rear axle.

Hope that yellow tape is a temporary solution to his plate fix !
(Glaring overhead garage light not the best for pics).

Here is a pic of the ChrgePoint destination charger - despite being hardwired it would only deliver 6.6 kW so ca 5+ at the car - painfully slow (literally half that of my home hard-wired ChargePoint HomeFlex) but NBD, as of course overnight and was fully charged ready for departure next day.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Nonetheless a bit of a weird one to me - a first for sure and something to maybe watch out for if/when you might book similar properties with private EV chargers. Again, the ChargePoint was owned by CP themselves and not the property nor the residents - the only rationale for this setup perhaps to ensure residents get access and that it is not tied up by non-resident guests/others (still a bit odd as surely the majority of guests would be visiting residents or like us renting!).

Here is a pic of the ChrgePoint destination charger - despite being hardwired it would only deliver 6.6 kW so ca 5+ at the car - painfully slow (literally half that of my home hard-wired ChargePoint HomeFlex) but NBD, as of course overnight and was fully charged ready for departure next day.

We have a bunch of these at work, strewn across the campus. They do show up on the CP map, but aren't directly useable - the user account indeed has to be authorized by the company. The onboarding process is asynchronous/manual, and I would expect the same for similar installations (where the authorization to charge is delegated by CP to the charger owner). So good warning .

Another point to keep in mind is these are shared-power chargers; someone else plugging in will drop your charging to 3.3kWh (2.7 at the car). The CP app pushes a notification when that happens, which I guess is great but doesn't really solve the problem of reaching a charge target on time.

 

[ciaranob]

We have a bunch of these at work, strewn across the campus. They do show up on the CP map, but aren't directly useable - the user account indeed has to be authorized by the company. The onboarding process is asynchronous/manual, and I would expect the same for similar installations (where the authorization to charge is delegated by CP to the charger owner). So good warning .

Another point to keep in mind is these are shared-power chargers; someone else plugging in will drop your charging to 3.3kWh (2.7 at the car). The CP app pushes a notification when that happens, which I guess is great but doesn't really solve the problem of reaching a charge target on time.

Ah - excellent and indeed I did wonder about that exact issue re a shared charge setup - I suspect that the apartment/Karma owner helped me out there as he occupied the space next to me but did not initiate a charge on his vehicle from this shared unit (not the best practice perhaps but not an issue actually in this case as the space on my other side was open all night). I saw these same chargers all over our local BMW dealership last year too.

 

[ciaranob]

So another 'test' on this trip was sustained high speed impact on max range 'guessometer' predictions after a home charge on return. When you combine the speeds with 21" wheels etc., no guessing on impact .

I was abe to do this as the trip is almost exactly 200 miles each way with max 20 miles of slower speeds for each leg (in and out of the cities). Lets just say that my average speed was higher (a lot!) than the posted max of 75 mph. I had no AC on for the outbound trip as weather very pleasant but had a combination of Eco and then full normal AC for the return leg.

Again the impact of this as you might imagine was rather severe on the subsequent home charge range predictions when charged back to 85% with new 'guessometer' predictions at calculated 100% charge of 215 in Normal with AC Off and only 222 in Range with AC off - quite anomalous when compared too last 15+ months of data.

Again, hardly surprising but another 'data point'. Normal speeds to resume should restore things in time.

Here is that home charge after arriving home:

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