EA (Electrify America) Sucks - that is all

[kmcdonal]

chargePoint and EVGo are in fact mucho more reliable vs. EA - for me cost is not the issue - the ChargePoint and EVGo chargers are overwhelmingly 50 kW (or 72 kW in case of charge point) - so while better than home charging - they are like 1/3rd the speed of what EA is supposed to offer.

I did have an excellent experience with a new EVGo charger (100 kW) in Los Gatos at the Nob Hill/Una Mas shopping mall

but EA is the only vendor with a deep installed based of 150kW or more chargers - but then again that may not account for much if they never work…

Great summary. I agree 100% but would add that EVGo in particular seems to be installing some faster chargers. For example they have a 200kW charger right around the corner from me.

It feels like things are changing and competition is going to drive more reliability and more fast chargers, at least in bigger markets where people have choices.

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[markrm61]

I whole heartedly agree with David, especially the EA of late in San Francisco has succumbed to a new low. Within the city, there are only four EA locations! In a city of 800k people, now two of the four stations are down, one for three months.

While 20 miles outside of the city yesterday, I went to the San Mateo EA station and received payment declined errors on my 2021 plug and charge Taycan, what?! The polite customer service agent said, all looked good on my account and the charger was operational. Somehow the next moment it worked.

EA has really gone downhill in SF, my first year was basically trouble free surprisingly. With the increased EV adoption (yay), the infrastructure cannot handle the utilization. I just cannot imagine how unprepared EA is at this juncture and dare I say Elon got it right with their infrastructure?! (Sigh).

 

[diegomedinaf]

just made my stop today on an EA station.

1st ( walmart ) 4 unavailable 2 available ( 150KW )

I was told the 1 empty I cannot use since there was another car already plugged? is that true? 2 cars cannot charge at same time?

2nd location: empty. 150Kw put me from 38% to 80% in under 20 min. connect and started with no issues.

 

[Tooney]

Consider relocating from CA, per @Jhenson29 EA reliability report.

 

[Jhenson29]

Consider relocating from CA, per @Jhenson29 EA reliability report.

For sure.

It’s also true that I’ve never been to an EA station that didn’t offer unicorn rides while I wait.

 

[Jhenson29]

Consider relocating from CA, per @Jhenson29 EA reliability report.

Technically….it wasn’t a reliability report.

I only stated that those problems have not occurred for me. Which is true.

 

[Hirschaj]

I was told the 1 empty I cannot use since there was another car already plugged? is that true? 2 cars cannot charge at same time?

Yes it’s true. You can read more about it on the EA website. If you start charging their session will be ended. Never let anyone else use the 2nd cable on a charging station you are already using.

 

[kort]

Yes it’s true. You can read more about it on the EA website. If you start charging their session will be ended. Never let anyone else use the 2nd cable on a charging station you are already using.

I once has a woman get all bent out of shape when I wouldn't let her use the second cable. I tried to explain but she wasn't hearing it.

 

[porsche_coyote]

chargePoint and EVGo are in fact mucho more reliable vs. EA - for me cost is not the issue - the ChargePoint and EVGo chargers are overwhelmingly 50 kW (or 72 kW in case of charge point) - so while better than home charging - they are like 1/3rd the speed of what EA is supposed to offer.

I did have an excellent experience with a new EVGo charger (100 kW) in Los Gatos at the Nob Hill/Una Mas shopping mall

but EA is the only vendor with a deep installed based of 150kW or more chargers - but then again that may not account for much if they never work…

I will note that independent studies by a couple of groups (including one that I worked with last year) disagree with this. In fact EA is (by a small margin) the most reliable CCS network. EVGo is next, with ChargePoint trailing far behind.

I've had good and bad experiences with all of the networks. I will note that EVGo 350 kW chargers have NEVER worked with my Taycan, and my repeated attempts to work with EVGo on the issue have gone nowhere.

Falling into anecdote, when I was working for the Berkeley study, I had 100% success with EA, 10% success with EVGo, and 100% failure with ChargePoint. That's not the same as my broader personal experience, where ChargePoint has actually been OK-ish, but my general experience is tempered by the fact that I rely on PlugShare scores to decide where to attempt to charge in the first place...

 

[porsche_coyote]

In my recent EA charging experience here in the mid-Atlantic region, the EA stations have been working (if the app said the they were available), but I've had spotty success with initiating charging via the MyPorsche app. I've not had any issues using the NFC 'card' in my phone to charge with my EA account.

Contrast that with local EVGo and SEMAConnect stations where I've had 100% failure since relocating to the DC area...

 

[daveo4EV]

I'll just leave this here…the ABB logo is very very prominent if you've ever watched an EA station reboot…things that make you go "hmmmm…"

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/u-says-swiss-engineering-group-221512023.html

 

[Bill33525]

Contrast that with local EVGo and SEMAConnect stations where I've had 100% failure since relocating to the DC area...

My experience, RFID cards work instantly 100% of the time on EVgo chargers. Same with Chargepoint chargers as well.

 

[porsche_coyote]

My experience, RFID cards work instantly 100% of the time on EVgo chargers. Same with Chargepoint chargers as well.

I was using the NFC cards. The issue was that it could not initiate a charge, not that I couldn't authorize payment.

 

[Bill33525]

I was using the NFC cards. The issue was that it could not initiate a charge, not that I couldn't authorize payment.

Okay, EVgo has a few dead chargers in my area as well. Hopefully, you can find some that work.

 

[porsche_coyote]

Okay, EVgo has a few dead chargers in my area as well. Hopefully, you can find some that work.

Thanks. Your suggestion is a perfectly reasonable one; so many of the EVGo chargers are in parking garages with marginal cell reception that I found a long time ago that it was better to use the NFC cards than to use the app. All of our three EVs have a EVGo card in the car. With ChargePoint and EA we can use Apple Wallet for NFC even without using the app, so no need to use the physical cards...

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