EA for the win! OMG these people are nuts!!

[daveo4EV]

https://insideevs.com/news/443006/electrify-america-charging-corridor-shut-down-labor-day/

they honestly shutdown their charging network over the weekend on one of the busiest driving weekends of the year!!!

I'm sending a letter to Porsche asking them to buy Tesla and convert the Supercharger Network to CCS.

It turns out, Electrify America had shut down every charging station from the middle of Virginia to southern South Carolina in order to do upgrades (this is nearly 500 miles of highway). For some reason, the company didn't alert EV owners of this ahead of time and it closed all the stations at the same time during a busy holiday travel weekend.

never attribute to malice what can be explained by gross incompetence - or simply put EA management.

​

Sponsored

 

[redrocket]

EA is the worst. Throughout MD, VA, NC many charging stations are completely out of service. At places that are working in the Mid-Atlantic area take a look. You will usually find only 2-3 chargers working, and high output chargers are mostly out of service. When I decided to buy my Taycan I thought long and hard about it because of EA’s dismal performance. In the end I bought the car, but we keep 2 ice vehicles for use when we go on long trips. Somewhat defeats the reason to buy an EV. In my case I bought the Taycan because of the performance of the vehicle itself. Porsche, VW, Audi, whoever, will all ultimately fail with their EV plans if they are depending on EA and EA doesn’t get their sh** together. EA is amateur hour.

 

[feye]

EA is the worst. Throughout MD, VA, NC many charging stations are completely out of service. At places that are working in the Mid-Atlantic area take a look. You will usually find only 2-3 chargers working, and high output chargers are mostly out of service. When I decided to buy my Taycan I thought long and hard about it because of EA’s dismal performance. In the end I bought the car, but we keep 2 ice vehicles for use when we go on long trips. Somewhat defeats the reason to buy an EV. In my case I bought the Taycan because of the performance of the vehicle itself. Porsche, VW, Audi, whoever, will all ultimately fail with their EV plans if they are depending on EA and EA doesn’t get their sh** together. EA is amateur hour.

I think this all depends on politics. Countries, where EVs are much harder pushed, have already a good charging infrastructure, which is growing fast.

The best is China. The charging is not high performance, but 70 to 160kW stations are everywhere.

Europe is also doing more or less ok. VW will install stations for the roll out of the ID.3

US is in a pickle. Toyota is so slow with EVs. VW decided not to sell the ID.3. But the ID.4 will come, and that might help EA to grow and provide better service.

 

[feye]

US is in a pickle. Toyota is so slow with EVs. VW decided not to sell the ID.3. But the ID.4 will come, and that might help EA to grow and provide better service.

Just found out, that Toyota is in fact selling in China 3 EVs one Lexus and two Toyota models...

 

[T-Fury]

I was reading about this and I see they are refurbishing some locations. I assume this means they’re replacing some of the chargers. I vaguely recall they were eventually planning to try to go down from 4 fast charger suppliers and maybe these are the ones that didn’t make cut because they suck. Not saying this was handled well. Communication definitely needs to improve when it comes to taking down an entire segment of the network (email, push notification in the app, etc...)—but it does make me think they’re actively working to improve reliability. This is likely going to be a slower and more painful process than the Tesla network since so many of the car manufacturers using the EA network generally sell ICE cars and taking any interest in “gas-stations” is a foreign concept to them, but if they want to actually sell people their electric cars for long distance driving they’re going to have to get more involved in the funding and reliability of the charging network. Quite a few of the non-Tesla manufactures make reference to using the EA network, but I still don’t think they get that this isn’t just a “gas-station” and someone else’s problem to fix. It’s literally the difference in whether you can drive your car some places or not at this point, which is going to influence whether people buy and have good/poor experiences with electric cars.

 

[daveo4EV]

I have no problem with upgrading the network and it does show good initiative, but LaborDay weekend was the one weekend they had to do this and the entire thing all at once?

really? the planning here is just poorly thought through.

 

[redrocket]

I have no problem with upgrading the network and it does show good initiative, but LaborDay weekend was the one weekend they had to do this and the entire thing all at once?

really? the planning here is just poorly thought through.

Labor Day weekend and simultaneously locking out multiple sites in a region. Like I said earlier, amateur hour. In the end, hopefully, EA will get their act together. But in the meantime anyone depending on EA’s network will likely be SOL.

 

[redrocket]

EA’s app currently shows no charging sites working at all on I-95 Florence, SC through Richmond, VA. And southbound, past Florence, the first place I see anything working that is over 50kw is Ormond Beach, FL. Northbound from Richmond you don’t have to go too far, Fredericksburg, VA, to find a 150kw charger. So on I-95 there is a gap of 460 miles between working chargers, Walterboro, SC (50kw) to Fredericksburg, VA (150kw). Totally unbelievable.

 

[T-Fury]

Yea, I don’t understand why they couldn’t replace individual fast chargers at a time. Poor form.

 

[Vim Schrotnock]

That is insane. Someone at EA should have electroshock therapy...

 

[porsche_coyote]

That is insane. Someone at EA should have electroshock therapy...

Session probably would fail to start.

 

[daveo4EV]

and they would not be able to disconnect the electrodes when they were done!

 

[manitou202]

and they would not be able to disconnect the electrodes when they were done!

Thoughts on how to pressure Porsche N/A to get EA to clean up its act?

I now have an E-tron and a Taycan. I'm going to rely pretty heavily on this network when I take a road trip. These charging stations shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. I understand it takes a lot of time to implement the roll out, but once they are in the field they should work very reliably.

 

[daveo4EV]

I'm pestering my dealer service rep and sales rep with every EA problem I run into - I'm posting detailed reports of the shit experience EA chargers provide, and suggesting the vehicle may not remain in my ownership if Porsche can't clean this - 3 times to service with out resolution for the issues = lemon law vehicle that they get to buy back…

 

[manitou202]

I'm pestering my dealer service rep and sales rep with every EA problem I run into - I'm posting detailed reports of the shit experience EA chargers provide, and suggesting the vehicle may not remain in my ownership if Porsche can't clean this - 3 times to service with out resolution for the issues = lemon law vehicle that they get to buy back…

I haven't used the EA chargers enough to run into major problems. But I'm about to take a small road trip in the Taycan in three weeks, and a long road trip in the E-tron over Thanksgiving. So I will make sure to voice any issues with my dealer.

Have you tried contacting anyone at Porsche NA?

Sponsored