manitou202

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Great news, although I would like it to happen even faster.


"Electrify America is the largest, open DC (Direct Current) Fast Charging network in the U.S. This new commitment builds on the company’s plans to have about 800 charging stations and approximately 3,500 individual chargers in the U.S. by the end of 2021 and will increase the total number of charging stations to more than 1,700 and 9,500 individual chargers by the end of 2025. The company has installed on average four stations per week since its first charging station opened a little over three years ago in May 2018.

As part of the expansion, Electrify America will not only multiply its presence in established U.S. regions, but also add the states of Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming and Vermont, bringing Electrify America’s network to 49 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Building upon Electrify America’s current two cross-country and two coastal routes for cross-country travel, part of this expansion will add a new electric vehicle charging highway to the upper Midwest, providing necessary EV infrastructure to enable electric mobility in the region. The additional investment will enhance and grow current ultra-fast charging stations in cities where Electrify America already operates, as well as expand upon offerings in regions such as the California Central and San Joaquin Valleys and many new cities such as Austin, Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul."

https://electrek.co/2021/07/13/electrify-america-announces-doubling-charging-network/
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thecoloradokid

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Add the Rivian charging network - although will not be free for Taycan owners - and there will be a plethora of fast charging options in more remote places out west in the next few years. Welcome news for those of us that have no CCS fast charging options on I-25 between Albuquerque and El Paso! Opening up Wyoming and eastern Montana is welcome as well since I like going to north during the summers.

I am with you, Dave, four years to get to that charger expansion goal seems too long based on that Tesla has done it already. Go poach a couple of people from Tesla, mimic charger locations, hire the same contractors, and boom, done in two or three years!!
 

SWORDER

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My feelings are mixed on this.

Part of me is thrilled at the sheer number of new EA charging stations they're planning to build. But another part is like, "Meh... What's the use of increasing the number of charging stations when such a large fraction of the chargers don't even work?"

My Taycan experience has been almost uniformly positive, with EA charging being the notable exception.

EVGo and ChargePoint have hardware and software that work flawlessly, but the charge is slow (EVGo is typically 50kW, ChargePoint is AC only). Yet I've been gravitating to those networks lately, even when there's an EA close by. Simply because with EA, the odds of establishing a working charge are so low.

Using EA has been such a hassle for me. You can't rely on EA's apps to tell you which chargers are in use and which are out of order. They're always wrong. Even amongst two apps with a shared codebase (Electrify America app and Charging app) that contact the same servers, you'll get completely different results re: which chargers are in use, available, etc. And usually both sets of results are wrong -- but in different ways.

Then when you show up, you've got to fire up PlugShare and look for comments from other EV owners that have charged there. "03 is working today. 01 offline, and 02, 04, and 05 won't initiate charge." So then you've got to sit there waiting for pump 03, or get some guidance from other people who happen to be there about which one of the four or five pumps actually work.

Compare that to any of the other DC charging networks where I can use their app and get an accurate indication of what chargers are available, plug in, click Start on the app, walk away, let it charge, and get accurate notifications of SOC on my phone while away.

It's just a weird state of affairs is all; Pretty much every charging network other than EA seems to be highly reliable. But in parallel to that you've got this EA sh*t-show, installing thousands upon thousands of malfunctioning chargers all over the country. It's not exactly angering; There are plenty of non-EA options out there. It's just, I don't know, like I said -- a really weird state of affairs. It's almost like EA is trying to suck, you know?
 

fullmetalbaal

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The good news: they are most (all?) of the remaining states - wooohoo!
The bad news: they will still averaging just over 5 stalls per location. That's just not enough, especially when at most locations, it seems they don't make them all 350kw.
 

fullmetalbaal

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Add the Rivian charging network - although will not be free for Taycan owners - and there will be a plethora of fast charging options in more remote places out west in the next few years. Welcome news for those of us that have no CCS fast charging options on I-25 between Albuquerque and El Paso! Opening up Wyoming and eastern Montana is welcome as well since I like going to north during the summers.

I am with you, Dave, four years to get to that charger expansion goal seems too long based on that Tesla has done it already. Go poach a couple of people from Tesla, mimic charger locations, hire the same contractors, and boom, done in two or three years!!
Rivian fast charging is "Exclusively for Rivian owners" source - their website.

:(
 


Fedex77

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I guess it depends on your location too. Here in CA, I have been fortunate to have only good experiences with the EA network. Granted, I have only done one trip and the chargers all worked (350KW to boot).

Even though I am not a fan of big government oversight, I would love for them to put greater stipulations on the tax credits (to buyers and to the companies) such that their charging networks need to be available for EVERYONE to use (not necessarily free). This would be a game changer and spur the growth of the EV market and adoption.
 

daveo4EV

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this is a great plan - I'd however prefer them to make sure the one's they have already installed actually work - that would be a major improvement in my book.

it does us no good to install 10,000 chargers and have 9,727 of them "unavailable" at any given time.
 

tigerbalm

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I hope we see something similar from Ionity on this side of the pond.
 


thecoloradokid

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Rivian fast charging is "Exclusively for Rivian owners" source - their website.

:(

You are right. I got Rivian's new "Adventure Network" confused with the 10,000 level 2 chargers they plan to install as well. This is what they announced, so let's see what transpires.

Too many charging networks being planned to remember all the details!
 

ron_b

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Add the Rivian charging network - although will not be free for Taycan owners - and there will be a plethora of fast charging options in more remote places out west in the next few years. Welcome news for those of us that have no CCS fast charging options on I-25 between Albuquerque and El Paso! Opening up Wyoming and eastern Montana is welcome as well since I like going to north during the summers.

I am with you, Dave, four years to get to that charger expansion goal seems too long based on that Tesla has done it already. Go poach a couple of people from Tesla, mimic charger locations, hire the same contractors, and boom, done in two or three years!!
Well you may be giving Tesla a bit too much credit, they did start the network in 2012. So 9 years to get where they are with 25000 units world wide but many more units per site than EA so as far as location I think EA is already on par for the United States.

That being said Tesla still runs a very impressive network and keeps them serviced from what I hear.
 

dnanian

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It's actually been some time since I've had a problem at an EA charger...
 

kmcdonal

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It's actually been some time since I've had a problem at an EA charger...
Same for me. I haven't had any EA charging fails in about the last ten months. Prior to that was dicey.
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