Electrify America locations from the San Francisco Bay Area up highway 5 toward Oregon and back

j.w.s

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I made a trip driving North from the San Francisco Bay Area in California, on highways 80, 505, and 5 and then back, visiting each of the Elecrify America highway locations twice - once driving up and once driving back. This meant that I charged just a few minutes at each stop, but was able to try each station twice.

In eight charging sessions, I managed to get a 350KW slot eight times, and successfully charged eight times just by plugging in and waiting the annoyingly long half-minute it takes an EA charger to negotate communication and then start charging. That's eight tries and zero problems - which, given EA's reputation, might just be a record. I found it quite odd that every location was empty or nearly empty - the exact opposite of my visit to three EA in-town locations in the SF Bay Area, each of which was completely full.

From South to North:
  • Vacaville, CA - at the outlet mall. The entire location, with 14 CCS stalls total, showed "out of service" in the EA app, so I did not visit.
  • Dunnigan, CA - at the rear of a small hotel. Seven CCS stalls, including two 350KW. Was completely empty the first time, and contained just one other car the second time. One 350KW stall was working and the other showed that it was running with reduced power.
  • Willows, CA - on the side of a Walmart. Seven CCS stalls, including 4x 350KW. Completely empty when I visited.
  • Anderson, CA - in front of a Safeway. Seven CCS stalls, including 4x 350KW. I visited twice and saw only one other car.

Some random observations and a question:
  • Most charging locations are pretty awful, tucked behind some random business and looking forlorn. I'm getting used to it, but I don't imagine my wife being comfortable traveling alone and charging at night.
  • I dream of having european-style rest stops (good coffee and cake, decent food, nice seating, not sketchy) outfitted with Level3 chargers. Some day!
  • I charged twice at one charger, not pre-heating the pack the first time and then pre-heating the second time. First: 120kw. Second: 230KW.
  • To get the Porsche nav to find an EA location, I ended up saying "I need to charge". I then got a huge list of nearby charging locations, from which I could pick one. This is not efficient. I was not able to say "Navigate me to Electrify America, Willows California". Is there a better way to navigate to a specific charging location?
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Archimedes

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Some random observations and a question:
  • Most charging locations are pretty awful, tucked behind some random business and looking forlorn. I'm getting used to it, but I don't imagine my wife being comfortable traveling alone and charging at night.

I agree and started a thread on this a few weeks back after a trip of my own. Our approach to building out public charging in the US is moronic and I’ll suited to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
 
 




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