New Electrify America (EA) Chargers failing in cold weather

[bsclywilly]

News flash. Public EV charging infrastructure is currently unreliable. Film at 11. In other news, night is still dark.

It’s not just currently unreliable, it’s actually getting worse as the existing chargers are not getting maintained and the new replacements are more problematic.

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[Scandinavian]

But it’s not about the ‘technology’, it’s about the deployment. There’s a lot more to this than simply technology. The deployment of infrastructure is NOT there yet, period. It’s not even debatable; it’s a fact. Banging your head against the wall and complaining isn’t going to change that.

Anyone who bought a Taycan under the assumption that they would have access to a reliable public charging network simply didn’t do their homework.

While continuing to have no problems with EA chargers, I still don’t understand why anyone would buy an EV if they have to rely on public charging infrastructure except in the most rare circumstances. The infrastructure isn’t there yet and that’s not a secret. I don’t get all the whining about something that is and was patently obvious to anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock. Public EV charging infrastructure is unreliable, period. Accept it or don’t own an EV at the moment. Or buy a dental dam, I mean Tesla.

Oh and in that video, it’s negative six degrees. Shit doesn’t work as well in those temps. Shocking I know.

I think you need to state that this is very specific to the US!!! EA, BTC etc. Not EV community in general!

ABB chargers that were working well are deployed together with Tritium chargers in the Ionity network.

In Europe the Ionity, Fastned and many other networks work as they should. There may be an occasional glitch and some chargers down, but nothing like you seem to experience in the US. If the car is well prepared the chargers deliver the stated power.

 

[tigerbalm]

Some of the best charger hardware our there: ABB (Ionity) and Hypercharger (Fastned, Circle K) are all made in Italy.

EA needs to start buying their chargers from Italy – where they have a proven track record.

 

[jimshadow]

Really bad experience tonight at a bank of 4 EA chargers that i use frequently. Chargers are showing age and they are not getting maintained. 1 is out completely and when I called customer service, they told me that there’s an open ticket on this bank of chargers from OCTOBER!!!!!

 

[Archimedes]

I think you need to state that this is very specific to the US!!! EA, BTC etc. Not EV community in general!

ABB chargers that were working well are deployed together with Tritium chargers in the Ionity network.

In Europe the Ionity, Fastned and many other networks work as they should. There may be an occasional glitch and some chargers down, but nothing like you seem to experience in the US. If the car is well prepared the chargers deliver the stated power.

Two things to be cautious of. First, Americans are whiners by nature and anecdotal comments on the Internet doesn’t constitute data. Spend any time reading reviews of anything here on the Internet and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that nothing’s ever good enough for the average American. They want everything perfect and they ‘want it now daddy!’

Second, there are other charging providers than just EA here in the US. It’s the free charging aspect that skews things a bit on this forum.

I’m about to hit the road on a trip in a few days with planned EA stops. I’ll be sure to give my thoughts, positive or negative, when I’m done.

One thing that always makes me chuckle is when someone complains about visiting an EA charging station where one or two charging stations are out, but they’re still able to charge immediately on those that are working. So they weren’t really inconvenienced and if EA just hadn’t installed that additional charger that was down, the comment would be glowing about how they were 100% available and they had no trouble charging…

Oh and it seems that everyone on here seems to forget all those massive lines at Tesla superchargers a few years back, when their network was kinda in a similar place to where EA is now…

 

[Toodal00]

Two things to be cautious of. First, Americans are whiners by nature and anecdotal comments on the Internet doesn’t constitute data. Spend any time reading reviews of anything here on the Internet and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that nothing’s ever good enough for the average American. They want everything perfect and they ‘want it now daddy!’

Second, there are other charging providers than just EA here in the US. It’s the free charging aspect that skews things a bit on this forum.

I’m about to hit the road on a trip in a few days with planned EA stops. I’ll be sure to give my thoughts, positive or negative, when I’m done.

One thing that always makes me chuckle is when someone complains about visiting an EA charging station where one or two charging stations are out, but they’re still able to charge immediately on those that are working. So they weren’t really inconvenienced and if EA just hadn’t installed that additional charger that was down, the comment would be glowing about how they were 100% available and they had no trouble charging…

Oh and it seems that everyone on here seems to forget all those massive lines at Tesla superchargers a few years back, when their network was kinda in a similar place to where EA is now…

I dont think you live in a area that has a lot of EV's and you had to wait two hours to charge your car. come to LA and youll see what a whiner we are.

 

[Wakesurfer]

Two things to be cautious of. First, Americans are whiners by nature and anecdotal comments on the Internet doesn’t constitute data. Spend any time reading reviews of anything here on the Internet and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that nothing’s ever good enough for the average American. They want everything perfect and they ‘want it now daddy!’

Second, there are other charging providers than just EA here in the US. It’s the free charging aspect that skews things a bit on this forum.

I’m about to hit the road on a trip in a few days with planned EA stops. I’ll be sure to give my thoughts, positive or negative, when I’m done.

One thing that always makes me chuckle is when someone complains about visiting an EA charging station where one or two charging stations are out, but they’re still able to charge immediately on those that are working. So they weren’t really inconvenienced and if EA just hadn’t installed that additional charger that was down, the comment would be glowing about how they were 100% available and they had no trouble charging…

Oh and it seems that everyone on here seems to forget all those massive lines at Tesla superchargers a few years back, when their network was kinda in a similar place to where EA is now…

Maybe not whiners...............we just want what we pay for. Not an unusually high expectation. Yes, I know that EV's and the charging system are new and the kinks need to get worked out but I don't think that it is out of line for me to expect to drive up to any charging station, plug-in, quickly (very quickly charge) and be on my way. But, I knew that this would not be a perfect system when I purchased my Taycan. I have no regrets about the purchase but I will say that my expectations about charging outside of my home were not high.............and they have been met.

 

[kort]

Maybe not whiners...............we just want what we pay for.

the ability to charge beyond the car's range is crucial to EVs being accepted as an alternative to ICE vehicles.
the charging process must be infallible, no if ands or excuses.
I have been in the situation where because of the flaw baked into the car I had a lot of issues getting the car to charge on the EA network. It is not fun! my wife refused to accompany me on road trips because of the uncertainty of being able to charge that had too many delays or white knuckle runs to nearby chargers.

EA needs to get their business working properly

 

[fullmetalbaal]

Two things to be cautious of. First, Americans are whiners by nature and anecdotal comments on the Internet doesn’t constitute data. Spend any time reading reviews of anything here on the Internet and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that nothing’s ever good enough for the average American. They want everything perfect and they ‘want it now daddy!’

Second, there are other charging providers than just EA here in the US. It’s the free charging aspect that skews things a bit on this forum.

I’m about to hit the road on a trip in a few days with planned EA stops. I’ll be sure to give my thoughts, positive or negative, when I’m done.

One thing that always makes me chuckle is when someone complains about visiting an EA charging station where one or two charging stations are out, but they’re still able to charge immediately on those that are working. So they weren’t really inconvenienced and if EA just hadn’t installed that additional charger that was down, the comment would be glowing about how they were 100% available and they had no trouble charging…

Oh and it seems that everyone on here seems to forget all those massive lines at Tesla superchargers a few years back, when their network was kinda in a similar place to where EA is now…

People were just as upset then. I remember tons of people sharing pictures of the long lines on all the forums.

Personally, I'm far more willing to give first movers some credit/tolerance than somebody who has had years to watch others fail & succeed, and should in theory be able to invest to avoid the same mistakes.

Namely: EA are IMHO completely undersizing locations. We have tens of thousands of new vehicles joining, all with "free charging" that people want to maximize whether they are driving long distance or not. This is going to be worse than the Model 3 wave hitting Tesla Supercharging, and Tesla mostly had 6-8 per location, whereas it seems EA often only has 4.

Combine that with the fact that we'll have a lot of EVs with relatively weak "fast charging" capabilities, and the maintenance story, and it's pretty clear that 2023 is not going to be fun.

 

[f1eng]

If it is free you are getting what you paid for not much.

Here the discounted Porsche price at Ionity (but I haven’t been anywhere near one yet, there aren’t any near here) is £0.31 per kWh.
It is the same at Porsche dealers but they charge by the minute too So my 28.19 kWh top up cost £18.42 (~$22)
The other charger I used charges £0.75 per kWh and is slower. (~$0.90 per kWh)

So basically pay nowt, get nowt, pay a fortune get not much more

 

[Archimedes]

I dont think you live in a area that has a lot of EV's and you had to wait two hours to charge your car. come to LA and youll see what a whiner we are.

Wait you couldn’t get your car charged immediately ?!!! There wasn’t a charger sitting there idle just waiting for you to drive up?! The horror!

 

[Archimedes]

Maybe not whiners...............we just want what we pay for. Not an unusually high expectation. Yes, I know that EV's and the charging system are new and the kinks need to get worked out but I don't think that it is out of line for me to expect to drive up to any charging station, plug-in, quickly (very quickly charge) and be on my way.

And therein lies your problem. Your expectations don’t align with reality. And reality is no secret. It’s like expecting your car will get 400 miles on a charge, when it clearly can’t.

And paid for? What is it you think you paid for?

 

[Archimedes]

I’d strongly recommend to all the Veruca Salts on here to do more research before their next major purchase of anything.

 

[Wakesurfer]

And therein lies your problem. Your expectations don’t align with reality. And reality is no secret. It’s like expecting your car will get 400 miles on a charge, when it clearly can’t.

And paid for? What is it you think you paid for?

I paid for a Porsche first...............oh yeah it happens to be an EV. I purchased what I consider a toy - something to have fun with as I chose but not something that I would consider everyday transportation. For everyday transportation I contend that you need at least one ICE vehicle that you can jump in at anytime and not worry about fueling it up on pretty much any road that you take and not have to leave that road for more than a few hundred feet to fuel up. EV's will get there but it won't be anytime soon - unless you can tolerate broken chargers, slow chargers, waiting in line for people with cars that think they can charge at a fast charger, driving a mile or more off of your route to charge, etc., etc. Please do not understand - I am not complaining as I am 100% satisfied with my Taycan - because it meet my expectations of being a Porsche first.

 

[amamoy2]

So driving from Asheville NC back to Chapel Hill. Stopped at Statesville EA station. Whole station, all 4 units Offline. Luckily had enough charge to make it to Greensboro not going too far out of the way.

I stopped there a couple weeks back. Did not think that I needed to check status but will make that a part of routine though not sure how reliable checking on app ahead of time really is…..

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