You may be right. I stopped following EA closely before the time of the Efacec equipment replacement.
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This test center has been around since at least early 2019. I visited it then and wrote about it here:
Electrify America shows new mobile app, reveals new pricing plans
Update: Electrify America releases new app, big price changes Electrify America says that a new mobile app will become available later this month along with a new pricing strategy that will drop ba…
electricrevs.com
I know he made a video or two about the problem but I don’t think he realized the latch aspect of it prior to making the videos (we were sharing info about DC charging topics during that time period). We were among the first Bolt drivers to seek out the new liquid-cooled charging units when they first went online in the US at EVgo’s Baker, CA site and Recargo’s site in Prunedale, CA. I didn’t realize the underlying issue at first either but soon began noticing the association with the failed latching attempts.
With my many road trips in the Bolt, I have seen this happen many times. Eventually, I just took to reflexively holding up the charging cable but earlier on I methodically observed many charging session startups and failures. Every time there was a session startup failure that I eventually worked around by holding up the charge cable I first noticed the failed latch attempt. Initially, I recall the Bolt only trying once. Later, I think they did a firmware update which included a change that attempted to latch several times before signaling failure.
Of course, there can be other session startup errors unrelated to the latch issue but those cases persisted even after I held up the cable.
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How was it announced? I have the app installed, nothing was pushed out in terms of notifications.
I didn't see it on Twitter.
This was not planned. And by the way, this map is showing sites with just one charger working as "up". The gray sites are ones with all units down. This was on the morning of May 12, 2021.
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Mockingbird
Member
I am not sure where you get that map from because I am looking at it right now and the only one that is down is in Mojeve, CA.
As I said above, this was on the morning of May 12, 2021. I just randomly decided to open the EA app and check the status of the stations and this happened. And that certainly wasn't the first time I've multiple sites (like 25-50% of them) down like this around my area. EA just runs their network like they don't take reliability very seriously. The last time I used the CHAdeMO at one of their stations, it refused to take my credit card (both Google Pay and physical cards). I gave up and created an EA account. That worked.
Mockingbird
Member
Those stations were not down.
There was a problem with the backend.
Anyone who showed up got a free charge.
Mockingbird
Member
Mockingbird
Member
Well, nothing is perfect, but Electrify America did the right thing by giving free charge as a fallback.
“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
When I show up at a site to charge, I need reasonable assurances that I'll actually be able to charge (as opposed to calling someone for a tow because I'm below 5% SoC and can't get to another fast charger). Outages like this, whether the chargers were down or the backend was down, do not inspire confidence.
Mockingbird
Member
Nothing is perfect, but Electrify America did the right thing by giving free charge as a fallback.
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
I always continue to drive until I run outta power before calling a tow truck, I am always surprised how far I can get when I think I am dead in the water. Got in a fight with my wife on the phone on a drive to LA and blew right past Harris Ranch by the time I noticed I was halfway to Button Willow, but I somehow made it w/o even losing speed.
Mockingbird
Member
There is an Electrify America charging station in Lost Hills, which might be close enough if you weren't going to be able to make it to Buttonwillow.
Maybe this was answered in the plethora of comments following this post, but did you have to update the cc address so it would match the address in Korea Delivered gave you?
I ordered the CCS1 adapter from Tesla KR to ship to Korea Delivered (just mailed out from Korea Delivered today) and didn't have to update my Chase SR address. I did have to re-input my card to Tesla as the saved card from the US Tesla Shop didn't work.
Thank you. I got it ordered now. I'm not sure how I got it done because google translate wouldn't work on the pop-up but I guessed my way thru the fields
.Emails and cc transactions show up, so here's to hoping it all went good
