Do you use Electrify America as a Tesla owner?

[Chrushev]

Over here in California we got Superchargers at 36c/kw, which isnt cheap, but level 2 chargers are around 20c/kw. We got the first Electrify America station open near me, never seen one in person before, and its 46c/kw. And from what I understand with $500 adapter I can get 50kwh charge rate on it with my Tesla. So, seeing how its much more expensive than a supercharger, and is slower, and that there are plenty of level 2 chargers around. It doesnt seem like there is any reason for me to ever use these Electrify America cabinets?

Am I missing something? Are these a good deal for any type of vehicle? I understand people using them in emergency or road tripping in cars that cant use the supercharger network. Is that their primary purpose?

 

[mociaf9]

I understand people using them in emergency or road tripping in cars that cant use the supercharger network. Is that their primary purpose?

Yes, they are meant to serve the charging needs of cars that can use CHAdeMO or CCS, which mostly means non-Tesla EVs. However, since Tesla owners can buy a CHAdeMO adapter (or now a 3rd party CCS adapter), some will charge at EA stations. For them, I think it's mostly used on routes that EA has chargers for but there aren't superchargers. Some people probably use them in areas where the superchargers are very heavily used and they are willing to pay a higher price for electricity in order to not have to wait for an open supercharger stall or where the EA station is more conveniently located (or has better amenities near by) for their particular needs and they are willing to pay for that convenience. Etc.

BTW, you're mixing up your units when talking about electricity. kW (kilowatt) is a measure of electrical power and hidden in the watt unit is a "per time" element, kWh (kilowatt-hour) is a volumetric measure of electrical energy. An analogy to if you were talking about filling a water tank would be that kW is like the rate of how many gallons/minute are flowing and kWh would be how many gallons you had actually put in the tank. So, charging via the CHAdeMO adapter is limited to 50 kW. And superchargers, L2, and EA stations bill by the kWh.

 

[omarsultan]

Think of charging networks like burger joints. You may think In-n-Out makes the best burger on the planet, but, in a pinch, if you are hungry and there are no other options for 50 miles in any direction, you'll have a Big Mac.

 

[qingshan]

Absolutely not! The entity exists because of the despicable conduct of VW which they now turn into an electron war with themselves - there are few others that charge as much. My finder Apps all have them filtered out.

BTW - there are many free L2 places in Calif and some free L3

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

...the company forced as a punishment to build EV chargers, sets the price so high people don't buy/use electric cars? *gasp*. shocked. shocked i am sir!

 

[Chrushev]

...the company forced as a punishment to build EV chargers, sets the price so high people don't buy/use electric cars? *gasp*. shocked. shocked i am sir!

wait, is this for real? howly shyte! that would explain it! But it costs them to operate doesnt it? If noone is using them due to high costs, then they'd be losing money?

 

[e of pi]

The prices I tend to see for using the network (on a non-Tesla EV) are $0.46/kWh without the app, $0.32/kWh with, and $0.24/kWh with a $4 monthly membership. I don't drive long range often enough for the latter to be worth it, but my understanding is that even the app-user rate I pay compares pretty well to what the Supercharger network is charging these days, which I understand hangs out about $0.35/kWh? The 50 kW limit on the car side for Model 3/Y is an issue, and hopefully Tesla will raise that eventually (at the least, you'd think they would when they release their own CCS adaptor....one of these years), but at least with the third party CCS adaptor I've seen some people here reporting 70+ kW with Model S.

 

[Rocky_H]

@Chrushev It's like anything else--use it if you want--or don't. They are obviously meant for all other types of electric cars, since those other brands can't use Tesla's Superchargers, so they need some other form of public charging stations.

But Tesla does sell that CHAdeMO adapter, so it's possible for us to use them. And I do have a recent example. Last year, a friend of mine with a Model 3 here in Boise, ID was going to going on a trip up to Spokane, WA. He found out kind of by accident, just a day or two before leaving, that the Tesla Supercharger in Baker City, OR had been vandalized and was completely not working. So to keep that from being a difficulty on his trip, he came by and borrowed my CHAdeMO adapter, and he did use it on their trip at a couple of Electrify America stations to cover things.

And also last year, someone else from here in town was going up to Northern Idaho to visit a college where there was a charging station there in town, but no Supercharger. So they also borrowed my CHAdeMO adapter and it made the trip super convenient to be able to easily charge right there.

It's just another tool in the tool bag that can sometimes make things easier.

I could also give examples of other routes near me, like Boise to Winnemucca, NV or Boise to Bend, OR that don't have Superchargers but do have other brands of fast charging stations. Those routes would be extremely difficult, and I would probably take our Honda Civic instead, if I didn't have my CHAdeMO adapter to use those other charging networks that exist where Superchargers aren't.

 

[Two-rocks]

At least you get to pay by the kw. My area they are by the minute.
With that said, the pricing was reasonable, considering it was a dc fast charger. Your prices are higher.

 

[airborne spoon]

I've seen a few of the EA chargers pop up and i don't know why a tesla owner would use one. I mean i obv never would since i have free unlimited SC, but it maxes out at 50kW that's slow AF like even the "urban" SC cap at 73kW. they are there for like volts and whatever else is out there that uses CSS or chademo plugs.
If i was ever traveling and a planned SC stop was broken or out of service i'd still just go and find a J1772 chargepoint or something because most of them are free and at 6kW its slow as hell but its free and I'll never pay for something i can get for free.

 

[e of pi]

I've seen a few of the EA chargers pop up and i don't know why a tesla owner would use one. I mean i obv never would since i have free unlimited SC, but it maxes out at 50kW that's slow AF like even the "urban" SC cap at 73kW. they are there for like volts and whatever else is out there that uses CSS or chademo plugs.
If i was ever traveling and a planned SC stop was broken or out of service i'd still just go and find a J1772 chargepoint or something because most of them are free and at 6kW its slow as hell but its free and I'll never pay for something i can get for free.

They max out at 50 kW because of Tesla's adapter architecture decisions (and even then, apparently only for M3/MY?). For other cars, they're capable of up to 350 kW, limited more by what the car can tolerate. Hopefully, when Tesla releases their first-party CCS adapter, they won't knee cap it to 50 kW like they did the Chademo adapter, and Teslas will be able to take advantage of the full capabilities of the chargers and the car's own potential as configured for Superchargers.

 

[Rocky_H]

I've seen a few of the EA chargers pop up and i don't know why a tesla owner would use one.

When the EA station is in a place where a Supercharger isn't, on a route that you need to take, then you will understand.

I mean i obv never would since i have free unlimited SC, but it maxes out at 50kW that's slow AF like even the "urban" SC cap at 73kW.

That's about half Supercharger speeds--not great, but not too bad. I've used CHAdeMOs extensively for some trips where there wasn't Supercharger coverage, and it was OK in making the trip work fairly well.

they are there for like volts and whatever else is out there that uses CSS or chademo plugs.

Well sure, of course that's primarily what they're for, but having a DC fast charging station versus not having it is huge.

If i was ever traveling and a planned SC stop was broken or out of service i'd still just go and find a J1772 chargepoint or something because most of them are free and at 6kW its slow as hell but its free and I'll never pay for something i can get for free.

This...is kind of ridiculous. First off, most of them are not free, and you don't seem to understand how horrifically slow 6kW charging is when you're trying to use it for traveling on a route. The difference between trying to use level2 J1772 connections versus CHAdeMO on a trip is like night and day and is just not to be compared. Trying to go from Boise, ID to Bend, OR when all they had was a 14-50 outlet I could use along the way was just painful and made it absolutely a non-starter. Having to sit in the tiny nothing town of Burns, OR for 4 hours would be ridiculous and infuriating. Being there less than an hour by using the new CHAdeMO station? Tolerable.

 

[airborne spoon]

This...is kind of ridiculous. First off, most of them are not free, and you don't seem to understand how horrifically slow 6kW charging is when you're trying to use it for traveling on a route. The difference between trying to use level2 J1772 connections versus CHAdeMO on a trip is like night and day and is just not to be compared. Trying to go from Boise, ID to Bend, OR when all they had was a 14-50 outlet I could use along the way was just painful and made it absolutely a non-starter. Having to sit in the tiny nothing town of Burns, OR for 4 hours would be ridiculous and infuriating. Being there less than an hour by using the new CHAdeMO station? Tolerable.

Some chargepoint spots you have to pay for however i have never used one because within a short distance there is always a free one that's free because its slightly inconvenient for most people or some other reason, but yeah like 90% of the J1772 spots I've come across are free. And like i said i dont give a *sugar* free is free.
back before there was a supercharger in Raleigh, NC i had to use the J1772 by the REI there because there was no other power for free. And you can bet your ass i wasn't gonna pay to use a chademo paid spot. So id just chill out there and watch movies on my phone for like a couple hours till i had enough juice to get back to Fayetteville.
I've had a situation here in CA where i was gonna charge someplace and the SC was down and i was at like 5% i was able to find a slow destination charger so it only charged at 40 amps, but whatever it was free and i took a nap for a few hours.
The things I'll do to save a buck will make Scrooge McDuck jealous.

 

[El joe]

As these roll-out (EVGo just emailed me about how they added 50 Tesla units in the SF area, adapter not required), I'd be tempted. I used to have a Bolt and rarely saw anyone else when using a DCFC but some SuperChargers I go to are almost at capacity. As I start seeing these being close to full on the screen, a DCFC might be a decent option, albeit a lot slower.

 

[Rocky_H]

The things I'll do to save a buck will make Scrooge McDuck jealous.

Well, I've done some things to make electric driving work way back when. My wife and I had to take 14 hours driving back from Salt Lake City to Boise, which normally takes about 5-6 hours in a gas car. But that was because I was adventurous and determined to do it, and there just wasn't any fast charging infrastructure back then.

But now, it's 2021 and I'm over that. We have the options. And I'm not going to make myself miserable and supremely piss off my wife because of not wanting to pay the $450 for the CHAdeMO adapter or refusing to use any paid form of charging. Convenience overrules that stuff now.

 

[Exelion]

Tesla's CHAdeMO adapter and Setec's CCS adapter for Teslas make better spare tires than real spare tires. Yes, they cost more but they're lighter and used much more often. They're basically the equivalent of the run down, poorly kept gas station nobody wants to pull into but needs a club card to use if they did. These adapters are the club card. People who have them don't usually look for CCS/CHAdeMO over SC. Which is why I have both, and thankfully have gotten out of stupid situations that were unplanned, or SC's just aren't around.

Situations I've run into I never expected:

-0 availability at SC because a bunch of Model S/X guys are getting their free electricity for life at them. At midnight.

-Forgot to charge at home and now at 20%. Need the car now. No worries, EA is nearby. 15 minutes and I'm back up again to usable range.

-Visiting people who live in SC black holes, OR, live in an area with number 1, above.

 

[Earl]

Yes, they cost more but they're lighter

They also take up a lot less space, fitting easily in the frunk - along with tire chains, mobile connector, 12 gauge extension cord, snow traction plates, and (most of all) Hot Wheels Teslas to give away when I run into kids at a Supercharger.

 

[jboy210]

I would prefer the CCS adapter over Chademo. The CCS adapter seems, when they work, seems to be able to charge Tesla's at near the same rate as a Tesla Supercharger instead of the 50 kW limit of Chademo. However, the CCS to Tesla adapters can have issues sometimes. See this guy's channel for some interesting CCS/Tesla adventure. Crazypostman - YouTube

 

[El joe]

I would prefer the CCS adapter over Chademo. The CCS adapter seems, when they work, seems to be able to charge Tesla's at near the same rate as a Tesla Supercharger instead of the 50 kW limit of Chademo. However, the CCS to Tesla adapters can have issues sometimes. See this guy's channel for some interesting CCS/Tesla adventure. Crazypostman - YouTube

Agree. If this ever comes to market, I’m all over it.

 

[Earl]

I would prefer the CCS adapter over Chademo.

So would most of us. You must realize, however, that CCS was specifically developed and delayed to NOT be available to Tesla in attempt to hamper Tesla. The CCS spec forbids adapters so there cannot ever be a certified CCS-Tesla adapter unless the SAE changes their tune. Given the zeal for EVs and universal hatred for Tesla by most of SAE's membership, this won't happen for a long time.