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Electrify America general discussion
- Thread starter Mockingbird
- Start date
I've charged at a lot of 3rd party charging stations. And you?
Two weeks ago I had to charge in Ellensburg, and ended up using the EA CCS station for exactly that reason. Both stations had only one slot, but at EA that was ~130 kW. At the Supercharger that woulda been ~75 at best. (And it was slightly cheaper. 0.31 vs. 0.38)
Read the title of the thread. If you aren't interested in general discussion of EA activity, which to my mind includes their moves into new territory for them, why are you even here? Billings' construction will singlehandedly enable travel (using only EA stations) across Montana and Wyoming on I-90 and I-94 if you have a real long range EV, though only when the weather is good and probably at a low-ish speed.
Right now, Electrify America is not a realistic alternative to the Supercharger because of the lack of the CCS adapter.
Once the CCS adapter becomes available, Tesla vehicles charging at Electrify America will become such a routine event that no one even questions it.
I started the following thread back in 2016 when EA was first created to spend the $2 billion from the dieselgate settlement:
teslamotorsclub.com
There are 4 total 30 month periods defined in the settlement. So we are maybe half way through the 10 years. My question is, when that 10 years is up, what happens when EA loses the VW funding stream?
Does EA then just maintain the then built network, or do they have some other source of funds to continue additional station build out?
RT
VW Fallout: $2.0 Billion for ZEV Infrastructure Buildout
I wanted to start a new thread about this settlement that is separate from the main VW Dieselgate thread. This is a very large sum of money, and given the amount and that some of it might end up in Hydrogen (No !) I believe the thread is appropriate for the "Energy, Environment and Policy"...
teslamotorsclub.com
There are 4 total 30 month periods defined in the settlement. So we are maybe half way through the 10 years. My question is, when that 10 years is up, what happens when EA loses the VW funding stream?
Does EA then just maintain the then built network, or do they have some other source of funds to continue additional station build out?
RT
RTPEV
Active Member
The free market takes over. They either find a way to make money at their venture--becoming profitable and remaining competitive doing so, expanding if necessary--or they wither and die. It's possible that government will step in and either assist them (and other networks), or force utilities to offer lenient electric rates to streamline their cost model, but at the end of the day it's a business and they have to make money to survive.I started the following thread back in 2016 when EA was first created to spend the $2 billion from the dieselgate settlement:
VW Fallout: $2.0 Billion for ZEV Infrastructure Buildout
I wanted to start a new thread about this settlement that is separate from the main VW Dieselgate thread. This is a very large sum of money, and given the amount and that some of it might end up in Hydrogen (No !) I believe the thread is appropriate for the "Energy, Environment and Policy"...
There are 4 total 30 month periods defined in the settlement. So we are maybe half way through the 10 years. My question is, when that 10 years is up, what happens when EA loses the VW funding stream?
Does EA then just maintain the then built network, or do they have some other source of funds to continue additional station build out?
RT
The problem for Electrify America is that there isn't enough demand to be profitable.I started the following thread back in 2016 when EA was first created to spend the $2 billion from the dieselgate settlement:
VW Fallout: $2.0 Billion for ZEV Infrastructure Buildout
I wanted to start a new thread about this settlement that is separate from the main VW Dieselgate thread. This is a very large sum of money, and given the amount and that some of it might end up in Hydrogen (No !) I believe the thread is appropriate for the "Energy, Environment and Policy"...
There are 4 total 30 month periods defined in the settlement. So we are maybe half way through the 10 years. My question is, when that 10 years is up, what happens when EA loses the VW funding stream?
Does EA then just maintain the then built network, or do they have some other source of funds to continue additional station build out?
RT
That's going to change as more EVs hit the road.
The other problem is that Tesla vehicles, which is the majority of EVs in the US, is incompatible with Electrify America's network. (No, the pathetic CHAdeMO adapter doesn't count).
That will charge with the release of the CCS adapter (officially, anyway).
Gee, who came first?
What idiots would start a business that can only serve an insignificant minority of the industry?
I hope EA hires competent people to sustain the company unlike the ones who started it (and better apologists to troll sites dedicated to the majority of the industry).
Maybe their pathetic efforts to hide under the skirts of the government will work. Maybe not.
At least I see cars using the EA chargers near my house these days. There were 3 users using all 3 stations today when I drove by. Only the J-1772 was available.
C'mon EA, prove me wrong. I dare ya!
(I win either way but sincerely hope to win by being proven wrong)
They're not going to have trouble getting Tesla vehicle owners to use the EA network the way rates are right now. Tesla superchargers that vary by time of day are 58¢/kWh from 11am-9pm and 29¢/kWh at other times. EA chargers are 31¢/kWh with the $4 per month plan that gives you a discount on rates and 43¢/kWh without it. So during the 11am-9pm window, it makes sense to charge at EA when possible. I just got my CCS adapter delivered yesterday so if I take a road trip, I'll try to use EA chargers in the 11am-9pm window if the Tesla SCs in the area are doing the time of day pricing.
That's just california tho... Up here, the SC I go to, are all cheaper than EA. Some are 29 cents all hours, some 24 cents all hours, some are 37 cents peak and 18 cents off peak, etc. But otherwise I agree... I'm driving down to California in a few weeks, and was going to experiment with hitting a few CCS chargers during peak hours instead of paying the 48 cents in NorCal, and 58 cents in SoCal. The EA locations look to only have 4 stalls, so not sure how crowded they'll be.
I'd certainly use them on occasion if they are in a better location on road trips, such as when they are in a better location than a Supercharger, I need to buy supplies at a Walmart, I'm going to push my luck at reaching a Supercharger but would like a backup option, or get a meal where they're near in a better place. In fact, I even have a few times. Unfortunately, all of my experiences have been less than ideal including hassles getting a charging session started (standing out in the cold fussing with a smartphone and freezing my fingers) and stopping charging after a short time.
When on the road, speed to destination while accomplishing what is needed can be worth spending a few more $
Over 40% of the country's zero emission cars are in California. (gov.ca.gov Feb 25, 2022)
With Tesla being formerly based in California, I wouldn't be surprised if over half of Tesla vehicles are in California.
The consent agreement required EA to support the "open standards", which included CCS and Chademo, but not Tesla. EA could have put Tesla connectors on, but didn't because they wanted to encourage people to buy VW EVs, not Tesla's. They were forced to spend the money, it wasn't strictly a "business decision" at the time. As you know, the stations they ended up rolling out typically had all CCS connectors and one Chademo.
If it were strictly a business decision, then yes, they should have put in Tesla connectors. Keep in mind also back then a lot of people thought Tesla was still going to get crushed by the legacy automakers.
I don't know if EA can actually make money selling power at those rates. I think a lot of their customers are getting "free" charging for a year with the car purchase, funded by the companies selling the cars, so EA maybe gets a fat check up front while providing in some cases sub-optimal infrastructure.
RT
This is false.
Tesla Proprietary Connector is proprietary.
Volkswagen, Electrify America's parent company, would have to accept Tesla's outrageous patent sharing deal, which was never going to happen.
Why Other Car Companies Don't Use Tesla Superchargers
Tesla says it will give its charging technology to any automaker who wants it. But the fine print makes this a terrible deal, even if it's free.
www.roadandtrack.com
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