Electrify America general discussion

[RayK]

What happen to the old CEO?

Per EA's "meet our team" web page:

"Giovanni Palazzo is the President & CEO of Electrify America, LLC and was recently appointed the Chairman of the Board of Electrify America. Prior to joining Electrify America, Giovanni spent seven years working at Volkswagen AG, most recently serving as the head of e-mobility strategy, leading all relevant Group e-mobility activities on a global scale. Giovanni also served in several electric transportation and charging roles at Mercedes-Benz and Daimler AG. Starting June 1, Giovanni will transition to a global position at Volkswagen Group, as the Senior Vice President of Charging and Energy."

ref: Meet the Electrify America team | Electrify America

 

[miimura]

Per EA's "meet our team" web page:

"Giovanni Palazzo is the President & CEO of Electrify America, LLC and was recently appointed the Chairman of the Board of Electrify America. Prior to joining Electrify America, Giovanni spent seven years working at Volkswagen AG, most recently serving as the head of e-mobility strategy, leading all relevant Group e-mobility activities on a global scale. Giovanni also served in several electric transportation and charging roles at Mercedes-Benz and Daimler AG. Starting June 1, Giovanni will transition to a global position at Volkswagen Group, as the Senior Vice President of Charging and Energy."

ref: Meet the Electrify America team | Electrify America

I call that "Being kicked upstairs".

 

[Cheburashka]

So.... Went out on the long weekend for a motorcycle ride. Needed a charge, stopped by two Electrify Murica stations in San Mateo and same story on both - chargers all on but half of them are not working, and frustrated EV owners with brand new cars with paper plates on the phone with support trying to figure out how to charge. Was a complete disaster.

Luckily found an EVgo nearby and that worked fine.

I love the fact that with CCS there are so many choices of locations, but they really have to fix the reliability issues.

 

[MP3Mike]

EA is revamping their fee schedule:

• Almost doubling the cost for the Pass+ membership (from $4/month to $7/month)
• Starting to charge idle fees at most stations
• Ending the nationwide pricing, and going to per station pricing.
  • Some will probably go down, some will probably go up

It will be interesting to see how it works out in about a month. (And if they start Time of Use pricing plans anywhere.)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1681300065296711681

With Tesla lowering prices, especially during off-peak periods, EA is likely no longer going to be cheaper than the Superchargers network. (Tesla is already cheaper than EA in a lot of places.)

I will say it is about time to start charging idle fees, that should help with some of the excessive station blocking that we often see from people with free charging plans.

 

[brainhouston]

Tesla just needs to buy all the EA stations

 

[MP3Mike]

Tesla just needs to buy all the EA stations

Why? EA doesn't own the land, and what they do own appears to be junk. If EA can't fix things maybe Tesla could buy the land leases at the EA bankruptcy sale? (They are really the only thing of value that EA has, at least as far as I am concerned. But even then most of them are only for 4 stalls, and Tesla would want at least 8 at most locations...) Are they even transferrable?

 

[masotime]

With Tesla lowering prices, especially during off-peak periods, EA is likely no longer going to be cheaper than the Superchargers network. (Tesla is already cheaper than EA in a lot of places.)

I will say it is about time to start charging idle fees, that should help with some of the excessive station blocking that we often see from people with free charging plans.

The "good times" are over - but I'm not surprised. I figured EA must be operating at a considerable loss to run some of the stations at the prices they were at, especially in California.

EVs are getting really expensive to use for travel.... the higher number of EVs in general is making availability of cheaper stations at a give time of day more limited - the effect compounds and you're forced to use more expensive stations in a pinch.

 

[wws]

Why? EA doesn't own the land, and what they do own appears to be junk. If EA can't fix things maybe Tesla could buy the land leases at the EA bankruptcy sale? (They are really the only thing of value that EA has, at least as far as I am concerned. But even then most of them are only for 4 stalls, and Tesla would want at least 8 at most locations...) Are they even transferrable?

I guess having existing power w/poco transformer already on site would be useful. Just yank out the old charging equipment and replace with Tesla brand.

It really surprises me that a company like ABB, who has been building multi-megawatt level electrical equipment for over a century, has problems building a reliable EV charger...

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

It really surprises me that a company like ABB, who has been building multi-megawatt level electrical equipment for over a century, has problems building a reliable EV charger...

Transformers don't have card readers and plugs.

 

[MP3Mike]

I guess having existing power w/poco transformer already on site would be useful. Just yank out the old charging equipment and replace with Tesla brand.

Transformers and utility feeds are likely undersized for what Tesla would need at most EA sites. (Which would require a complete site tear out and re-build, not to mention negotiating for more parking spaces to make the sites reasonably sized.)

 

[RTPEV]

It really surprises me that a company like ABB, who has been building multi-megawatt level electrical equipment for over a century, has problems building a reliable EV charger...

I suspect the issue is that they (and other charging stations manufacturers) are not adept at producing consumer-grade/facing equipment that stands up to the abuse of the general public and operators that don't have the expertise or motivation to properly maintain the equipment. Plus, I think much of the time the issue is with networking/payment systems that an industrial piece of equipment simply doesn't have to worry about. All those suppliers probably rushed to get products out to market so they could grab early market share, and didn't allocate enough time to properly QA their products.

 

[MP3Mike]

It really surprises me that a company like ABB, who has been building multi-megawatt level electrical equipment for over a century, has problems building a reliable EV charger...

The largest non-Tesla charging network, Electrify America, doesn't use ABB much anymore. (They were too reliable?) Their current main suppliers are SK Signet and BTC.

It seems the main failures people report are:

• Broken CCS1 connector.
  • Mainly the latch, this is a CCS1 design problem.
• Failed cable cooling system. (Limiting the output to 50kW.)
  • Other companies go with air cooled cables.
• Failed temperature sensor in CCS1 plug. (Limiting the output to 50kW.)
  • Bad design in Huber+Suhner cables. (Old design required entire cable replacement, newer design supposedly allows field repairs.)
• Failing power modules. (Limiting the output.)
  • Mainly in SK Signet equipment.
• Failed payment terminals/network
  • EA seems to use Nayax ones.
  • It looks like Tesla is going to use Payter terminals in V4 sites where regulations require card readers. (They are nicely integrated, not just bolted on the front like EA does.)
  • Vending machines have had payment terminals forever and they don't seem to have the same failure rate...
• Signet surge: Likely a bug in Signet equipment that impacts >800v vehicles with bouncing output kW.
  • If it is a bug, they should have been able to roll out a fix by now.

And those are just the ones I know off the top of my head. A lot of problems are because of bad cables/cable cooling systems. Which the charging equipment vendors don't make themselves. I think you buy the equipment without cables and provide your own. (Or you specify what cables you want the OEM to installed on the equipment you order.) If CPOs switch to NACS and Tesla, or their vendor, supplies the cables things might be better. (But Tesla is very proactive on replacing cables as they wear, they try to not wait until they fail.)

 

[dho112]

Tesla just needs to buy all the EA stations

I don’t like a lot of the locations they typically plop down EA chargers. It’s like they either want you to get robbed, or they think you might enjoy watching some interesting examples of humanity…

 

[brainhouston]

I don’t like a lot of the locations they typically plop down EA chargers. It’s like they either want you to get robbed, or they think you might enjoy watching some interesting examples of humanity…

Must be area dependent
Here in pdx area, EA seem to be either right next to SC or by large supermarkets (walmart, fredmeyer...) where SC isn't...

I was only suggesting it if its possible for Tesla to re-use the electrical hook ups/permits, if not then might not be worth it...

 

[dho112]

Must be area dependent
Here in pdx area, EA seem to be either right next to SC or by large supermarkets (walmart, fredmeyer...) where SC isn't...

I was only suggesting it if its possible for Tesla to re-use the electrical hook ups/permits, if not then might not be worth it...

My reply was actually kind of Tongue-in-cheek I think anywhere they can put Tesla SC are good, it’s just the last time I was scouting EA chargers one was in a completely dark parking lot, and the other was in a Walmart parking lot where I saw a HUGE lady pushing her cart by wearing bikini bottoms over her stretch yoga pants. It could not be unseen

 

[avs007]

My reply was actually kind of Tongue-in-cheek I think anywhere they can put Tesla SC are good, it’s just the last time I was scouting EA chargers one was in a completely dark parking lot, and the other was in a Walmart parking lot where I saw a HUGE lady pushing her cart by wearing bikini bottoms over her stretch yoga pants. It could not be unseen

I went to one in the seattle area, where there were large shrubbery between the EA chargers and the Target it was at, and it was very poorly lit, making it so even my wife said she would never charge here by herself. She was glad they built a new supercharger at the IKEA, that was very brightly lit, making it so you can be seen in all directions.

 

[DuncanM]

EA to change pricing policy:

 

[Earl]

EA to change pricing policy:

Let's hope this is so they can budget to do preventative and quick-responsive maintenance on their network and that it is NOT just a desperate money grab to get as much as they can before the network dies.