Electrify America Strands Motorists

[SSonnentag]

"Electrify America had shut down every charging station from the middle of Virginia to southern South Carolina in order to do upgrades (this is nearly 500 miles of highway). For some reason, the company didn't alert EV owners of this ahead of time and it closed all the stations at the same time during a busy holiday travel weekend."

Electrify America Shuts Down 500-Mile Charging Corridor Over Labor Day

 

[uujjj2]

What about EVgo, Chargepoint, etc.? Here in California it wouldn't be a big deal if EA was down. Is the East Coast really that far behind?

 

[miimura]

What about EVgo, Chargepoint, etc.? Here in California it wouldn't be a big deal if EA was down. Is the East Coast really that far behind?

In California it might be a big deal too. The EA site at the Panoche Shell station on I-5 is down, likely for the same reason as the east coast corridor.

Here is the San Francisco to Anaheim ABRP plan for an eTron 55 Quattro with that station online.

If you know ahead of time that Panoche Shell is down, you can stop at the Patterson EA site and the Harris Ranch ChargePoint site and incur about a 15 minute penalty. The real problem is if you turn up at Panoche Shell with 13% not knowing the site is down. ABRP says it takes 20% SOC to get to Harris Ranch at normal speeds. You would probably have to hypermile it at like 55mph to make it. There is no L2 backup in the area either.

The other option is to reroute to the CA-99 corridor so you can use the EA stations on that route for a total time penalty of 30 minutes.

 

[captanzuelo]

How infuriating it must be not to have the option of Superchargers

 

[BlindPass]

How infuriating it must be not to have the option of Superchargers

Slightly more so than having to do such trips in a Tesla.

 

[captanzuelo]

Slightly more so than having to do such trips in a Tesla.

Not sure of your reasoning. There are numerous superchargers(+15?) between SF and LA, all of which are of no use to an Audi E-tron

 

[BlindPass]

Not sure of your reasoning. There are numerous superchargers(+15?) between SF and LA, all of which are of no use to an Audi E-tron

The reasoning is Super charging on road trips isn’t enough of an improvement. Because if charging, we have no interest in using our Teslas on road trips, just like if we had an E-Tron. Lucid’s tech may change that, but it’ll be hard to beat the X5 PHEV for road trips.

 

[captanzuelo]

The reasoning is Super charging on road trips isn’t enough of an improvement. Because if charging, we have no interest in using our Teslas on road trips, just like if we had an E-Tron. Lucid’s tech may change that, but it’ll be hard to beat the X5 PHEV for road trips.

I see, so any charging stop during a road trip is infuriating for you. I would call it only a minor inconvenience(if even that) for me. Take away superchargers, and I probably wouldn't even consider taking a Tesla on an extended road trip.

 

[BlindPass]

I see, so any charging stop during a road trip is infuriating for you. I would call it only a minor inconvenience(if even that) for me. Take away superchargers, and I probably wouldn't even consider taking a Tesla on an extended road trip.

Suboptimal more than infuriating. If delta between the two charging experiences is that important and to be that heavily weighted, we’ll take the PHEV and gain even more benefit than we would from the SC.

 

[uujjj2]

The Model 3 has become our family's main road trip car. A Model 3 LR's supercharging interval matches pretty well with the kiddie potty break interval. And the nice thing about supercharging (or any fast charging) versus filling gas is you can leave the car unattended, so in practice a 40 minute charging plus food stop doesn't add any more time than a 5 minute gas stop plus 35 minute food stop.

 

[El joe]

EA rarely works for me in my Bolt. Hopefully now other people will notice how crappy their chargers and service are, too.

 

[Kandiru]

I have arrived at EvGo stations to find torn cables, dead screens, or vandalism. So far only one ChargePoint with exterior damage.

Non-working units a big issue, I would always make sure there are at least two separate stalls at the station and backups exist nearby.

 

[CyberGus]

CTO: Oh no, we just suffered a major outage during a holiday weekend!
CEO: No problem, we'll just call it an "emergency upgrade"

 

[Scott7]

I see the CCS networks still suck, even the new kid on the block. Some things never change.

 

[El joe]

CTO: Oh no, we just suffered a major outage during a holiday weekend!
CEO: No problem, we'll just call it an "emergency upgrade"

Sounds like someone bugged their office cause I imagine that's EXACTLY how this went down.

 

[wycolo]

Did anyone else witness the 'cable extending exercise' of some 6 months ago? They had parts laying all over the area, complicated stuff all of it, confusion & frustration, just to add a couple(?) of feet to the charge cables which were incorrectly designed from the start. The blind leading the blind, no magic sauce, no well-defined mission, you get what you get, c'est la vie.
--

 

[manitou820]

Lucid was the sole supplier of batteries for Formula during the 2018, 2019, and 2020 seasons. That's not nothing. They obviously have some level of expertise. They remind me more of Tesla 10 years ago than many of the other EV startups.

Lucid and Rivian appear to both be legit EV startups with real potential. I'm thrilled to see some new competition. Frankly most of the legacy automakers are falling asleep. Time for some new blood.

 

[FlatSix911]

Long overdue... Electrify America updates pricing with fairer kWh-based model resulting in lower prices - Electrek

Giovanni Palazzo, president and chief executive officer of Electrify America, commented on today’s announcement:

Electrify America has listened to feedback from electric vehicle owners, potential customers, and longtime industry advocates. As a result we have developed a new pricing structure that is fair, consistent, and recognizes the increasing customer demand for kilowatt-hour pricing. With the new pricing, we deliver a simplified charging experience that shows new and existing customers how easy it is to own an EV. The new kWh-based pricing is available in 23 states, where it is possible based on the local regulations:

In those states, which are home to over 70% of Electrify America’s customers, EV owners charging on Electrify America’s network will be charged $0.43 per kWh. For those who decide to pay a $4 per month Electrify America subscription, the price per kWh goes down to $0.31.Also of note, with this update, Electrify America has removed its $1 charge per charging session. In the other markets, Electrify America is obligated to keep a per-minute pricing model due to local regulations controlling the sale of electricity.

 

[uujjj2]

Yay on EA's switch to kWh pricing. Boo on the $0.43/kWh price.

Hey, a Model X supercharging at 28c/kWh costs 9.24c/mile. A Lucid Air at an EA station at 43c/kWh costs 9.38c/mile. That's pretty close. An Audi e-tron charging at EA costs 18.92c/mile. Oof.

 

[dfwatt]

Did anyone else witness the 'cable extending exercise' of some 6 months ago? They had parts laying all over the area, complicated stuff all of it, confusion & frustration, just to add a couple(?) of feet to the charge cables which were incorrectly designed from the start. The blind leading the blind, no magic sauce, no well-defined mission, you get what you get, c'est la vie.
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In addition to charging stations frequently not working, their new pricing system is significantly more expensive than Tesla's supercharging system. Sometimes it looks as though they're trying really hard to bring to electrification what they brought to diesel emission controls.