EVGO vs Supercharger

[OCJoe]

Gotta share this experience and I hope it makes you smile.

I'm a charge-at-home guy so seldom have to use public charging facilities.

Wife and I decided to drive about to the outlet mall about 120 miles away to do some early Christmas shopping. I noted that the mall had an electric charging station; I planned to charge while shopping so we could get home without stopping. The station was EVGO-operated and I had not used their facilities before, but no worries, I downloaded the app and entered my credit card and profile info. Plugged in, hit charge got a message from the app "charging started" and declared victory. Until I got about 100 yards away and I got another message "charging stopped". I went back, unplugged, replugged, hit start again this time no charging. Moved to another station and tried again, still no luck. As my frustration grew, my wife suggested that we just stop at the Supercharger on the way home. I agreed.

On the way home, we stoped at Supercharger in Thousand Oaks, charged for 15 minutes and had plenty of energy to get home. But as we pulled away, I get a warning on the M3 console "Supercharging temporarily suspended. Please settle your account to restore access".

Turns out a fraud-hold had been placed on my credit card (I gave EVGO the same card that's on-file with Tesla). Got that straightened out and the M3 warning went away.

But what's really instructive is the difference in experience. EVGO gave me no clue about what was wrong (that my credit card was declined) and no way to work around the problem. If I were depending on EVGO to make it home I literally would have been stuck on the road.

Tesla just charged my car (so I could make it home!) and invited me to settle up later or lose access. Sure I might stiff them out of $5 but they have enough confidence in the value of the service that they're willing to bet that I'll pay up at a convenient time, which I did. I'm also a lot more likely to simply use the Supercharger in the future.

But EVGO did snail-mail me a card that they say will be more convenient to use in the future. We'll see...

 

[cwerdna]

Did you check Plugshare ratings for the EVgo site to see what other people's experiences were? IMHO, that's a must for using any non-Tesla charging. Willing to list of the location of where you had trouble so we can take a look on Plugshare?

As for EVgo, what charging standard were you using? Was it J1772 for level 2 charging or were you using CHAdeMO (via CHAdeMO Adapter or an adapter at the DC FC)? Or were you incorrectly trying to use a CCS (SAE Combo flavor) w/your J1772 adapter which won't work. (There's still no adapter shipping in the US to allow any Teslas to charge on CCS stations.)

There might've actually been some other problem than one w/your credit card.

I charge my Bolt via CCS with Home Page - DRIVEtheARC (limited parts of Nor Cal only) all the time which is a very limited subset of EVgo DC FC stations. From what I can tell with CC activity, it doesn't look like EVgo initiates any sort of pre-authorization check (e.g. $1 test charge or a hold of say $25 or $50) at the beginning of each charge, at least when I start via the DrivetheARC app (the only way to get discounted or free charging on DTA chargers). They just bill (debit transaction) and then a "courtesy credit"/misc credit with a discount of 25, 50, 75 or 100% is issued usually within 30 minutes to my account. Every month I have EVgo activity, I receive a "Your new billing statement" email which I can view via EVgo - sign in (Driver Portal Login > Account > Statements).

 

[Fadiawesome]

Did you check Plugshare ratings for the EVgo site to see what other people's experiences were? IMHO, that's a must for using any non-Tesla charging. Willing to list of the location of where you had trouble so we can take a look on Plugshare?

As for EVgo, what charging standard were you using? Was it J1772 for level 2 charging or were you using CHAdeMO (via CHAdeMO Adapter or an adapter at the DC FC)? Or were you incorrectly trying to use a CCS (SAE Combo flavor) w/your J1772 adapter which won't work. (There's still no adapter shipping in the US to allow any Teslas to charge on CCS stations.)

There might've actually been some other problem than one w/your credit card.

I charge my Bolt via CCS with Home Page - DRIVEtheARC (limited parts of Nor Cal only) all the time which is a very limited subset of EVgo DC FC stations. From what I can tell with CC activity, it doesn't look like EVgo initiates any sort of pre-authorization check (e.g. $1 test charge or a hold of say $25 or $50) at the beginning of each charge, at least when I start via the DrivetheARC app (the only way to get discounted or free charging on DTA chargers). They just bill (debit transaction) and then a "courtesy credit"/misc credit with a discount of 25, 50, 75 or 100% is issued usually within 30 minutes to my account. Every month I have EVgo activity, I receive a "Your new billing statement" email which I can view via EVgo - sign in (Driver Portal Login > Account > Statements).

some evgo stations have Tesla connectors now that go to the same 50kw output power as a CHAdeMO does.

 

[jeremymc7]

In this day in a age I surprised you got no other notifications. Every time my card is used I get a notice of where and when. Likewise the few titles there has ever been any attempt at fraud or problem with the card I get a notice and then usually minutes later a call from a live person. In some cases I’ve got the notice and been able to get security before they even get to me.

Perhaps it’s just my brand or type of card.

But I appreciate the main thought that Tesla let you charge even with the potential fraud. But then they have a data connection to the car, know where it was, etc.

 

[SageBrush]

Nice.

How did your shopping go ?

 

[cwerdna]

some evgo stations have Tesla connectors now that go to the same 50kw output power as a CHAdeMO does.

Yep. Some of them have CHAdeMO adapters on the side. See Fast Charge your Tesla S/3/X/Y - EVgo. In both cases pictured, they both have CHAdeMO adapters, but in ummm... a different form.

I've used a few EVgo DC FCs and but haven't personally an EVgo station like either but I haven't gone up to the city of SF yet (where some of them are) or other locations where they're known to have them (e.g. PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You).

 

[OCJoe]

Did you check Plugshare ratings for the EVgo site to see what other people's experiences were? IMHO, that's a must for using any non-Tesla charging. Willing to list of the location of where you had trouble so we can take a look on Plugshare?
Hi Cwerdna, Here's a screenshot from the app of the exact location I was trying to use. I did not check Plugshare rating.

Regarding connector type, I used my J1772 Adaptor at the station shown above. Perhaps this is not expected to work? There were other charging stations at the outlet mall that had different, non-compatible connectors. Among these were SAE combo you referred to.

 

[calidreamz808]

Nice.

How did your shopping go ?

Right? what did he get us Tesla fans from the mall?

 

[cwerdna]

OCJoe: Ok, got it. Yes, J1772 would definitely work w/your J1772 adapter. Looks like PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You is the location you tried. As you can see, the score is poor and check-ins recently have been pretty poor w/the last "good" one back in Aug 2020. Not saying that it hasn't worked between then and now though as most people unfortunately don't check into Plugshare.

I've only personally seen a few EVgo DC FC sites that also have level J1772 nearby. Out of the ones I've used or pass by frequently, I can think of 6 EVgo DC FC sites. Only one of them actually had J1772: PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You. The rest were SAE Combo and CHadeMO only.

 

[OCJoe]

OCJoe: Ok, got it. Yes, J1772 would definitely work w/your J1772 adapter. Looks like PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You is the location you tried. As you can see, the score is poor and check-ins recently have been pretty poor w/the last "good" one back in Aug 2020. Not saying that it hasn't worked between then and now though as most people unfortunately don't check into Plugshare.

I've only personally seen a few EVgo DC FC sites that also have level J1772 nearby. Out of the ones I've used or pass by frequently, I can think of 6 EVgo DC FC sites. Only one of them actually had J1772: PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You. The rest were SAE Combo and CHadeMO only.

Thanks for the tip to check Plugshare. I have that app but didn't think to use it; I got focused on making the EVGO app work. It appears other people had a bad experience with this location communicated it via plugshare. My bad for failing to look

I'll make a point to give feedback when I use public charging stations in the future and to check the one I'm planning to use before going through another frustrating experience.

 

[dgpcolorado]

EVgo Woos Tesla Drivers With Connectors At EV Fast Charging Network