The latest from Electrify America (hint: better, but more work to be done)

[e-FTW]

Interview: Electrify America expects you to raise hell if chargers don’t work - Electrek

Reading this reminds one how good we have it with Superchargers. Even if Electrify America gets plug-and-charge going (like Tesla) there will still be plenty of car-specific variables that can make it fail for a user.

 

[Chisale]

Interview: Electrify America expects you to raise hell if chargers don’t work - Electrek

Reading this reminds one how good we have it with Superchargers. Even if Electrify America gets plug-and-charge going (like Tesla) there will still be plenty of car-specific variables that can make it fail for a user.

Yes, we are spoiled indeed. I do wish more people would comment on their experiences on Plug Share. EA's CEO said in the piece he reads every single Plug Share comment on his network.

 

[Eno Deb]

Found this kind of shocking:

On the previous Friday afternoon, at a location in Pennsylvania, three Audi e-trons simultaneously charged at 150 kilowatts. “It was no problem,” said Palazzo. “Every charger delivered at normal capacity.”

The drivers paid about $20 each, but the bill from the local utility for so-called demand charges to the network totaled a shocking $1,300 — just for that session.

No wonder that the EV charging prices are high if you cannot cross-subsidize them like Tesla. Something needs to be done about ridiculous utility rates like this.

Also interesting was the explanation about the issues with the credit card readers. EA should work to make using the app easier (which doesn't have these problems). They should allow adding a special pass to Apple Wallet and the Android equivalent like Chargepoint does, so you can just tap your phone on the charger to bill the session to your EA account rather than fumbling around with the app to start a session. Of course plug-and-charge is the end goal.

 

[miimura]

Found this kind of shocking:

No wonder that the EV charging prices are high if you cannot cross-subsidize them like Tesla. Something needs to be done about ridiculous utility rates like this.

Also interesting was the explanation about the issues with the credit card readers. EA should work to make using the app easier (which doesn't have these problems). They should allow adding a special pass to Apple Wallet and the Android equivalent like Chargepoint does, so you can just tap your phone on the charger to bill the session to your EA account rather than fumbling around with the app to start a session. Of course plug-and-charge is the end goal.

The EA app does have Apple Wallet support, just like ChargePoint. I have not had the chance to use it yet though. The site I wanted to use in Novato on a trip earlier this year was down, so I just used the EVgo site that I typically use on that trip.

The Touch ID support is useless in the EA app though. Every time the token expires you have to log in again with username and password.

 

[Eno Deb]

The EA app does have Apple Wallet support, just like ChargePoint. I have not had the chance to use it yet though.

Cool. Didn't know that since I haven't downloaded the app yet (given that I can't really use it with my Model 3 anyway).

 

[Rocky_H]

I found a quote from the article interesting:

"We started 15 months ago. Give us a couple of weeks to be everywhere. After 15 months of operation, the distance between sites is, on average, 70 miles. On the highway, the highest range is 120 miles."

It certainly isn't. I'm not sure why they switched the word in there, where the first sentence says "on average", but then when they switch to on the highway, they say "the highest". That's just not accurate. Maybe the highway average is 120 miles. I've still got the two main pet peeve routes near me that are both over 250 miles, and there is no DC fast charging on either of these from any company.