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More frustration with Electrify America

14K views 79 replies 35 participants last post by  usedBolt 
#1 ·
For the past several months I've not needed fast charging, so I guess I'd kinda forgotten how frustrating EA stations can be.

I made a 300+ mile round trip for an HVAC part in short supply to get a client up and running for the weekend.

At Savannah It took 5 attempts using a total of 4 connectors on 3 different charge stations to recharge my Bolt. In addition, there was all the usual wrestling with the ridiculously, short, thick, stiff and heavy charging cables while unable to read displays washed out by bright sunlight and trying not to drop my phone talking to EA tech support.

I love my Bolt and EVs and generally, but EA takes all the fun right out of it - no more EV road trips until I can afford a Tesla. Mainstream America will simply not put up with this unless gas goes up to $7 per gallon.

The infra we have now is nowhere near ready for prime time and I don't foresee when it will ever be.
 
#2 ·
Yes, I concur. My Bolt is a wonderful, fun car. I just can't use it for serious travel (unless I want an adventure...). I'm basically compelled, for my distance travel EV, to buy a Tesla (intend to pick up a model Y this Fall).

Rich
 
#3 ·
Had same problem with EA last March. Six stations and only two worked. Had a badly sprained ankle and had to hobble from display to display with Tech on phone to figure out which one was working. I can't wait to see the state of affairs when all the new brands of EVs come online. Sad. Now I'm holding onto an ICE I don't really need most of the time because I have had too many bad experiences with DCFC on the I-5 corridor. It almost seems like a conspiracy.
 
#4 ·
I went to my local EA yesterday. There are 4 stations, each with two plugs (one plug is ChaDeMo). Plugshare reported good success with station 3. I pulled up to station 3 and tried both plugs without success. It would start for a few seconds then quit. Same story for stations 1 and 2. I then tried station 4 and it started up on the first try. Just to be sure, I went back to station 3 and tried multiple times with no success. I then returned to station 1 and it started up the first time, again.
Before someone asks, I was holding up the plug each time and was mostly using the app. I tried my credit card once but that didn't work either.
EA has a FB page and I sent them a message, telling them my story, asking for them to get back to me when stations 1-3 are fixed. They replied and said they would send me a message when they are fixed.
Edit: I should add that others have posted they have no issues with EA. I don't get it. Maybe I'm not holding my mouth right or something.
 
#5 ·
At Savannah It took 5 attempts using a total of 4 connectors on 3 different charge stations to recharge my Bolt. In addition, there was all the usual wrestling with the ridiculously, short, thick, stiff and heavy charging cables while unable to read displays washed out by bright sunlight and trying not to drop my phone talking to EA tech support.
I haven't used the EA fast chargers a whole lot, but I've been pretty happy with them once I learned to hold the cable plug while activating so that the sideways pull on the socket doesn't prevent the car's safety latch from engaging. In my experience it's the latch failing to engage that causes the activation failures - you can see what's happening if you look closely at the port while activating the station.

To do this I use the phone app to activate the charger, since it's usually too much of a stretch to touch the charge station's screen and support the plug at the same time. You have to be careful to find and read the station's ID off the screen and make sure you activate the correct charger, but that's the only really tricky part of it that I've found.
 
#6 ·
Having used EA stations 50+ times, I have the starting process (...'lift the hose / touch your toes'...) down pat. At Savannah I was plagued not with activation failures but with charging sessions that prematurely stopped anywhere from 2 to 15 minutes after starting. The sole saving grace of 30-60 minute charging sessions is to be able to go off and shop , eat etc, but Savannah was a total fail in that regard. Fortunately, we didn't experience those issues at Brunswick and I was able to buy and eat a sandwich uninterrupted by balky chargers and then continue home.

But let me reiterate, this infra is nowhere near ready for prime time, leaving Tesla the sole choice for folks serious about an EV realistically capable of longer trips.
 
#14 ·
EA is the worst. Thank goodness I hardly ever need to use them as the few times I’ve tried, each attempt (at several stations per attempt) has resulted in failure and a call to a poorly-informed CSR. EVGo has always worked for me thank goodness and if I needed to do a road trip in the Bolt, I’d try to find those along the way. And if I needed to take more frequent trips, a Tesla purchase would probably be in order.
 
#15 ·
Does EA have a new issue? My wife and I drove from the DFW area to Austin on Memorial Day for a day trip to visit our daughter. We stopped at the Bellmead/Waco location going both directions and observed reduced charge rates. The peak rate was about 33kW when I expected ~54. In Austin we charged at a ChargePoint site and observed the expected rate. I left feedback for EA via the email receipt they send, but haven’t received a response yet The two sessions were on different chargers - one was a 350 and the other was a 150. Looking at plugshare chech-in comments for some other EA locations in Texas recently, I saw a similar comment from a Bolt user at the Sweetwater location in late May. I’ve used this and one other EA location multiple times and never observed this phenomenon before. I’m primarily concerned because my son and I are planning a trip to Guadalupe national park in a few weeks and we’ll rely on the EA locations on I-20 exclusively. 33 vs 54kW will cost a lot of time!
 
#25 ·
At this point, if I had to rank reliability on a per-charger basis, it would be:
#1: EVgo (by a wide margin)
#2: Recargo
#3: ChargePoint
#4: Electrify America
*EV Connect and GreenLots TBD.
I would absolutely agree with EVGo being number one and ChargePoint would be right there at 1A for me as I’ve never had a problem with them. That said, every one I’ve seen has been Level Two, so it’s not as practical. Never used nor seen Recargo and EA has been awful for me. The one time I saw and used GreenLots in the Sacramento area, both units failed.
 
#26 ·
I just restarted my GreenLots app. This is the first time I've done so since Shell took them over. The app already runs better, but I'll reserve judgment until after I have a chance to use a few of their sites.

The GreenLots site at the airport used to be okay (an older Efacec unit, IIRC), but it started to slip in reliability. They really needed a second DCFC on that side (they had plenty of room), but with the eight Electrify America BTC Power chargers that went in next to the AM/PM across the street, the GreenLots site is basically just a backup for me now.
 
#27 ·
Just wanted to share my latest frustration with EA. The last few times i've had to DCFC the 350KW units initialized fine, started charging fine, but would ramp up to 66kw/70kw pretty quickly - then stop charging. My guess is the bolt actually stopped the charging to prevent damage. This has happened on several of the 350KW units... both times, I was able to use the 150KW units to charge, and those worked fine.

Just yesterday, I tried one of the 350KW units that was working just fine for someone with a Kona Electric, they finished charging and left, I pulled into their spot and same problem.. starts, ramps up to 70KW and charging is then terminated (again, my guess by the bolt). Could it be a SW incompatibility issue that's causing this?

Edit - forgot to mention this is on a 2020 Bolt. and yay for first post.. been lurking a while now :)
 
#36 ·
Someone posting about their Bolt EV road trip in a Bolt EV Facebook group reminded me that, beyond Electrify America, certain chargers are more reliable than other chargers. I haven't culled outside data, so this is based purely on my own experience, but here's how I would rank the most common public chargers in terms of their reliability:

#1. ChargePoint CPE 250 (this is the new unit being produced by ChargePoint in-house)
#2. BTC Power HPC (these are BTC Power's high-power 150 kW to 350 kW units being used by Electrify America, EVgo, Recargo, and others)
#3. Signet (I'm not sure of the specific model used by Electrify America)
#4. ABB Terra 53 (these are the 50 kW units used primarily by EVgo)
#5. BTC Power Slim Line (these are their 50 kW units used by a number of providers... Electrify America, EV Connect, EVgo, etc.)
#6. Tritium Veefil (used by a number of providers, but most know for as ChargePoint units)
#7. BTC Power Standard Box (these are often only 100 A, and used primarily by EVgo)
#8. ABB Terra HP (these are 150 to 350 kW used primarily by Electrify America, but EVgo also has a few)

There are other units, of course, but these are the ones I most often use. I'd say that this ranking presents a pretty broad spectrum of reliability/success rates ranging from near 100% for the ChargePoint CPE (the only failure I can recall was pre-release on the unit at ChargePoint's headquarters) to as low as maybe 70% for the ABB Terra HP. To be fair to the other units, there's a pretty steep drop off from #7 to #8. That is to say, I think the BTC Standard Box chargers are still >90% reliable.
 
#37 ·
Yesterday, I pulled up the EA app after not checking it since the middle of March. It shows all locations as coming soon!? PlugShare shows recent usage, but EA's app seems to be inactive. I am not going to go to our local EA site to see if the app recognizes the units as active. Anybody have an idea? Is it just my phone, or are others seeing this?
 
#41 ·
I would trust EA's app more than PlugShare. I noticed that people were checking in at EA' and Chargepoint's site when they were meaning to check in at the Super Charger nearby.
 
#46 · (Edited)
I have an upcoming round trip of slightly over 600 miles (out and back, same route), so I thought I better check on my options. My route has 3 EA locations, of which I’ll need 2 each way. Looking at the check-ins, each location has 4 units, but the reliability looks abysmal for all of them. I’m starting to believe lower traffic locations are not getting the maintenance/repairs/upgrades they need to make travel actually possible. EDIT: The third station nearest my destination actually has 8 units, but reliability is still not good. May just skip the anxiety and drive an ICE.
 
#49 ·
I think it can be a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation with these chargers. Electrify America needs to do a better job of testing their sites as they go live, and they really need to invite local EV owners to partake in an opening ceremony: Have a tech on hand, test different vehicles, work out all the bugs, etc. If the route is frequently used, enough EV owners cycle through to truly test it and get it up and running.
 
#50 ·
Have others found that EAs app is not accurate as far as what chargers are working? I'm just curious as my experience is that recent usage by plugshare is accurate, but EAs app often says chargers are working that do not work for me. As others have said I can almost always find a charger that will work, but often times this involves trying more than one.
 
#51 ·
PlugShare doesn't provide real-time statuses for Electrify America's chargers at this point (as far as I know). The EA app, though, is mostly accurate and up-to-date in my experience, though not always. Because I almost exclusively activate sessions using the app, I can see the charger status in real time. Even before I activate the session, the EA app is reflecting the fact that I am connected to a particular charger and plug.
 
#54 ·
I used DCFC for the first time on a trip. It was a fun experience, mainly because of the novelty. It was at the Santa Rosa Plaza. Currently the garage is not charging for parking.

There were 2 EVgo fast chargers. I couldn't begin to read the crappy LCDs on those. Why they wouldn't use backlit e-ink displays is beyond me. The poor choice of display renders their entire existence useless.

There were something like 8 EA chargers. There was a service guy working on one of them. Only one of them was operational. The display was large and bright. I went from 40% to 70% in 22 minutes for $7. I've never seen the percentage tick up so fast before!

I tried to use Tap-to-Pay, but it wants you to set up Google Pay, which then wants you to put a lock on your phone -- so no thanks. The credit card reader worked fine. The plug connected fine.

After my trip of 290 miles, with much of it on back roads and much of it cruise-controlled at 65 mi/h, I was pleased the range showed 269 after I charged back at home.
 
#55 ·
I use the EA site in Albany, NY all the time and I alway seem to find one of them working. Going west however is a leap of faith. I notice negative comments on PlugShare about Herkimer, Waterloo and Buffalo. I do wonder if the problem is the mobile internet connection people are using. In any event I have to drive to Buffalo next week so ....I’ll take the ICE car!
 
#56 ·
.... Going west however is a leap of faith. I notice negative comments on PlugShare about Herkimer, Waterloo and Buffalo. I do wonder if the problem is the mobile internet connection people are using.
Great cell coverage, all providers, all locations. The units are either down, or start a change and then stop, or fail while initialization with the vehicle, in my experience never while "authorizing".
 
#61 ·
Hopefully this cable will work better than the liquid cooled ones. Eliminating cooling pumps, and leaky seals might improve their operating rate.

 
#62 ·
Unfortunately, those cables don't support 150 kW charging. The peak of 300 A is interesting, which means they can support ~120 kW for a short period; however, these cables will really be limited to "100 kW" chargers, which EVgo is already deploying. Their 200 A units do not require liquid cooling, though, unfortunately, they are also power sharing.



I actually think those 100 kW chargers are probably the best option for dine-in restaurant and grocery store locations because they are well-suited for 30-minute to 1-hour stops.
 
#64 ·
I drove from OK to CO today, stopping at 5 different EA sites. The first charger I tried worked at 4 out of 5 sites. At one site, I tried a couple times but couldn’t get a charger to initiate, moved to the next one over and was good to go. Overall pretty good, just wanted to report a positive experience. (I did leave a failed (and also successful) PlugShare checkin for that site and submitted a trouble ticket to EA.)
 
#66 ·
The charge initiation issues we're seeing right now are mostly with older Bolt EVs that don't seem to have CCS charge ports that are built to proper tolerances. There's a really big question as to whether Electrify America's plug-and-charge functionality will even work with those older Bolt EVs, which (as I understand it) lack the ISO/IEC 15118 communication standard. If Electrify America made their plug-and-charge feature backward compatible, it should actually improve the reliability for Bolt EV owners whose cars fail to support the cables properly. Basically, the simple instructions would be:

Plug in and lift the cable until you hear actuator engage.
At that point, the charge session should have initiated, and supporting the cable is no longer needed.
 
#71 ·
Just had to QC again today, and one of my two stops was at an EA unit.
No issues (whew). ;-) Charge stayed at what I expected for the 20 minutes I was there this morning...
(I do use the 3D Printed part mentioned above, but not sure if it made a difference. Didn't try it without it.)
Also had a good experience this afternoon at a Chargepoint QC...

It's funny, before all this battery stuff, I had QCd my '17 Bolt twice.
In the last 4 months, I have QC'd it 4 times. ;-)
Not because of the limitations, just life has asked me to do a couple of longer runs...
So far so good.. ;-)
 
#75 ·
Charged at an EA site today.
1st station: Wouldn't start and timed out.
2nd station: Made whirring noise like it was starting but would not charge.
3rd station: Said charge error. Disconnect. After disconnecting it said out of service.
4th station: Finally worked.
While sitting there a Porsche pulled up to one I didn't try and it didn't work. Some guy was leaving so he hopped onto that one.

This was at a station rated 10 on plugshare because it gives top rating just because you were able to charge. So if you eventually find a working one it's a 10! Stupid. So I gave it an "unable to charge" rating because a site with at least 4 bad stations should not be getting a 10.

On the plus side, for some reason it was free.
 
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