EA (Electrify America) Sucks - that is all

[Genyosai]

I may be a little more exposed than you since I have had multiple Taycans since April 2020, and had an Audi e-Tron for 6 months before that.

Since the fall of 2019 I have gone from Denver to San Diego, Denver to LA, Denver to Houston, Denver to Jackson, WY, Denver to Kansas City multiple times, and to either Vegas or PHX almost monthly - probably 20 trips in total to either of those cities. I have put a lot of miles on non-Tesla EVs, so I have seen and experienced a lot of different Electrify America locations in 15 different states. Hell, I may be one of the only people on this forum who has driven across Utah before the Green River charger was open, so you had to top off in Moab and then again in Price in order to make it up to Spanish Fork. Then, you could reroute south to connect onto I-15.

Once again, the Electrify America charging network is not perfect, we all know this from the 20 different threads that can be found on this board over the past two and and half years. That being said, I have never been stranded, nor been denied a charge at an Electrify America charging location. It also seems that you have done a lot of recent long distance EV travel leveraging the EA network and did not get stranded.

Honestly, your repeated expression in this thread that Electrify America seems to be going backwards with the new hardware is total bull$hit. You mention a couple of cars that may, or may not, have had issues, but no further details have been released to diagnose a cause of the issue. I have used the new chargers in Loveland, CO and in Anthem, AZ and had flawless charging sessions in my CT4s.

You are not the only one who has a lot of miles on a CCS compatible vehicle. So, your repeated negative and unsubstantiated contribution to this thread is getting old.

Let it go.

First, I only mentioned the number of stations that I've visited this year alone from June to current. I've visited way more than 31 since 2019. Many of which I frequent.

Second, you're not the only one that has had multiple CCS format EVs, for I, too, have had quite a few... Currently our 2019 e-tron 55 and e-tron GT.

Third, what I speak about the current hardware refresh is from my own experience, where 2 out of 3 new stations wouldn't deliver more than 35kw (not just my car, but others at the station as well), and every "incompatible DCFC charger" fault preventing me from being able to fast charge until the fault was cleared, happened on the new hardware.

Finally, I'm on-topic. I didn't start this thread. I'm contributing on-topic info based on my experiences.

Have a better day.

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[thecoloradokid]

First, I'm sorry to hear about the radiation oncology appointments, that's a lot for someone (and your family) to go through. I hope all is well and you are feeling back to normal.

A distant second, thanks for sharing the positive charging stuff and providing pics. My Taycan GTS will show up at my house tomorrow and it's my first ever EV, so I've been watching this thread pretty intently and wondering if I may have jumped into EV world too soon from my Panamera. 95% of the time though, I won't be going anywhere where I wouldn't be able to get home on the initial charge in a round trip. So I'm still looking forward to the experience.

Very, very exciting. You will love your new car. Don't be afraid to get out and about in your Taycan, it is an amazing road tripping vehicle. The charging networks are not perfect, but you can still hit the road without too many issues.

And, thank you for the kind comments concerning my health.

 

[thecoloradokid]

First, I only mentioned the number of stations that I've visited this year alone from June to current. I've visited way more than 31 since 2019. Many of which I frequent.

Second, you're not the only one that has had multiple CCS format EVs, for I, too, have had quite a few... Currently our 2019 e-tron 55 and e-tron GT.

Third, what I speak about the current hardware refresh is from my own experience, where 2 out of 3 new stations wouldn't deliver more than 35kw (not just my car, but others at the station as well), and every "incompatible DCFC charger" fault preventing me from being able to fast charge until the fault was cleared, happened on the new hardware.

Finally, I'm on-topic. I didn't start this thread. I'm contributing on-topic info based on my experiences.

Have a better day.

Nick, I am not sure how to respond other than say that other Audi owners will probably find your Electrify America experiences very, very useful since you obviously have a lot of Audi EV expereince.

Since the bulk of us on this Porsche Taycan forum don't own Audi EV's, I am not sure how applicable your experiences are to our charging reality. I am sure you can provide a lengthy list of the similarities between an Audi e-Tron GT and a Taycan, but there are obviously software differences, or EA certification differences, between a Taycan and other EVs and that is why other vehicles might be experiencing EA charging issues that the Taycan does not.

I have very successfully charged my '22 Taycan CT4s at multiple EA charging locations with the new hardware and had great charging sessions. The picture below proves my point.. I certainly was not getting 35kW charging speeds, nor did I get those low speeds at any of the other 12 EV charging spots I used last week while on my road trip.

We all get that EA is not perfect, but it is not as bad as people say it is otherwise people would not be successfully completing long distance travel in a Taycan. And that includes you!

 

[Genyosai]

Nick, I am not sure how to respond other than say that other Audi owners will probably find your Electrify America experiences very, very useful since you obviously have a lot of Audi EV expereince.

Since the bulk of us on this Porsche Taycan forum don't own Audi EV's, I am not sure how applicable your experiences are to our charging reality. I am sure you can provide a lengthy list of the similarities between an Audi e-Tron GT and a Taycan, but there are obviously software differences, or EA certification differences, between a Taycan and other EVs and that is why other vehicles might be experiencing EA charging issues that the Taycan does not.

I have very successfully charged my '22 Taycan CT4s at multiple EA charging locations with the new hardware and had great charging sessions. The picture below proves my point.. I certainly was not getting 35kW charging speeds, nor did I get those low speeds at any of the other 12 EV charging spots I used last week while on my road trip.

We all get that EA is not perfect, but it is not as bad as people say it is otherwise people would not be successfully completing long distance travel in a Taycan. And that includes you!

I came over here (to this forum) because I find more answers and more "in common" experiences than I do on the e-tron forum... as it pertains to my GT, that is.

For example, this forum helped put me at ease when I had a scare at the EA station in Little Rock, AR on our return trip from Arizona. For the first time ever I saw (but did not smell) what looked like smoke coming from the wheel wells while charging. Found a Taycan owner out here with the same concern, then learned what it was all about.

Anyway, again, I'm just posting on-topic info very similar to other experiences already posted in this thread.

I, too, can post about the numerous successful sessions I've had, arriving at stations with ~7% SoC, ramping to 268kw, holding that rate to 50%, then tapering to 150kw to 80%, 100kw to 85%, 80kw to 90%, ~50kw to 95%.... though I almost always unplug at 80% having averaged 11mi/min:

But again, this thread wasn't about charging successes, it's about charging issues, so this is where I shared mine as well as facts and opinions about the different gen hardware based on my actual experiences.

I'll stand by my statement that the gen2 Signets rolled out starting September 2020 are THE most reliable EA stations and that those are the units I wish they'd continued to deploy, as the newer units that I've used have proven to be less reliable and are even already going offline within 2-4 weeks of go-live.

I'm familiar with the Anthem station. It was offline for installation while we were in AZ. However, ~2-3 weeks later there are already unavailable units according to the EA app. Same goes for San Antonio, and Waco, TX which also just came online. That entire corridor was offline for upgrades from San Antonio to Ennis, TX during the Thanksgiving holiday, and already two of those 3 stations have unavailable units... Brand new installs. Let's not talk about the Greenville, SC location.

So again, it feels like the Efacet days when it comes to these newest units. Something is wrong with them, for within 2-4 weeks stations are becoming unavailable, often sitting at a Windows Desktop.

I'll share my long distance trip successes and EV charging station explorations and tests in another thread where such contributions are relevant to the thread.

 

[whitex]

I saw that they released all the specs on their charging connector. It's actually a smart move and puts the ball in other manufacturer's court - but I can't see the industry moving away from CCS to the Tesla standard even if it made sense not to mention having a less bulky cable.

Elon would be smart to let everybody else add a Tesla cable rather than trying to outfit all of his supercharging stations with a separate CCS charging cable.

I'm hoping that somebody will come along and make an adapter once we can transact on the Tesla network.

Tesla opened the physical connector, not the communications charging protocol. I went through the open specs from Tesla hoping to learn how such as adapter could be built, but none of that information was open sourced, not even the Tesla AC charger communications.

Opening the connector is a stunt Elon did to try to qualify for recently enacted government grants for DC charging network expansion. Not the first stunt he pulled to do this, not the last. The most notable would be Tesla battery swap - I read somewhere it qualified Tesla over $110M in grants. If you still believe that it's actually coming, you are a real hard core Elon believer.

Don't get me wrong by the way, I do think Tesla connector is better, but little to no chance other manufacturers will transition to something Elon has complete control over. The best chance is government telling Tesla they don't qualify unless they release an adapter (Tesla already sells the adapter to charge Teslas from CCS). Even then, I wouldn't put it past Elon to produce the bare minimum number of such adapters (perhaps as little as one batch of 100) to qualify for grants, and keep the adapter "out of stock" forever. It's not like anyone can copy one, as it has to be authenticated/activated by the Tesla supercharger network.

 

[Genyosai]

Tesla opened the physical connector, not the communications charging protocol. I went through the open specs from Tesla hoping to learn how such as adapter could be built, but none of that information was open sourced, not even the Tesla AC charger communications.

Opening the connector is a stunt Elon did to try to qualify for recently enacted government grants for DC charging network expansion. Not the first stunt he pulled to do this, not the last. The most notable would be Tesla battery swap - I read somewhere it qualified Tesla over $110M in grants. If you still believe that it's actually coming, you are a real hard core Elon believer.

Don't get me wrong by the way, I do think Tesla connector is better, but little to no chance other manufacturers will transition to something Elon has complete control over. The best chance is government telling Tesla they don't qualify unless they release an adapter (Tesla already sells the adapter to charge Teslas from CCS). Even then, I wouldn't put it past Elon to produce the bare minimum number of such adapters (perhaps as little as one batch of 100) to qualify for grants, and keep the adapter "out of stock" forever. It's not like anyone can copy one, as it has to be authenticated/activated by the Tesla supercharger network.

I think you may have COMPLETELY nailed it!

Can I share this??

 

[whitex]

I think you may have COMPLETELY nailed it!

Can I share this??

It's on the internet, available to the world.

 

[Zcd1]

I’ve been watching this and other similar threads with trepidation as we considered buying an EV that would use the EA network.

After significant internal wrangling we finally pulled the trigger. Since the car also includes 3 years of free 30-minute EA sessions, we decided to do a test run to learn about the EA charging process before we take a road trip.

A 350KW charger was available when we pulled up, and to our great surprise the session activated from the EA app without a hitch. Even more surprising was the charging speed:

I know better than to expect that all of our sessions will be so smooth, but as a first experience, we couldn’t have asked for more.

Color us hopeful.

 

[Tooney]

I know better than to expect that all of our sessions will be so smooth, but as a first experience, we couldn’t have asked for more.
Color us hopeful.

Many of us in flyover country have had generally positive DC fast charging experiences.
In case you have not read them, a couple of good forum threads about Taycan road trip planning:

Estimated range, road trip charging planning: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/new-user-questions-about-estimated-range.5582/
Detailed charging planner steps: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/charging-planner-new-feature.7178/#post-102869
Roadwarrior EV charging kit - a kinder, gentler version: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...and-useful-road-warrior-ev-charging-kit.6812/

 

[tigerbalm]

Don't want to derail the thread – just saying that it makes me appreciate IONITY here in Europe. I've found them very reliable – just need more of them – which they are starting there next build out.

I'm also glad we don't have a free tier – so that IONITY make the revenue required to build a sustainable and well maintained network.

 

[whitex]

Don't want to derail the thread – just saying that it makes me appreciate IONITY here in Europe. I've found them very reliable – just need more of them – which they are starting there next build out.

I'm also glad we don't have a free tier – so that IONITY make the revenue required to build a sustainable and well maintained network.

I presume Porsche pays EA for the "free" tier, as do other manufacturers who offer it. Probably not a bad deal for EA given a lot of EV's in the 100K range rarely charge outside the house.

 

[Toodal00]

My Porsche account is all set and ready for the complimentary charging. I have now tried three different EA charging stations within the city limits of Chicago (2 at 2 different Target store lots, and 1 at a Bank of America lot, and even tried all the charging stalls at each station (at least all the ones that were not already occupied). Plug-and-charge didn’t work for any of them, and neither could a charge be initiated from the Porsche app. The app kept saying “unable to reach server. try again later” or something like that. I even had EA customer service guide me through each step to make sure I wasn’t doing it wrong, and still no dice. Eventually, the EA person just asked for my name, the last 8 digits of my VIN, and the charger stall number, and she activated a complimentary charge remotely. A big time suck. What an awful experience. I’ve visited a friend in California who has had a Taycan for a couple of years now and we’ve always had no issues with the EA chargers all over that state, but no bueno with the EA chargers here in Chicago so far. Perhaps the chargers here are just old, haven’t been updated or even maintained. because they’re not as in-demand as those in California. Anyhow, I had low expectations with EA to begin with. Good thing my decision to buy a Taycan didn’t hinge on the reliability of EA’s network in my area. I had no plans to do regular fast charges anyway, and no plans for road trips with the Taycan either. Just wanted to experiment with the local EA chargers for kicks.

has this been fixed for you? or is eanyone else having the same issue or know a fix?

 

[masmole]

has this been fixed for you? or is eanyone else having the same issue or know a fix?

Nope. Not fixed for me yet. Already called Porsche NA multiple times. Ticket has been submitted to Porsche in Germany even. Haven’t heard back yet. They did say this is a known problem that some owners are having while some others are not, and that they were sorry that they don’t have a fix yet, but are working on it.

Tested the same EA station with another forum member here who also has a GTS that arrived on the same ship. His Taycan initiates Plug & Charge no problem, while mine does not. I still can’t even initiate a charge via myPorsche app as a backup, as that gets a “unable to reach server” error message every time. This was at the same EA station and we were literally parked next to each other testing this out. Frustrating.

 

[whitex]

Nope. Not fixed for me yet. Already called Porsche NA multiple times. Ticket has been submitted to Porsche in Germany even. Haven’t heard back yet. They did say this is a known problem that some owners are having while some others are not, and that they were sorry that they don’t have a fix yet, but are working on it.

Tested the same EA station with another forum member here who also has a GTS that arrived on the same ship. His Taycan initiates Plug & Charge no problem, while mine does not. I still can’t even initiate a charge via myPorsche app as a backup, as that gets a “unable to reach server” error message every time. This was at the same EA station and we were literally parked next to each other testing this out. Frustrating.

Can you just setup a paid account and have Porsche reimburse you for all first 30 minutes of charging?

 

[Tooney]

Nope. Not fixed for me yet. Already called Porsche NA multiple times. Ticket has been submitted to Porsche in Germany even. Haven’t heard back yet. They did say this is a known problem that some owners are having while some others are not, and that they were sorry that they don’t have a fix yet, but are working on it.

Tested the same EA station with another forum member here who also has a GTS that arrived on the same ship. His Taycan initiates Plug & Charge no problem, while mine does not. I still can’t even initiate a charge via myPorsche app as a backup, as that gets a “unable to reach server” error message every time. This was at the same EA station and we were literally parked next to each other testing this out. Frustrating.

Sorry you are having this problem.
My learning from contacting Porsche NA on several problems was that I had to keep calling them back to get problem status updates, rather than depending on them to proactively update me.

Your dealer can't fix this problem, but the dealer can get your problem escalated with Porsche NA. Ask the dealer to escalate. Don't let dealer off the hook.
Good luck.

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