EA charging network rant

[ShiftyWolf]

Happy 2024. I just feel the need to rant a bit after a recent charging experience, to a possibly sympathetic crowd. Since I still have a few months of free Electrify America DC charging, I figured I'd do a test run before trying to road trip for real. I went on the Porsche app over the weekend and found the nearest chargers in Orlando, not convenient to my home but any chance for a drive, right?

Well, I discovered two things. First, the two charging locations in Orlando are in large mall areas, so the entire non-Tesla world was trying to charge at each spot. Secondly, EA provides only two locations and 12 total DC chargers for the ENTIRE ORLANDO AREA!

Definitely my mistake in not considering mall traffic, but I tried and gave up on both locations after seeing all the chargers in use and 3-4 cars ahead of me at each location. I have no issue waiting a little bit, and I know the network is still growing, but two locations and 12 chargers for all of Orlando is just outrageous. I ended up driving home and AC charging from there like normal.

The one location was right next to a bunch of Superchargers it was ironically amusing to see all the Tesla owners staring at us in disbelief as they each pulled up to one of the several available SuC spots.

Ok, I feel a little better. Rant over

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[DougFrisk]

I have found that charging outside metro areas is an excellent idea. In metro areas there are too many EV owners attempting to use the chargers as a gas station replacement.

That said, I had a decent experience with EA this morning. I'm at the dealer this morning to get the pedestrian warning system fixed. I live in Duluth MN the dealer is about 160 miles away in Minneapolis. I There are EA (350 KW supposedly) and a Circle K (180 KW really) charging stations about 75 miles north of Minneapolis and I've found that what works well is to stop there on the way down and bring the car to about 75% charge. That way I have the range to make it to the metro area, do what I'm going to do and then make it back to the same charger with about 30 miles of range to spare.

I reached the charger with 50% charge and a 100-degree F battery, plugged into the EA charger and 30 seconds later it was charging at about 150KW, not what I'd hoped for but good enough and plug and charge worked flawlessly. Fifteen minutes later I was back on the road.

On the way home I should be just under 10% charge when I stop to top off so we'll see if that 350KW charger really is.

I guess my 3 points to minimize charging time on a trip are, avoid chargers in metro areas, arrive at the charger with a hot battery, charge just enough to make it to the next charger with 5% charge left.

 

[Tooney]

Sounds like you did not experience the Taycan's reputed ability to charge from 10% to 80% in 22 minutes.....
You are not alone.

Comments by users on PlugShare app can be helpful in getting an idea about frequently busy charging sites.
Also, very good that you plan to practice DC charging near home before first road trip. There are tips and tricks needed occasionally to make things work.

 

[RBGtaycan]

Sounds like you did not experience the Taycan's reputed ability to charge from 10% to 80% in 22 minutes.....
You are not alone.

Comments by users on PlugShare app can be helpful in getting an idea about frequently busy charging sites.
Also, very good that you plan to practice DC charging near home before first road trip. There are tips and tricks needed occasionally to make things work.

As a heads up, if you have chosen the "battery frendly charging" option in your PCM, speed of charging WILL be impacted...you have to choose your poison: "faster" or "battery friendly"! (or at least know that option exists)

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

I guess my 3 points to minimize charging time on a trip are, avoid chargers in metro areas, arrive at the charger with a hot battery, charge just enough to make it to the next charger with 5% charge left.

I ?ed this except for the 5% bit. Maybe around town, but definitely not out in the open, where chargers are sparse. (Did I tell you my story of an hour-long stop, 4 of 4 chargers broken, 30mi from home after a 1500mi trip?)

 

[thecoloradokid]

Happy 2024. I just feel the need to rant a bit after a recent charging experience, to a possibly sympathetic crowd. Since I still have a few months of free Electrify America DC charging, I figured I'd do a test run before trying to road trip for real. I went on the Porsche app over the weekend and found the nearest chargers in Orlando, not convenient to my home but any chance for a drive, right?

Well, I discovered two things. First, the two charging locations in Orlando are in large mall areas, so the entire non-Tesla world was trying to charge at each spot. Secondly, EA provides only two locations and 12 total DC chargers for the ENTIRE ORLANDO AREA!

Definitely my mistake in not considering mall traffic, but I tried and gave up on both locations after seeing all the chargers in use and 3-4 cars ahead of me at each location. I have no issue waiting a little bit, and I know the network is still growing, but two locations and 12 chargers for all of Orlando is just outrageous. I ended up driving home and AC charging from there like normal.

The one location was right next to a bunch of Superchargers it was ironically amusing to see all the Tesla owners staring at us in disbelief as they each pulled up to one of the several available SuC spots.

Ok, I feel a little better. Rant over

While I love a good rant, I am not sure this one is warranted.

Electrify America's network is not designed to saturate low EV ownership metropolitan areas with charging locations. If you want to see what their plans have been, and will be, I would recommend you review this:

https://www.electrifyamerica.com/our-plan/

I live in a city that probably has more EA charging locations than any other city outside of the LA or SF metro areas. That being said, I rarely use them since they tend to be occupied by Lyft drivers charging a slow charging Hyundai Kona, or clogged with Chevy Bolt's. You also want to remember that Electrify America offered free charging to pretty much every EV that came out over the past two or three years, so you have to compete with that crowd as well.

I am totally cool if you want to rant about a EA location with two or three of four charging cabinets being non-functional since that may happen more often than not. If you experience that then you will find the sympathy you are looking for, but going to a charging location in a mall over the Holiday Season is just asking for what you experienced.

If you are going to road trip, make sure you have a plan that will reduce charging issues. Try to avoid driving on days you know will be busy, or arriving at a charger at times that you know will be busy - like 5pm on a Thursday or Friday afternoon.

You live in a city with 2.5 million people that has an extremely low Electrify America presence, and they no have plans to expand in your area. I think that puts things into perspective if you want to leverage your free Porsche EA charging while not on a road trip. It sucks, but that is the hand you've been dealt.

Good luck luck on the road trip.

 

[Tooney]

As a heads up, if you have chosen the "battery frendly charging" option in your PCM, speed of charging WILL be impacted...you have to choose your poison: "faster" or "battery friendly"! (or at least know that option exists)

Thanks for sharing about impact of this option on PCM results. Good point. When using PCM nav for trip planning, I rarely pay attention to its estimates of charging times since I've found EA chargers I've used lately deliver at much lower than rated capacities.

 

[Capt Mike]

While I love a good rant, I am not sure this one is warranted.

Electrify America's network is not designed to saturate low EV ownership metropolitan areas with charging locations. If you want to see what their plans have been, and will be, I would recommend you review this:

https://www.electrifyamerica.com/our-plan/

I live in a city that probably has more EA charging locations than any other city outside of the LA or SF metro areas. That being said, I rarely use them since they tend to be occupied by Lyft drivers charging a slow charging Hyundai Kona, or clogged with Chevy Bolt's. You also want to remember that Electrify America offered free charging to pretty much every EV that came out over the past two or three years, so you have to compete with that crowd as well.

I am totally cool if you want to rant about a EA location with two or three of four charging cabinets being non-functional since that may happen more often than not. If you experience that then you will find the sympathy you are looking for, but going to a charging location in a mall over the Holiday Season is just asking for what you experienced.

If you are going to road trip, make sure you have a plan that will reduce charging issues. Try to avoid driving on days you know will be busy, or arriving at a charger at times that you know will be busy - like 5pm on a Thursday or Friday afternoon.

You live in a city with 2.5 million people that has an extremely low Electrify America presence, and they no have plans to expand in your area. I think that puts things into perspective if you want to leverage your free Porsche EA charging while not on a road trip. It sucks, but that is the hand you've been dealt.

Good luck luck on the road trip.

One problem I've found when on the road. You can locate EA chargers on the app in a certain mall , but you have a hell of a time locating them in the overall parking garages. In Santa Rosa, where the mall has two large multi-level garages, it was impossible to find them! And no one to ask.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Happy 2024. I just feel the need to rant a bit after a recent charging experience, to a possibly sympathetic crowd. Since I still have a few months of free Electrify America DC charging, I figured I'd do a test run before trying to road trip for real.

@ShiftyWolf* don't listen to these haters (?) - good on you for trying to prepare for a road trip, but the way you do that is to go on a road trip. Glad to help.

As pointed out, EV stations in densely populated area are usually used by the "professionals" (lyft/uber), or those who don't have the ability to charge at home. In my brief experience with such locations, they're often busy, broken or both.

*You have to know that I always have to read your nom de plume slowly; speed-reading it leads to a less-flattery association, and I end up having an argument in my head: "I love wolves, they're great. Why would he call them that?")

 

[violuma]

*You have to know that I always have to read your nom de plume slowly

...from the poster who sounds like a German mountain hot spring resort.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

...from the poster who sounds like a German mountain hot spring resort.

It was either that or Bad Schwarzwaldbachautal. Am See.

 

[violuma]

It was either that or Bad Schwarzwaldbachautal. Am See.

I love German wordconstructionrules. Just mash a ton of cromulent existing words together with no spaces. I pity the people who have to write hyphenation and full-justification logic, though.

 

[submatrix]

One problem I've found when on the road. You can locate EA chargers on the app in a certain mall , but you have a hell of a time locating them in the overall parking garages. In Santa Rosa, where the mall has two large multi-level garages, it was impossible to find them! And no one to ask.

PlugShare can help here too. I just looked it up and it tells me the chargers are on the 3rd floor of parking structure 2.

 

[ShiftyWolf]

While I love a good rant, I am not sure this one is warranted.

Electrify America's network is not designed to saturate low EV ownership metropolitan areas with charging locations.

Appreciate the link and I'll read through it all as I am curious to see their full build out plan. And I do take full responsibility for poor planning on the date and time.

As to EV saturation, that may be up to some interpretation. Safe to say we have a noticeable and ever growing presence in Central Florida. When you look at the EA map, you'll see that their two Orlando sites are on the south side of the city, both within 9 miles of each other. The next site to the north is 70 miles away. I don't know what studies EA did to choose their locations but to my eye that doesn't look like effective planning.

All the same, it's mostly a moot point for how I drive but definitely gives me pause about planning a longer road trip anywhere outside California ?

Edit: And two of their stations have been down since this morning so rant back on

 

[ShiftyWolf]

I love German wordconstructionrules. Just mash a ton of cromulent existing words together with no spaces.

The language does seem to embiggen the simplest words.

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