EA getting better?

[JIP1080]

https://www.plugshare.com/location/336298

Christopher needs a hobby...

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[Jonathan S.]

^ All of his hobbies are currently on hold as he no longer has time for them upon having to spend so long waiting to charge at the West Lebanon EA upon its becoming a de facto two-stall station for the past two weeks before which it hasn't been a functional four-stall station in over two months. (Still better though than on Labor Day last year, when all four chargers were broken.)

In all seriousness though, his daily campaign points out the flawed binary nature of the PlugShare scoring system: has every single recent checkin for a station reported a long wait for an available charger followed by frustrating handshake problems that eventually resulted in a charging session with rates in the mid double-digits for kW? If so, then congratulations, the score is a perfect 10.0!

 

[Jonathan S.]

That’s strange. When I do city driving my range goes up not down.

Depends on what kind of city vs highway ... the Porsche int'l website used to have a nifty range calculator, complete with wheel size, wheel types, sedan vs CT/ST, motor config, air temp, and three-way mix of what I would call city, secondary highway (the max range subcategory), and interstate.
But even within what I would the interstate category, a wide range of speeds are possible. On the few routes I take in New England where the de facto speed limit is ~80mph, wow does that range plummet! By contrast, if the interstate has lots of 55mph speed limit stretches, construction zones, and de facto ~72mph speed limits, then I'm probably at max range.

 

[beefster]

I regularly take trips from Austin to Houston and Dallas TX and EA is still just as bad in terms of reliability and congestion. Central, West, and SW Houston almost always have 1 or 2 stalls down. Tons of Bolts hogging stalls and charging to 100%. Waco on the way to Dallas is the same story. I have better luck with EVgo, BP, and Shell stations but still nowhere near the speed and reliability of Tesla superchargers.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Christopher needs a hobby...

Poor guy has been especially busy lately having to update the daily tally for all three broken chargers (out of a total of only four chargers, which means EA has achieved the impressive accomplishment of turning a four-charger station into a single-charger station, in the same parking lot as a sixteen-charger Tesla station):

 

[Vercingetorix]

I have to admit the Walmart in Cornelius Oregon with an EA charger has one hell of a nice bathroom.

 

[gtm]

I regularly take trips from Austin to Houston and Dallas TX and EA is still just as bad in terms of reliability and congestion. Central, West, and SW Houston almost always have 1 or 2 stalls down. Tons of Bolts hogging stalls and charging to 100%. Waco on the way to Dallas is the same story. I have better luck with EVgo, BP, and Shell stations but still nowhere near the speed and reliability of Tesla superchargers.

It took one road trip in my old Model S to completely eliminate range and charging anxiety Just get in the car and go. With the Taycan advance planning is required, which I don't mind really. Trouble is that the live info is unreliable and a "working" EA charger might be dispensing a whopping 45 kW. Like you I now seek alternate charging options. Circle K, Flying J, Buc-ee's and a bunch of other gas station and travel center operators are finally realizing that selling electrons to people stuck for at least 20 minutes can be profitable. Way too slow a rollout though. My wife and I road trip a fair amount and the B.S. with CCS charging has me seriously considering going back to Tesla. Broken chargers, de-rated chargers, multiple apps and RFID cards and almost no credit card readers. Great infrastructure said no one who ever road tripped with a CCS car.

Oh, sticking with the theme of the OP, for most of the East coast EA is an unreliable mess.

 

[PSUEric]

Stopped at an Electrify America in Brunswick, Ga for a quick charge tonight on the way home from St Simons Island. All 4 chargers were operational, I pulled up with a Mach-E charging on one of the 350 kw units. I connected to the other 350 and started charging. Talked to the Mach-E owner for a couple minutes before it started raining. Got into the car and took a short video getting 266 kw at a little past 40% SOC. I know Taycan charges quick, but watching the car gain a mile every 5 or 6 seconds was neat, I stopped charging shorty after cause my daughter had some dental surgery and wanted to get home. I have been lucky charging at EA, 2024 CT4 with 9,500 miles on it.

 

[corgidad]

https://www.plugshare.com/location/336298

Unfortunately that's about the only high power charging station going into Vermont from Boston. what a shame.

The nearby Rivian Adventure Network station seems to be working well. I think they announced it'll be open to all EVs. but apparently not so far.

 

[JIP1080]

Current view in case anyone was interested in the inside of the chargers as I sit here waiting for one to open up. Where is Christopher when I need him...

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ Christopher is taking a break from reporting daily on the West Lebanon NH EA as October 27 was the last day of operations there before all four "legacy" chargers (i.e., 2022 equipment) are replaced (eventually).

 

[JIP1080]

^ Christopher is taking a break from reporting daily on the West Lebanon NH EA as October 27 was the last day of operations there before all four "legacy" chargers (i.e., 2022 equipment) are replaced (eventually).

Perhaps he's interested in a vacation in Georgia...

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ Out of curiosity, I checked out the other nearby non-proprietary DCFC options (often with speeds in the 20s or 30s for kW), and he hasn't been reporting from there, so I wonder how/where he's charging now!

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