New EA Chargers Are Failing in the Cold - Fixed!!?

[s4wrxttcs]

We should all keep in mind this is not a common temperature in most of the US. Sure not optimal and we should be aware of the situation and monitor for the fix to be implemented but the sky is not falling. This is a rare and extreme scenario.

The video said -6F which would be unheard of cold for where I live, but not that uncommon for our friends up north.

Curious to see what equipment they use up north in Canada.

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[jjswan33]

To add some more detail.

In my entire 6+ year experience with a Tesla I was never nervous whether a Supercharger would work when I arrived. The reliability of the Tesla Chargers seemed to actually be superior to that of my experience with gas stations with my Diesel vehicle.

In my 4 month experience with EA I'm really troubled by how often I see chargers broken, and how long it takes them to get the chargers repaired.

In my own case I only ran into a serious problem 1 out of those 24 times. But, I'm not counting the numerous times I've seen other people have issues. I've also helped out people a bunch of times due to the equipment being fussy, and them being new to the fussy equipment. I'm also not counting all the times I've had to switch stalls to get it to charge.

It also doesn't take into account the times I've skipped locations that I knew were problematic.

EA does have some things I like.

They tend to have a lot of locations at least in places like Portland, and they're situated at places like Fred Meyer so you can do some shopping while waiting for a charger.

The App works well in determining roughly how many stalls are working.

During the Upgrades the EA chargers were free, and this saved me a non trivial amount of money during late summer road tripping.

So its not all bad, but they're no where as reliable as the Tesla Superchargers.

That is a fair and well written opinion. I personally never argued that EA is as reliable as the SC network, it's clearly not based on what I have read but I wouldn't know that.

I am just arguing that it's not as bad as you all make it out to be and with some research is completely reliable in my experience. Clearly though you and a couple others start with trolling comments and then decide to pepper in some personal experience that is not nearly as bad as you originally claimed.

 

[NY_Rob]

I beg to differ. 24k CCS miles and counting.

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...rip-north-of-the-border-with-rivian-r1t.7769/

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/roadtrip-portland-or-to-northern-wisconsin.6894/

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...nd-boise-slc-moab-flagstaff-sf-portland.5076/

So far so good for me but I guess I'm just lucky, or that is the argument I keep hearing.

I am honestly happy EA is working for you... I wish it was like that for everyone!!

Even in just this one video Kyle went to two EA sites where all the new hardware was down leaving just one older unit working. Then he went to Walmart where almost all the EA units were down... but he found 1 working. Then he went to an EVgo site.. the all units he tried worked perfectly on the first try, then he went to a Chargepoint site with 5 chargers... the 4 older units were working, just the 1 brand new unit wasn't working.

So overall, in his words "EA charging was a total disaster" (39m39s mark).

 

[s4wrxttcs]

I beg to differ. 24k CCS miles and counting.

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...rip-north-of-the-border-with-rivian-r1t.7769/

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/roadtrip-portland-or-to-northern-wisconsin.6894/

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...nd-boise-slc-moab-flagstaff-sf-portland.5076/

So far so good for me but I guess I'm just lucky, or that is the argument I keep hearing.

You were just massively unlucky in other ways that the universe ran of out of back luck to give you.

 

[jjswan33]

I am honestly happy EA is working for you... I wish it was like that for everyone!!

Even in just this one video Kyle went to two EA sites where all the new hardware was down leaving just one older unit working. Then he went to Walmart where almost all the EA units were down... but he found 1 working. Then he went to an EVgo site.. the all units he tried worked perfectly on the first try, then he went to a Chargepoint site. with 5 chargers... the 4 older units were working, just the 1 brand new unit wasn't working.

So overall, in his words "EA charging was a total disaster" (39m39s mark).

Oh I watched it. He even admitted that he knew the charger site had issues, just had forgotten. That is the research part, check plugshare before you rely on a charger.

 

[zipzag]

Fortunately this level of poor charging performance is becoming a major issue to large auto makers.

I'll bet that the Rivian chargers are fine in extreme cold.

 

[ohseedee]

LOL. Clearly they give a shit your just dumb if you believe they don't.

Edit: I mean if they didn't care why did they put in the upgraded hardware in the first place?

Wow you must really love EA to be lashing out at folks here. I see your occupation is an Engineer. Maybe some admiration for the VW Group engineers who built the defeat devices to cheat emission laws for years, which is literally the only reason EA network exists today? Again, it doesn't exist because VW Group gave a shit about building out a charger network, they did it as a punishment. So yeah, I'm sure they give a shit, but mostly about fulfilling their obligation as part of their punishment. Let's see what happens to EA once that obligation is met...

In terms of why did they upgrade: I can't say, but I can speculate that it was financial. They HAVE to invest $ into EA. Not as a business but as a punishment. While I don't know how that is being tracked, they probably can put $X into new chargers or $X into upgrading chargers and it meets their requirements just the same. Maybe just replacing chargers on existing stations is easier then building new locations (no permits, scouting locations, etc.). Since it's a punishment vs a business, I'm sure customer experience is not the #1 driving force on their decisions.

Now, I'm not saying EA is all bad. It's probably the next best network after Tesla. I'm just saying let's not forget the number 1 driver here is meeting their obligations as a punishment, business is secondary.

 

[rivian1800]

….and Tesla is going to open superchargers to everyone in near future.
PS
On my 23.000+ miles (and 99% using EA from public charging stations)I can’t complain. To hate EA I need a reason but I don’t have one…yet ?

 

[zipzag]

Tesla is going to open up superchargers to everyone when it is in Tesla interest to do so.

 

[COdogman]

We should all keep in mind this is not a common temperature in most of the US. Sure not optimal and we should be aware of the situation and monitor for the fix to be implemented but the sky is not falling. This is a rare and extreme scenario.

It does suck that these chargers don’t work at these low temps, but it’s true that we rarely see temps this cold in CO. If we did there is no way i would still be living here

According to the map there are only 7 states with average winter temps lower than 20 degrees. And only Alaska has average temps like those we are seeing today. The Tesla chargers obviously prove it is possible, but EA is clearly not in that league.

 

[jjswan33]

Wow you must really love EA to be lashing out at folks here. I see your occupation is an Engineer. Maybe some admiration for the VW Group engineers who built the defeat devices to cheat emission laws for years, which is literally the only reason EA network exists today? Again, it doesn't exist because VW Group gave a shit about building out a charger network, they did it as a punishment. So yeah, I'm sure they give a shit, but mostly about fulfilling their obligation as part of their punishment. Let's see what happens to EA once that obligation is met...

In terms of why did they upgrade: I can't say, but I can speculate that it was financial. They HAVE to invest $ into EA. Not as a business but as a punishment. While I don't know how that is being tracked, they probably can put $X into new chargers or $X into upgrading chargers and it meets their requirements just the same. Maybe just replacing chargers on existing stations is easier then building new locations (no permits, scouting locations, etc.). Since it's a punishment vs a business, I'm sure customer experience is not the #1 driving force on their decisions.

Now, I'm not saying EA is all bad. It's probably the next best network after Tesla. I'm just saying let's not forget the number 1 driver here is meeting their obligations as a punishment, business is secondary.

First off I don't love EA I'm just grateful that the company rolled out a nationwide charging network and then is charging nearly half what other operators charge at 0.31/kWh or less with a Rivian in by minute states. Secondly I don't agree with all the hate, no it isn't perfect but most of the people who bitch are bitching because they had to wait a few minutes or even worse never had an issue.

Second off just because I am an engineer doesn't mean I am some POS without ethics. Why would I admire a company emitted excess CO2 just to make a buck.

On the other hand why wouldn't EA want to be successful? If they provide a good network it gives them multiple advantages:

1. They can sell access to their network and make a profit like they do with Volvo and others
2. They want to sell a lot of EVs in the coming years, if they have a reliable network that gives them a competitive advantage to offer charging at a discount or for free for a period of time. It helps sell cars and make money

I mean from a business prospective if as a company you were required to spend a ton of cash building a new company, even as a punishment why wouldn't you want it in turn to make you a profit. You make it sound like they are producing a crappy experience on purpose out of spite... I mean who thinks like that??

 

[Tahoe Man]

This is just further proof that the CCS DC fast charging is just a joke and another reason why I stopped recommended BEVs.

As I've said in the past, EA just needs to get out of the charging business. They should sell their investment to GM or Ford. This EA pilot project is a flop and huge waste of money.

Car makers should be encourage to invest in their own charging network specific to their own brand of vehicles. There is no profit selling electricity in parking lots. This whole EV fast charging endeavor has another 10 years before any real progress is made. There is no way I would want to be stranded in freezing temps just because the damn car won't charge. All it takes is getting stranded once.

 

[COdogman]

On the other hand why wouldn't EA want to be successful? If they provide a good network it gives them multiple advantages:

1. They can sell access to their network and make a profit like they do with Volvo and others
2. They want to sell a lot of EVs in the coming years, if they have a reliable network that gives them a competitive advantage to offer charging at a discount or for free for a period of time. It helps sell cars and make money

I mean from a business prospective if as a company you were required to spend a ton of cash building a new company, even as a punishment why wouldn't you want it in turn to make you a profit. You make it sound like they are producing a crappy experience on purpose out of spite... I mean who thinks like that??

I think this is an important point. I have never bought into the idea that EA made a deliberately bad network because they were forced to do it. There is a difference between deliberately tanking a job and simply being bad at what you do. There is a huge opportunity for them if they get it right and they have a decent head start on the other planned networks (not named Tesla).

They definitely need to improve, but the only way that happens is hearing from people about what is, isn’t working.

 

[Tahoe Man]

I hope EA charges the repairs back to BTC Power (charger manufacturer according to Kyle).. No one tested these very expensive new units in the cold?

Funny, as Kyle failed to charge at the second EA site which was miles away from the first site... a Model 3 that just successfully charged at the nearby Tesla SC just rolled by.

That's because Tesla integrated their chargers within their vehicle sales. If Tesla had this many problems as the CCS fast charge network has, Tesla sales would drop like a rock. This is why EV makers need to have their own charging network, so the network gets the required resources to function properly or the whole EV sales collapses.

 

[Zybane]

Tesla Supercharging network is the way to go with EV's, simple as that. Never once had a problem charging. I guess it's basically a given at this point for me, as at this rate, with Rivian pushing me back to 2025+ since I "don't live near a service center", I'll probably have a Cybertruck in my driveway (have a really low reservation number) before my R1S order comes up.

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