Electrify America no data on available charging stations?

[momo3605]

Hi all,

So I've noticed over the past few months that anytime i search or navigate to an EA station, it always shows -/4 stalls available. And it always says it like that. But there are other chargers from chargepoint or EVGo which will actually show the number of chargers free. I just wanted to know if this is expected behavior? It's not a huge deal, but it just means I have to go open the EA app on my phone to figure out which station is full and which station has open spots.

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[emoore]

I assume you mean in the Rivian NAV? If so then yes the Rivian NAV doesn't know the status of EA chargers which is unfortunate. I usually have to look at the EA app on my phone.

 

[VSG]

PlugShare doesn't show the availability of EA chargers either. I think it's safe to conclude that EA doesn't have a public, free API for charger availability information. ChargePoint and EVGo do.

 

[momo3605]

I assume you mean in the Rivian NAV? If so then yes the Rivian NAV doesn't know the status of EA chargers which is unfortunate. I usually have to look at the EA app on my phone.

Yes! Sorry, thanks for the clarification.

PlugShare doesn't show the availability of EA chargers either. I think it's safe to conclude that EA doesn't have a public, free API for charger availability information. ChargePoint and EVGo do.

Porsche and Lucid both show the status of EA chargers, so I assume there is an API...maybe it's not free or maybe the companies that have a deal for free EA charging have a deal to use their API...hmm, maybe that's why lol

 

[VSG]

Porsche and Lucid both show the status of EA chargers, so I assume there is an API...maybe it's not free or maybe the companies that have a deal for free EA charging have a deal to use their API...hmm, maybe that's why lol

Yes, there clearly has to be an API - that what the EA app uses ... But I think that the companies that have a deal with EA to offer free EA charging to new owners also have access to the API as part of that deal.

To me the telling point is that tools like PlugShare and ABRP have never displayed EA availability, while they DO display availability for other networks. That tells me the data is either not publicly available or only available for a price. If it were a free and open API then it would be trivial to integrate EA availability into these tools and that would have been done years ago.

 

[SPITmadFIRE]

Porsche and Lucid both show the status of EA chargers, so I assume there is an API...maybe it's not free or maybe the companies that have a deal for free EA charging have a deal to use their API...hmm, maybe that's why lol

keep in mind that Porsche and EA are both owned by Volkswagen. I'm assuming Porsche and other VW subsidiaries have a lot more access to EA's backend than others.

 

[veerthetiguy]

I believe EA said in their new year email that they'll be adding this information to their API soon

 

[azbill]

Yes! Sorry, thanks for the clarification.



Porsche and Lucid both show the status of EA chargers, so I assume there is an API...maybe it's not free or maybe the companies that have a deal for free EA charging have a deal to use their API...hmm, maybe that's why lol

Ford also shows it, but then they have Plug and Charge for EA, so they connect to the EA servers from the Ford servers for payment processing.

Edit: Porsche and Lucid also support P&C on EA.

 

[bbonkk]

Just assume that zero to 2 out of four are working or available. With all the free charging that almost every car manufacturer is getting from Electrify America, I would just look elsewhere.

 

[momo3605]

Just assume that zero to 2 out of four are working or available. With all the free charging that almost every car manufacturer is getting from Electrify America, I would just look elsewhere.

Free charging offers have dropped off a lot. I’m not sure anyone is offering 3 anymore. Lucid stopped, the new macan is 1 year. The Ioniq/mach e are fixed amounts. Hopefully in a year or two, the craze for free charging will reduce the demand at EA. Unfortunately it’s the only option for traveling in a lot of cases.

 

[BlueR1S]

Can I tag team off this thread - trying to understand EA app. Let’s say there are 4 chargers, each with 2 CCS plugs. If 1 of 2 plugs are used, the charger shows as “in-use” in the app and is greyed out, but only one of the CCS plugs shows as unavailable. Does that mean I could use the other plug, but can’t use the app to start it (as it’s greyed out)?

Also have seen it say charger “in use” and greyed out yet both plugs show “CCS 150kw” instead of “unavailable”. So how would I know if I could tandem charge or not?

 

[bbonkk]

I agree, but we’re still dealing with the mess. They started this past year and the year before. I’ve had experience going back-and-forth from Los Angeles to New Mexico and I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Electrify America. I do know that sometimes that’s your only choice. I just hope they get their ass in gear and fix the chargers. It’s too bad for the people that work there answering the phone. I think they understand the problem better than the people higher up. I’ve had the charger in Coso Junction, California say that it’s available and you go out there and not one works. This went on for weeks.

 

[momo3605]

Can I tag team off this thread - trying to understand EA app. Let’s say there are 4 chargers, each with 2 CCS plugs. If 1 of 2 plugs are used, the charger shows as “in-use” in the app and is greyed out, but only one of the CCS plugs shows as unavailable. Does that mean I could use the other plug, but can’t use the app to start it (as it’s greyed out)?

Also have seen it say charger “in use” and greyed out yet both plugs show “CCS 150kw” instead of “unavailable”. So how would I know if I could tandem charge or not?

No, the 2 CCS plugs are basically just for redundancy and to allow cars with ports on different sides to charge. You cant use both plugs at the same time

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

It's an extra step, but I've looked in the EA app itself and it shows availability.

 

[Killer95Stang]

Thanks you for this thread which reminded me to cancel my EA subscription. Once again, I passed by the EA chargers this morning on the way home from the gym and it had a waiting que of 2 ID4s and 2 Kias. Another kia charging, a porsche and some work van. Of course, one out of 4 appeared to be out of order. All this while it was raining cats and dogs...

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