Ohio to Phoenix - EA still the worst CPO

[Jtg11]

Just recently completed a road trip from Ohio to Phoenix.

Overall, plenty of charging options and no real issues at all. Was able to complete it with 1 night stay in hotel which is essentially the same as when I took my ICE vehicle on a the same trip several years ago.

One big takeaway ... Regardless to what everyone is saying about Electrify America being much better, my experience is that it was clearly the worst CPO. I purchased the membership for EA and Tesla, so I was trying to hit those CPOs for cost reasons. I ended up abandoning EA on day 2 and hitting the most convenient charger, usually a Pilot Flying J (even though ridiculously expensive, but the most convenient).

Summary:
6 EA stop and not one worked as intended. I either had to switch chargers, dealt with derated speeds, or APP just did not work properly. One charger I just ended up paying retail by tapping my credit card to get the charger activated. I typically wasted about 10 extra minutes at each EA stop just dealing with EA issues. One stop I eventually gave up after getting enough charge to make it to the next charger.

2 Tesla stops - both flawless

2 Rivian RAN stops - both flawless

3 Pilot Flying J stops - all three flawless.

1 Francis Energy stop - flawless

Summary

14 stops, 8 non EA and all flawless, 6 EA stops and not one worked as intended.

Just my experience.

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[Dave Cundiff]

Hope this improves with Plug & Play. My experiences with EA have also been very erratic, EXCEPT in the upper Midwest (MN and SD).

Across much of I-90, EA was fast, reliable, and economically priced. Near our Pacific Northwest home, not so much.

Best wishes!

 

[Aardvark]

It's the unpredictability that led me to give up on EA ever since I received my NACS adapter. While there may be many EA stations that work well, when almost all stations I would use from CO to the east coast only have 4 plugs, there's not enough redundancy when the problems start.
Our trip last week from CO to central IL used all Tesla and Ionna, plus one EA that I could have avoided. Our EA session went well this time, but I have had other trips that mirror @Jtg11 's experience, especially when using the 350 kW chargers.
Once in Salina KS- and you can't make this stuff up-- I arrived exactly 6 days after they had replaced every charger with brand new equipment to "improve the customer experience " and one wouldn't activate, and the other 350 kW unit throttled at 96 kW. A third charger did the same. A Mach e came in after me and had the same issues.
This was a bad relationship, overdue for a breakup. I have my eyes on a growing Ionna network now.

 

[McLovin]

Was able to complete it with 1 night stay in hotel which is essentially the same as when I took my ICE vehicle on a the same trip several years ago.

Hope that hotel had free charging. That's the one thing that makes feel ok about dropping $130-150/night on a hotel when traveling: I can at least leave the next day w/ a full charge. Helps offset the cost by $40-50, more if you can time it so you're down to 10% when you arrive.

 

[Jtg11]

Hope that hotel had free charging. That's the one thing that makes feel ok about dropping $130-150/night on a hotel when traveling: I can at least leave the next day w/ a full charge. Helps offset the cost by $40-50, more if you can time it so you're down to 10% when you arrive.

It sure did. But arrived really late at low state of charge and left really early, so only charged up to about 70%, but that was great.

 

[Jtg11]

Another touch point ... I just went to Bryce Canyon and Zion for a long weekend from Buckeye AZ.

Was hoping to stop at EA in Flagstaff as it was most convenient and cheaper since I still had the pricing plan, but 2 stations down and 2 full on both the way up and back, so used the Rivian RAN station both times.

 

[Great Gatsby]

EA is not worth it. It's ALWAYS something. Even when it shows stations available, some would not be working and you have no idea why and will just spend minutes trying to figure out what is going wrong. They have to be trying to be this dysfunctional. I also opt out of them on my navigations. Just never worth the headache and they are not the cheapest around either to make matters worse.

TBH and in my experience, have not found Charge Point to be that much better.

 

[JamuJoe]

Experience certainly varies. Thankfully, with charger availability improving steadily, we can more often make choices based upon reliability scores, pricing, location. I hope that Rivian will refine the nav system to add filters for such parameters. Until then, Plugshare is a great tool.
I‘ve had fine EA experiences, and some awful ones. The ill maintained and heavily used stations at Walmarts are generally the diciest. Rocky Mountain Power is doing excellent EA installations in Utah.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

This is my general experience with EA as well. They are the worst brand of charger, and most of the stations are too small to be relied on. When you only have four chargers, and one of them is a 50KW and CHAdeMO, it's likely that one will either be full or broken, and now you're waiting or having a bad day. The Pilot stations work well, and I've had good luck with Buc-ee's chargers.

 

[KBabione]

EA simply doesn't seem to care! My father lives in a townhouse in Reston, VA so when I take the Rivian I have to charge somewhere else. Turns out the EA HQ is in Reston right next to a Wegman's (grocery store for those of you not in the northeast). They have four L3 chargers there, one is usually out of service and, like the OP, I end up spending 10 minutes to try to get it to use my membership and then give up and use my credit card directly. Even then I've experienced slow speeds.

A couple of the Pilot/Flying J's that we've visited have the GM chargers that are plug & play and have been flawless. We found one in Smithton PA that is the right spot to charge going both directions as we drive the 410 miles from Lancaster PA to Columbus OH. 25-30 minutes and we have enough juice to make it to our destination as our only charge.

 

[azbill]

My EA experiences in the southwest have been pretty flawless also, had one charger in Vegas fault after a few minutes last year. I always use the app and swipe before plugging in, EA told me long ago on the phone to charge that way, and it works 100% of the time. I do not use P&C on Tesla or EA, since I have memberships. EVGO works for me every time also. I get a GM discount on EVGO, and it works with all three of my EVs. EVGO is the only network where the discount works with P&C.

 

[azbill]

Another touch point ... I just went to Bryce Canyon and Zion for a long weekend from Buckeye AZ.

Was hoping to stop at EA in Flagstaff as it was most convenient and cheaper since I still had the pricing plan, but 2 stations down and 2 full on both the way up and back, so used the Rivian RAN station both times.

Flagstaff is always full, even when all those chargers are working. Fortunately, Ionna is building a new site there and they will be much cheaper than the RAN. The Tesla site in Flagstaff has the 250kw units, but they never opened it up to other EVs.

 

[Jobo95]

I used EA 3 times and RAN once this week. Phoenix to Yuma and back. EA was very fast with no connection issues. I will continue to use their membership plus plan to take advantage of considerably cheaper pricing than RAN or Tesla.
For the first time however, my R1T would not automatically connect to RAN and charge. I believe it has something to do with connecting my payment account with charge point account. The Rivian app directs you to do so if you update the payment card. After 3 failed attempts I just used a CC to tap and pay at RAN. I’ve since unlinked the charge Point payment account but Rivian has not unlinked it for whatever reason.

 

[NC-Rivian]

EA simply doesn't seem to care! My father lives in a townhouse in Reston, VA so when I take the Rivian I have to charge somewhere else. Turns out the EA HQ is in Reston right next to a Wegman's (grocery store for those of you not in the northeast). They have four L3 chargers there, one is usually out of service and, like the OP, I end up spending 10 minutes to try to get it to use my membership and then give up and use my credit card directly. Even then I've experienced slow speeds.

A couple of the Pilot/Flying J's that we've visited have the GM chargers that are plug & play and have been flawless. We found one in Smithton PA that is the right spot to charge going both directions as we drive the 410 miles from Lancaster PA to Columbus OH. 25-30 minutes and we have enough juice to make it to our destination as our only charge.

I hate the way Pilot/Flying J's chargers grab me by the ankles and shakes all money out of my pockets. Other than the cost, they work well.

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