Charger congestion!!

[ConejoRed]

What does a Kia Niro, a Mach E, ID.4, Bolt and a Rivian have in common? Waiting to charge at the Quartzite EA station when two of the 4 chargers were not working and everyone trying to get somewhere for the holidays!! We took over from an iPace so it was great to see more EVs, but not the broken chargers that have apparently been that way for a while according to PlugShare!

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[RickMachE]

Ah, California....

 

[DR.J56]

I’m keeping at least one ICE in the family to travel in, still have 2. I don’t have the patience for this.

 

[ConejoRed]

We have kept out Chevy Volt as a backup as well…..

 

[Mach1E]

What does a Kia Niro, a Mach E, ID.4, Bolt and a Rivian have in common? Waiting to charge at the Quartzite EA station when two of the 4 chargers were not working and everyone trying to get somewhere for the holidays!! We took over from an iPace so it was great to see more EVs, but not the broken chargers that have apparently been that way for a while according to PlugShare!

At least everyone looks super happy in the picture! ?

On a side note, I really like the signage you have there. No confusion whatsoever.

I posted a thread a while ago asking about etiquette at a mall where the only signage says “EV parking only.”

With the double signs and markings on the ground, there is nothing left to interpretation.

 

[DevSecOps]

Yeah try stopping at Kettleman on I5 during the holidays. The line backs up for miles onto the freeway. This is minor compared to some of the remote locations on major freeways.

 

[Mr. Toejam]

I let my 2016 ICE Mustang GTPremium PP go because of the crazy resale price. Wife has the Bolt and we are keeping the Swagger Wagon for road trips and hauling. I don’t feel like adding an hour or two of charging to my 6 hour road trips to see family.

My production date just slid another week to late January. so I probable won’t get it until March. 8 months In total.

A few weeks ago I was at Buttonwillow and the Tesla chargers had 3 cars waiting. All Model Y. 30 ft away there were 2 x 50kw Chargepoint chargers sitting empty. They were working,but the Tesla guys weren’t using them. They were all sipping their Starbucks and being all ”Tesla-y”. Maybe they think Tesla chargers have better Tesla electricity?

 

[generaltso]

there were 2 x 50kw Chargepoint chargers sitting empty. They were working,but the Tesla guys weren’t using them. They were all sipping their Starbucks and being all ”Tesla-y”. Maybe they think Tesla chargers have better Tesla electricity?

Not all ChargePoint DCFC stations have CHAdeMO and most Tesla owners don’t have CHAdeMO adapters.

 

[silverelan]

What does a Kia Niro, a Mach E, ID.4, Bolt and a Rivian have in common? Waiting to charge at the Quartzite EA station when two of the 4 chargers were not working and everyone trying to get somewhere for the holidays!! We took over from an iPace so it was great to see more EVs, but not the broken chargers that have apparently been that way for a while according to PlugShare!

Please tell me you and the other drivers called EA to let them know and put a note on Plugshare.

 

[ConejoRed]

Please tell me you and the other drivers called EA to let them know and put a note on Plugshare.

Several did! The Rivian diver was a Rivian employee and it had manufacture plates and he was on the phone to them making a stink to them. (You can see him on the phone to them in the photo). The Rivian was the last one to arrive and was going to have the longest wait. Everyone was very nice and we all just chatted about our cars and The Long Way Up with the Rivian driver. We were planning on charging to 90% to test the new charging curve (got out software update on Monday) but stopped at 81% one we confirmed the higher speed after 80% as we had enough range to reach our Scottsdale destination at that point. Both myself and the IPace driver posted on PlugShare as well.

 

[chrisGT]

Same at Belmont, California today. One charger was broken as usual, the other spot was occupied by an ICE car and 3 EVs had to wait for a single spot.

The driver of the ICE car refused to move their car. Their response was "I don't give a f...".
I called EA to report the whole situation. They don't have a towing service and they cannot enforce parking restrictions..
The broken charger is like that for months, I have called them multiple times, and I even spoke to a supervisor. They know it's broken but they have no ETA for the fix.

I have been using public DC charging for over a year, even before my MME, and the situation is getting worse. There are more EVs on the road that have to share less chargers because EA stations have started failing after a year or so in service. My prediction is that in 2-3 years public DC charging will be a nightmare, unless Tesla opens up their network to other brands and EA addresses the numerous operationalissues they have..

 

[silverelan]

The driver of the ICE car refused to move their car. Their response was "I don't give a f...".

That's when I am tempted to helpfully attempt to connect the charger to their car. It's just unfortunate that their paint got damaged in the process as I clumsily try to find the charge port with the CCS plug.

 

[RickMachE]

Please tell me you and the other drivers called EA to let them know and put a note on Plugshare.

He noted that their broken status has been that way for a while, per Plugshare.

 

[kltye]

Same at Belmont, California today. One charger was broken as usual, the other spot was occupied by an ICE car and 3 EVs had to wait for a single spot.

The driver of the ICE car refused to move their car. Their response was "I don't give a f...".
I called EA to report the whole situation. They don't have a towing service and they cannot enforce parking restrictions..

That's when I like to be helpful and make sure their tire pressures aren't too high - you know, uneven wear and whatnot. Sometimes they have their pressures about... 20-30 PSI too high

 

[sukhoi_584th]

That's when I like to be helpful and make sure their tire pressures aren't too high - you know, uneven wear and whatnot. Sometimes they have their pressures about... 20-30 PSI too high

Gotta take the valve core too in case it was defective.

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