Ford EV Charging Partner Electrify America Outlines New Quality Pledge

[tannerk89]

I haven't had any issues with EA chargers in NC/SC -- yet. I have run into quite a few other non-working chargers, but those were not on the EA network. The EA network has been quite reliable here.

Where are individuals reporting the most issues geographically?

I’ve had the same experience in the NC,VA,DE,NJ,NY i95 corridor. I haven’t had any trips where I had a bad charger. Some have been slow but moving a spot over has fixed that.

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[Slowmotion]

Their statement sounds good, but only time will tell if they're capable, or willing to make the needed improvements. I'm retired now but spent 45 years working for major corporations in manufacturing. I've heard a lot of senior executives and other managers say the right things, but then fail to do the right things. Sometimes they're incompetent. Other times they're just very effective liars. And occasionally they proved themselves trustworthy. Our response as consumers should always be trust only when verified. EA has serious reliability problems that do have effective solutions. Only time will tell if EA can be trusted to make the needed reliability improvements.

 

[mkhuffman]

I’ve had the same experience in the NC,VA,DE,NJ,NY i95 corridor. I haven’t had any trips where I had a bad charger. Some have been slow but moving a spot over has fixed that.

The EA station off I-95 in Fredericksburg had issues the last time I stopped there. Ended up not charging there because two of the chargers were broken and the others were busy.

Maybe they fixed them but something tells me they are still broken. Maybe because a couple months earlier I stopped there and was able to charge but some chargers were broken then as well.

 

[tannerk89]

The EA station off I-95 in Fredericksburg had issues the last time I stopped there. Ended up not charging there because two of the chargers were broken and the others were busy.

Maybe they fixed them but something tells me they are still broken. Maybe because a couple months earlier I stopped there and was able to charge but some chargers were broken then as well.

Yeah that’s fair, I guess I more meant when I road trip through there I’m able to find plenty of good chargers on PlugShare etc. I haven’t run into a situation where I couldn’t charge yet and I do that trip about every other month. PA needs chargers in general, there’s very few there.

 

[mkhuffman]

Yeah that’s fair, I guess I more meant when I road trip through there I’m able to find plenty of good chargers on PlugShare etc. I haven’t run into a situation where I couldn’t charge yet and I do that trip about every other month. PA needs chargers in general, there’s very few there.

On the trip when I didn't charge at that EA station in Fredricksburg, I was going to Winchester and was able to make it all the way there without stopping again. I arrived with something like 15% charge, which I was hoping to avoid. There is a EA charger in Winchester off I81 which I used the next morning with no issues. So, I also have not been stranded yet.

If I had to, I could have waited my turn in Fredricksburg. But what a PIA. And my wife was with me. I had it all planned out - stop at the charger, plug in, walk down to the mall and pee, walk back, unplug and go. Nope. We did pee at the mall though. ?

 

[kennethjk]

I do not understand why EA themselves have to physically visit each charging station to conduct testing?
Seems like they would have built internal diagnostics that report back to HQ with data about how a unit is performing.
Rather than "Performing 20,000 tests", I would much rather see them say "When a charger is having an outage, we guarantee to get a technician there within 2-hours" (or something similar)

Also, when did "ultra-fast" become a marketing term for DCFC? I much prefer the numerical 150kW, 350kW, etc designations for DCFC units because it tells you what you can expect to get.

Someone should probably come up with an app showing what stations and “pumps” are working or not working and call it “PlugShare”.

Seriously I said this before, why visit every station when they already get feedback from customers on PlugShare , plus all the electronic data they most already have. Someone said only 5% or less of the people report on PlugShare,. Maybe that’s true but it sure is a good indicator where to apply their resources.

 

[kennethjk]

The general impression I get is that most of these third-party charging solutions have been built by companies that took government incentives to build a nationwide charging network. I don't get the impression that they're building them at a pace that can keep up with EV sales, nor do they seem to be maintained/supported as such.

When I see a Tesla supercharger, I see a dozen stalls, with plenty of availability. Obviously, comparing that to third party EV chargers, the demand simply isn't there (yet) to warranty a dozen stalls, since Tesla ownership easily eclipses all of the other EV vehicles right now.

Still, in my experience, driving in the northeast, it's not uncommon to find fast chargers occupied, and waiting to use one is something to be expected.

Ford and GM should really fund a partner company that can build and maintain a network comparable to Tesla's. Realistically, that will never happen. As of now, we're left with a patchwork of state, city, local, and third-party chargers of varying KW output, and varying degrees of availability and maintenance.

Isn’t GM doing this with EVGO and Pilot?

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