Los Angeles to San Diego and back, great until we needed to charge

[kennethjk]

I empathize with what you experienced. But I'd note several things that could have made the trip better, some are already mentioned:

1) Charge to 90% instead of 100% before a trip like this. Had you done that, you MAY not have needed to charge on the way home.

2) BEFORE YOU LEAVE, lay out the trip and note where possible charging locations are. Look each one up on PlugShare and read the historical comments.

3) BEFORE HEADING TO ANY STATION, look it up both on the app (EA) as well as PlugShare. You would have known that the first location was full and not headed there, or that the second and third locations had issues and waited at the first location.



Report every bad charger with EA's app, and in PlugShare.

I charged to 100% on a 250 miles trip and charged twice on the way up since I knew in advance fast charging was extremely limited where I was going.

I did the same thing going home. this was done to avoid issues later.

I feel I should always have a backup plan with an EV.

when I do travel long distances I haven’t had any real issues with fast charging but I do plan that my first option might not be available and have second options.

obviously all options can be bad but I tend to fill up earlier than I need , just in case.

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[chrisGT]

Same experience with my local EA location. Two out of three stations fail to connect with the car and initiate a charge. The third one works but it is always taken.
These stations used to work a few months ago so things are deteriorating and I believe they will get even worst with all these new EVs.

 

[MachEMaster]

I've had no problems with EC so far. However, the Petro Canada infrastructure is AMAZING, they're just hard to find ATM. I've seen more popping up though.

My problem with Electrify Canada is the $.57 per minute charging rate.

 

[RickMachE]

Upcoming short trip of 40 miles or so. We're always at 90%, but so we don't need to think about it, I hit charge to 100% because we'll come back we'll under 90%, and ther is no reason not to charge to 100% every now and then.

 

[astronut325]

I empathize with what you experienced. But I'd note several things that could have made the trip better, some are already mentioned:

1) Charge to 90% instead of 100% before a trip like this. Had you done that, you MAY not have needed to charge on the way home.

2) BEFORE YOU LEAVE, lay out the trip and note where possible charging locations are. Look each one up on PlugShare and read the historical comments.

3) BEFORE HEADING TO ANY STATION, look it up both on the app (EA) as well as PlugShare. You would have known that the first location was full and not headed there, or that the second and third locations had issues and waited at the first location.



Report every bad charger with EA's app, and in PlugShare.

All valid points. I purposely charged to 90% because I did want to make a charging stop. I planned it out that way because I have yet to try any DC fast charging station. And I saw there were several EA locations on the way home. And I figured that I would need 10-15 minutes to charge at any given location. The worst case I had imagined was that I would need to move over to another stall to get a working charger.

That said, I did not check the status of the first EA stop we made prior to heading out for that location. That's a huge lesson I learned.

Nonetheless, I feel EVs are starting to hit critical mass. The experience of charging on the go needs a lot of improvement in reliability. At a minimum, I feel EA, CP, and EVGO need to broadcast their charger status to auto manufacturers so their navigation systems can take that into account. Having the end user do that leg work is not going to keep people on the EV train.

 

[moparguy]

I get your pain! I was at LA last month, same happened to me, had to try 3 different EA stations! 3rd one worked, 1st one, I kept plugging and nothing, 2nd one was charging at 10 kWh, 3rd one worked fine, what was supposed to be 15 minutes session ended up being close to an hour.

 

[RyanSD]

So this past weekend we took a brief trip from Los Angeles to San Diego. It's approximately 120-130ish miles of travel. I had charged the Mach-E to 90%. GOM showed 300+ miles. Great. My family and I hop in, put on good music and head to San Diego. We get there without issue and have a great day. We drove around to other places and still had plenty of charge left. However, at the end of the day it was apparent I needed a charge as I only had 100 miles of range and I have a 130 mile trip back home. So I punch in my home address into the Mach-E navigation and it points out that I need to charge and there is an EA station just 10 minutes away.

We navigate to the nearest EA station. Completely full, with one car already in line waiting to charge. I open the EA app on my phone and see there is another EA station about 15 minutes away. So I drive to the next EA station. One stall available, plug in, pay and we're charging. Awesome. 20 minutes pass and I notice we've barely added 6ish miles. I look on the EA screen and it says it's charging at 12KWh. I once again open the EA app and see there is another station about 30 minutes away from my current location, thankfully it was on the way home.

I make it to the third EA station:
Charging stall 1: Fails to connect/charge
Charging stall 2: Fails to connect/charge
Charging stall 3: In use by another vehicle
Charging stall 4: Connects and charges. Charged for 15 minutes. Wife angry and kids cranky.

Got home.

I'm seriously rethinking my Mach-E purchase due to the charging network. What should have been a 20 minute stop to charge for 15 minutes turned into almost 1 and a half hour endeavor. My family refuses to do any more long trips on the Mach-E.

San Diego native here. I can confirm that the EA network here needs quite some work.

My wife, who has an ID4, and relies heavily on the EA network here can tell you all about the broken/busted chargers that only power at 1/5 the advertised speed. As a home health nurse, she travels all across the county and does a lot of her charting while charging.

We have a group of EA chargers at about 1.8 miles from our house but they seldom work. They are about to open a new group at the mall, nearby. That should help until it doesn’t. Not sure why people see the reason to be so destructive with these chargers.

Traveling from SD to LA, I had crap luck charging in Pasadena but found charging in Lake Elsinore to be fast/easy.

I guess 50/50 for me…. Definitely needs some work.

 

[kennethjk]

San Diego native here. I can confirm that the EA network here needs quite some work.

My wife, who has an ID4, and relies heavily on the EA network here can tell you all about the broken/busted chargers that only power at 1/5 the advertised speed. As a home health nurse, she travels all across the county and does a lot of her charting while charging.

We have a group of EA chargers at about 1.8 miles from our house but they seldom work. They are about to open a new group at the mall, nearby. That should help until it doesn’t. Not sure why people see the reason to be so destructive with these chargers.

Traveling from SD to LA, I had crap luck charging in Pasadena but found charging in Lake Elsinore to be fast/easy.

I guess 50/50 for me…. Definitely needs some work.

so many more EVs sold in California , probably the reason it is worse out near you. I have found for the most part it is much better on the east coast near me but as I fear as many more EVs are sold al over we will end up in the same position you are. Not pleasant.

 

[Straight2VHS]

You can thank your governor. I already did after he closed my business down for 13 straight months during COVID. California has the most EV's out of any state in the nation, they plan to go ALL EV by 2035. Half the charging stations work, with the rest out of order or barely working, and those are always in use with lines forming. Glad my trips from San Diego to LA and back are always just over 200 miles round trip so I can make it home where I can charge in peace without worry(unless of course it's during a flex alert because California cannot produce enough electricity to meet demand).

Next time I suggest doing the drive between midnight and 6am. You should find some charging available during those hours. Good luck!

 

[Ming]

So I'm traveling from Austin to Boston right now, taking a south route, Houston I-10 to mobile then Atlanta. There are quite some stretches 70 to more than 100 miles between EA stations. I didn't hold expectation high, so always aimed to have enough charge to 2nd station down the road if one station doesn't have any working chargers.

Among the stations I used so far:
Columbus TX I-10, 1/4 showed as working, I took it. Although someone came after me tried another one it worked too.
Vidor TX Walmart, 1.5/4 working. The half was limited to 31kW. App and monitor did show it had limited power. Someone was using the working charger so I used the 31kW until he's done.

Gulfport outlets 6/6 working no one there.

Saraland Walmart, app couldn't connect to the chargers. 2/4 out. Other 2 on but I got error through plug & charge. Another MME pulled up and said it was working 2 days ago for him. Glad I charged enough at Gulfport so I could drive to next station more than 100 miles away at Greenville AL.

Greenville Walmart, 2/4 up. No one there.

Commerce GA Walmart, 3/4 up. No one there.

Charlotte NC, 9/10 up. First charge started at 120kW but stopped after 1 minute. I checked Ford pass after about 10 minutes and found it stopped. Came out of Walmart to move to another charger.

Greensboro NC Walmart, app showed all unavailable, but I went in anyway. They worked. First charger started at 90kW but quickly dropped to 35kW. Moved to a 350 charger. Saw 2 MME. One 21 model driver insisted it didn't have the HVBJB recall.

I only paid 1 session through EA app. All others were done with Ford P&C. EA has been giving complementary sessions since yesterday.

 

[dbsb3233]

All valid points. I purposely charged to 90% because I did want to make a charging stop. I planned it out that way because I have yet to try any DC fast charging station. And I saw there were several EA locations on the way home.

Fair enough, although you still could have started the day at 100% and still done a DCFC if you just wanted to test it out. Just safer to have more in there to work with.

Usually it's not a problem to charge at EA (or other places), but there's always that chance of a hitch, and it's not a tiny chance. It's sort of like a game of Russian Roulette. When it is a bad station, you're wishing you put more in on the last charge (or to start the day).

 

[phil]

Everyone seems to have different experiences.

Those of us who use gas for long trips pretty much all have the same experience - fast, easy, and reliable.

 

[ShaggySS]

Those of us who use gas for long trips pretty much all have the same experience - fast, easy, and reliable.

You are leaving out the most important one. Fleeced

 

[astronut325]

San Diego native here. I can confirm that the EA network here needs quite some work.

My wife, who has an ID4, and relies heavily on the EA network here can tell you all about the broken/busted chargers that only power at 1/5 the advertised speed. As a home health nurse, she travels all across the county and does a lot of her charting while charging.

We have a group of EA chargers at about 1.8 miles from our house but they seldom work. They are about to open a new group at the mall, nearby. That should help until it doesn’t. Not sure why people see the reason to be so destructive with these chargers.

Traveling from SD to LA, I had crap luck charging in Pasadena but found charging in Lake Elsinore to be fast/easy.

I guess 50/50 for me…. Definitely needs some work.

The funny thing? The third charging stop with 2/4 chargers not working… was lake Elsinore.

 

[dbsb3233]

All of this just reinforces the cautious approach I've adopted from day 1... Forget the EV purist approach to road trips (charging just enough to get you to the next station with only 10% and assume it's gonna work). I knew I'd never wanna do that unless I had to (a long charger gap). Way too risky.

Instead, just charge up to 80% at each DCFC, regardless of the distance to the next charger. We do that all the time. The only time we don't is the final leg of the day when we have free L2 at the destination for the night (or home if the end of the trip).

We're often rolling into EA stations with between 30-40% still left in the battery. Yes, the charge curve is a little slower charging between 30-80% vs 10-60%, but it's only 2-3 minutes difference. Well worth the extra peace of mind.

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