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

[SnBGC]

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.

I am driving to San Diego tomorrow (from Phoenix). My only DCFC will be in Yuma. I can check the EA app to see if they are functioning but apparently that isn't reliable. I checked PlugShare and it says 2 of the 4 units are down and the other two are limited to 35 kW.

Pretty scary.

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[dnlsatriani]

I am driving to San Diego tomorrow (from Phoenix). My only DCFC will be in Yuma. I can check the EA app to see if they are functioning but apparently that isn't reliable. I checked PlugShare and it says 2 of the 4 units are down and the other two are limited to 35 kW.

Pretty scary.

If something is wrong you can call EA agent and they can reboot remotely the station for you.

 

[1969Mach1Mike]

my wife actually wants to take our mach-e from los angeles to las vegas. but seriously, i don't want to deal with crap like this.

My cousin takes his to vegas from Denver every few weeks. Zero issues.

 

[devmach-e]

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.

The state is not planning to be all EV by 2035. Not even close. Stopping the sale of new ICE vehicles after 2034 is not the same as being all EV. And 20% of new vehicle sales at that point can be PHEVs. You won't be forced to sell your ICE vehicle you bought in 2034. You won't even be prevented from buying a used 2031 ICE-powered vehicle in 2036.

 

[Tampamike]

If something is wrong you can call EA agent and they can reboot remotely the station for you.

Maybe, …. Or probably not.

My experience with this is 100% failure. Every time that I have called, for various malfunctions, they have been unable to do anything for me. I usually get the “there’s a ticket for that one” answer. I understand that your experience may be different, but the reset thing hasn’t worked for me and I certainly wouldn’t depend on it.

 

[Ming]

Last time I called, I waited about 10 minutes and then they told me someone needed to come to fix it. 2 weeks later I came to the same station it was still down, plus one more.

If remote reset could fix most of their broken chargers it would have been great.

 

[Garbone]

We are going to do the same run with a group of 70+ other EVs in a couple of weeks.
https://fthepump.com/zero-runs

Looks like fun to see 70+ EVs in a group formation from San Bernardino to Las Vegas with 1 stop in Baker.

Organizer had to close the online entries because of the number of Teslas that wanted to join due to limited number of SuperChargers at Baker, CA.

They are still taking more participants that use CCS charging (MME, Lightning, Polestar, Lucid, Rivian, etc). Plenty of CCS DCFC at Baker available so if you want to join, contact the organizer.

Since I am still waiting for the 2022 MME, I am taking the Lightning along with the organizer who also has a Lightning and his wife is taking a flashy Tesla - see the video and see if you can recongize hers.

This is one of those events were you can see the Engine and hear KC pulling on the chain for the horn even before it starts. ?

 

[SignMD]

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.

Isn't all just spending time with your wife and kids? Bring some games along next time.

 

[mkhuffman]

I have a feeling the biggest issues are with the older EA chargers. I can confirm what others have posted in general about the east coast, where the charging stations are newer than in CA. There is a disadvantage to being first.

The station I used in Raleigh was obviously an old one, and that helps explain why it sucked. When I have stopped at newer stations, I get better results. Don't get me wrong, those stations also have problems and go down. But I suspect they are more reliable.

I wonder if there is a way to see when a station was built and now new the pumps are? Lack of 350 kW chargers is a clue, I think.

 

[dbsb3233]

I am driving to San Diego tomorrow (from Phoenix). My only DCFC will be in Yuma. I can check the EA app to see if they are functioning but apparently that isn't reliable. I checked PlugShare and it says 2 of the 4 units are down and the other two are limited to 35 kW.

Pretty scary.

I think the EA app is usually accurate for charger status, but it only reports In Use, Available, or Unavailable. I think it only goes into Unavailable status if it's completely shut down. Available means it's still on, but it could be having issues. Like limited power, or broken screen, etc. Might still be able to milk something out of it to prevent being stranded, but it may not be pretty.

 

[voxel]

We've done over 15,000 miles of road trips in our Mach-e over the last 2 years, across CO/UT/NV/CA/AZ/NM. Roughly 100 DCFCs, probably 80 of those at EA. Out of those 80, we only left a station without a charge one time. And that was because the station was full (Barstow) and we still had enough to make it to the next station (Baker).

IMO a year ago everything was peachy. EA had quirks and some issues but nothing like how poor it is now. It seems like urban EA locations in Florida are now completely full and with 1-2 chargers broken. Many new EVs including free 2-3 years of charging.. ID.4, Ioniq 5, all the BMWs, Taycans, Audis, etc. are contributing to the overcrowding.

What would help the situation is if L2 chargers were PLENTIFUL... like malls, restaurants, hotels, etc. I could top up for an hour or two and use a further out DC charger or make it home without another charge.

 

[Tampamike]

I have a feeling the biggest issues are with the older EA chargers. I can confirm what others have posted in general about the east coast, where the charging stations are newer than in CA. There is a disadvantage to being first.

The station I used in Raleigh was obviously an old one, and that helps explain why it sucked. When I have stopped at newer stations, I get better results. Don't get me wrong, those stations also have problems and go down. But I suspect they are more reliable.

I wonder if there is a way to see when a station was built and now new the pumps are? Lack of 350 kW chargers is a clue, I think.

“The station is old” is not a valid excuse for the station owner/operator. Right? If it’s old and doesn’t work well, common practice would be to fix it often or replace it with a newer unit that doesn’t break down. That’s exactly what the problem is - they’re building more new stations but not maintaining/replacing the old ones that are broken.

 

[Logal727]

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

Nah, I'm good

 

[Logal727]

IMO a year ago everything was peachy. EA had quirks and some issues but nothing like how poor it is now. It seems like urban EA locations in Florida are now completely full and with 1-2 chargers broken. Many new EVs including free 2-3 years of charging.. ID.4, Ioniq 5, all the BMWs, Taycans, Audis, etc. are contributing to the overcrowding.

What would help the situation is if L2 chargers were PLENTIFUL... like malls, restaurants, hotels, etc. I could top up for an hour or two and use a further out DC charger or make it home without another charge.

EVGo needs to expand in CFL more, there are some Wawas that have EVGO, so you don't have to worry about the free charging vehicles taking up spots.

 

[Logal727]

The state is not planning to be all EV by 2035. Not even close. Stopping the sale of new ICE vehicles after 2034 is not the same as being all EV. And 20% of new vehicle sales at that point can be PHEVs. You won't be forced to sell your ICE vehicle you bought in 2034. You won't even be prevented from buying a used 2031 ICE-powered vehicle in 2036.

Stop ruining their narrative! lol

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