Electrify America stations are regularly full now - is EA finally making money?

[ARK]

I’ve only ever charged a handful of times with Electrify America, but I’ve been keeping my eye on how full the stations get since I got my Mach-E in February 2021. It seems the EA stations are consistently full now, at least in Southern California.

Are people seeing this across the country? In 2021, it was always a ghost town. The most common setup I would see when I would go by a station in 2021 was 0 cars charging. Now, seemingly every location is always full. I know the EA app now shows when all charging locations are taken, but in practice, even this is not fully accurate because many locations say 1 of X spots are open and it’s not true - maybe someone is in the process of coming or going or it’s a bug. If it doesn’t at least say 2 of X spots are free, it usually means full.

Anyway, since my free charging credits are likely to expire in February, I’ve been trying to squeeze in charges at EA whenever I am low and have an opportunity, but all nearby locations are consistently full. Here is what the LA area looked like earlier today and again, it doesn’t even show the true extent of the full locations as many places that say 1/X really have a multi-vehicle line.

The silver lining is I think this must bode well for EA’s survival. What are people seeing across the country?

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[The Electric Duo]

I was just looking at the I5 station north of LA and Quartzsite, AZ east of San Diego. There are up to 3 1/2 hour waits for an open charging stall. Yeah, it is a busy travel day but that is ridiculous. It seems that EA's pace of adding new stations has slowed significantly and I haven't heard of them expanding any stations.

 

[flapjake314]

i have noticed this in NYC area as well. not always full, but when i first bought this car 2 years ago there was basically always no one. now no matter what time of day/week i go there are always a few cars, and during peak times it is full

 

[ARK]

I was just looking at the I5 station north of LA and Quartzsite, AZ east of San Diego. There are up to 3 1/2 hour waits for an open charging stall. Yeah, it is a busy travel day but that is ridiculous. It seems that EA's pace of adding new stations has slowed significantly and I haven't heard of them expanding any stations.

What app are you looking at to see wait times?

 

[The Electric Duo]

What app are you looking at to see wait times?

I was just checking Plugshare reviews and Twitter.

 

[The Electric Duo]

Last night at 8pm at Kettleman:

 

[ARK]

Last night at 8pm at Kettleman:

Yikes I hope you and Liv didn’t have to wait in that line, seems awful.

 

[RickMachE]

That is unique to California, and a handful of other locations maybe this weekend. Open EA app and look.

 

[The Electric Duo]

Yikes I hope you and Liv didn’t have to wait in that line, seems awful.

Nope. We haven't been up that route yet. I was just curious since I saw some people posting about the I5 corridor on twitter. I also started browsing around in the EA app to see where the stations are full. Earlier, Baker was even full at one point.

 

[Billyk24]

I was just looking at the I5 station north of LA and Quartzsite, AZ east of San Diego. There are up to 3 1/2 hour waits for an open charging stall. Yeah, it is a busy travel day but that is ridiculous. It seems that EA's pace of adding new stations has slowed significantly and I haven't heard of them expanding any stations.

Can someone post true data on the backlog of transformers needed for DCFC charging locations. There are a number of EA stations that look completed but sit for months without any visible changes frustrating many EV owners. Or, can EA actually speak the truth on why such stations sit unused for months even when locals contact governmental officials in the area who state "EA has not applied for a permit". The Tesla adaptors and increase of Magic Docks can not happen fast enough. Green Bay Wisconsin if one such location. Believe it or not, Green Bay does NOT have any DCFC CCS chargers. Tesla has a station of V2 chargers across the parking lot from where EA has completed charging stations but have sat unused for months.

 

[mkhuffman]

Holy crap. We have officially reached the breaking point.

Honestly I thought it would be this bad a year ago, and I admit I was wrong. But it is official: public charging sucks. Big time. And while we might not have lines out onto the street in VA, it is way too congested to count on getting a charger without waiting. There are too many new BEVs getting sold, and too few new charging stations opening. The Tesla adapter can't come fast enough.

My timeline for a R1 Max Pack might be moving up. I am not sure I can deal with this at all.

 

[Mr. Toejam]

On holidays, I leave the Mach-e at home and drive the Honda Swagger-wagon On road trips anywhere in CA. Cant wait to get a NACS adapter. We drove through there at that time and couldn’t be happier about our decision.

 

[AZBill]

I was just looking at the I5 station north of LA and Quartzsite, AZ east of San Diego. There are up to 3 1/2 hour waits for an open charging stall. Yeah, it is a busy travel day but that is ridiculous. It seems that EA's pace of adding new stations has slowed significantly and I haven't heard of them expanding any stations.

Quartzsite is a disaster, I have personally seen the lines for the 4 chargers there, and it was not on a holiday. Rivian has 6 charges there and I have not seen any lines with my R1T. Basically that site is 120 miles in each direction to other 150-350kw chargers along I-10, Indio and Buckeye.

At the same time, Tesla now has 2 different sites in Quartzsite, with a total of 120 chargers. None have Magic docks.

 

[AZBill]

That is unique to California, and a handful of other locations maybe this weekend. Open EA app and look.

Arizona has many full stations as well. Just drove by an EA site in Buckeye, 4 cars charging and many in line waiting. Quartzsite is always full.

 

[RickMachE]

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