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

[67 Stang Convertible]

How the mighty have Fallen!!! Back in the 50's - 90's German Engineering was 2nd to none. Now, well, it just seems they have fallen behind or don't care anymore. Totally out engineered by TESLA. The ID4 Software was an absolute Joke. VW having to scale back production due to low demand. What is happening in the "Fatherland"?

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[dbsb3233]

Part of the problem is that car companies are giving massive kWh free charging with EV purchases. My nephew just bought a Genesis and got 3 years. They all use EA for this free program.

This is true in cities. Although I would note that it's not the specific problem in places like Quartzite, or Green River UT... small towns on key interstate routes with no CCS DCFC anywhere close. It's nearly 100% travelers there.

The "free" problem is from locals that choose to charge there instead of at home. Lots of that in the population centers.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Was in Buffalo on Saturday and charged at EA (branded EVolve NY) and of the four stations it was 25% to 50% full. Seems about the same as the Summer. There is usually at least one Ontario plate as well, due to the week-end cross-border shopping action.

I have yet to declare my electrons...

 

[TruWrecks]

I think the current terminology is part to blame for the local governments not moving faster on public charging stations. Everyone keeps calling them "charging stations". It is a term of convenience, not necessity.

We all need to start calling them "Electric Fuel Stations" so it shows that this is fuel for vehicles, not a convenience for an expensive toy. There are enough electric vehicles on the road now that it needs to be regulated and monitored so the systems keep delivering fuel, and get repairs quickly when there is an issue. If gas stations start having long lines government officials start looking at why it is happening. We need this level of attention before EV fuel becomes more available for everyone.

Faster charging batteries would be nice too. 30-60 minutes to charge each vehicle is too long for high population use. Fast charging a 400V car can be done much quicker if you temporarily reconfigure the batteries into a 1600V block. That would obviously require redesigning every EV battery pack out there, but ti would be one way to reduce charging times. With a 1600V battery you can recharge 99 KWH in about 10 minutes, with moderate cooling.

The only way it is going to get better is making all the cars charge faster, and make public DC chargers as populated as gas stations.

 

[dbsb3233]

The two EAs closest to me are full from 5 am to 10 pm every day. I’ve stopped charging at EVgo a couple months back, but these are also full pretty much all the time. Many EV drivers in the city rely on dcfc for charging due to lack of infrastructure in high rises. So life is very tough right now. This started here in Chicago since late summer.

That's just not gonna work long term. Hell, I wouldn't put up with it short term either. No way I'd buy an EV if I didn't have cheap, convenient L2 (or at least L1) where I sleep. Or maybe at work/school.

 

[Blue highway]

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.

... wait... you mean public charging sucks? i've never heard this before

Actually this last weekend I noticed the DCFC are pretty busy here in Oregon... such a contrast from even a year ago.

 

[Fremont Kid]

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?

I don't see more EA chargers on PlugShare but do see more Blink and EVConnect chargers across the country.

 

[Blue highway]

I wonder how many 50kw chargers are going unused in the local area while drivers are waiting over 3 hours for the "fast" DC chargers.

I use 50Kw chargers more often than EA... at meal stops. The issue is that strategy is not scalable when each person is plugged in for 40 minutes at meal times when there is only one CCS hose.

 

[Blue highway]

You guys remember when EA announced that plan to open a bazillion new chargers? Is that plan still up on the interwebs somewhere? LOL.

Their website shows over a hundred "coming soon" chargers... unfortunately they took a page from Ford on the word "soon". It obviously means a year or more in many cases.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

That's just not gonna work long term. Hell, I wouldn't put up with it short term either. No way I'd buy an EV if I didn't have cheap, convenient L2 (or at least L1) where I sleep. Or maybe at work/school.

I hear you, but each person has different circumstances and tolerance for inconvenience. You would be shocked how many city dwellers have this issue. On an average day, you see a combination of very expensive EVs (BMW iM, Lucid, Taycans, etc.) next to the cheapest econoboxes like the Bolt and Nero. All parked at the neighborhood Target EA waiting to charge. The richest person in Illinois used to live in a condo two blocks away from me and if he (his driver, really) drove an EV, he'd be charging at the same EA along side all of us common folks.

When I bought the Mach-E, I had access to free charging at work. Since then, I moved jobs and lost the ability to charge. I among many others have been lobbying the morons on our HOA to install a charging station. I found a way to reduce the cost to $5,200 for a 48 amp charger. They seem to keep finding ways to block it. But the fight goes on.

 

[Blue highway]

I think the current terminology is part to blame for the local governments not moving faster on public charging stations. Everyone keeps calling them "charging stations". It is a term of convenience, not necessity.

We all need to start calling them "Electric Fuel Stations" so it shows that this is fuel for vehicles, not a convenience for an expensive toy. There are enough electric vehicles on the road now that it needs to be regulated and monitored so the systems keep delivering fuel, and get repairs quickly when there is an issue. If gas stations start having long lines government officials start looking at why it is happening. We need this level of attention before EV fuel becomes more available for everyone.

Faster charging batteries would be nice too. 30-60 minutes to charge each vehicle is too long for high population use. Fast charging a 400V car can be done much quicker if you temporarily reconfigure the batteries into a 1600V block. That would obviously require redesigning every EV battery pack out there, but ti would be one way to reduce charging times. With a 1600V battery you can recharge 99 KWH in about 10 minutes, with moderate cooling.

The only way it is going to get better is making all the cars charge faster, and make public DC chargers as populated as gas stations.

I dunno if the name matters at all.

I do point fingers at the hapless government though... Remember the NEVI charging initiative that started 3+ years ago... NOT A SINGLE CHARGING STATION HAS OPENED AS A RESULT YET! WTF!

The first in the nation expected to open is now being built in Ohio. I looked at some NEVI progress reports over the weekend for OR, NC, MI, OH... all about a year behind schedule and meager at best.

https://drive.ohio.gov/about-driveohio/news/nevi-groundbreaking

 

[Fremont Kid]

I use 50Kw chargers more often than EA... at meal stops. The issue is that strategy is not scalable when each person is plugged in for 40 minutes at meal times when there is only one CCS hose.

I'm not criticizing here, just curious about language and term evolution. My wife complained when I challenged her using the term 'pump' to refer to electric chargers. You state:

when there is only one CCS hose.

What do others think? I have shifted my terminology eliminating 'gas pedal' and instead use 'accelerator' only. Is electrical 'hose' an acceptable term?
I do at times ask for the television volume to be 'turned up' even though our TV has no knobs, or to 'roll the window down' even though our cars do not have window cranks.

I love tracing language evolution. The change from ICEs to alternative propulsion vehicles will present many opportunities.

 

[RickMachE]

That's just not gonna work long term. Hell, I wouldn't put up with it short term either. No way I'd buy an EV if I didn't have cheap, convenient L2 (or at least L1) where I sleep. Or maybe at work/school.

Agreed. But many have. Guy posted yesterday he has no home charging, works 16 hour shifts, and wanted to know if 81% charge would last him until Wednesday when he can DC fast charge. Hasn't a clue.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

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

In a recent interview, JR Scaringe (Rivian's CEO) said that a DCFC breaks even on four charging events per day. EA should be very profitable right now. If they are not, it's due to their incompetence.

 

[Blue highway]

I'm not criticizing here, just curious about language and term evolution. My wife complained when I challenged her using the term 'pump' to refer to electric chargers. You state:

What do others think? I have shifted my terminology eliminating 'gas pedal' and instead use 'accelerator' only. Is electrical 'hose' an acceptable term?
I do at times ask for the television volume to be 'turned up' even though our TV has no knobs, or to 'roll the window down' even though our cars do not have window cranks.

I love tracing language evolution. The change from ICEs to alternative propulsion vehicles will present many opportunities.

I'm generally with you on calling things what they actually are... but as you point out, so often this never happens.

Just this morning the news had "footage" of an event.... uh-huh... actually all video was stored digitally with no physical media... but still "footage".

but in this case I find "hose" better than cable, or dispenser or something similar.

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