Gas stations are almost always under a canopy. Plus the CC reader in a gas pump is much different than the CC readers on the EA stations. Gas pumps basically just have a Mag Stripe reader. While EA stations have a full Credit card terminal bolted on to the outside of the unit.
Not necessarily. I recently travelled from Joplin, MO to Dallas and had a similar issue. I stopped at a station in McAlester, OK and there were six chargers there and none of them were working. The chargers are owned operated by Francis Energy, not EA. I called the Francis tech support and they were unable to get them working. Luckily, I had enough charge to get to Durant, where I was able to charge at a Francis Energy station, so I know it wasn't a car or user issue in McAlester.
Every station i've been to has the customer support number right on the station by the credit card reader. Plus there is the option in the app as well. I've actually had times where I just submitted a report of a charger not working, and someone at EA called me to ask if I needed help.
I had my first issue with Francis chargers this weekend. I stopped at a rest stop on the turnpike, and they had 6 stations. I normally use my RFID card to activate them, and this time it popped up and said no account found. So I tried to activate with the app, but the stations weren't even listed on their app at all so I couldn't activate them. Finally just used my credit card on the charger and it started charging thankfully or else I'd have been stuck there.
My experience is the same. While I do think EA needs to just work better, they have taken the next best step which is making their customer support quick, effective, and easy to reach. I couldn't activate a station once because my cell signal was all sorts of screwed up (completely not EA's fault) - I called them up and they activated my station with my EA account with ease.
That's funny. I've reported chargers not working via the app and not once received a phone call. In fact, I reported chargers and the app having issues and was told by EA via email days later "you should have called us when you had the issues", because my time is of course not worth anything and I should call them and waste time on my trip reporting broken chargers, when switching to a different charger worked and is much faster.
Maybe it was a slow day at EA support when I made my report.
I could see at some of the larger sites having people to assist, but I suspect that will come with some additional costs. It's a simple process in theory to plug in and charge, but the reality is that it has been less that reliable or predictable.
I made that same trip in June. The station in Muskogee worked flawlessly, but I had trouble in Durant. A quick phone call and they rebooted the charger and fixed it.
Yes there is a big difference in the quality of the readers used by EA and gas stations. I have noticed that EA now has separate RFID readers on the Signet units, and those are protected much better from the elements. It is likely then that the Apple wallet or credit cards with RFID will work more reliably. Many of the older ABB units have the RFID reader and CC reader lumped into one reader. And the credit card typically goes into the top of those readers, whereas gas station readers are horizontal and recessed into the pumps for more protection.
Bjorn Nyland just posted a YT video of the Nordic EV summit. Of note, there are a number of companies coming up with portable charging options. Tom Mologny (sp?) has posted some videos of a solution already on his State of Charge YT channel.
