Electrify America's free Labor Day week end charging ...!!!

[Deleted member 3569]

All is well said but my bottom question: who is patronizing the EA dcFast chargers? I was on the road for 14 days straight, hit the majority of the EA chargers among I95 corridor in almost 8 states and absolutely no one were using the chargers! If EA cannot profit from this endeavor ... then what happens? Bankruptcy? ... at least on Superchargers I do see it been utilized.

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[TRP]

I drove to MD using EA free charging. Gonna head back home tomorrow, gonna have to actually pay this trip

 

[theo1000]

Well VW ID4's are guaranteed 3 years free charging at them so you be certain VW will take care of them to 2024.

There are only a handful of EV's that can road trip right now on CCS DCFC.

~10,000 Audi Etrons
~5,000 Porsche Taycans
~20,000 Mache (USA)
~10,000 VW ID4
~ 50,000 Bolts marginally (low DCFC rate makes it impractical)
Handfuls of Korean and Japanese cars.

That's it. As you can see not a huge number right now.

So its not a surprise EA stations are open. As a longer term DCFC type just the fact that they get used multiple times a day is a massive improvement. Back when I started there was one station that I know did not have a single other EV visitor for a 2 week period !!

I too used the Free electrons twice this weekend, and ran into a Bolt, a Taycan and a Etron. Not super busy but at least one-two vehicles. I'm enjoying the space right now, fully expect with the next doubling of CCS cars that things will start getting cramped. As usual the west coast will lead by getting packed first.

All is well said but my bottom question: who is patronizing the EA dcFast chargers? I was on the road for 14 days straight, hit the majority of the EA chargers among I95 corridor in almost 8 states and absolutely no one were using the chargers! If EA cannot profit from this endeavor ... then what happens? Bankruptcy? ... at least on Superchargers I do see it been utilized.

 

[Eraser]

I wouldn't be too concerned about EA folding up. It would be a bad look for the current administration's green initiatives. Uncle Sam would bail them out in heartbeat if things got to that point. Realistically, with all the government subsidies I'm sure they are doing fine even if people aren't using them in mass. They are probably making money hand over fist just from building out the network, the usage charges is just the cherry on top. There is already billions spent each year on Agricultural Subsidies, green subsidies will easily dwarf those in my opinion. Since the world will end if we don't go green by <insert some random year in the future> , the subsidies will be flowing, HEAVILY. EA will be fine.

Sorry for the detour, enjoy those empty charging stations while we can. Eventually we'll all be complaining about having to wait to charge just like Tesla owners here in Cali.

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