Fast Charging at Electrify America: Lessons learned

[gnaark]

Hey guys, I just completed a mini road trip from Dallas to Austin (483 miles at 3.3 mi/kWh) and I did run into some issues at EA while fast charging.

We did lose a lot of time with avoidable mistakes so I figured I'd share those and maybe that could help someone.

• Don't trust the sticker on the EA charger, the "up to xxx kW" isn't accurate at all.
  
  
  
  To get your maximum number check on the EA app and it will tell you which chargers are fast
  
  
  
  
  All the chargers at that location were marked 150kW (on the charging station sticker) however only one of them shows up for that speed in the app: use this one.
  We lost a ton of time "slow" charging at 30-50kW because we didn't check the app (we figured that out later).
  
  
• Charger hop if you can
  We stopped at a station in Round Rock, TX where we started to charge at 126kW but it dropped to 30kW.
  Instead of waiting forever we charged just enough to make it to the other EA station in Waco, TX on the way to Dallas.
  However it didn't end up paying up because all the 150kW chargers were down
  
  
• Don't stop the car until you found the charger that works
  I made that mistake so many times and it makes me feel so dumb. I pull up at a charger, stop the car, get out only to see that the EA charger is down so I have to get back in and move the car: I did that 3 times at one station.
  If you can, have your copilot scout the chargers on foot.
  
  
• Park really close to the station
  The charging cables are SO SHORT. Like what were they thinking? Sometimes if I park in the lines I can't plug because the cable is so short.
  
  
• Send feedback to EA!
  When browsing the page for a station, scroll all the way down and click on the "Report Issue" button and send in your feedback. If we don't tell them they won't be aware of the problems.

All and all I was able to charge my car and wasn't left stranded, I just lost a ton of time slow charging and getting frustrated because I kept picking a broken charger. For my next trip I'll be more careful and hopefully I should have a better experience.
Plug and Charge worked perfectly though so that's a win.

 

[kirkus02]

Hey guys, I just completed a mini road trip from Dallas to Austin (483 miles at 3.3 mi/kWh) and I did run into some issues at EA while fast charging.

We did lose a lot of time with avoidable mistakes so I figured I'd share those and maybe that could help someone.

• Don't trust the sticker on the EA charger, the "up to xxx kW" isn't accurate at all.
  
  
  
  To get your maximum number check on the EA app and it will tell you which chargers are fast
  
  
  
  
  All the chargers at that location were marked 150kW (on the charging station sticker) however only one of them shows up for that speed in the app: use this one.
  We lost a ton of time "slow" charging at 30-50kW because we didn't check the app (we figured that out later).
  
  
• Charger hop if you can
  We stopped at a station in Round Rock, TX where we started to charge at 126kW but it dropped to 30kW.
  Instead of waiting forever we charged just enough to make it to the other EA station in Waco, TX on the way to Dallas.
  However it didn't end up paying up because all the 150kW chargers were down
  
  
• Don't stop the car until you found the charger that works
  I made that mistake so many times and it makes me feel so dumb. I pull up at a charger, stop the car, get out only to see that the EA charger is down so I have to get back in and move the car: I did that 3 times at one station.
  If you can, have your copilot scout the chargers on foot.
  
  
• Park really close to the station
  The charging cables are SO SHORT. Like what were they thinking? Sometimes if I park in the lines I can't plug because the cable is so short.
  
  
• Send feedback to EA!
  When browsing the page for a station, scroll all the way down and click on the "Report Issue" button and send in your feedback. If we don't tell them they won't be aware of the problems.

All and all I was able to charge my car and wasn't left stranded, I just lost a ton of time slow charging and getting frustrated because I kept picking a broken charger. For my next trip I'll be more careful and hopefully I should have a better experience.
Plug and Charge worked perfectly though so that's a win.

Nice tips!

 

[Carsinmyblood]

I look at this time spent at a charger a little differently and I wish the marketing boys would pick up on it. We don't stand at a gas station in the summer heat or rain or snow unless on a 280 mile+ trip. If you always get home, we'll NEVER stop to charge. Never stop at a gas station. They never seem to point this out.

One of my British car club members bought his wife a Leaf when they were still new. She has yet to need to charge away from home.

A lot of this anti-chargeritis is to quell range anxiety issues, but they never say we can charge in the comfort of a dry garage and may never see weather to charge up.

Time saved by fueling at home makes up for occasional long charges where you might need to browse the net as we wait.

 

[gnaark]

I look at this time spent at a charger a little differently and I wish the marketing boys would pick up on it. We don't stand at a gas station in the summer heat or rain or snow unless on a 280 mile+ trip. If you always get home, we'll NEVER stop to charge. Never stop at a gas station. They never seem to point this out.

One of my British car club members bought his wife a Leaf when they were still new. She has yet to need to charge away from home.

A lot of this anti-chargeritis is to quell range anxiety issues, but they never say we can charge in the comfort of a dry garage and may never see weather to charge up.

Time saved by fueling at home makes up for occasional long charges where you might need to browse the net as we wait.

Yes but here I was away from home with 80 miles of range left and a 200 miles trip in front of me. I had to top off the car somewhere.

 

[RyZt]

I noticed the same. All charger at Harris Ranch (between SF and LA) are 50kW, even though one of them is marked as 150kW. The 150/350kW charger at Firebaugh has been down for maintenance for 6.5 weeks, making Harris Ranch a required stop for SF LA trip. Luckily Mach E range is great compared to its EPA rating, so 15-20% charge is all one needs there.

At all other EA locations I've used, the label seem accurate.

 

[gnaark]

I noticed the same. All charger at Harris Ranch (between SF and LA) are 50kW, even though one of them is marked as 150kW. The 150/350kW charger at Firebaugh has been down for maintenance for 6.5 weeks, making Harris Ranch a required stop.

At all other EA locations, the label seem accurate though.

Do you think they throttle them?
Both locations I went were huge, 10 and 6 spots and I was alone. I didn’t understand why I was only pulling 30kW on a 150kW plug.

 

[RyZt]

Do you think they throttle them?
Both locations I went were huge, 10 and 6 spots and I was alone. I didn’t understand why I was only pulling 30kW on a 150kW plug.

My Mach E pulls 43-44kW at 50kW chargers, 130-140kW (before tapering) at 150kW chargers, and 155kW (before tapering) at 350kW chargers.

But I am in warm California weather. Early post in this forum suggest that cold weather affect Mach E charging rate pretty significantly.

 

[gnaark]

But I am in warm California weather. Early post in this forum suggest that cold weather affect Mach E charging rate pretty significantly.

I’m in hot-ass Texas ??‍
Hopefully the heat doesn’t fuck them up

 

[RedStallion]

If the charger slows down, would it help to stop and restart the charging?

 

[gnaark]

If the charger slows down, would it help to stop and restart the charging?

It might but in this case I plugged then we went to the mall where the station was attached to in order to kill the time.
It’s also very inconvenient.

I was fully expecting to come back after 30min to a car at 80% and I was very surprised to see 52%.
I should have looked at the FordPass app before getting back to the car I guess - but it’s so laggy and slow to update that I wouldn’t have believe it.

 

[RyZt]

Actually, I remember now that I had an experience charging at 35kW using a 150kW EA charger. I'm pretty confident that It was a charger issue.

• That charger had "dev console" (appears to be a debug/diagnostics log viewer) enabled when I was initiated the charge. That was the only time I've seen it.
• My Mach E charged at expected speed at other EA locations the day before and the day after. There was nothing particular about that day.

There was another empty spot, but it was at a mall and I wasn't in a rush that day, so I just left it doing 30kW.

 

[jhalkias]

Do you think they throttle them?
Both locations I went were huge, 10 and 6 spots and I was alone. I didn’t understand why I was only pulling 30kW on a 150kW plug.

I had a slow speed on the first charger I plugged into on a recent road trip. Moved a few stalls over and the speed was fine.

 

[ChasingCoral]

• Don't stop the car until you found the charger that works
  I made that mistake so many times and it makes me feel so dumb. I pull up at a charger, stop the car, get out only to see that the EA charger is down so I have to get back in and move the car: I did that 3 times at one station.
  If you can, have your copilot scout the chargers on foot.

Or scout chargers using the app!

Good to know about charging speeds. I hadn't thought about the stickers being wrong. Fortunately, we didn't encounter that issue on our FL trip.

 

[ChasingCoral]

It might but in this case I plugged then we went to the mall where the station was attached to in order to kill the time.
It’s also very inconvenient.

I was fully expecting to come back after 30min to a car at 80% and I was very surprised to see 52%.
I should have looked at the FordPass app before getting back to the car I guess - but it’s so laggy and slow to update that I wouldn’t have believe it.

I have to say that monitoring the charging session on the EA app is much better than doing so on the FordPass app.

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