Road trip charging: how does it work without internet/cellular reception?

[geftsnowball]

Recently did a ~700 mile road trip and managed to map it out to only need EA chargers and plug and charge worked fine the whole way (used up 249kWh of the free charging). At one specific stop, cellular reception was pretty spotty (kept going in and out of no signal) but plug and charge just worked.

So to the question, how will charging work if I have no cellular reception at a specific stop? Do the charging apps work without a data connection on the phone?

Planning a spring/summer trip and wondering what to expect. There will be various charging systems I'll need to use outside of the EA system, e.g., Chargepoint, Shell Recharge (Greenlots), EVGo, evconnect, and I believe there's an EVCS at a part of the trip (planning out using ABRP) so I won't be able to just rely on plug and charge with EA.

I know they will not be able to load map data but if you're right there in front of a charger, will it work with NFC to initiate your charge assuming you have an account with whatever charger service you're at? I know you can purchase a card/fob to use with some chargers so wondering if the app without internet can work just as well as long as you have a credit card on file. I'd rather not spend $50 on charger cards that I'll use maybe once every other year if that. I see apps like Chargepoint say 'use phone as card' (no details about if it works without data) and others like evconnect say order a fob because it may be required with poor phone reception...

Thoughts?

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[macchiaz-o]

I think it depends on the brand. I've only used EA and ChargePoint so far. EA was plug and charge, like you said.

For ChargePoint I had to either activate via FordPass, which I assume would need Internet access? Or I could tap my phone on the charger (NFC), which activates through the ChargePoint app. I chose to do the latter because it's a lot easier and faster in my opinion.

My T-Mobile reception was okay but not excellent where I was (Chiriaco Summit, CA). I have no idea what connectivity the station itself is using. But I suspect if neither the phone or the station have connectivity at the time you arrive, it will probably still work and will settle out the charges later.

IIRC, ChargePoint charged my credit card $10 to start, and then another $10 any time the amount of my credit with them fell below $5. This semi-prepaid approach might be one of the ways they deal with intermittent connectivity? Maybe?

 

[geftsnowball]

@macchiaz-o yep, that's what I was thinking but was hoping to hear if anyone had experiences charging without cellular reception + the app for some of the ones I mentioned. On a T-Mobile MVNO and 2/3 of the stops had reception but one was spotty which brought up the concern. Digging into past PlughShare posts it seems that I wasn't the only one and there 'may' be a free Wi-Fi hotspot at that rest stop so that could be an alternative.

I guess the best bet is to buy 3-4 of the most likely cards/fobs ahead of time after planning out the route and hoping for the best. The bad thing about that is that none of the potential chargers are local so I can't do a test until the actual trip.

Kind of unfortunate to add unnecessary stress on a road trip the first time through a charger route.

 

[hybrid2bev]

I added Electrify America and ChargePoint into my Apple Wallet on my phone. So I don't even need the EA/CP apps open. Just double click the side button, select the card, tap and charge.

 

[geftsnowball]

I added Electrify America and ChargePoint into my Apple Wallet on my phone. So I don't even need the EA/CP apps open. Just double click the side button, select the card, tap and charge.

Not an Apple person so this may not be what I think... but do you mean you added the physical keycard/fob as a digital card to your digital wallet? Like... Samsung Wallet / Google Pay?

 

[hyrulianruffio]

Not an Apple person so this may not be what I think... but do you mean you added the physical keycard/fob as a digital card to your digital wallet? Like... Samsung Wallet / Google Pay?

Apple Wallet is basically the same thing as those. It can be added as an NFC card.

 

[JRSNoVa]

There are a couple of options for chargers if you have zero data service:

• EvGo and Chargepoint will both send account holders a physical card that can be used to start sessions.
• If all else fails, just use a credit card. You will probably not get access to any credits or discounts you have with that provider, but at least you'll be able to charge.

It would be a nice feature for charging stations to have their own wifi access for charging only. It wouldn't need much in the way of data and can be authenticated by their app for security.

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