Billyk24

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March station count for EA network
keep growing. EA map does not show stations in progress
Date mm/dd, yy - live; in progress

March 1, 2020 - 409; 66
March 5, 2020 - 410; 71
March 11, 2020 - 411; 76
March 16, 2020 - 411; 108
March 22, 2020 - 412; 106
March 25, 2020 - 414; 104
March 31, 2020 - 416; 101
April 03, 2020 - 418, 100 total CCS= 1429 CCS-CHAdeMO=419 level 2=93
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Billyk24

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ChargePoint has (from what I can find) over 350 fast DC charging locations in the USA. However, some/many? are of the 25kWh capacity.
 

Billyk24

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April 03, 2020 - 418, 100 total CCS= 1429 CCS-CHAdeMO=419 level 2=93
April 11, 2020- 420, 98 total CCS=1438, CCS-CHAdeMO=421 level 2= 94
 
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Billyk24

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April 17, 2020-421, 97 total CCS= 1441, CHAdeMO=422, level 2= 94
 

Billyk24

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April 17, 2020-421, 97 total CCS= 1441, CHAdeMO=422, level 2= 94
April 24, 2020- 424, 95 total CCS=1456, CHAdeMO=425, level 2=95
growing a rate that is surprising during this time of "stay" at home orders.
 

Billyk24

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April 29, 2020---425, 114. total CCS=1459, CHAdeMO=426, level 2= 95
still growing, Note the future planned sites jumped from 95 last week to 114! Amazing during this time of "stay at home".
 

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I am very curious to see how fast the MME charges at these stations. I made a trip from Phoenix to Tucson yesterday in my FFE and it wasn't that great of an experience. We have these Electrify America stations up and running so the infrastructure is in place to make the trip but it's still isn't that practical of a method to travel yet. Maybe it's because the FFE has a 50 kw max DC fast charge rate though. Much quicker than L2 of course but still takes a while to make a trip

Total trip from Phoenix office to Tucson office is 110 miles. I passed two EA stations on the way to Tucson because I still had plenty of charge. Stopped at the 3rd station which is about 90 miles away from my office and 20 miles short of my destination. I made it there with 8 miles of range on my battery. Because I have owned my FFE for a while now, I have a pretty good feel for how to drive my car to make sure I can reach my destination. Normally, when in town it's not anything that I think about too much.....I just drive normally like anyone else. For those rare instances where reaching my destination is marginal, then I can drive more responsibly and ensure that I can reach my destination.

The FFE has a feature that is very helpful, if you set a destination in the navigation app in Sync then it will ask if you are going to charge at your destination. If you answer "Yes" then it will show you a usage rate graphic required to make it to your destination and what your reserve is. When I did this....my reserve was +25 miles but decreased to +8 by the end of the journey. This was because the initial calculation was based in part by some lower speed off highway driving and cooler ambient temps during the most recent trips. As the trip progressed and it was almost exclusively highway driving, the reserve calculation updated and the figure decreased little by little. This is nice because it provides you with the information you need to alter your driving style or add in a stop if needed. Critically, it provides this information far enough in advance so you still have options to make adjustments to your plan. It would be a problem to trust predicted range at the beginning of the trip and then discover much later that your actual range was less. In this case, I started out at 75 mph but quickly learned that I should reduce my speed to 68-69 mph to reach the EA station of my choice. If I would have driven at 75 mph then I probably would not have made it there.......for sure it would have been too close for comfort. It was 100 degrees yesterday and I had the A/C running at 76 which was comfortable in the cabin for me.

So, what would have been a 1.75 hr trip at 75 mph turned into 2.75 hr trip driving at 69 mph and stopping to DC charge. The station I stopped at had 10 machines....each with two CCS cables. I stopped at machine #7 and the card reader was non functional so I had to call the 800 number for customer service. After resetting the machine and trying some other things....the agent on the phone asked me to move to machine #3 which worked correctly. So, that took an extra 5-10 minutes to work out. Seems like a fairly common occurrence with the EA stations based on conversations I have had with other users. I charged here for 42 minutes at a cost of about $9.83. I could have left sooner but I wanted to make sure I had enough SOC to make it to my destination and back to that same station on the way home. Round trip of 40 miles

On the way back, I made it to that station easily enough with 45 miles of range left. Not quite enough to make it to the next EA station in Casa Grande (50 miles away) but that was fine because it gave me time to sit and have lunch while I charged up a bit. My charge time was 23 minutes for $5.86 and I was on my way.

I stopped at Casa Grande station for a 15 minute "splash" of juice which got me all the way home with range to spare. I may not have needed to stop but I didn't want to risk it and that EA station was in a Walmart parking lot so it gave me an opportunity to pick up a few things that I needed anyway. The drive back took just about 3 hours in total, but I had lunch and did some quick shopping.

So, does all this make me rethink my decision to order an MME with standard range battery? Nope. I think the standard range battery is going to be more than I need for the majority of my usage. The extended range battery could make it to Tucson and back on a single charge and while that is nice....definitely not worth the $5000 price for me. I make that drive about 2 or 3 times per year. If the DC charge is 2 or 3 times faster than my FFE then I can quick charge just once for about 15 minutes and be good for the complete trip.

For road trips such as family vacations.....I will just rent an ICE vehicle and leave the MME at home. I would likely want a larger vehicle for extra luggage anyway. I can rent a car quite a few times for the money saved by going with the standard range battery.
 

dbsb3233

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So, does all this make me rethink my decision to order an MME with standard range battery? Nope. I think the standard range battery is going to be more than I need for the majority of my usage. The extended range battery could make it to Tucson and back on a single charge and while that is nice....definitely not worth the $5000 price for me. I make that drive about 2 or 3 times per year. If the DC charge is 2 or 3 times faster than my FFE then I can quick charge just once for about 15 minutes and be good for the complete trip.

For road trips such as family vacations.....I will just rent an ICE vehicle and leave the MME at home. I would likely want a larger vehicle for extra luggage anyway. I can rent a car quite a few times for the money saved by going with the standard range battery.
That's very much in line with my thinking too. Road trips in a BEV are much more of a "challenge" than just hopping in an ICE vehicle and going without needing to worry about fuel and pre-plan every step of the way. Maybe once in a blue moon it would be fun to take the challenge (and the stress/adrenaline rush that comes from praying you can make it), but I have no interest in that more than maybe once just to try it (on a multi-fuel drive).

But I have a 2nd car (ICE) in my garage so it's a no-brainer just to drive it instead on road trips. I'm planning to save the $5000 too and get the SR AWD. Be great around town, charging nightly at home.
 

Billyk24

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A PHEV makes sense when you live in an area where there is extremely poor DC fast charging coverage. As stated elsewhere, it would be nice if EA would announce future locations.
 

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For road trips such as family vacations.....I will just rent an ICE vehicle and leave the MME at home.
But I have a 2nd car (ICE) in my garage so it's a no-brainer just to drive it instead on road trips.
The problem is that the charging infrastructure is dependent on people using and paying for the existing infrastructure in order for it to expand. Without profitability expansion will not occur like it needs to in order for BEV adoption to become widespread.
 

dbsb3233

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The problem is that the charging infrastructure is dependent on people using and paying for the existing infrastructure in order for it to expand. Without profitability expansion will not occur like it needs to in order for BEV adoption to become widespread.
That's only a secondary drawback to public charging for my tastes though. The #1 drawback is slow charging times. No matter how good the coverage is, it's still many 20-40 minute stops along the way on a long road trip (as versus half as many 2-3 minute stop required for ICE). I know some people don't mind all the extra time required, but it's a big negative for my tastes.
 

dbsb3233

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As stated elsewhere, it would be nice if EA would announce future locations.
They have future locations on the map (in gray). Not sure how complete it is, but there are some there. For instance, there's a future station now listed for that crucial gap along I-70 in Utah (Green River). They even have an address listed. There's also a future station listed in Salina too, although it's only 18 miles from the existing one at the Richfield Walmart.
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