1) These things are needlessly complicated and monitoring and maintenance are distant.... and as a result really unreliable.
I did not realize that EVgo had purchased plugshare. That is rather unfortunate for the long term. They said they'll keep a level playing field for all other networks' chargers, but that kind of thing is easy to erode over time.
Because PlugShare is crowdsourced I don't think you can use the word "reliable". The networks may, or may not, have reliable data about why a particular charge session fails. A consumer that is educated may be able to correctly described that a session failed. The problem is that many people have no clue. IF they use PlugShare (and only a small percentage actually report their sessions), they may, or may not, be able to accurately describe a failed session. Is the vehicle at fault? Or communication? Or the charger itself?
Maquis actually has another big reason hiding in his post - there aren't a lot of EEs with experience in high power systems these days, it's a specialty that went out of fashion decades ago as electrical engineering focused on electronics and electronics emphasized low power and miniaturization. There are few to no options in most modernn EE programs for dealing with high power design. I blame this for the under-engineered HVBJB issues as well.
Totally agreed on all points. Error messages from both the cars and the chargers don't really help the user determine what's at fault, which further conflates the issues. I've added an edit to my post.
