January 2024 Electrify America claims continued upgrades and more techs

[GoodSam]

Below is an email today from Electrify America...does this mean they will become competitive with Tesla?

"Hi,
We’d like to share an exciting recap of all that was accomplished in 2023. It was a pleasure supporting your electric journey this past year.
More electric vehicle (EV) drivers across North America utilized our network in 2023 than ever before. Our chargers delivered 110%+ more charging sessions* than in 2022, and that means we provided even more energy—85%+ more gigawatt hours (GWh)*, to be exact.
In 2023, we grew our network to reach even more EV drivers across North America. We expanded to Hawaii, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan—bringing us to 47 states, the District of Columbia, and 5 Canadian provinces. In addition, to date we’ve upgraded over 680+ legacy chargers to Next-Generation chargers as a part of our commitment to improving the customer experience.
In other exciting news, Electrify America Solar Glow™ 1, our solar farm that adds new additional 100% renewable energy generation to the grid, launched in 2023 as well and has an estimated annual production that exceeds our 2022 network usage.
In 2023, we invested in our internal network operations across various teams throughout the organization.

• Increased the number of Technology Staff by 72% Year over Year.*
• Increased the number of Network Operations Staff by 47% Year over Year.*

We’re also investing in the experts who help us maintain our chargers. Each of these individuals complete our state-of-the-art Technician Training Program, which since its launch has reduced technician time spent on-site by 9%*. The Technician Training Program has been completed by over 496 Program Participants and includes:

• 109 Custom Training Videos
• 3 Tiers of Technician Certification

At Electrify America and Electrify Canada industry collaboration is crucial to a successful charging session and customer experience. We're proud to work closely with other industry stakeholders, including automotive manufacturers, across the wider EV charging ecosystem, including participation in and support of:

• CharIN Working Group
• ChargeX Consortium
• SAE J3400 NACS Taskforce
• ISO 15118 Plug&Charge
• SAE J3271 MCS Taskforce
• SAE PKI Consortium

Additionally, we’ve completed over 30,000 hours of interoperability testing in our Center of Excellence testing lab on more than 40 EV models from over 25 automotive brands.* This continuous compatibility testing helps drive innovation and a seamless charging experience for each model and brand.
In 2024 and beyond, EV drivers charging on our network can expect:

• Continued upgrades of Legacy chargers to Next-Generation chargers
• Development of larger charging stations
• Expansion of Plug&Charge
• Continued network expansion
• Further implementation of idle fees to help reduce queuing
• Inclusion of NACS SAE J3400

The road ahead is paved with innovation and we hope you’ll join us in making even bigger strides in 2024."

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[Tony Burgh]

Meh. Talk is cheap.

 

[Howard_Scott_Warshaw]

EA sucks. They've probably been slapped by some compliance regulators and we're obligated to send this out for PR purposes.

 

[htobin]

Looks like baby steps. Still love the truck but not yet for travel

 

[LightningShow]

They've added zero chargers in my region and it's one of the most populous regions in the country. What they have available doesn't even come close to covering the need. EA is a waste of space. Once Superchargers are open I'll likely never use EA again.

 

[On the Road with Ralph]

EA sucks. They've probably been slapped by some compliance regulators and we're obligated to send this out for PR purposes.

EA is in front of the California Air Resources Board TODAY seeking approval of its worthless Cycle 4 investment plan - a consequence of the Dieselgate scandal. I am testifying against it.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I hope they improve maintenance & upgrade terminals along my travel routes, there are three that are perfectly located for my towing route to the race track. All have never completely failed me, but on occasion one or two terminals have been out of service.

 

[02Reaper]

https://www.wrdw.com/2023/09/12/mom-grovetown-calls-cops-us-energy-secretarys-staff/

Went to this same charging station last week and 2 out of the 4 Stations are still down.

 

[snowy_91]

Really glad to see everyone so optimistic!

 

[tls]

Their "next generation" chargers are no more reliable than their old chargers as far as I can tell. But they've done a great job sucking up more state and federal subsidy cash to put them in.

EA recently took over the New York State funded "EvolvNY" network from Shell Recharge. They have "opened new locations" but these were all built with state money and would have opened whether EA, Shell, or Akbar & Jeff's Electron Hut were running the network. The real difference? Now the existing locations are poorly maintained and work half the time when under Shell they worked most of the time; and now there are some new locations with "next generation" EA chargers many of which had failed within days of the locations opening.

EA is the primary factor holding back electric vehicle adoption in the U.S.

 

[chrislightningnc]

I noticed they upgraded one location near me. Went from 100max to 350 max chargers and now they all work. Hopefully they continue to improve.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Really glad to see everyone so optimistic!

I'm cautiously optimistic, with expanded competition (TESLA) they need to step up to retain market share.

 

[TheWoo]

I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I've had mostly great experiences with EA on the routes I drive. And I've done long-distance travel in my Lightning.

Has it been perfect? No. I've had to switch chargers a time or two (literally only a time or two), and one time skipped a stop because the entire station was down. Otherwise, no issues other than dealing with some dumb layouts.

 

[02Reaper]

Really glad to see everyone so optimistic!

Until they prove us wrong....History repeats itself.

 

[Tclark5]

I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I've had mostly great experiences with EA on the routes I drive. And I've done long-distance travel in my Lightning.

Has it been perfect? No. I've had to switch chargers a time or two (literally only a time or two), and one time skipped a stop because the entire station was down. Otherwise, no issues other than dealing with some dumb layouts.

Same here, recently traveled and had only one slow charging station, most were full though. It was thanksgiving week, me a lot of nice people.

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