EA charging problems seriously damaging Ford's image

[ericpullen]

While some are (rightfully) upset that the EA chargers you want to use are broken, I’m sitting here in Louisville KY where the only EA DCFC is still under construction since last October. No other DCFC companies around either, so the closest EA one is in southern Indiana. The corridor between Louisville and Cincinnati also has none.

Thankfully I never need them since I have the FCSP at home, but I would like one on the way to and from Cincinnati at some point in the future.

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[shutterbug]

The fix to this issue in my opinion is to allow franchising of EA stations. From there one can hire a Charge Station EV Techs to fix issues on the spot. Hell, they can even plug the car in for you.

I Thought that was already a thing. Such as this one:

 

[Maquis]

One that didn't work looked like someone slammed it on the ground and threw it in a muddy puddle,

Sorry..it’s a lazy Friday and I can’t help myself….

 

[vandy1981]

EA is as old as Tesla SC....

The first SC opened in 2012. The first EA station opened in 2018. So Tesla had a 6-year head start.

 

[Dakovich]

My complaint with EA is when you pull up and all of the 350/150kw stations are filled by Kia/Hyundai EV’s charging for “free” and throttled at less than 50kw.

What should be a quick sub 20-minute charge for them takes over an hour.
Is anyone else noticing this?

 

[Monkey]

My complaint with EA is when you pull up and all of the 350/150kw stations are filled by Kia/Hyundai EV’s charging for “free” and throttled at less than 50kw.

What should be a quick sub 20-minute charge for them takes over an hour.
Is anyone else noticing this?

The stations seem to be throttling most everyone. That's the biggest issue I'm having with EA chargers on my couple road trips. Plug into a 350kW charger, only one other car a charger two stalls over -- I'm at 23% and battery and truck are warm after driving well over 120 miles. I get 39kW charge rate... WTF? Call EA, they blame it on the cold weather (it's 50 degrees where I was at)... They reset the charger anyway. Now the reader works and I could successfully use my app to get my member rate... Getting 41kW charge rate now, holding steady there for over 15 minutes... I give up. Move over to a 150kW stall. NFC card reader not working on that one either... I start charging anyway, call in and get in the hold queue... Doing better on this charger -- actually getting 112kW for a while until it fell off after 75% SOC or so. Gave it 25 minutes, still on hold, just trying to get my member rate. Gave up. Oh, joy, such a fun road trip... not.

Best chargers on two road trips now have been the 50kW ChargePoint units next to hotels. I start charging the truck, check into my room and then go move the truck after it's at 90% in a couple hours. All the ChargePoint units actually delivered the 50kW promised. The ChargePoint at Cabela's - La Vista, NE, just off I-80 totally saved my bacon and I was able to wander around inside and find food on the other side of the complex while I let the truck charge for a while.

The only two working EA stations that I've encountered now in two road trips are Ft. Morgan, CO at the WalMart. It screamed along and the guy in a Rivian charging next to us was thrilled too -- he had been having the same luck at other locations as us -- terrible slow charging and no NFC chip reader working. The other is the EA at the WalMart by my house. It of course works because I only tried it for grins.

 

[carys98]

I just got back from a trip where I charged 4 times at 3 EA stations and had no problems. Of the 18 dispensers at the 3 locations only one appeared to be offline and I got over 130 kW on each charge. On a previous trip I did end up at a location where 2 of 4 dispensers were down and I had to wait. I called EA to see if they could reboot one of them and they answered right away and were able to tell me that it was down and was waiting for a tech to repair it. I guess I’m lucky that I have had good luck with EA. My main complaint now is that I want to be able to get the lower Pass pricing with plug and charge through FordPass.

 

[Monkey]

I just got back from a trip where I charged 4 times at 3 EA stations and had no problems. Of the 18 dispensers at the 3 locations only one appeared to be offline and I got over 130 kW on each charge. On a previous trip I did end up at a location where 2 of 4 dispensers were down and I had to wait. I called EA to see if they could reboot one of them and they answered right away and were able to tell me that it was down and was waiting for a tech to repair it. I guess I’m lucky that I have had good luck with EA. My main complaint now is that I want to be able to get the lower Pass pricing with plug and charge through FordPass.

I need to drive my Lightning out east and give it a try... All you guys reporting success with EA, on here and more so on the Rivian forums, are all south and east. I think EA is headquartered in Virginia. I'm in West Virginia a lot -- have not drove out with an EV, usually fly and WV is like an EV dead zone for public charging.

All my problem chargers have been along I-80 in Nebraska and Iowa and I-25 from Colorado Springs to Albuquerque.

 

[wilmerfjohnson]

So many times people complain about charging issues on these EV forums but never really communicate with the service provider. If you have a problem charging you need to continue to pursue the problem with the provider until they at least understand the problem. These charging service providers can’t fix problems they don’t know about.

Complain about charging service providers on these forums makes you come across as a troll trying to discredit electric vehicles. There are much better ways to express your displeasure with service providers like using another network that serves you better. Battery Electric Vehicles are still a relatively new technology and, if we want the technology to grow, we all need to work together to refine the technology.

Texas Dan, Pennsylvania Wilmer says you nailed it. Lightning owners need to voice charging station issues with the charging provider directly in order to receive action and issue remediation. Yes, it is good that we hear about issues on this site, but in order to get issues with specific charging locations fixed those issues need to be reported directly to the org that runs that specific charging site.

 

[cvalue13]

That said, while I would like Ford to pressure EA, I don't really blame Ford for this.

Ford handcuffed themselves to these clowns, who seem to be barely treading water.

Just as they handcuffed themselves to SunRun, another abomination of a company.

 

[SoFLALightning]

I agree with most people’s experience with EA. Just garbage. If the government doesn’t screw up the $5B for Ev charging maybe EVgo, ChargePoint, and Blink can put in some working chargers. I’d pay double the rate to have access to the supercharger network.

 

[RickLightning]

So many times people complain about charging issues on these EV forums but never really communicate with the service provider. If you have a problem charging you need to continue to pursue the problem with the provider until they at least understand the problem. These charging service providers can’t fix problems they don’t know about.

Complain about charging service providers on these forums makes you come across as a troll trying to discredit electric vehicles. There are much better ways to express your displeasure with service providers like using another network that serves you better. Battery Electric Vehicles are still a relatively new technology and, if we want the technology to grow, we all need to work together to refine the technology.

You've hit a big problem with society. People bitch, but take no action. We have potholes. I have an app where I report the pothole. City/County have to respond. If they close it out without fixing it, I'm all over that. Take responsibility and report every charge event on PlugShare. Any issues post on PlugShare and use the provider's app to report the issue.

While some are (rightfully) upset that the EA chargers you want to use are broken, I’m sitting here in Louisville KY where the only EA DCFC is still under construction since last October. No other DCFC companies around either, so the closest EA one is in southern Indiana. The corridor between Louisville and Cincinnati also has none.

Thankfully I never need them since I have the FCSP at home, but I would like one on the way to and from Cincinnati at some point in the future.

Many of the slow projects are slowed by parts availability. EA has noted that at times. Technology parts backordered for months, years. School in Massachusetts with lights on for over a year due to failure, no spare parts. New lights / crosswalks near us took about 2 years to finish as they waited for lights, control boxes, computers.

 

[LightningShow]

BTW, Electrify America knows full well about their problems. They have a 24/7 "NASA-style" (their words) control center with remote control and diagnostics for every charger. We as customers call to inform them of issues and to get help with charger resets. We add Plugshare reviews. We send them a TON of data.

In turn, they point to the bogus inflated Plugshare scores in press releases to show how great they are. It's a slap in the face for them to deny the issues we have on the road. And when they do replace hardware, they continue to take down entire stations for weeks at a time, often before Thanksgiving (Ozona 2021, Waco 2022). I've been using CCS cars for 3 years. They never learn (or care). Rant over (...for now)!

This is why i give any station any with hardware that is not functioning properly, or at all, a “could not charge” rating even if i was able to charge. If you roll up to a 4 stall 150kW station and only two are working at reduced charging rate (happened to me twice in the last week) there’s no way in hell i’m giving you a positive review. I may give a positive review if it’s one of four down, but if stations are down and i’m get 60kw on a 150kW station that’s a definite red mark. The way plugshare groups all pedestals at one station into a single rating is bogus. If a station is barely limping along everyone should be giving it a negative rating to indicate it’s operating poorly. Other EV drivers need this information. It’s crazy how much worse it’s gotten in the 2 yrs i’ve been driving EVs.

OTOH, this is just making Tesla’s network more and more valuable. If they’re smart they’ll keep holding off opening it until the CCS network crumbles…which is, unfortunately, looking like a real possibility.

 

[Bills R Electric]

Ford is a big EA customer. They need to put the screws to them to address these problems. With the telemetry EA has on stations it's inconceivable they don't know what's going on and Ford should insist they aggressively lock stations exhibiting this kind of problem into free mode until they're *sure* they're durably fixed. And their app hanging on login...I'm sure EA doesn't see this as serious since it leads customers with discount plans to pay full rate and never get refunds (since it is impossible to reach them on the phone!) but Ford should have someone testing this every hour all day long and impose penalties on EA while it's happening.

Ford needs to throw its weight around and get this fixed before lasting brand damage is done.

EA sucks. Electrify America is a division of Volkswagen of America, and VW was forced by US Courts to put chargers in across the US as restitution for being convicted of fraud. So they formed EA to meet that requirement.

Do you think EA/Volkswagen of America cares what Ford wants? Honestly, they do not. What is in it for them? They didn't start EA to provide a great service and make money.

When their sentence is up, Volkswagen can sell controlling interest and bail out.

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