Electrify America Fast Chargers - Huh?

[Feathermerchan]

Yeah I charge about 95% of the time on L2. Where I live. So I can charge in my sleep.
But on the road, 50 kW is not very fast. It would take well over an hour at a typical stop to charge enough to proceed to the next stop. For a Model 3 50 kW is about 167 mph added range I have a pic somewhere of my car charging a little over 1,000mph in range at a Tesla Supercharger. No it doesn't charge that fast for more than a few minutes but id never gets below about 70 kW either.

 

[Limited]

I also recently used one of these higher power chademo stations with the thick cables. Obviously no faster delivery to the tesla given limitations with the adapter. Station listed chademo at 50kw max and CCS at 150kw max. Here's the spec sticker:

 

[Candleflame]

Yeah I charge about 95% of the time on L2. Where I live. So I can charge in my sleep.
But on the road, 50 kW is not very fast. It would take well over an hour at a typical stop to charge enough to proceed to the next stop. For a Model 3 50 kW is about 167 mph added range I have a pic somewhere of my car charging a little over 1,000mph in range at a Tesla Supercharger. No it doesn't charge that fast for more than a few minutes but id never gets below about 70 kW either.

yes, and 50kw (which is actually 42kw for the model 3 as 7.5kw gets used to heat the battery) is the reality for many tesla owners including myself. I drive over 1000kms/day on 50kw charging only. its around 250km/hr.

 

[TomServo]

Does ABRP work with non Tesla DCFC’s like EA? I would like to build some routes we now travel in our Tesla with a non-Tesla and am struggling to use a single tool. That’s why SCer’s are going to be popular with non Tesla owners. Tesla better be prepared.

 

[miimura]

Does ABRP work with non Tesla DCFC’s like EA? I would like to build some routes we now travel in our Tesla with a non-Tesla and am struggling to use a single tool. That’s why SCer’s are going to be popular with non Tesla owners. Tesla better be prepared.

Yes, I just tested ABRP selecting CHAdeMO instead of Superchargers with our Model 3 LR RWS 18" Aero. Total charging time from San Jose to Anaheim was 1:13 on CHAdeMO vs. 0:20 on Superchargers. You could just as easily choose CCS, but I don't know what charging speed ABRP would use in that case.

When you choose a non-Tesla car in ABRP, it will default to the proper charging type for that car. You can also prefer or decline certain charging networks such as EA, EVgo or ChargePoint.

 

[MP3Mike]

Does ABRP work with non Tesla DCFC’s like EA? I would like to build some routes we now travel in our Tesla with a non-Tesla and am struggling to use a single tool. That’s why SCer’s are going to be popular with non Tesla owners. Tesla better be prepared.

Yes.

 

[TomServo]

Right. Here's what your first set up should look like: 50 A breaker --> 4 AWG --> NEMA 14-50 --> Tesla 14-50 Adapter --> Tesla Mobile Connector --> Car. Depending on the model of car you have and the age/version of the mobile connector you're using, this set up will allow you to charge at 240V and either 32A or 40A.

Then if/when you decide you want to upgrade to the hardwired set-up, you can swap the breakers and install the HPWC and it will look like this: 60 A breaker --> 4 AWG --> Tesla Wall Connector --> Car. Depending on the model of car you have, this will allow you to charge at 240V and either 32A or up to 48A.

Yes.

After playing around with it I found I could “de-select” Tesla and set CCS as my chargers. Turns out all of my trips I currently take in my Tesla are doable in a non-Tesla. Now I didn’t look at each site to see how many stalls they had, but from visiting the few EA Chargers here in southern IL the most I’ve seen are 4 and one was a CHADEMO. Not sure I’d bank on 3/4 stall sites (especially when there are reports of broken plugs and payment issues) with my family. But “on paper” it looks like a non-Tesla can get around just fine.

Thanks for the info.

 

[rxlawdude]

After playing around with it I found I could “de-select” Tesla and set CCS as my chargers. Turns out all of my trips I currently take in my Tesla are doable in a non-Tesla. Now I didn’t look at each site to see how many stalls they had, but from visiting the few EA Chargers here in southern IL the most I’ve seen are 4 and one was a CHADEMO. Not sure I’d bank on 3/4 stall sites (especially when there are reports of broken plugs and payment issues) with my family. But “on paper” it looks like a non-Tesla can get around just fine.

Thanks for the info.

Exactly. The devil's in the details.

 

[e of pi]

After playing around with it I found I could “de-select” Tesla and set CCS as my chargers. Turns out all of my trips I currently take in my Tesla are doable in a non-Tesla. Now I didn’t look at each site to see how many stalls they had, but from visiting the few EA Chargers here in southern IL the most I’ve seen are 4 and one was a CHADEMO. Not sure I’d bank on 3/4 stall sites (especially when there are reports of broken plugs and payment issues) with my family. But “on paper” it looks like a non-Tesla can get around just fine.

Thanks for the info.

My experience in a non-Tesla is that I can get around pretty well. As @miimura says, ABRP grabs my Niro's charge curve, and EA's pretty good about open stalls and decent reliability (improving over the last year or so)

 

[israndy]

I am retired and my hobby is Supercharger hunting or going to each new charger long enough to just touch it. You see all different parts of the country criss-crossing from one SC to another that you would never otherwise see.

I have cleared the West Coast several times of new chargers, and LA I have now visited 5 times. Since I pay for my Supercharging I used to look for opportunities to have it be discounted or otherwise cheap, but as the rates have more than doubled since I got my car in 2018 I moved to free charging using the old Tesla CHAdeMO adapter. A little slow like others noted, but with the West Coast Electric Highway currently free and California building a bunch of new free chargers at rest areas it's been a great way to free charge while hunting.


This holiday I finally looked into EA's Holiday Free Charge period that is longer than Tesla's which is only overnight and only xMas week. I did a successful trip to Vegas on the overnight hours at SCs, but then this last weekend I took another trip to San Diego thru Lake Arrowhead using the EA chargers and was almost uniformly happy with the experience. I did have one charger in the Bay Area that was busy and appeared to be invoicing customers during the weekday anyway, but on my weekend trip everything was complimentary, right up until 8am Monday morning west coast time.

That said, I was stranded at one charger because there was no way for the support staff to release my car from a CHAdeMO that had latched on. I asked if there was an emergency disconnect and was told they would send someone out, but they were many hours away. I took a nap waiting in the freezing cold and when I stirred I noticed the light was finally off on the CHAdeMO plug. I was free to leave. What a relief, must have automatically reset after a certain amount of time.

I noticed the EA chargers were free xMas day, but others had reported it earlier, EA hadn't announced it until I believe after xMas was over.

 

[Earl]

there was no way for the support staff to release my car from a CHAdeMO that had latched on

We had a similar experience when I decided to try out the EA CHAdeMO at Grants, NM last week. However, the EA operator was able to remotely tell the charger to release our CHAdeMO adapter. It wasn't any fun standing out in the snow trying to extract it but we got the job done.
Of course, worsening weather started hitting us so we decided to retreat back to Albuquerque to drop down to I-10. As luck would have it though, the area around the Albuquerque Supercharger lost power, killing both it and the nearby EA stations making us expect to have to spend some time in Albuquerque. Tesla tried to route us to the Santa Fe Supercharger, where the prediction was we'd arrive with 2% SoC - not a pleasant idea. Being stubborn and experienced, we proceeded to the Albuquerque Supercharger anyway, even though it was marked as down the map. Fortunately, power was restored shortly before we arrived at the Supercharger and we got a good charge in Albuquerque.

 

[FlatSix911]

I am retired and my hobby is Supercharger hunting or going to each new charger long enough to just touch it. You see all different parts of the country criss-crossing from one SC to another that you would never otherwise see.

I have cleared the West Coast several times of new chargers, and LA I have now visited 5 times. Since I pay for my Supercharging I used to look for opportunities to have it be discounted or otherwise cheap, but as the rates have more than doubled since I got my car in 2018 I moved to free charging using the old Tesla CHAdeMO adapter. A little slow like others noted, but with the West Coast Electric Highway currently free and California building a bunch of new free chargers at rest areas it's been a great way to free charge while hunting.

What locations on the West Coast Electric Highway are free? Other TMC members may be interested.

West Coast Green Highway: West Coast Electric Highway

West Coast Electric Highway” is an extensive network of electric vehicle (EV) DC fast charging stations located every 25 to 50 miles along Interstate 5 and other major roadways in the Pacific Northwest

www.westcoastgreenhighway.com

 

[israndy]

A company purchased them and are refurbing them. I did a run in November of ALL but the two going East of Seattle and ALL of them were free (OR and WA). They claimed that when they finish refurbishing them they will bring back the cost, but NONE were being worked on when I was there ending in early December. Check plugshare for the current status of each charger.

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
I believe it's EVCS and it sounded like before it became free, the billing/authentication situation was a mess on the WCEH chargers. IIRC, the transition from Webasto (formerly Aerovironment's EV charging group) to EVCS wasn't smooth.

 

[israndy]

That sounds right, but I haven't spoken to anyone, this is just stuff I have picked up from various websites claiming to be WCEH, you would think "there can be only one"

 

[cwerdna]

VW’s Electrify America unveils new ‘human-centered’ EV charging stations

The new charging stations will include solar panel awnings.

www.theverge.com

https://media.electrifyamerica.com/en-us/releases/175

https://media.electrifyamerica.com/assets/documents/original/845-ElectrifyAmericasLookbookTheFutureofCharging.pdf

 

[israndy]

Tesla's "Rockabilly music and roller skates"

 

[cwerdna]

https://media.electrifyamerica.com/en-us/releases/178

Reston, VA (April 14, 2022) – With the addition of five more states, Electrify America has expanded kilowatt-hour (kWh) pricing to 30 states and the District of Columbia which allows customers to pay by the amount of energy used to charge their electric vehicle.

The company now offers kilowatt-hour pricing in Idaho, Indiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

I checked Pricing and Plans for EV Charging | Electrify America and all those states are now 43 cents per kWh for guest/Pass and 31 cents per kWh for Pass+

I'm guessing that previously, they were on much cheaper time-based pricing if you terminated charging before too much slowdown. See TX for example.

 

[cwerdna]

My Learnings From an EA Field Engineer - Important for... had some useful and interesting info.

 

[Earl]

My Learnings From an EA Field Engineer - Important for... had some useful and interesting info.

Thanks for pointing this out. That tiered approach, in addition to interoperability and reliability problems are clearly a huge disadvantage compared to Tesla Superchargers.
I hope they can sort this all out eventually.