Electrify America Charging Station Problems

[Randy960]

I talked to Electrify America yesterday, and they will likely be arranging a time to do some testing with my car. They were also surprisingly receptive to my suggestion to install a 50kw charger at each location, adding that it would also be useful for people who don't want to charge at faster rates due to cost or battery wear. I'm interested to see where this goes. Since they seem to have at least partially fixed the ABB chargers, it has me hopeful.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

I talked to Electrify America yesterday, and they will likely be arranging a time to do some testing with my car. They were also surprisingly receptive to my suggestion to install a 50kw charger at each location, adding that it would also be useful for people who don't want to charge at faster rates due to cost or battery wear. I'm interested to see where this goes. Since they seem to have at least partially fixed the ABB chargers, it has me hopeful.

Great news! Work with them and help them figure out what is going on. I went out of my way to visit all EA chargers within about a 50 mile radius of my home. I reported my test results and waited for the "FIX" to be implemented. It took a bit of time for EA and ABB to figure out what was going on but now almost all of the EA ABB 150kWh chargers within that 50 mile radius work for charging my 2016 Spark EV. The few that did not work had not yet been updated at the time of my retest. As I continue to venture out further from my home, I plan to continue testing all of the EA 150 kWh EA chargers I come across and post my findings on PlugShare and EA's website.

Hopefully, EA will roll out the "FIX" to ALL of their ABB 150 kWh chargers.

 

[Randy960]

I talked to Electrify America yesterday, and they will likely be arranging a time to do some testing with my car. They were also surprisingly receptive to my suggestion to install a 50kw charger at each location, adding that it would also be useful for people who don't want to charge at faster rates due to cost or battery wear. I'm interested to see where this goes. Since they seem to have at least partially fixed the ABB chargers, it has me hopeful.

Great news! Work with them and help them figure out what is going on. I went out of my way to visit all EA chargers within about a 50 mile radius of my home. I reported my test results and waited for the "FIX" to be implemented. It took a bit of time for EA and ABB to figure out what was going on but now almost all of the EA ABB 150kWh chargers within that 50 mile radius work for charging my 2016 Spark EV. The few that did not work had not yet been updated at the time of my retest. As I continue to venture out further from my home, I plan to continue testing all of the EA 150 kWh EA chargers I come across and post my findings on PlugShare and EA's website.

Hopefully, EA will roll out the "FIX" to ALL of their ABB 150 kWh chargers.

The only other EA charging station within my range appears to be (based on plugshare pics) also Efacec units. I would love to go test them, but if they don't work I'd be stuck waiting all day to charge at a level 2 charger.

 

[ycdocs120]

I have a new bank of chargers at our local Walmart close by. I've been trying them and can't get them to work with my Spark. They are the ABB type chargers.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

I have a new bank of chargers at our local Walmart close by. I've been trying them and can't get them to work with my Spark. They are the ABB type chargers.

If you tried the 350kWh ABB chargers, they will not currently work for a Spark EV. Initially, all of the ABB 150 kWh chargers used by Electrify America in my area did not work for me either. However, they found the problem and have been rolling out the update. I have confirmed that all of the updated ABB 150 kWh EA chargers that initially did not work for me, now work just fine.

I suggest you contact Electrify America and inquire as to when their 150 kWh ABB chargers in your area will be updated. I highly recommend you install and use the electrify America APP on your cell phone to initiate charging.

 

[Sparkey48]

I talked to Electrify America yesterday, and they will likely be arranging a time to do some testing with my car. They were also surprisingly receptive to my suggestion to install a 50kw charger at each location, adding that it would also be useful for people who don't want to charge at faster rates due to cost or battery wear. I'm interested to see where this goes. Since they seem to have at least partially fixed the ABB chargers, it has me hopeful.

Great news! Work with them and help them figure out what is going on. I went out of my way to visit all EA chargers within about a 50 mile radius of my home. I reported my test results and waited for the "FIX" to be implemented. It took a bit of time for EA and ABB to figure out what was going on but now almost all of the EA ABB 150kWh chargers within that 50 mile radius work for charging my 2016 Spark EV. The few that did not work had not yet been updated at the time of my retest. As I continue to venture out further from my home, I plan to continue testing all of the EA 150 kWh EA chargers I come across and post my findings on PlugShare and EA's website.

Hopefully, EA will roll out the "FIX" to ALL of their ABB 150 kWh chargers.

The only other EA charging station within my range appears to be (based on plugshare pics) also Efacec units. I would love to go test them, but if they don't work I'd be stuck waiting all day to charge at a level 2 charger.

If your talking about the ones in fredonia Walmart they do that same thing with my spark. Couple places I use up your way is Joe basil in depew not a e/a but it works if you need it.

 

[Randy960]

If your talking about the ones in fredonia Walmart they do that same thing with my spark. Couple places I use up your way is Joe basil in depew not a e/a but it works if you need it.

Fredonia would be the location I was talking about. And Joe Basil is actually the Chevy dealer I mentioned using previously. I've charged there a few times. There's a few other Chevy dealers in the area that I haven't had a chance to try yet.

 

[Randy960]

EA still hasn't gotten ahold of me to do any testing. I tried to charge again today, but still no luck. I hope the fact that I'm slowly tanking their Plugshare rating gets their attention.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

EA still hasn't gotten ahold of me to do any testing. I tried to charge again today, but still no luck. I hope the fact that I'm slowly tanking their Plugshare rating gets their attention.

Note: BLAIR - You said you follow this website as part of your responsibility in Customer Service for Electrify America. Please help this Spark EV driver like you helped me. Thanks. Dennis Morgan - aka EVRider.

 

[DarthMuffin]

Has anyone tried one of these at an EA station? I have printed one and can confirm it fits the spark, but have no EA station nearby.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3862271

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Has anyone tried one of these at an EA station? I have printed one and can confirm it fits the spark, but have no EA station nearby.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3862271

This adapter would be interesting to try on a Spark EV. I am able to charge my 2016 Spark EV at EA 150 kw stations but it is necessary to support the weight of the handle / cable until the initialization process completes and the car's horn honks indicating the charging process has started.

 

[ElDobro]

I ran across this on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lAFLpxcgk4

 

[Engineear]

Cool tip. If I have a need for speed charging and one of these are near me in Mesa AZ, I will remember this. Thanks!

 

[MrDRMorgan]

I ran across this on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lAFLpxcgk4

Yep! This is EXACTLY how you make it work. Also, some of the power cables do not allow you to "easily" align the plug with the socket in the car without some serious "twisting" too.

How and where you park your Spark EV when making the connection affects how much you have to twist the plug to get it inserted into the car's socket. This seems to vary from charger to charger.

 

[Randy960]

I was poking around on Plugshare the other day, and it looks like nearly every EA station in the Northeast uses Efacec chargers. A fix would be great, because there's actually enough chargers around to travel a bit, even in a Spark.

 

[ElectricAdventure]

I just saw this thread and thought I might be able to add some information to it.

On April 2nd 2019 I had a successful charge on an ABB unit in Salt Lake City with a 2015 Spark EV. According to my reliability spreadsheet it took one try on a random unit within the station. On June 12th, a few days after the app launched I think, the entire unit stopped working on my vehicle. On June 2nd after taking a really long drive (more than 80 miles non-freeway driving) I rolled into the Scipio EA supercharger with 1% battery. After L1 charging for 40 minutes I had a successful charge (I did this because of the weird faults I get when trying to do a 400v charge with less than 8% battery). When I went to the Beaver UT charger it ended up not working. All of the units above are ABB. I ended up going back to the Scipio supercharger and trying two different Spark EVs (three total if you include my Spark EV) and I think I even used a Bolt at one point. All failed except for the one off time I mentioned and the Bolt EV worked (I don't remember all of the charges, I have a reliability spreadsheet where detailed notes in of all my charging experiences are put). I also tried the Brigham City Supercharger which is an EA ABB station on December 5 of 2019 and it failed. There are 22 ABB supercharging units in Utah and I have charged at all of them except for the ones going in at Green River, Salina and Richfield and seldom had any issue with any of the cars I have charged (eGolfs, i3s, Bolts, Sparks, LEAFs).


What I am trying to say is that this seems to be an issue with a software update that bricked Spark EVs- it isn't hardware. I know the SAE CCS sockets on Chevy products are crap, but that doesn't stop the Signet charger in Spanish Fork from working with Chevys when I don't lift up the cable. At one point I could use ABB EA superchargers with no issues, was this the same for anyone else?

 

[ElectricAdventure]

Its pretty outdated, but here is a small sample of EA charging sessions I have had. I haven't been driving nearly as much as I used to now that I live in the city and don't need a car anymore. I used the Spanish Fork Super one other time that isn't listed on this spreadsheet, it was successful on first try with random unit.

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOnXBDUV2_UesPNpYJJ2nUbalAsqI6-y1UIAc1z/photo/AF1QipN7j0huHShziaLhzYbm3Fcqf-qhVCshZKUXwKB7


On further inspection I realized that my spreadsheet that outlines charger manufacture is a little outdated, we had 10 new chargers go in in the past 20 days and I've been lazy and hadn't done a full recount. There should be 71 units instead of 67 I think.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Since California "shut down", I haven't had to drive to Oakland and, therefore, have not needed to use the ABB chargers along my route that were installed by Electrify America. But.... in every case where I did charge at an EA location populated with ABB chargers, I had to lift (support) the handle and heavy cable until initialization was completed and the car's horn honked. Then I could release the handle and charging progressed normally. Initialization failed 100% on those occasions where I did not support the handle during initialization. Supporting the handle seems to only be necessary with ABB chargers.

 

[Randy960]

So the weather has warmed up enough (plus an endless amount of free time) that I had the range to go try the next closest EA station in Fredonia, NY. They are also Efacec units like the location closer to me. I tried all four with no success (and then doused myself with sanitizer and went home).

 

[MrDRMorgan]

So the weather has warmed up enough (plus an endless amount of free time) that I had the range to go try the next closest EA station in Fredonia, NY. They are also Efacec units like the location closer to me. I tried all four with no success (and then doused myself with sanitizer and went home).

Did you try supporting the handle and heavy cable during the initialization process until the car's horn honked? That seems to be the only way to get the EA ABB chargers to work for a Spark EV. I have never seen or used an Efacec charger so I do not know if what I suggested will work or not. But, it is worth a try.