New Electrify America stations

[67goat]

So, I see a bunch of Electrify America stations popping up in the near future in the Sac/Central Valley area of Cali. There are several things that are cool about that.

One, there is nothing currently on I5 from Sac until Tracy. On the 99 side, nothing from Galt to Salida.

Two, these stations seem to have 3-7 charging stations. That puts them close to Tesla charging centers in terms of available spots.

That being said, there are a couple things that I question about this.

One, how well will these be maintained. While Sac has several locations, most are single stations with a few double stations here and there. Sac has a lot of local EVs and many passing through from elsewhere. Yet, I rarely have run into issues of waiting. Level 2 chargers in the area always seem to be full, but I have had to wait or go to a different station maybe 3 times in 3 years. I’ve had the need to go to a different location due to the station being down way more frequently than that. If these don’t see that much traffic, will EA be that interested in maintaining them properly?

Two, are these stations indicative of new pricing that could be coming? At $1 connection + .30-.35 per minute, that is much higher than I pay for Greenlots (last session was 26 minutes and cost $4.33, would be a minimum $8.80 with EA) and EVGo (pay as you go, last session was 29 minutes @ $5.60, would be $9.70 minimum with EA). And there does not seem to be a subscription plan to bring that down. Are the other vendors subsidizing their costs that much that prices will rise, or does EA just not get how much cheaper charging is in most CA locations?

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

I've had one experience with an Electrify America charging station, and outside of the charging speed, I was less than impressed. Only 1 of the 4 stations was operable, and that took an hour of remote support to accomplish. A look at Plugshare posts reveals that what I experienced is not an anomaly.

It will be interesting to see how well their stations are maintained. I wasn't impressed with the quality of the connectors (it was a couple of months old, and they had paint chipping and felt sorta cheap). Being that EA exists only because of a mandate due to VW's criminal activity, my guess is it's truly a toss up whether they actually care how successful they are. Until I see impressive, long range, VW evs on the road, I'll be a skeptic.

Fast charging can be expensive, even with a Spark, compared to home charging, and current equivalent gas/diesel prices . We only have Greenlots and EVGo here in Charlotte, NC, and I avoid EVGo like the plague, unless I have no other choice (EVGo=35¢/min, charges you during initializing (40 seconds or ~23¢), and 100 amp max vs Greenlots=20¢/min, only starts charging you when you start receiving juice, and delivers 120 amps max). How Greenlots is able to charge half what EVGo/EA do, is a mystery to me as well.

 

[charles]

I am quite pleased with EVgo fast charging in Texas, which is good since they are currently the only provider. I am on an infrastructure island in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. If you have not checked out their current plan offerings, take a look. I am on a $10/month plan and only pay more than $10 if I actually do more than $10 of charging. Quite fair in my opinion.

I see some Electrify America stations coming to Texas that will be very enabling, though they will be a test of the Spark EV's range. I'm not exactly liking the idea of driving 55mph in a 75mph to make it to the next location.

So far the only Electrify America location I've paid much attention to is in Hope, AR. It appears to be doing very well, with a current 10 rating on PlugShare.

I especially look forward to using the Electrify America location in Bellmead, TX (north side of Waco) that will enable travel to Austin and San Antonio along the I35 corridor. I expect my first trip will involve a mix of 65-70mph freeway driving and 45-55mph service road driving to have enough range.

The Electrify America locations are expensive compared to EVgo, but they are also more capable infrastructure. Just as the Spark EV is at a disadvantage when it comes to Level 2 at only 3.3kW, with fast chargers that can exceed the Level 3 50kW capability of the Spark EV, other cars with faster Level 3 charging will get more value when cost for charing is by the minute, not the amount of energy delivered.

I do think it is fair to pay more per kW when it is delivered about 15x faster, especially when it may be only a 2x to 3x premium vs. at home.

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

Level 3 50kW capability of the Spark EV

The Spark EV is capable of accepting 55kw from an L3 charger.

 

[NORTON]

The Spark EV is capable of accepting 55kw from an L3 charger.

Have you actually seen this on the car's display when powered up during an L3 charge session?

The most I ever see on the car is 48kW.

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

Have you actually seen this on the car's display when powered up during an L3 charge session?

The most I ever see on the car is 48kW.

Torque Pro's instant power essentially mirrors the dash display (displaying to the tenth of a kilowatt). I saw 53kw for an instant (https://youtu.be/SSN8_uf64zM 10:25), and that was with a hot battery actively being cooled. I'd like to redo this now (in the winter), but unfortunately the closest >50kw charger is now "only" 178 miles from home.

EDIT: Good news, once the EA station in Commerce, GA opens, that one is 38 miles closer than EA station in Florence, SC...... (so it's still 140 miles).

 

[DavidRoseburg]

My Spark EV would not charge at the Sutherlin, Oregon EA station, even after about 45 minutes of instruction / help of a technician on the mobile phone.

Was this just an unusual case ?
Do Spark EVs usually accept the charge from the CCS chargers at ElectrifyAmerica stations ?

 

[MrDRMorgan]

My Spark EV would not charge at the Sutherlin, Oregon EA station, even after about 45 minutes of instruction / help of a technician on the mobile phone.

Was this just an unusual case ?
Do Spark EVs usually accept the charge from the CCS chargers at ElectrifyAmerica stations ?

The answer is yes, but...????. Last week I made my first attempt to charge at an EA station. I could not get the charger to activate, even after multiple attempts. Yesterday, I tried again but at a different location. The first charger would not activate but the second one did. I charged for almost 10 minutes to get 7 kWh. Total cost was $4.43! That's $0.63 per kWh!! At 5.3 mi / kWh, my cost per mile is about $0.12. An ICE getting 25 mpg with gasoline costing $3.00 per gallon would cost..... you guessed it..... $0.12 per mile. Is an EV worth it? In my opinion, EV in town and ICE on the highway if the trip is going to be long distance. Over the last two years, I drove three different Nissan Altimas a total of almost 4000 miles. TOTAL average MPG for the 4000 miles amounted to 40 MPG!

 

[Engineear]

Well, when you neec it...you need it.

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

My Spark EV would not charge at the Sutherlin, Oregon EA station,....

Was this just an unusual case ?
Do Spark EVs usually accept the charge from the CCS chargers at ElectrifyAmerica stations ?

My one and only charging session with my Spark, at an EA station (second one opened, Fincastle,VA), was very problematic. My first of three sessions with my Bolt was unsuccessful. A look through plugshare data will show that there are problems, but they have been becoming less of an occurrence.

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

Total cost was $4.43! That's $0.63 per kWh!! At 5.3 mi / kWh, my cost per mile is about $0.12. An ICE getting 25 mpg with gasoline costing $3.00 per gallon would cost..... you guessed it..... $0.12 per mile. Is an EV worth it?

Sad and true. It's even costlier with any other EV, being that the Spark is so efficient (4.5mi/kwh in my Bolt, vs 5.5mi/kwh average in my Spark). Those that have EVs WHEN (not if) gas goes higher will be rewarded.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Total cost was $4.43! That's $0.63 per kWh!! At 5.3 mi / kWh, my cost per mile is about $0.12. An ICE getting 25 mpg with gasoline costing $3.00 per gallon would cost..... you guessed it..... $0.12 per mile. Is an EV worth it?

Sad and true. It's even costlier with any other EV, being that the Spark is so efficient (4.5mi/kwh in my Bolt, vs 5.5mi/kwh average in my Spark). Those that have EVs WHEN (not if) gas goes higher will be rewarded.

I am starting my 5th year of driving a Spark EV. My wife has one too. It is very difficult to find a better vehicle for driving around town and local communities. The availability of CCS DCFC charging locations makes it also possible to extend the driving range. However, there are many more locations to which we cannot drive because there are few, if any, CCS DCFC stations or we have to make way too many charging stops. In those cases we rent a highly efficient ICE like the Nissan Altima. For us, this has been working without any problems and we do not have to be paying for an expensive ICE which just sits in our driveway collecting dust. Note: we do have a 1999 Chevy Silverado pickup truck which has 187K miles on the ODO and which we would have no problem driving it across the USA and back.

In our area here in Central California, gasoline hit $5.00 before dropping back to around $4.00. That 25 gallon tank in our truck would eat up $100 to fill if gas was $4.00 per gallon.

I just totaled up my EVgo usage for May. I used 82.338 kWh at a total cost of $31.46. That equals $0.3821 per kWh. That is $0.25 per kWh less expensive than EA.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Have any of you Spark EV pilots been repeatedly successful in getting the CCS option on the Electrify America chargers to work? My first attempt to connect to two different chargers at the San Francisco Premium Outlets in Livermore, CA was NADA! A week later, my second attempt at a different location was Yes = 1 No = 1. Today I tried 3 different Electrify America chargers at the San Francisco Premium Outlets in Livermore, CA. Yes = 0, No = 3. I plugged in and used my VISA credit card to initiate payment. Payment was accepted and the car's display showed INITIALIZING. Then.... I was disconnected. Mighty frustrating to say the least! I have had 1 successful charging session in 7 attempts at two different locations. The fact that there were NO EVs charging at the EA chargers might be a clue. The EVgo DCFC stations at this same location were all in operation.

EVGO DCFC stations continue to work like a charm.

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

Mighty frustrating to say the least! I have had 1 successful charging session in 7 attempts at two different locations.

I will retry with mine when Charlotte, NC goes online. My one and only Spark visit summary (Fincastle, VA/Brugh's Mill Country Store): tried one dispenser, didn't work; tried next one, worked for 6 min, wouldn't restart; TRIED THREE OTHER STATIONS, none worked; retried the station that had worked, no dice; called tech support (1 hour on the phone, retried and reset 3 three of four stations), finally able to charge to full. Had it not restarted, I would have spent at least 3 hours at a level 2, because there weren't any dcfc for 100 miles.

My first stop with a Bolt in Henderson, NC (traveled from Richmond, VA): zero of four stations worked, having planned for this, I continued on my merry way to a GL station in Durham,NC. My last two stop ins, I used the "known working/non-problematic" dispenser mentioned on plugshare, and had zero problems.

Volkswagen (which EA is/essentially is a subsidiary) didn't want to build a charging network, they did to settle their horrific illegal activity. While I'm not happy with the functionality of their stations, as I've said before, it is getting MUCH better (see plugshare data). Fit a company that was just starting up, the results aren't really that bad. I think a better solution may have been to have forced VW to pay the same amount of money, but have allowed ChargePoint, EVGO, etc, to have bid to do the ultra fast charge network (they have more experience, essentially wouldn't be "starting from scratch."). Another possibility, instead of EA, it should have instead been VW branded, so they could take the deserved flack for their failures. What do I know? Hopefully it ends up like the interstate hwy system itself, a huge success, without which, travel would be much more of a headache.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Mighty frustrating to say the least! I have had 1 successful charging session in 7 attempts at two different locations.

I will retry with mine when Charlotte, NC goes online. My one and only Spark visit summary (Fincastle, VA/Brugh's Mill Country Store): tried one dispenser, didn't work; tried next one, worked for 6 min, wouldn't restart; TRIED THREE OTHER STATIONS, none worked; retried the station that had worked, no dice; called tech support (1 hour on the phone, retried and reset 3 three of four stations), finally able to charge to full. Had it not restarted, I would have spent at least 3 hours at a level 2, because there weren't any dcfc for 100 miles.

My first stop with a Bolt in Henderson, NC (traveled from Richmond, VA): zero of four stations worked, having planned for this, I continued on my merry way to a GL station in Durham,NC. My last two stop ins, I used the "known working/non-problematic" dispenser mentioned on plugshare, and had zero problems.

Volkswagen (which EA is/essentially is a subsidiary) didn't want to build a charging network, they did to settle their horrific illegal activity. While I'm not happy with the functionality of their stations, as I've said before, it is getting MUCH better (see plugshare data). Fit a company that was just starting up, the results aren't really that bad. I think a better solution may have been to have forced VW to pay the same amount of money, but have allowed ChargePoint, EVGO, etc, to have bid to do the ultra fast charge network (they have more experience, essentially wouldn't be "starting from scratch."). Another possibility, instead of EA, it should have instead been VW branded, so they could take the deserved flack for their failures. What do I know? Hopefully it ends up like the interstate hwy system itself, a huge success, without which, travel would be much more of a headache.

I spent 30 minutes on the phone yesterday trying to explain to a customer service representative what was happening. The customer service rep was pleasant and tried to help. She even told me the numbers of three of the EA chargers at the San Francisco Premium Outlets which had successful charging sessions. So..... today, on my way to Oakland, CA I stopped in to try them. None worked. I called customer support and they even tried to initiate a charging session from their end. Didn't work either. I gave up after 30 minutes and asked them to notify me when they think they found the problem and had it fixed. I went back to one of my favorite EVgo stations in the same shopping center and charged without a problem.

1 June 2019 - I have been getting calls from EA Customer Service - Blair - who is working hard to get this charging problem worked out. I have to give EA high marks for trying to figure out why my Spark EV will not charge at EA stations. There are also posts from Bolt drivers on the Bolt forum indicating they are having problems too. I plan to work together with EA to see if we can resolve this problem.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

I found two Electrify America 150 kw stations located in Laguna Village, Sacramento, CA that actually worked for my 2016 Spark EV. Yesterday, I tried an EA 150 kw station located at the San Francisco Premium Outlets in Livermore, CA. A Bolt was charging at a 350 kw station and it was working fine. The 150 kw station I tried accepted my payment, started the initialization process and then abruptly terminated the session. I have notified EA and will have to wait and see what they find. I charged at an EVgo station at the same location without any problems.

It was suggested by another EV driver that there may be a conflict between the CCS software in the Spark EV and the CCS software in the new EA charging stations. It may be helpful to share our EA charging experiences to see the impact to Spark EVs.