Electrify America Network

[danrjones]

I know I was kidding. Wait for a major earthquake in CA under somewhere besides me, and SCE and pg&e will be under even more problems.

[GetOffYourGas]

I visited EA in Herkimer NY this evening. Of the 4 stalls, 3 of them fail to charge. I hear/read reports that the same patterns exists across I-90 in NY. Is this others' experience as well? The plus side is that the one working charger is the CCS / CHAdeMO charger. Of course, being a considerate CCS owner, that's the last one I tried (in the off chance a Leaf showed up - none did).

The cynic in me wonders if this isn't done intentionally in order to limit demand charges. I mean, it would be very expensive if, for example, four Konas all showed up and charged at 75kW each for 15 minutes, and that's all the charging that was done for the month. This corridor is low duty-cycle for sure.

[DougWantsALeaf]

My guess is that EA drastically underestimated the repair cycle needs on these chargers.

[goldbrick]

My guess is that EA drastically underestimated the repair cycle needs on these chargers.

That's possible but there really aren't that many moving parts to wear out. There is the obvious one of the handle that gets inserted into the car but otherwise it is probably mostly just solid state electronics. It is high power electronics but even so, almost any industrial building probably uses more power constantly and you don't see electricians fixing the power distribution networks at commercial buildings every day.

[Evoforce]

I visited EA in Herkimer NY this evening. Of the 4 stalls, 3 of them fail to charge. I hear/read reports that the same patterns exists across I-90 in NY. Is this others' experience as well? The plus side is that the one working charger is the CCS / CHAdeMO charger. Of course, being a considerate CCS owner, that's the last one I tried (in the off chance a Leaf showed up - none did).

The cynic in me wonders if this isn't done intentionally in order to limit demand charges. I mean, it would be very expensive if, for example, four Konas all showed up and charged at 75kW each for 15 minutes, and that's all the charging that was done for the month. This corridor is low duty-cycle for sure.

When I was traveling across the US a couple months ago, many of the EA locations were having trouble and out of service. I do not believe it is on purpose but I do believe they are wanting to look good by saying they have installed a lot of stations. Whether they work or not is not part of the statistics so far. They definitely have a shortage of trained repairman and have voiced this to me. EA is also not prepared to be heavily relied on.

[SageBrush]

EA is a dummy organization bankrolled by VW to meet a legal consent decree that demanded a very rapid roll-out. To meet timelines EA throws money at vendors who may well use sub-par contractors in the cash grab. Building a DCFC network is a complex task with a LOT of moving parts. It only takes glitches here and there to cause big problems. I'll bet that corners are cut to meet timelines and quality control is inadequate.

[DougWantsALeaf]

Still, there are signs that things are improving. The chargers are getting repaired faster now.

Sagebrush, I agree that there are many complexities, and not just the chargers, but with the payment systems, etc...

I think they made a mistake by not covering the stations, as the elements in most of the county will ravage them quickly.

That said, they have that huge new stream of tier 3 income with all the new Porsche Taycans sucking juice at 270.

[DaveinOlyWA]

My guess is that EA drastically underestimated the repair cycle needs on these chargers.

That's possible but there really aren't that many moving parts to wear out. There is the obvious one of the handle that gets inserted into the car but otherwise it is probably mostly just solid state electronics. It is high power electronics but even so, almost any industrial building probably uses more power constantly and you don't see electricians fixing the power distribution networks at commercial buildings every day.

There might be a reason for that. There is a bank of transformers at my work and the facility is shut down twice a day for maintenance. Its all electric so power demand is VERY high and motor faults are common with at least 10-30ish a shift. Its kinda looking like the fault is shifted towards the equipment rather than the source.

I think there is also a question of weather tolerance. Interesting to see how they fare when the first Winter arrives for many of them?

[GRA]

I know I was kidding. Wait for a major earthquake in CA under somewhere besides me, and SCE and pg&e will be under even more problems.

I know you were, but unfortunately there's all too much truth in it, for PG&E especially.

[wmcbrine]

That's possible but there really aren't that many moving parts to wear out.

It's an interesting question why public charging stations break down so often, but it seems to be a fact that they do.

Vandalism?