WetEV said:
GRA said:
WetEV said:
Hydrogen stations are complex, expensive, unreliable and scarce. How is that like gas stations, again?
It's not, now. OTOH, it's exactly like public charging stations. On my Bolt trip last year I went a combined 3 for 11 in successful charges: 1 for 8 at EA stations (0 for 4 using my phone, 1 for 4 using the credit card I'd pre-registered with them exactly for this possibility) and 2 for 3 at Chargepoint stations using their membership card (Got it around 2013, but had never used it until last year). The failure at one EA station imposed an 8.5 hour delay on my trip, as I had to sit at an L2 overnight in the next town south.
Nice subject change. You got great propaganda skills.
I've had far more public charges, and fewer failures. So why was your trip so bad? Did you plan it to be bad??
How is discussing the unreliability of charging as well as that of H2 stations a change of subject? Both are immature infrastructures that lack coverage, density, redundancy and reliability, which is why we need websites like Plugshare and the CAFCP's station status one for now. This is no different than when in 1976 Peugeot included a book listing all gas stations that sold diesel in the U.S. with my dad's new 504D, as they were few and far between at the time. Despite that he still had the dealer install a 25 gallon aux. tank in the trunk, giving him 1200 miles of un-refueled range, because he didn't want to ever have to worry about being stranded.
As for why
my trip was such a pain, it's simple. Lack of charging stations and poor reliability of activation for the stations that existed. As I'm an old boy scout, was taking the trip partly as an experiment to assess the state of charging to my most common destination area, and had read numerous reports of charger unreliability both at MNL by people who were far more experienced with charging both generally as well as in the area concerned in the area than I (e.g. Paul Gipe and Dan Jones), as well as perusing Plugshare over a long period of time along routes I either have driven or want to drive with numerous similar reports of unreliability, I was prepared for the possibility/likelihood of inability to charge, and had a backup plan (free L2s 26 miles south of Bridgeport in Lee Vining) as well as a backup to that, as well as DCFC'ing at every opportunity enroute.
At Lee Vining, as the Clipper Creek L2s were free and the only activation required was to plug in I figured my odds of success were good, but if that failed I'd need to make a very slow speed drive (ca. 30 mph, the lowest speed the CC could be set) from the chargers in Lee Vining 12.9 miles/3,160' up to Tioga Pass (took me 7.3 kWh the next day, driving at normal speeds, 7.7 kWh a night later) and then hopefully coasting/regen'ing all the way down to Yosemite Valley (another 63 miles, but almost 6,000 feet descent at max. speed limit of 45 mph) to the L2s there, before charging enough to get home. I would have had to accomplish all this with only 32 miles of range shown on the most conservative of the 3 ranges shown on the Bolt's GOM at the start in Lee Vining, if I'd been unable to charge there.
Turns out I needed the backup but not the final backup. In order to have that 35 miles of range in Lee Vining I'd already driven as slow as was safe (55, then slowing to 50 and finally 45 mph; speed limit 65) the 26 miles on 395 from the Bridgeport EA where I'd been unable to charge to Lee Vining; fortunately it was late enough at night that only semis were on the road, and I knew they'd be slowed climbing up to Conway summit enroute so I could slow down ahead of them. the first one caught up to me just as I was entering the reduced speed zone in Lee Vining, so that worked out perfectly.
WetEV said:
Reliability varies, of course, and EVgo has been very good for me (no failures, zero failures, 0 failures) and 136 charges. A few I didn't have on my EVgo account, so actual total would be higher. A few times I had to wait. 6 times had to try twice to start the charger, 0kWh session followed by a successful session. Once had to try three times before getting a successful session.
AeroVironment was also very good. Did have to call the phone number a few times as the fob failed to work. Way less than half of the times.
Blink less so. Several failures, only a few dozen charges.
Chargepoint has been very good, but mostly L2 stations.
EA wouldn't be good if they didn't have so many chargers at each location. I've tried two chargers several times before getting one that worked. But only had to move a few feet to try again. When you have 19 plugs/10 chargers to try...
As noted, I had minimal success at EA; the problem wasn't the charger per se, it was activating them. As it happens, even though I was signed up for Pass+ and got charged the $4, because I had to use my CC to activate I had to pay $0.43/kWh rather than $0.31 that it would have cost if my phone app had worked. Contacting them later didn't get the $4 refunded, either. At the time I couldn't call them while at the charger, as I didn't have a transcription app on my phone then (and they need Wi-Fi to work in any case), and I can't hear my cell phone. I do have such an app on my cell phone now, but again, unless the site has WiFi it's unusable.
One CP charger on the trip failed to initiate, but I moved to the one next to it. Oh, and one of the two in Oakdale was displaying a message that read something like "Charger shut off by site owner". As I as there during peak hours I'm guessing that they didn't want to pay high demand charges, and maybe it would be turned back on after 9 p.m.
WetEV said:
I know, L1 charging doesn't work at all. Didn't work for you with a Comutacar back in 1981(?), so is doomed for ever and ever, amen.
Funny how your experience and other people's experiences can be so different. And how you talk up your electric car failures.
My experiences with the unreliability of charging match plenty of other people's experiences, as reported here, on Plugshare and in other venues. And no, L1 charging wouldn't work given where I wanted to go and the lack of electricity (never mind a receptacle) at those sites. Unless, that is, I was taking the trip solely for the purpose of spending several days hanging around somewhere I had no desire to be, for no other reason than that I had to in order for the car to charge enough so I could drive home. Maybe you consider that recreation; I don't, and I don't know anyone else who does.
How is accurately reporting my experiences, both good and bad, talking up electric car failures? Should I lie and only report the good? Is that what you do?
Also, as I've pointed out to you several times already, since these days I only drive my car intermittently at week or longer intervals and don't need to drive locally on a daily basis, L1 would work for me now given that there are local DCFCs I could top up in a hurry if I needed to. So stop making claims about my situation which you
know to be inaccurate.
That being said, it's still not convenient L1, requiring an extension cord run out a door or window, which isn't an option during the heating months. Also, as two of the stations are EA and I failed to activate any of the chargers at one of them on that Bolt trip, I'm just
assuming[/b] things have improved since then, but without any direct evidence.
Our local electricity rates are also a lot higher than yours - for an example see: https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=610409#p610409
I think my rates are slightly less than his as we're in different service areas, but as utilities are included for me I haven't had to pay a utility bill myself for a couple of decades so can't say for sure. No doubt my landlord would raise my rent if I were charging a lot - as it is, the main house and I combined only use about 5 kWh/day in winter.