[Cathy Mac]

I have put over 10,000 miles on my 2021, ID.4. Along with that mileage goes trips, almost daily to my EA station of proxmity. Just yesterday i spend 1 1/2 hrs with an EA Customer Service person moving from one charger to another and with only 90 mi in the tank it was going to be a long 60 mile trip home.
I did not get electricity, and tried all 3 of the 4 chargers before i was fed up and left.

30%-40% of my visits to EA have been just like the visit above. No electricity and a NICE customer service person, apologizing for the bad service.

The 3 years of electricity was part of my purchase price of the car. if there was any way to get out of this and take a refund, i would do it in a heart beat. The dealer has suggested that i install a station in my home and charge overnight. i pay for the electricity. Dealers are not there to be smart...... just sell cars!!!!!

I have spoken to a "supervisor" at EA 2x and frankly it's a pure waste of my time, each time. so sorry and trying out best.
When i found out that EA is a subsidiary of Volkswagen, i was shocked. Are you kidding????? buy their car and then add to the misery of trying to get charged.

Last night i pulled into a charging station across town with 39 miles on the car. it will not get any better and i will leave the charging station pissed off and disgusted with EA.
As someone said in another blitz this is anything but good press for VW and their ID4. EA IS A DISASTER!!!! PLEASE HELP THEM, HELP US NOW!!!!!

 

[txxthie]

I am sure you familiar with the eccentricities of EA Charging, but I will tell you what has worked for me. I use an iPhone with the EA app in my wallet for payment (free of course). I firmly plug in the handle and apply in and upward pressure on the handle UNTIL I see the initializing screen go to the payment screen. This confirms the handshake and is IMHO what 75% of failed charging sessions are due to, failure to connect. Once you see the payment screen, double click on your iPhone side button and hold near EA charger RFID area and your usually good to go. Now if you don't see the plug and charge screen at the get go, you might need to call EA to remotely reset the charger. I do find some chargers are more finicky with certain vehicles though. I have personally witnessed many Mach E owners having trouble with the handshake and charging. At this point I have stopped trying to help them, as they generally tend to be very rude owners. To be honest my first charging session was a complete disaster, 5 chargers, 2 EA reps, and 30 mins later I was finally charging. Hang in there. .

 

[Cathy Mac]

I am truly thankful and my iphone, the app, etc are all in place. I have just clocked 11,000 miles on my ID.4. Every mile charged by EA. The extremely polite EA customer service representatives can't do anything to fix problems (other than remote charging). Yesterday's 1 1/2 hour mess was closed out with the CSR making sure that all chargers (4) were not communicating and she would report the problem. I am a So Cal resident and yes we have thousands of EV in So Cal. Thank you for all of your good thoughts. Happy travels with your ID.4

 

[mlsstl]

I agree with the OP that the DC charging network needs a LOT of improvement before EVs can become reliable for road trips where enroute charging is required. And its not just EA -- I've had issues with Chargepoint and other DC charging networks.

I've had only one outright charger failure that left me stranded overnight (which was not an EA location) but easily 50% or more of my DC charging stops either charge slower than they should or require trying multiple chargers before getting one that works (which still may run slower than it should.)

When was the last time that one had to try multiple gas pumps before finding one that could fill your tank? It happens, but it is a true rarity -- it was probably more than a decade ago when I encountered this issue with a gas pump. And, interestingly, I don't hear much about this type of problem with Tesla's charging network. I'm crossing my fingers that things improve in the near future for the rest of us EV owners. In the meantime, I'm taking my ICE car on my 1,200 mile road trip next week. I had one poor experience with the charging network on this route in the rural midwest and I don't want a repeat.

That said, I love the way my EV drives and I've had zero problems with the L2 charger in my garage. That takes care of all of my local charging needs easily and efficiently. They just have to fix the damned DC network.

 

[Cathy Mac]

You are so right!!!
I am resisting a home install for electricity, as the price of my car included FREE Electricity. A home charging system is not free. If i continue the EA issues i now have i will beg my husband to install. My commute is a killer (25k/year), and it's just too bad i am battling EA.
Be safe on your road trip!!!

I agree with the OP that the DC charging network needs a LOT of improvement before EVs can become reliable for road trips where enroute charging is required. And its not just EA -- I've had issues with Chargepoint and other DC charging networks.

I've had only one outright charger failure that left me stranded overnight (which was not an EA location) but easily 50% or more of my DC charging stops either charge slower than they should or require trying multiple chargers before getting one that works (which still may run slower than it should.)

When was the last time that one had to try multiple gas pumps before finding one that could fill your tank? It happens, but it is a true rarity -- it was probably more than a decade ago when I encountered this issue with a gas pump. And, interestingly, I don't hear much about this type of problem with Tesla's charging network. I'm crossing my fingers that things improve in the near future for the rest of us EV owners. In the meantime, I'm taking my ICE car on my 1,200 mile road trip next week. I had one poor experience with the charging network on this route in the rural midwest and I don't want a repeat.

That said, I love the way my EV drives and I've had zero problems with the L2 charger in my garage. That takes care of all of my local charging needs easily and efficiently. They just have to fix the damned DC network.

 

[KB57]

You are so right!!!
I am resisting a home install for electricity, as the price of my car included FREE Electricity. A home charging system is not free. If i continue the EA issues i now have i will beg my husband to install. My commute is a killer (25k/year), and it's just too bad i am battling EA.
Be safe on your road trip!!!

Most of the time I have had good success with EA, but there has been 3 times when traveling that I have spent frustrating time on the phone with them over slow chargers 31kw or not working at all,
number 1 they need to get more service people hired to stay up on the stations, but this day and age trying to get people to work is difficult
number 2 they need to give us all at least 2 more years free due to the station issues

 

[Mike Bouck]

I can't say I've had the same EA experience and I too live in So Cal. The occasional bad DC fast charger? Yes. All of them down at multiple locations? Not yet. The other day I went to fill up the gas in my Prius - all of the pumps at 2 gas stations were down and the 3rd station I went to only half the pumps were working. I had like 2 miles of range left. My point is that gas cars aren't immune to these issues either. That said, gas infrastructure is much more mature and I'm confident electric infrastructure will be too - it's simple market economics but we're still in early(ish) days. I can respect your decision to NOT charge at home for economic reasons (i.e. maximizing the value proposition of 3 years of free EA) but I installed a JuiceBox 40 at home because for me the convenience is more than worth the marginal extra expense - I'm just using EA for longer trips. I'm also concerned that frequent DC fast charging sessions will degrade the battery faster (and there is science to back this up).

 

[BlueDH]

Most of the time I have had good success with EA, but there has been 3 times when traveling that I have spent frustrating time on the phone with them over slow chargers 31kw or not working at all,
number 1 they need to get more service people hired to stay up on the stations, but this day and age trying to get people to work is difficult
number 2 they need to give us all at least 2 more years free due to the station issues

I feel for you if not in a metropolitan area. I've had good luck with EA. I've only had to change pedestals twice for slow charging.
My closest station is 4 miles and next closest is 7 miles. The 7 mile station has 10 pedestals the most in all of MD, so far as I know. Never had to wait and very reliable.
I've had good luck using the EA app (iPhone) since they've updated it recently. It's kinda slow getting up and running so I'm patient with it.
I've sometimes wondered if they throttle you down if their records show high use. Probably not. I wonder if they maintain high use stations better. Supposedly they will get better 🤞.

 

[ddx]

When I did a road trip (ohio, kentucky, georgia, south and north carolina) I only had one station issue, the station computer crashed and the app got stuck saying that I was still connected, warning about idle fees. Called the customer service which was a nice lady, and she remote-rebooted the station (which I saw running Windows 10, there lies the problem 😁 ), and things started working again.

Worried me a bit though on my next road trip I may not be so lucky...

 

[SunWizard]

which I saw running Windows 10

Cue Homer Simpsons DOH!

 

[ddx]

The Walmart people don't care usually, but I did visit an EA that was by a Harley Davidson dealer, and the folks there were super interested at looking at the ID.4 charging (and the noise it was making) and they were flocking to check out the charging stations and the car and I became an instant ambassador for electric cars (they mostly didn't realize that it is a VW until they saw the badge, some called it a "Tesla")

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

You are so right!!!
I am resisting a home install for electricity, as the price of my car included FREE Electricity. A home charging system is not free. If i continue the EA issues i now have i will beg my husband to install. My commute is a killer (25k/year), and it's just too bad i am battling EA.
Be safe on your road trip!!!

With all due respect Lady Cathy.
Here is what I would propose to you.
Find someone with similar EV that has mostly successfull charging on EA.
And ask him/ her to demonstrate his way how he connects to charger....and all work around he/she learned to overcome obstacles that are chargers male plug....charger not delivering full power and etc.
I'm not judging you just suggesting to take look how other people are using it and learn if you doing something that is making your life hard.
If you don't do anything soon....winter will be even more stressful than what you dealing with now.
Good luck

 

[Dougie01]

I wonder how much is connector problems, how much is software, and how much is charger hardware failures.

 

[Spin]

I was speaking to a tech from Pearce (they are the company that maintains EA chargers in the northeast). According to him, the most reliable and trouble-free chargers are the latest Signet chargers. He also advised that unlike the directions on the screen, it is best to swipe first, then plugin.

Signet charger

 

[ericy]

Cue Homer Simpsons DOH!

That's interesting - the ABB units I have seen are running Ubuntu.

 

[tennr]

You are so right!!!
I am resisting a home install for electricity, as the price of my car included FREE Electricity. A home charging system is not free. If i continue the EA issues i now have i will beg my husband to install. My commute is a killer (25k/year), and it's just too bad i am battling EA.
Be safe on your road trip!!!

We have 13k on our ID4, and live in SoCal, so I've done a fair share of charging. Over 6k of those miles are 1+k road trips to Oregon some to Las Vegas. And yes, I've been disappointed at EA and ChargePoint along the way, but that has been occasional, and is topic unto itself.

My opinion... don't fret the "free" electricity. You're in SoCal too so your off-peak rate is probably around 17 cents per kilowatt hour. So your average cost at 25k per year is about $118 per month ($4 per day) to charge at home.

The freedom of not having to go to a gas station (and wait in line for "cheap" gas), is so worth the $4 per day. When compared to the ICE equivalent cost, which in your case might be $5000 per year ($13 per day).

Unless you HAVE to charge at a DC fast charger (you're in an apartment or some other restriction), then don't. Save the fast chargers for road trips, or bridging the gap on longer excursions (LA to San Diego and back). The comparison of the gas station to DC fast charger is the same, but in the fast charger scenario you are trading your precious time while charging. I bet you are paid more than $4 per hour. So waiting for an electric car to finish charging on a regular basis can be unproductive.

With an EVSE at home, you just shift that to plugging in at night, no trips to the "Station" (EV or gas). It's a complete mental shift. No one would question having a gas station at home so we've never given it much thought.

I get it I want to trade in those "free" energy credits with EA too... but at what cost? I've relegated EA charging to, when it happens to be convenient or neccessary.

 

[adamjcook]

I was speaking to a tech from Pearce (they are the company that maintains EA chargers in the northeast). According to him, the most reliable and trouble-free chargers are the latest Signet chargers. He also advised that unlike the directions on the screen, it is best to swipe first, then plugin.

Signet charger
View attachment 6431

I am going on a road trip from Dallas to Waco this coming Saturday - I am going to be sure to check out the charger nameplates (I will post them on the forum).

So far, my Electrify America experience throughout the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area has been flawless - never backed into a broken charger, waited for a charging station to become free or had a charger was delivering a slow rate of charge.

I even took a trip down to Houston and, although I was concerned about the chargers before the trip, I actually had zero issues.

I am wondering if the Dallas-Fort Worth/Houston chargers are newer and/or primarily or entirely Signet chargers...

Sincerely,

Adam J. Cook

 

[Eric Nay]

I am super glad I have a charger in my garage. I see that as the ultimate luxury, so that I always leave home with a "full tank". I recognize I won't get the full value of EA charging, but the peace of mind makes up for it for me.

These are growing pains. Imagine trying to get from St. Louis to Chicago in 1910 - maps were often wrong and gas stations were far and few between. That is where we are at in the migration to EVs.

 

[Spin]

I am super glad I have a charger in my garage. I see that as the ultimate luxury, so that I always leave home with a "full tank". I recognize I won't get the full value of EA charging, but the peace of mind makes up for it for me.

These are growing pains. Imagine trying to get from St. Louis to Chicago in 1910 - maps were often wrong and gas stations were far and few between. That is where we are at in the migration to EVs.

We also have a JuiceBox but we charge at EA at least once a week and top off at home as necessary. The EA chargers near us are near shopping and restaurants, so we utilize them. I actually think we are way better off than the motorist of 1910. We have navigation in our cars and map apps on our phones. The charging infrastructure is adequate in most areas and robust in some. I did a road trip from LI to Pittsburg and was able to charge at EA for the whole trip, and actually went by some EA chargers on the way. I plan to drive to Florida this winter using EA exclusively, and for most of the trip, there are EA chargers every 75-100 miles on the I-95 corridor.

 

[Froggy]

I just took a 3000 mile trip. Some things that I noticed. Each area had a different preferred charging method, some of the 4 different types of pedestals seemed different also. Some of them like you to swipe after plugging in. Some want you to wait until the member screen comes up to swipe. Some want you to wait until the member page comes up and tap the iPhone instead of swiping. In a one donkey town off I 70 in East Colorado I actually had to use my credit card and eat the charges. I even ran into a station north of Houston that had a level 2 charger. My last charge swiped okay and registered 122kW so I went into target. Before It got to 40%it was charging at 39 kW. I think that the cable cooling went kaput and 39kW is all that it can manage without cooling, it happened at another site. Another thing, Colorado and Kansas seem to have their chargers set to a top power of 89 kW regardless of your state of charge.