[julianm]

Didn’t know whether to go with the US subforum or charging networks. But this is rather US-specific.

Public EV Charging Still Sucks, but Ford Is Working to Fix It

 

[julianm]

I appreciate some of these choice quotes:

Paradoxically, unfamiliarity with on-road charging may have worsened as […] longer-range EVs hit the market.

The driver of a newer 300-mile EV, however, might be more confident on a longer road trip, but that trip may be the only time they think about public charging. That’s because 80 percent of households that can afford a new car are able to charge at home, meaning the bulk of EV miles today come from overnight charging in a garage or driveway. So when these drivers finally do use public charging, it may be for that tense, time-critical family road trip to Grandma’s for the holidays. And that is absolutely not the time to learn how public charging works in the real world.

How bad is the problem? It’s hard to say definitively, as charging networks largely don’t release reliability data, but a new study from the University of California-Berkeley offered one glimpse of the problem. It looked at all 181 non-Tesla DC fast-charging sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, totaling 657 connectors. Overall, just 72.5 percent of those connectors worked, with this defined as being able to charge an EV for two minutes.

The average buyer won’t find the act of crowdsourcing a working charger cute or quirky. They’ll see it as inconvenient, and a reason not to buy an EV.

 

[Icesingh]

Didn’t know whether to go with the US subforum or charging networks. But this is rather US-specific.

Public EV Charging Still Sucks, but Ford Is Working to Fix It

Glad to see Ford is going to fix the problem…..🤥

 

[Micah]

The non-working thing is a real problem. We have level 2 charging in our downtown area quite a few places in the various parking structures. None of them work. Not a single one. I just use the parking spots because they're convenient. Level 2 isn't a technology issue, the charger is in the car, it's a software issue. Their provider just sucks. And I'm sure the city blew a ton of money on subsidizing the installation.

For EA, my experience is a little better than they're suggesting, but not much. The connectors tend to fail, and I assume their design choice of giving each charging station 2 connectors reflects that this has been a problem from the design phase. I've mostly had a good experience, but sometimes the chargers just won't complete the authorization process, and user feedback is terrible. I assume the CCS state machine always knows what state it's in if it's able to work at all, and instead of giving prompt feedback of that state so you can see what's going on you get a brain-dead 'initializing' message that isn't strongly coupled to what the charger is actually doing.

I wouldn't say that the DC/DC hardware in the chargers is simple, there's definitely some nuance to it, but it's well established technology. There's no secret sauce there. Most of the issues I've seen are definitely either connectivity or more often just poor high level software design.

 

[julianm]

EVgo and ChargePoint DC fast chargers have failed me more often than Electrify America, for sure, but even EA has been disappointing.

I recently spoke to a program manager for EV charging at a major utility and he said, “I have $18M to build new EV chargers and $0 to fix the broken ones previously deployed.”

 

[mxs]

It’s a problem in Canada and Ontario specifically to me as well … suffice to say, that if I could not charge at home there is no way I would be driving EV yet. Zero chance simply. Could I make it work somehow? …. Sure, but the level of constant inconvenience would be just too much to bear to be honest.

 

[Micah]

the level of constant inconvenience would be just too much to bear to be honest.

It's a minor inconvenience in California at least, I could make it work without a home charger, but obviously I don't have to. We have lots of options. Differs by area of course.

 

[JRRF]

It’s a problem in Canada and Ontario specifically to me as well … suffice to say, that if I could not charge at home there is no way I would be driving EV yet. Zero chance simply. Could I make it work somehow? …. Sure, but the level of constant inconvenience would be just too much to bear to be honest.

Well, if you could charge up on every corner in 5 minutes, you might not have even thought about it as an issue.

 

[JRRF]

Overall, just 72.5 percent of those connectors worked

If this was the case with gas pumps there would be a congressional committee convened.

 

[julianm]

Glad to see Ford is going to fix the problem…..🤥

Whether or not they’ll succeed, I like seeing them use their sales volume to try to strongarm the charging providers!

 

[JRRF]

Whether or not they’ll succeed, I like seeing them use their sales volume to try to strongarm the charging providers!

Ford's plan of action seems compelling.

 

[mxs]

Well, if you could charge up on every corner in 5 minutes, you might not have even thought about it as an issue.

Of course not … the nowadays reality is very very different. My government doesn’t still get it, what sort of investment in charging infrastructure the transition will need to get caught up and surpass the needs in years to come. They announce 50mil for the hwy corridor and think they have done great…🙄 … private money clearly not massively interested yet, which means the policy and incentive is not there yet either.