My first fast-charge: Electrify America rocks!

Sbingham60 said:

I’m in the Orlando area and the navigation system can find the fast dc chargers at both the Florida mall and the outlet mall. It has the kw rates listed correctly. I’ve only used the 50kw at the outlet, not the 150 or 350 at the Florida Mall.

Click to expand...

Not sure why my car won't see DCFCs. Two different dealers looked at it.

It's only an irritant. I just plug in an I-Phone and use Apple Maps, Google Maps, Plugshare, EVgo, ChargePoint, EV Connect, memory, bread crumbs, asking strangers, calling 911, following utility poles, reading building permits, and doing grid-based search and rescue patterns. Piece of cake. It's never acknowledged a SAE Combo since it was new even while you are charging on one and save as a Favorite. However a true road trip to unfamiliar areas would require a knowledgeable EV experienced navigator with troubleshooting experience to operate the search team.

Our ABB 350kW stations are Provider NRG EVgo 120 miles away and 350 miles north is Provider Recargo neither is listed as a Provider by JLR either. There is no display of kW on any charging sites of any kind on my car with 18C. My car USED to see EVgo stations, but after they tried to 'fix' the DCFC mapping, it lists them as a Petrol Station now. EVgo is one of the more common DCFC chargers here. Almost all of them are SAE Combo.
If I go from SoCal to Las Vegas, the I-Pace with the freshest possible updates sees only one charger on route, and it's not operational yet, it's under construction. The two that work fine that I've charged at before, are not listed.

Following my original post and answering questions raised... my max charging rate on receipt was 75kwH. Of course they gouged me on electricity rate, but to sciencegeek's point, 98% of my charging is done at home where I pay $0.11 per kWH so I don't mind - do you never buy bottled water at 7-11 at $2.59 each instead of $0.20 ea at the grocery store? I used my iPhone to find the DCFC station ahead of my trip to plan a place to "camp" for 45 min or so and charge... the mall was great - grabbed a bite and a dress belt I had been meaning to buy. As I think about travel with family (wife and 2 kids), we rarely stop for less than 20 min even when I was buying gas... so another 20-25 to actually take a break on those infrequent occasions 3-4/year when I drive beyond the range of the I-Pace is no bother.

When charging at Electrify America, I did get a text at 80% SOC suggesting I move the vehicle "to avoid idle fees". I called EA to clarify, since this was my first DCFC experience they asked me a LOT of questions, especially once they learned I had an I-Pace. (I even mentioned at someone in DC had mentioned their station was down.) He clarified that after 80% the charge rate would slow, resulting in an overall higher cost (they charge by the minute), to which I replied fine, I want to get to 100% since I do have a long drive ahead. So my overall cost/kwH for this 'fillup' was even higher as a result. My only complaint at all was that the glare on the screens was awful, making operation difficult in bright sunlight; you'd think they would have figured that out and provided higher contrast or shade. The 800# was answered quickly with helpful personnel. My take on why Tesla has not opened its charging to other makes is twofold: I agree with assessment that Elon's pride is a factor, but I also think the flood of Model 3's delivered in the past 6 months has clogged Tesla stations in many areas and irritated the higher end owners (S and X), so they certainly didn't want to suddenly open up to ALL makes and really piss off their entire customer base.

BTW, I've had almost ZERO issues - certainly none of any consequence - with either my car or this loaner for about 3000mi driven (1800 on mine and 1200 on loaner). I'm still driving a loaner (3 weeks now) only because dealer owed me a paint job on the rear license area (HATED the unfinished plastic there) and I also decided to have the front grill ring *black* like my originally ordered build... unfortunately the body shop painted the ring Santorini Black to match car instead of the trim gloss black as requested, and painted the license plate area black instead of Santorini to match body as requested. :-( I don't mind the delay though, since I'm driving another FE, just a different color. When I get mine back (next week), it should have updated software (S18D) and telematics if available. Then I have to wait another 2 weeks to *finally* have my diamond ceramic coating applied (they wanted to do AFTER the painting). My dealer offers valet service so they come to me when necessary to get or deliver the car.

Depending the utility, what harms remote charging rates is something called Demand Based tariffs.

For our utility, it's $200 a month + $17.32 per kW peak + 0.08 per kWh IIRC.

So to run a 100kW single charger in Southern California it will cost $1373 a month for the first car that uses it. So if the charger gets a 1000 customers in a month, no problem, $1.37 a customer for overhead fees then sell the electricity at a profit. If 100 customers use it, you've got a problem. $13.70 per transaction overhead.

The same thing would happen with two 50kW chargers that could be used concurrently.

And this does not include cost of capital or operational costs like maintenance, advertising, business license, taxes, etc.

So only very busy charger can make money in a Demand Tariff region, which is spreading like the plague.

This is why you see few remote location DCFCs by private companies, and why you see 1 or 2 chargers, not 12 like Tesla.

To make EVs remote charging viable we need a Congress and States who actually want EVs. Not just talk, ACTION. Eliminate Demand Based mandatory tariffs for EV chargers. Make it a choice.

This is one of the many reasons I say California is the most Anti-EV state in the country. I can't put a bigger than 4 kW single charger at work now. If I do, I get pushed into Demand tariffs, and my electric bill doubles because I have "cycling high draw equipment" like 4 AC units and a 10hp rotary air compressor. By law of averages, they will all come on at the same time at some point since the compressor is not optional, and the ACs are used to stabilize a 68-72°F laboratory, 24/7/365. Yes, they are heatpumps that run all night and day in cycles with 12 thermostat locations. I am so close to the Punish Barrier (20kW Demand), that I would go over if I pulled 7 kW continuous EVSE loading.

Either our government is inept, uninformed, uncaring, or just plain hypocrites, allowing a monopoly to do this to EV chargers in an area with over 25,000,000 autos, perhaps more EVs than any other US utility is Anti-Environmental Activity. Not neutral. It stopped the California Corridors we paid for. Since H2 stations and L2 chargers don't suffer this brutality, they built those instead and pocketed the rest in 'studies and committees'.