All those unusable/broken charging stations...

[Dark-Fx]

Ok, so in your experience, there always is an alternate charging plan, so no anxiety?

Infrastructure availability today in my area is way better than it was even last year. Most areas it's trivial to have a backup plan that's going to be an adequate solution but not optimal.

As an example check two videos from @OutofSpecKyle. Much respect to him for showing both sides but it’s clear how they can get more views.

1. Highlighting an issue with new EA charging stations not working in the cold. 1M+ views:



2. The follow up video showing they likely fixed the problem 43k views:

It's frustrating that the original video is still posted with an unedited title too. The problem doesn't exist anymore so it's just serving to contribute to confusion.

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[jjswan33]

It's frustrating that the original video is still posted with an unedited title too. The problem doesn't exist anymore so it's just serving to contribute to confusion.

Agreed. He could at least add a link to the follow up video in the notes.

 

[Tahoe Man]

One other thing OP, not too many people who just spent $70/80/90K will want to publicly state issues due to buyers bias. Or they will minimize it, so read between the lines. If someone writes up about their road trip experience and they go on about how great of a road trip it was while overlooking they just wrote they had to to wait hours at slow charges, had to take different routes due to broken charges, etc etc, it's no different than those who say to ignore all the negativity.

 

[Rtpdeacon]

One other thing OP, not too many people who just spent $70/80/90K will want to publicly state issues due to buyers bias. Or they will minimize it, so read between the lines. If someone writes up about their road trip experience and they go on about how great of a road trip it was while overlooking they just wrote they had to to wait hours at slow charges, had to take different routes due to broken charges, etc etc, it's no different than those who say to ignore all the negativity.

What about those of us that take 2000 mile road trips without a problem? No buyer bias in those.

If you spend 15 min before hand to plan, your likely hood of a poor experience goes down dramatically.

 

[Trandall]

@Tahoe Man you should consider changing your name to Negative Nancy, truly sorry all your experiences suck so bad.
@Rivianation the vast majority of your charging should happen uneventfully while you sleep at home. If you do not plan to have at least a 240V 30A charger (or included charge cable) at home then you will need to consider your charging plan carefully.
Assuming you will charge at home if downloading plugshare and reviewing it before long road trips to check recent reviews of intended on route charges is a problem then carefully consider your EV purchase.
Personally My Rivian was my first EV and I have had no (as in zero) issues with charging or range anxiety. I have 23,000 miles on my Rivian and it keeps getting better (OTA updates!). As far as crowding I get excited if I even see another EV plugged into a DC fast charger. Do I have confirmation bias as Tahoe Man alleges maybe but I suspect after you get your Rivian you too will enjoy Rivian bias!
In all fairness I reserved a F-150 lightning for my Dad who is 70 and he has some range anxiety I am trying to get him to overcome. Literally the biggest drawback to the Rivian is the thought of in the future having to drive any other vehicle I can actually afford.
BTW @Tahoe Man do you have an R1, if so I am curious to hear your honest ownership impression?

 

[Jhawk]

As my delivery day approaches, I am spending too much time on YouTube. I'm noticing a lot of reviews of people loving Rivian ownership except hating the travel charging situation with tons of anecdotal examples to prove it.

It's not limited to Electrify America, either. Maybe vandalism, underfunded maintenance (or shortage of tech labor), a difficult software technology to implement across the numerous EV brands, so something more inherently unreliable in the charging hardware itself? Maybe it's an illusion due to negative clickbait, but it seems like the infrastructure is a bit disappointing to Rivian owners who were expecting more after their 1-2 year wait.

As others have said, PlugShare is your friend so download load it, get out there on the road, and contribute to the feedback loop. Look at the recent reviews along the routes in your area because it seems that the non-Tesla Level 3 charging experiences can be quite different depending on where you are.

I can only speak to my experiences here along the I70/I35/I49 corridors and frankly it’s extremely disappointing when compared to the SC network I watched improve and became used to over the last 6-7 years. If I’m planning a trip in any direction from the KC area my only option for max charging speeds (200KW+) will be an EA station. If that station happens to be inoperable then nearly 75% of the time there are no other Level 3 charging options in the area. I have yet to be stranded at an inoperable EA station but I only get a true plug and go experience 20% of the time around here with the other times requiring moving stalls, walking back to restart a failed session, or dealing with reduced charging.


The other 25% of the time the other “Level 3” option will be something like 60-80KW and require a longer charging stop. I certainly appreciate the slower 60-80KW chargers making road trips “possible”, but they do not make it convenient nor do they inspire confidence. To me they seem like an un-informed/disingenuous sell job by consultants to the Shell/Casey’s/pick your convenience store that I will magically spend 10x more than the gas pumpers over 1.5hrs buying high margin items instead of pumping my gas in 5mins and leaving.

 

[Dark-Fx]

One other thing OP, not too many people who just spent $70/80/90K will want to publicly state issues due to buyers bias. Or they will minimize it, so read between the lines. If someone writes up about their road trip experience and they go on about how great of a road trip it was while overlooking they just wrote they had to to wait hours at slow charges, had to take different routes due to broken charges, etc etc, it's no different than those who say to ignore all the negativity.

Literal unprovable FUD. Why do you waste your time here anyway?

 

[emoore]

OP, ignore everyone that says CCS DCFC isn't a problem and YouTube people are looking for drama.

The consensus of the EV community is to download and install Plugshare to plan your route and figure out which chargers actually work, that's because it really is a problem.

How many chargers have you tried?

 

[SANZC02]

I think it’s largely dependent on where you live, but I think the infrastructure is disappointing.

I’ve had my R1S for two weeks, and have road tripped about 1200 miles so far. Out of 6 EA sites I’ve visited so far, two have worked as expected and advertised.

I’ve always been able to charge, yet more often than not I have to try more than one cabinet, or wait for someone to finish on the only working cabinet. Once I could charge, but every cabinet at the site was charging so slowly we unplugged because we had enough to get to the next charger (which we’d planned to skip)

There are not enough chargers, they are too far apart, and they are not at all reliable.

I’m hoping and expecting that this will improve over time.

I bought a Tesla in early 2015, and for more than a year there wasn’t a DC fast charger within 300 miles of my house. After the supercharge network got built out, though, I could go anywhere I wanted without any range anxiety at all. In eight years (seven with superchargers available) I never once encountered a supercharger station that didn’t just work.

You have never found a single SuperCharger cabinet that was slow or not connecting?

I’ve never not been able to charge at a super charger but frequently have had to wait. That being said, I have seen many Super Chargers with cabinets down or with slow charging.

I once pulled up to the Super Charger in Indio CA and they had the entire site down for maintenance for 3 hours.

 

[SANZC02]

One other thing OP, not too many people who just spent $70/80/90K will want to publicly state issues due to buyers bias. Or they will minimize it, so read between the lines. If someone writes up about their road trip experience and they go on about how great of a road trip it was while overlooking they just wrote they had to to wait hours at slow charges, had to take different routes due to broken charges, etc etc, it's no different than those who say to ignore all the negativity.

Have you not read much on this forum….

 

[Milermore]

I think it’s largely dependent on where you live, but I think the infrastructure is disappointing.

I’ve had my R1S for two weeks, and have road tripped about 1200 miles so far. Out of 6 EA sites I’ve visited so far, two have worked as expected and advertised.

I’ve always been able to charge, yet more often than not I have to try more than one cabinet, or wait for someone to finish on the only working cabinet. Once I could charge, but every cabinet at the site was charging so slowly we unplugged because we had enough to get to the next charger (which we’d planned to skip)

There are not enough chargers, they are too far apart, and they are not at all reliable.

I’m hoping and expecting that this will improve over time.

I bought a Tesla in early 2015, and for more than a year there wasn’t a DC fast charger within 300 miles of my house. After the supercharge network got built out, though, I could go anywhere I wanted without any range anxiety at all. In eight years (seven with superchargers available) I never once encountered a supercharger station that didn’t just work.

That's why I am eager to see the magic dock rollout starting.
Love it or hate it, Tesla does currently have the best charging network.

With only 10 rolled out (source: https://insideevs.com/news/657335/tesla-magic-dock-rollout-march-2023/) in NY and CA, I assume it will be a while before I see them along any of my routes.

 

[Joe schmoe]

I’ve never had to wait, and never have seen a supercharger station completely full.

But, I live in “flyover country” and my driving trips are all within 1000 miles of home. I u derstand that things are different on the coasts (I did live in Orange County for a bit, and still have family in LA).

 

[Joe schmoe]

And my sincere hope is that Tesla priori ope ing superchargers that are along routes that are currently underserved.

This would have several advantages:

it has less chance of annoying current Tesla owners with more congestion at superchargers (superchargers rarely busy or congested away from the northeast or west coast)

it meets a real need for better charging infrastructure in underserved parts of the country.

By increasing utilization of currently underutilized ( but necessary for the network) superchargers it increases operating revenue to Tesla.

It is the least painful way to harvest the federal subsidies.

Two current pain points for me personally are the large gap on I-22 between Memphis and Birmingham and the western panhandle of Florida. Opening the Tupelo and Defuniak Springs superchargers (both of which I’ve used, but neither have I ever seen close to full) would open up a huge area to easy EV road trips.

 

[CrazyOne]

As long as you are not dependent on a single station to be up and running, you should be fine. Also Rivian seems to be less affected by extreme cold according to some experiences. Tesla network is better in most cases at this point in time. But I don't see it making a difference for my use.

 

[Jedimaster109]

Charging will only keep getting better going forward, Tesla is opening up their network and it seems EA are in the middle of replacing their chargers with their newly designed stations. Finally, the RAN will only continue to be built out. No worries, no if you travel for work and are constantly on the road, you may run into more issues.

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