EA Pass+ and pricing change update

[Tim-in-CA]

Well my party is over. Stopped at my go-to EA that I have used each way going to and from camp 1-3 times every month. The per minute billing used to end up coming out to anywhere between .10-.17 c/kWh depending on my SOC and how long I stayed. It's now kWh billing and the usual EA price in neighboring states - 0.36/kWh with the monthly pass.

My trip to camp is ~190 miles, so I can do it easily without stopping, but it has become a nice habit to stop and eat and get groceries at Walmart. I'm on the fence about keeping the monthly pass. Both of my longer annual trips have RANs open or imminently opening in perfect locations for those trips.

The app is still not updated here for my local EA stations.

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[Joe schmoe]

I’ll admit that the SC seem more reliable but I don’t have first hand experience, second I haven’t really had extensive issues on EA with lots of experience so IMHO a lot of those concerns are over blown, in fact I think a lot of those concerns are what you mentioned above which is demand, that can’t be put on EA alone.

Regardless I hope those SC stay as reliable and foolproof after they no longer live in their closed tesla only eco system.

I -do- have extensive SC experience, and never had an issue once in eight years of Tesla ownership. This was mostly in underserved "flyover country" but some on coasts in high demand areas.

I now have about six months and around 3500 miles of cross country experience with CCS, mostly on EA. I don't think the concerns are over blown in the least. Most EA cabinets either don't work at all or are severely derated. The 350kw cabinets are especially unreliable.

When I say "most," this is not casual hyperbole. I've encountered more broken or severely derated EA chargers than fully functional ones, and it's not even close. My first roadtrip with the Rivian found 40% of charging cabinets up and running normally. my most recent was 2 out of 9 stations fully functional. It seems to be getting worse with time, and -none- of the cabinets I've reported broken have been fixed according to PlugShare.

Once an EA cabinet breaks, in my experience, its stays broken. Cabinets I reported down at the beginning of March are still down. The Memphis EA station (the only CCS station rated above 100kw in the entire city) has been down, completely offline, since May 2023. Tesla's 3 SC stations in Memphis are all fully functional.

 

[ads75]

I was willing to keep the subscription I barely used for $4/month, not at $7/month. But really, since getting my home charger installed, I only charged one day in April (2 stations twice) and a couple times around Christmas. Doesn't help that one of the stations near family that I used in December is now down from 4 units to 2, and those two only put out around 35kw according to plugshare (they were all fine in December). In my mind, I am not taking my EV when I can use my ICE and save myself at least an hour of my time.

If my drive is about 2.5 hours or less, I can "suffer" in my 2 door Wrangler. Its kind of funny, when I did a trip that needed about 3.5 hours/230 miles of driving each way in one day, my choice was my R1T, where I would HAVE to stop for charging, instead of my 2 door Wrangler, where I would have to stop for my sanity. 2 door Jeeps are fun to drive around town, but not the best for road trips. So far, I have had good luck on charging, but I do see where issues may come up. Like when someone in a Hyundai Ioniq (the old one) is trying to hit 100% charge on a 350kw charger, because they have "free charging", and apparently, nothing else to do in life but sit at a charger after 90% charge.

 

[jjswan33]

Well so much for the doom and gloom. I charged this morning in Lincoln Nebraska and granted it was before 5am when I plugged in but I am not going to complain about that rate ($0.15/min).

 

[diehlryan]

Well my party is over. Stopped at my go-to EA that I have used each way going to and from camp 1-3 times every month. The per minute billing used to end up coming out to anywhere between .10-.17 c/kWh depending on my SOC and how long I stayed. It's now kWh billing and the usual EA price in neighboring states - 0.36/kWh with the monthly pass.

My trip to camp is ~190 miles, so I can do it easily without stopping, but it has become a nice habit to stop and eat and get groceries at Walmart. I'm on the fence about keeping the monthly pass. Both of my longer annual trips have RANs open or imminently opening in perfect locations for those trips.

Did PA pass new legislation allowing for per kwh charging or was EA just slow to change their billing structure from per min to per kwh? I find it hard to believe they allowed per min for so long if per kwh was available.

 

[MoreTrout]

Did PA pass new legislation allowing for per kwh charging or was EA just slow to change their billing structure from per min to per kwh? I find it hard to believe they allowed per min for so long if per kwh was available.

I'm sure it was EA being slow. EVgo has been per kWh for several months already. My favorite EA experience was using a 350 kW station and the app said I was connected to a Chademo so charged me the even lower per min rate. I think that ended up being like 0.04 or 0.05c/kWh. Too bad that wasn't on my regular route.

 

[diehlryan]

I'm sure it was EA being slow. EVgo has been per kWh for several months already. My favorite EA experience was using a 350 kW station and the app said I was connected to a Chademo so charged me the even lower per min rate. I think that ended up being like 0.04 or 0.05c/kWh. Too bad that wasn't on my regular route.

I was doing some looking online. EA and EVgo have been doing the opposite when it comes to PA and MD.

PA - EA per min, EVgo per kwh
MD - EA per kwh, EVgo per min

EVgo references a pilot testing per kwh and getting positive feedback and expanding their per kwh footprint because of it. Must be slow charging PHEV saying yes to per kwh. Sigh.

 

[MoreTrout]

I was doing some looking online. EA and EVgo have been doing the opposite when it comes to PA and MD.

PA - EA per min, EVgo per kwh
MD - EA per kwh, EVgo per min

EVgo references a pilot testing per kwh and getting positive feedback and expanding their per kwh footprint because of it. Must be slow charging PHEV saying yes to per kwh. Sigh.

I learned that a few weeks ago with my 4th trip stopping in Hagerstown. I always used the EA because I had the monthly pass and just figured EVgo would be their typically way more expensive pricing. Oops. The RAN site is ready to go there and probably just waiting on a final inspection or something. My luck by my next trip Rivian will have implemented their billing for charging by then.

 

[diehlryan]

I learned that a few weeks ago with my 4th trip stopping in Hagerstown. I always used the EA because I had the monthly pass and just figured EVgo would be their typically way more expensive pricing. Oops. The RAN site is ready to go there and probably just waiting on a final inspection or something. My luck by my next trip Rivian will have implemented their billing for charging by then.

Do you go through Breezewood, PA with your travels? I'm curious about the progress on that RAN site. I have a cabin in Black Moshannon Park and get through Breezewood a few times a year and it would be nice to have a RAN at the halfway point.

 

[MoreTrout]

Do you go through Breezewood, PA with your travels? I'm curious about the progress on that RAN site. I have a cabin in Black Moshannon Park and get through Breezewood a few times a year and it would be nice to have a RAN at the halfway point.

No but I'm curious about that one. 68 is shorter and faster for me, but I have family that regularly goes through Breezewood. Unfortunately they wouldn't know the difference between a 110v outlet and a DCFC, so not worth even asking them to look for it. I haven't seen an update or pic of the Breezewood RAN site in a long time.

 

[norivian]

I was willing to keep the subscription I barely used for $4/month, not at $7/month. But really, since getting my home charger installed, I only charged one day in April (2 stations twice) and a couple times around Christmas. Doesn't help that one of the stations near family that I used in December is now down from 4 units to 2, and those two only put out around 35kw according to plugshare (they were all fine in December). In my mind, I am not taking my EV when I can use my ICE and save myself at least an hour of my time.

If my drive is about 2.5 hours or less, I can "suffer" in my 2 door Wrangler. Its kind of funny, when I did a trip that needed about 3.5 hours/230 miles of driving each way in one day, my choice was my R1T, where I would HAVE to stop for charging, instead of my 2 door Wrangler, where I would have to stop for my sanity. 2 door Jeeps are fun to drive around town, but not the best for road trips. So far, I have had good luck on charging, but I do see where issues may come up. Like when someone in a Hyundai Ioniq (the old one) is trying to hit 100% charge on a 350kw charger, because they have "free charging", and apparently, nothing else to do in life but sit at a charger after 90% charge.

It appears EA did NOT increase the monthly EA+ subscription to $7.

I canxed mine before it renewed in Aug because i was convinced I don’t have to use EA any longer since Tesla per-kwh rates has been less than or close to $0.36 that EA charges and it’s always available…
… until last Sunday when Hurricane Hilary was hitting SoCal and I was on the road.

Hurricane Hilary was dumping record rains in SoCal. Where i needed to charge my tesla along my route - both tesla charger banks/locations were totally offline. While there were at least 4 more tesla charger locations about 12 miles away, all these chargers were already full/in use presumably because of the other 2 offline locations further down the route.

The EA charger location was luckily up and all chargers were available. So i resubscribed and was immediately able to charge at EA+ rate.

EA bailed me this time. This situation validated my use case for having the J1772 adapter.

My take away:
1) You can subscribe and use EA+ on the fly so I’ll cancel again when not using it in foreseeable future;
2) Keep all charging options in the know including adapters (for tesla); and
3) Lots of tesla charging locations but lots of teslas too and if any of these locations are offline (rarely happens but can).
4) There need to be more reliable chargers and charging locations.

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