EA days are numbered for me

[aw113sgte]

We are so happy to have Tesla access, over the last 3 years with the rivians, we've had so many failures with other chargers and now that we received our Tesla adapter, it's amazing. Plug and charge for the first time ever. Had so many authentication issues, payment issues, charges broken or charging at 35kw.

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[HyperionMark]

Curious if other vehicles are seeing all these de-rate to 40kW. Based on PlugShare it seems like this is a Rivian only issue.

 

[iansriv]

The day my A2Z arrived, EA was dead to me. I figure they have another 12 months with a decent sized captive audience and then they will have to start dramatically undercutting Tesla on price to entice people to stop in to their stations.

Meanwhile, I was in Arkansas a couple weeks ago (near Walmart HQ) and noticed that Walmart is now putting in new Walmart branded stations with its own payment system (worked great first time using the Walmart shopping app I already had on my phone). The station was 350kw, pull-through, easily accessible for any time of vehicle, and reasonably priced (okay, it was free, but free is very reasonable IMO). So, it appears to me that EA is losing its access to its primary partner as they DIY charging.

Sounds great. I hope Walmart does this and it turns out good.
Walmart EV chargers

 

[Aardvark]

Unfortunately I have to agree. I used EA exclusively last year on my long road trip and they worked fine. This year on the same road trip they were terrible. The difference was they previously had 150kw chargers and I would get up to 175kw on them. Now they have replaced most of those with their 350kw chargers Avs those are garbage. They almost always derate to 40kw meaning the cable cooling isn’t working. They need to do something about that or they will be hurting for business.

This was exactly my experience between pre-updated EA stations early in the year, and the now updated stations in June.

 

[HaveBlue]

Not mention EA pre charges money. Charge $6 and they deduct $20 or something stupid.

 

[s0ysauce]

AFAIK, it isn't limited to Rivian. I've seen folks comment with MB and Kia EVs that they are getting similar charging speeds.

Curious if other vehicles are seeing all these de-rate to 40kW. Based on PlugShare it seems like this is a Rivian only issue.

 

[DCFC]

AFAIK, it isn't limited to Rivian. I've seen folks comment with MB and Kia EVs that they are getting similar charging speeds.

Typically, anything under 50kW is a derate due to cable cooling system failure. Makes sense other vehicles would see the same issues.

 

[RivianRiverRat]

Riverfront and Finley Stadium in Chattanooga do the same limiting after a few minutes

 

[azbill]

Curious if other vehicles are seeing all these de-rate to 40kW. Based on PlugShare it seems like this is a Rivian only issue.

I have had it happen with my Mach E at EA, it just starts at 35-44kw and go no higher. There are many PlugShare reports about this with many different vehicles. The 800V vehicles will report 80-90kw.

With my Rivian I have seen two of the new EA chargers start out at 200kw, then derate to 40kw after a few minutes. I have actually never had the older units (ABB or Signet) do that with any vehicle, they either start high and stay high, or the derate at startup.

I had a Tesla Magic Dock site output 35kw once. I have been seeing almost every Supercharger site (using my adapter) limit my Rivian in warm temperatures. They will start at 200kw, but drop quickly to 100-150kw range. Just had one do it today returning to Phoenix from Vegas. The site had 8 chargers and I was the only one charging when it happened. The truck is telling me limited by charger.

 

[vandy1981]

EA was created as the end result of part of the punishment VW took for their emissions scandal. They aren't like a "real' company that went into this business to make money. What they are engaging in is called malicious compliance. They were required to spend X billions setting up charging stations across the country. They weren't required to run this "business" well. And that's why they are so bad.

This is a conspiracy theory. They're incompetent but so is every other national charging network outside of Tesla.

 

[superfly_snook]

The EAs I stop at on my road trips have worked great. I get top speed of around 220kWh and typically go from 20% to 80% SOC in ~34 minutes.

 

[Michaewh]

EA is the worst. 3 of were out at the location in Ritzville, WA. Support was only interested in gather personal details “for security purposes”. After 10 minutes of zero help, the working charger freed up. I think EA is detrimental to further adoption of pure EV. Anyone considering, would avoid like the plague with EA as their only exposure…

 

[DCFC]

I have had it happen with my Mach E at EA, it just starts at 35-44kw and go no higher. There are many PlugShare reports about this with many different vehicles. The 800V vehicles will report 80-90kw.

This makes sense. Really, they limit the current. So double the voltage, can get double the power at the same current derate. With a failed cable cooling system, they can only push so much current through the cable without melting it completely.

 

[emoore]

Not mention EA pre charges money. Charge $6 and they deduct $20 or something stupid.

No they don’t charge $20.

 

[SANZC02]

I would be curious how the 350kw chargers work for you. They rarely worked for me on my 2500 mile trip.

So far on the way to Yellowstone, stopped at 4 EA stations, 3 350 and 1 150

Max rates were 218, 218, 212, and 152.

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