Eclipse + Superchargers + Rivian = Chaos

[PeterSK]

We experienced an even more extreme situation returning from the eclipse. We were driving back from northern Vermont to MA, and the Rivian nav told us to stop at the EA in Lebanon. Since that was the only 3 "lightning bolt" charger on the route home, I suspected everybody's nav would be suggesting the same thing, so we also mapped out all the "two lightning bolt" chargers on the route and checked out one early in the route, in Berlin just south of Montpelier. Our thinking was that chargers would be busy so let's check each one and if there is one without a line we'd opportunistically use it.

There were 8 superchargers, 2 Level-2 chargers, and one Flo charger (1 CCS and 1 Chademo) at the site. I was really kicking myself for not ordering a 3rd party NACS adapter and was fearing the worst before that stop. But when we got to the Berlin chargers, there was a snaking line of more than 20-25 teslas waiting, many running on "fumes", and people waiting for more than 1.5 hours and still a few cars back in line. The line was moving super slow even with 8 chargers. I made a wrong turn and missed the entrance, and luckily the next entrance was on an embankment overlooking the chaos. I could see the line of Tesla's snaking back and forth twice like an airport security line. And I could see nobody seemingly waiting for the CCS charger off to the side. I found another entrance that wasn't blocked by the snaking Teslas, got to the Flo charger, and it turns out the guy that was charging would finish in 5 min and we got to use it immediately after that!

The best decision we made was to stay in central VT over the weekend to ski, and charge to 100% at available L2 chargers the night before we left to view the eclipse. Any battery degradation would be offset by less range anxiety on our first road trip with my wife in the electric truck, and was an investment in more fun road trips in the Rivian in the future. My wife was worried the charging situation the next day would be like "Armageddon". The media predicted post-eclipse traffic in VT to be similar to 20 NFL stadiums all empyting out at the same time. By charging to 100%, we gave ourselves many more options.

What I found out talking to Tesla owners waiting in line is that many people drove up that morning and planned to charge on the way to VT. However, everyone had the same idea so Tesla superchargers on the way to northern VT started getting 1hr lines, especially those closer to the path of the eclipse. It got to the point that if you waited in line to charge, then you'd arrive too late to witness the total eclipse, so many Tesla drivers did the calculus to leave and try to make it back to charge afterwards.

The lesson for me in the future is to charge when you can. I would opt for more frequent stops when possible, especially if expecting crowds later, to get stay as close to full (or 80%) as you can as you approach the busy areas since you never know when the lines will be so long that it ruins your trip. Of course charging to 100% is not efficient at fast chargers, but if you have access to a overnight chargers, definitely start at 100%.

BTW, I don't know what etiquette is supposed to be, but I would have expected cars to be moving at least about one every 3-4 minutes given there were 8 super chargers. But it was taking much longer than that. Maybe everyone was trying to charge past 80%, or dealing with poor charging curves close to 0%?

We got lucky and were able to charge because CCS was open. Family needed to use bathrooms and get food, so I ended up charging beyond what I needed, until the next person showed up and then I unplugged and moved to a parking spot.

If they make a Chademo adapter, that might be a good investment if you are worried about a true "Armaggedon" scenario ;-). Not sure I've ever seen anyone use one of those chargers before! I don't know if the Flo charger would have allowed someone to use the CCS and the Chademo at the same time, but if so, if you could use Chademo you would probably never have to wait.

Looking forward to the Rivian chargers in Lebanon and Brattleboro for future VT travels for ski trips! Now if we could also get one in Lincoln, NH .

I had a similar experience to yours, heading to NY state just across Lake Champlain. I did some research before heading up from Boston on Saturday evening, knowing the W. Lebanon, NH RAN is built but not connected, and the EA can get very busy. As expected, there was a line at the EA but it was convivial: people drinking Starbucks and chatting, while one guy was keeping a waitlist sheet with car models and plates. We would have been sixth in line for three working stations so got takeout at Panera and headed to a Green Mountain Power 100kW Flo station a half hour further on back roads on the way to Middlebury. On the way home we stopped at a different Flo station. Both times we had no wait, and charged for only 15-20 min. We have a Tesla Universal Wall Connector delivering 40a at our destination in NY.

Food places were the much bigger issue. Panera on the way up was out of several types of bread and a few other things, and the wait for food was long. On the way home Monday night we stopped at a Subway in Middlebury that was out of bread (we got the last couple of wraps), then a McDonald’s where it took forever to get my daughter some nuggets.

Not to mention the traffic…

Sponsored

 

[strykerwsu]

In Misery (MO), no offense as I'm from there, no issues at Superchargers or CCS stations most were only half full at most. Traffic out was crazy though, 1 hour drives took about 5 hours on most routes. I did see quite a few full Gas stations but their fill up time is better.

 

[DeafPug]

I stopped at 75 new (to me) Tesla Superchargers in the last week. Travel days were Fri/Sat and Tues/Wed. I ran into a line at 2 of them on Sunday, but those were just locals without home charging.

I stayed with relatives and we just walked to a nearby viewing area and laughed at the huge 6-hour long traffic jam in town.

From reports of the exact same thing happening at the last total eclipse in 2017, we knew to not travel on Monday!

 

[onesoil]

We experienced an even more extreme situation returning from the eclipse. We were driving back from northern Vermont to MA, and the Rivian nav told us to stop at the EA in Lebanon. Since that was the only 3 "lightning bolt" charger on the route home, I suspected everybody's nav would be suggesting the same thing, so we also mapped out all the "two lightning bolt" chargers on the route and checked out one early in the route, in Berlin just south of Montpelier. Our thinking was that chargers would be busy so let's check each one and if there is one without a line we'd opportunistically use it.

There were 8 superchargers, 2 Level-2 chargers, and one Flo charger (1 CCS and 1 Chademo) at the site. I was really kicking myself for not ordering a 3rd party NACS adapter and was fearing the worst before that stop. But when we got to the Berlin chargers, there was a snaking line of more than 20-25 teslas waiting, many running on "fumes", and people waiting for more than 1.5 hours and still a few cars back in line. The line was moving super slow even with 8 chargers. I made a wrong turn and missed the entrance, and luckily the next entrance was on an embankment overlooking the chaos. I could see the line of Tesla's snaking back and forth twice like an airport security line. And I could see nobody seemingly waiting for the CCS charger off to the side. I found another entrance that wasn't blocked by the snaking Teslas, got to the Flo charger, and it turns out the guy that was charging would finish in 5 min and we got to use it immediately after that!

The best decision we made was to stay in central VT over the weekend to ski, and charge to 100% at available L2 chargers the night before we left to view the eclipse. Any battery degradation would be offset by less range anxiety on our first road trip with my wife in the electric truck, and was an investment in more fun road trips in the Rivian in the future. My wife was worried the charging situation the next day would be like "Armageddon". The media predicted post-eclipse traffic in VT to be similar to 20 NFL stadiums all empyting out at the same time. By charging to 100%, we gave ourselves many more options.

What I found out talking to Tesla owners waiting in line is that many people drove up that morning and planned to charge on the way to VT. However, everyone had the same idea so Tesla superchargers on the way to northern VT started getting 1hr lines, especially those closer to the path of the eclipse. It got to the point that if you waited in line to charge, then you'd arrive too late to witness the total eclipse, so many Tesla drivers did the calculus to leave and try to make it back to charge afterwards.

The lesson for me in the future is to charge when you can. I would opt for more frequent stops when possible, especially if expecting crowds later, to get stay as close to full (or 80%) as you can as you approach the busy areas since you never know when the lines will be so long that it ruins your trip. Of course charging to 100% is not efficient at fast chargers, but if you have access to a overnight chargers, definitely start at 100%.

BTW, I don't know what etiquette is supposed to be, but I would have expected cars to be moving at least about one every 3-4 minutes given there were 8 super chargers. But it was taking much longer than that. Maybe everyone was trying to charge past 80%, or dealing with poor charging curves close to 0%?

We got lucky and were able to charge because CCS was open. Family needed to use bathrooms and get food, so I ended up charging beyond what I needed, until the next person showed up and then I unplugged and moved to a parking spot.

If they make a Chademo adapter, that might be a good investment if you are worried about a true "Armaggedon" scenario ;-). Not sure I've ever seen anyone use one of those chargers before! I don't know if the Flo charger would have allowed someone to use the CCS and the Chademo at the same time, but if so, if you could use Chademo you would probably never have to wait.

Looking forward to the Rivian chargers in Lebanon and Brattleboro for future VT travels for ski trips! Now if we could also get one in Lincoln, NH .

tl;dr:
Tesla needs to upgrade Version 2 chargers ASAP, allow access to Version 3 chargers at Version 2/3 hybrid locations, Vermont charging infrastructure really sucks and isn't matching our adoption rate, Ioniq 5 range estimates are not to be trusted, EV travel with a young child can make put strain on a relationship if it doesn't go smoothly—let's hope this is all just a distant memory sometime in the near distant future!

The long version:
I live in Montpelier, VT, and unfortunately that Supercharger is a Version 2 (150kw max, and no CCS support). Luckily there is a hidden 120KW charger that costs $1 a few miles down the road at a dealership… I don’t even think it’s on PlugShare ? it's currently my go-to charger when I need a quick top-up, so I don't really want to say much more, but that should be enough to find it if you need a charge in the future and the flo is occupied (also the fastest I've seen on that charger is 88kW, though they claim 100...).

I’m glad you planned/executed your trip without a hitch because it’s a DC fast charging wasteland up here, even without the Eclipse traffic. VT has some of the highest EV adoption in the country, and some of the weakest public charging infrastructure I've encountered—it's a real bummer, and I hope it changes soon. I also know how jaded a partner can get about EV traveling if it doesn’t go smoothly (at least with a baby in the picture, in my case—more on that to follow!), so I'm doubly glad you didn't botch your trip or have to watch totality in a charging line, which may have been an unfortunate reality for some.

I had my own stressful charging experience coming back to VT from Chelsea MA on Sunday before the eclipse after picking up my new (to me) 2022 Demo R1T.

My toddler missed his nap window after we made the stupid mistake of trying to go to the New England Aquarium with a toddler just getting over a cold, too close to his normal nap time, and his mother who just woke up feeling like she caught the cold after a mostly sleepless hotel night with our son—and a Rivian delivery as the primary reason for the trip in the first place.

I wanted to get the Ioniq 5 we drove down in together charged to 100% so that my partner could make it back the ~180 miles without stopping (wishful thinking as it turned out with that car, 45° temps, strong wind, some drizzle, and her cabin heat preferences/driving style ?).

After bailing from the aquarium crowd insanity with a sobbing over-tired baby in tow, and trying my best to find a charger in the Boston area that was near anything green/pleasant/interesting (which u failed to find, we ended up settling and just making the best of it in some shitty hotel parking lot EVgo to get to 100%), we decided to head to the Chelsea Service Center early, since I’d seen photos of a nice lounge with toy trucks to keep our boy entertained for a bit. The SC turned out to be a nice calm place with toys and some really cool books—which we all appreciated.

My appointment ended up starting late because the guy before me showed up late, so I had to rush through the delivery process so we could hit the road. I am already familiar with the truck, since my dad has had one since June of 2022 that I drove for a few months, so that was alright, though I wish I’d been able to test drive since it has a couple suspension clunks that will need mobile service attention.

Our 18 month old was getting cranky, and fell asleep right as we hit the road. I thought all would be well… until the Ioniq my partner was driving started showing signs that it might not make it home without at least a few minutes at a fast charger. My partner was very sick at this point, and tired from our toddler having trouble sleeping in the hotel the night before.

So I had two options: West Lebanon EA (which I knew only had 3 working stalls, and always seemed to be slow and/or overcrowded), or chance making it to the Randolph 80kW ChargePoint, which claimed to only have 1 of 2 stalls up. My partner told me she was so tired that she needed to stop at West Leb. As we pulled in, our son woke up, and we found out that there were already 7 people in line to charge ? Our son needed to stretch his legs and get a break from the car seat, which is ideally the time we would charge, but there wasn't even an L2 to get a little juice while we waited, and of course waiting for 7 cars to deep charge on their way North to the land of no fast chargers for the Eclipse, with a slightly fussy toddler wasn't an option, so after about 20 min we decided to send it to Randolph with less than 20% state of charge in the Ioniq.

We made it to Randolph with 7%, but the supposedly "Available" chargepoint wouldn't accept my Apple Wallet virtual card. After 40 min waiting for Chargepoint CS to answer while snacking on the least offensive food we could find in the gas station/rest area (hummus and cheese was about all we could find), I made the call to bail on the Ioniq to get my family home. We left the Ioniq at an L2 a few miles up the road, and got home with 10% in my new R1T.

This trip was basically the nail in the coffin for my partner getting an EV of her own. She is convinced that it is unsafe to road trip with a young child in an EV. She didn't feel this way when I was driving a Tesla, but after several near misses in the year that I had an Ioniq, she is "done" with the charging shenanigans. I keep telling her that NACS access will be a game changer, and I really hope I'm right—but above all, the right planning is crucial. What really sucks is no matter how well you plan, poorly maintained infrastructure can still bite you. I really hope that RAN chargers go live soon in NH and other New England states, so that between those and Tesla I can prove to her that it's very much viable and safe to EV road-trip in coming months (I ordered an A2Z right after this).

I also hope that Tesla starts upgrading Version 2 chargers quickly, and opens up Version 2/3 hybrid locations to NACS (like West Lebanon, which always seems empty, and Brattleboro, which also always seems to have some free stalls).

When I went to pick up the Ioniq the next day with my dad, the traffic headed North reminded me of Boston suburbs—and all I could think was: anyone in an EV better have an L2 lined up wherever they are going, or they will be screwed for this Eclipse trip ?

 

[strykerwsu]

I let Hertz hold on to my ICE vehicle for me.

I rented and drove about 800 miles round trip to see the eclipse in the Missouri boot heel. Charging in that area is sparse so the rental ended up working out well.

I used the Tesla ones in Jackson, Fenton, Columbia with no issues. A2Z worked great.

Farmington and Perryville also have good Francis Units.

 

[not_a_car_guy]

tl;dr:
Tesla needs to upgrade Version 2 chargers ASAP, allow access to Version 3 chargers at Version 2/3 hybrid locations, Vermont charging infrastructure really sucks and isn't matching our adoption rate, Ioniq 5 range estimates are not to be trusted, EV travel with a young child can make put strain on a relationship if it doesn't go smoothly—let's hope this is all just a distant memory sometime in the near distant future!

The long version:
I live in Montpelier, VT, and unfortunately that Supercharger is a Version 2 (150kw max, and no CCS support). Luckily there is a hidden 120KW charger that costs $1 a few miles down the road at a dealership… I don’t even think it’s on PlugShare ? it's currently my go-to charger when I need a quick top-up, so I don't really want to say much more, but that should be enough to find it if you need a charge in the future and the flo is occupied (also the fastest I've seen on that charger is 88kW, though they claim 100...).

I’m glad you planned/executed your trip without a hitch because it’s a DC fast charging wasteland up here, even without the Eclipse traffic. VT has some of the highest EV adoption in the country, and some of the weakest public charging infrastructure I've encountered—it's a real bummer, and I hope it changes soon. I also know how jaded a partner can get about EV traveling if it doesn’t go smoothly (at least with a baby in the picture, in my case—more on that to follow!), so I'm doubly glad you didn't botch your trip or have to watch totality in a charging line, which may have been an unfortunate reality for some.

I had my own stressful charging experience coming back to VT from Chelsea MA on Sunday before the eclipse after picking up my new (to me) 2022 Demo R1T.

My toddler missed his nap window after we made the stupid mistake of trying to go to the New England Aquarium with a toddler just getting over a cold, too close to his normal nap time, and his mother who just woke up feeling like she caught the cold after a mostly sleepless hotel night with our son—and a Rivian delivery as the primary reason for the trip in the first place.

I wanted to get the Ioniq 5 we drove down in together charged to 100% so that my partner could make it back the ~180 miles without stopping (wishful thinking as it turned out with that car, 45° temps, strong wind, some drizzle, and her cabin heat preferences/driving style ?).

After bailing from the aquarium crowd insanity with a sobbing over-tired baby in tow, and trying my best to find a charger in the Boston area that was near anything green/pleasant/interesting (which u failed to find, we ended up settling and just making the best of it in some shitty hotel parking lot EVgo to get to 100%), we decided to head to the Chelsea Service Center early, since I’d seen photos of a nice lounge with toy trucks to keep our boy entertained for a bit. The SC turned out to be a nice calm place with toys and some really cool books—which we all appreciated.

My appointment ended up starting late because the guy before me showed up late, so I had to rush through the delivery process so we could hit the road. I am already familiar with the truck, since my dad has had one since June of 2022 that I drove for a few months, so that was alright, though I wish I’d been able to test drive since it has a couple suspension clunks that will need mobile service attention.

Our 18 month old was getting cranky, and fell asleep right as we hit the road. I thought all would be well… until the Ioniq my partner was driving started showing signs that it might not make it home without at least a few minutes at a fast charger. My partner was very sick at this point, and tired from our toddler having trouble sleeping in the hotel the night before.

So I had two options: West Lebanon EA (which I knew only had 3 working stalls, and always seemed to be slow and/or overcrowded), or chance making it to the Randolph 80kW ChargePoint, which claimed to only have 1 of 2 stalls up. My partner told me she was so tired that she needed to stop at West Leb. As we pulled in, our son woke up, and we found out that there were already 7 people in line to charge ? Our son needed to stretch his legs and get a break from the car seat, which is ideally the time we would charge, but there wasn't even an L2 to get a little juice while we waited, and of course waiting for 7 cars to deep charge on their way North to the land of no fast chargers for the Eclipse, with a slightly fussy toddler wasn't an option, so after about 20 min we decided to send it to Randolph with less than 20% state of charge in the Ioniq.

We made it to Randolph with 7%, but the supposedly "Available" chargepoint wouldn't accept my Apple Wallet virtual card. After 40 min waiting for Chargepoint CS to answer while snacking on the least offensive food we could find in the gas station/rest area (hummus and cheese was about all we could find), I made the call to bail on the Ioniq to get my family home. We left the Ioniq at an L2 a few miles up the road, and got home with 10% in my new R1T.

This trip was basically the nail in the coffin for my partner getting an EV of her own. She is convinced that it is unsafe to road trip with a young child in an EV. She didn't feel this way when I was driving a Tesla, but after several near misses in the year that I had an Ioniq, she is "done" with the charging shenanigans. I keep telling her that NACS access will be a game changer, and I really hope I'm right—but above all, the right planning is crucial. What really sucks is no matter how well you plan, poorly maintained infrastructure can still bite you. I really hope that RAN chargers go live soon in NH and other New England states, so that between those and Tesla I can prove to her that it's very much viable and safe to EV road-trip in coming months (I ordered an A2Z right after this).

I also hope that Tesla starts upgrading Version 2 chargers quickly, and opens up Version 2/3 hybrid locations to NACS (like West Lebanon, which always seems empty, and Brattleboro, which also always seems to have some free stalls).

When I went to pick up the Ioniq the next day with my dad, the traffic headed North reminded me of Boston suburbs—and all I could think was: anyone in an EV better have an L2 lined up wherever they are going, or they will be screwed for this Eclipse trip ?

Ouch.

Boston is not great for EA charging either. Sorry your trip was so harrowing. Traveling with a small child is hard no matter what. We have two middle school aged kids so was a bit easier.

I've tried to get as many "cards" as possible for charging networks, especially chargepoint, evgo, evconnect. It avoids issues when cards don't work, internet is an issue, etc.

At least you have the comfort of knowing you live in a very beautiful state ;-).

 

[ksujeff99]

I used the Tesla ones in Jackson, Fenton, Columbia with no issues. A2Z worked great.

Farmington and Perryville also have good Francis Units.

No good for me. My round trip route went through Springfield to Doniphan. In that 360 mile loop, the only DCFC is a single 50kW unit at the Chevy dealer in West Plains.

 

[strykerwsu]

No good for me. My round trip route went through Springfield to Doniphan. In that 360 mile loop, the only DCFC is a single 50kW unit at the Chevy dealer in West Plains.

You really went to no man's land. I'm almost surprised found gas along the way ?.

 

[JCWCVG]

I had an eclipse trip where I charged up with magic docks night before and about noon when I was 200 miles south at a Rivian supercharger station I had not seen before in Bowling green, OH. Both worked flawlessly but I went late evening to Tesla one and noon to the Rivian to avoid rush times.

Eclipse was wonderful and traffic not too bad on way back North.

Bowling Green, OH???Are you sure the Rivian charging station is not the one in Maumee, OH on Conant St in the Meijer parking lot?

 

[onesoil]

Ouch.

Boston is not great for EA charging either. Sorry your trip was so harrowing. Traveling with a small child is hard no matter what. We have two middle school aged kids so was a bit easier.

I've tried to get as many "cards" as possible for charging networks, especially chargepoint, evgo, evconnect. It avoids issues when cards don't work, internet is an issue, etc.

At least you have the comfort of knowing you live in a very beautiful state ;-).

Yeah, traveling with a baby has definitely added a new challenge to EV road tripping. In theory, the built in stops would be a good thing, but when they don’t time out with the need to stop, or when the location is awful (it is almost never great, but sometimes especially devoid of safe/wholesome things to do/eat), it can be rough.

We drove to West Virginia in the Ioniq last summer with our then 11 month old, and while we made it, it added at least a day to the trip.

Luckily our son is a really good car sleeper and a happy little guy for the most part, so it’s mostly been fine. He loves the new truck since he gets a better view from his rear facing car seat (headrest removed), and it’s got more spaces to crawl around in.

We are lucky to live in a beautiful place! Our family business just completed a transition to 100% renewable energy this past month, and I’m lucky to be able to have this R1T as my work truck and personal vehicle—but even if I didn’t have that perk, I would choose an EV at this point. We buy 20k+ gallons of diesel a year, which was split between B99 Biodiesel in the warm months and B10 in the winter, but now due to the availability of Renewable Diesel (a newer plant-based formulation previously only available in CA that doesn’t gel in freezing temps, we can now run R100 fuel year round in all our machines, and have an all EV fleet for light vehicles, with an eventual goal to transition our heavy equipment to electric when that becomes feasible).

Here’s a pic the day after our stressful journey back home—seeing forest green in the sunshine with an evergreen backdrop at my dad’s overgrown Christmas tree farm (he bought it that way, and we haven’t cleared it yet) made me feel like it was all worth the trip in the end ?

 

[onesoil]

I had a similar experience to yours, heading to NY state just across Lake Champlain. I did some research before heading up from Boston on Saturday evening, knowing the W. Lebanon, NH RAN is built but not connected, and the EA can get very busy. As expected, there was a line at the EA but it was convivial: people drinking Starbucks and chatting, while one guy was keeping a waitlist sheet with car models and plates. We would have been sixth in line for three working stations so got takeout at Panera and headed to a Green Mountain Power 100kW Flo station a half hour further on back roads on the way to Middlebury. On the way home we stopped at a different Flo station. Both times we had no wait, and charged for only 15-20 min. We have a Tesla Universal Wall Connector delivering 40a at our destination in NY.

Food places were the much bigger issue. Panera on the way up was out of several types of bread and a few other things, and the wait for food was long. On the way home Monday night we stopped at a Subway in Middlebury that was out of bread (we got the last couple of wraps), then a McDonald’s where it took forever to get my daughter some nuggets.

Not to mention the traffic…

We got on that same list (west leb EA on Saturday) before we bailed! Everyone seemed friendly, and while I appreciated there being a list, I kind of wished someone would have volunteered to let us cut the line since we only needed 5 min of charge to get home (I’ve seen our warmed up Ioniq hit 237kW when it’s low in the pack like it was). But I also didn’t ask… not sure if it’s fair to pull the “we have a cranky toddler who didn’t get enough sleep last night” card for such a thing.

I saw several Rivians come, see the long line, and leave while we waited the little bit before trying to make it to Randolph. In retrospect, we should have gone to the Flo, even though it was a bit off route. Those at least seem to always work, which I now can’t say of ChargePoint DCFCs. It probably would have saved us from having to leave our Ioniq in Randolph.

I really hope that RAN opens before I go to Cape Cod in a month—but at least there’s now a supercharger to get fully charged up in Hyannis before venturing down the cape to Truro (the outer Cape is another fast charge dessert). Two years ago I almost got stranded with my then 8-month pregnant partner in an R1T due to an EA station having 4/4 stalls down with no indication on app/PlugShare ?

 

[PeterSK]

tl;dr:
Tesla needs to upgrade Version 2 chargers ASAP, allow access to Version 3 chargers at Version 2/3 hybrid locations, Vermont charging infrastructure really sucks and isn't matching our adoption rate, Ioniq 5 range estimates are not to be trusted, EV travel with a young child can make put strain on a relationship if it doesn't go smoothly—let's hope this is all just a distant memory sometime in the near distant future!

I was psyched to see the Rivian supercharger access announcement, but when I looked up all the Superchargers I’ve used with my Teslas for years along the Boston to Plattsburgh NY route, I realized nearly all of them are v2: Hooksett, West Lebanon (v2/v3, but still not accessible), Berlin, South Burlington and Plattsburgh are all not available for CCS charging. I’m just thankful the West Leb RAN is coming s00n, and that random GMP offices have the 100kW Flo chargers as a fallback in a pinch. EA really needs to expand that West Leb charger, and build out a few others.

 

[onesoil]

"Deserve" may not be the best word, @ads75. "Prefer" would describe my feelings more accurately.

EV drivers spend more time at charging stations than ICE drivers spend at gas stations.

With extra time, amenities matter: Restrooms, eating, shopping, taking a nice walk, etc., etc....

We try to choose chargers based on the entire charging experience, not just "electricity as a commodity."

Does this help?

When I took my first EV trip with my dad in his Model S about 6 years ago, about 10 minutes into a charge session staring at a brick wall and a gas station I thought of an idea for a charging company where you would pay a small monthly fee for access that would coordinate with local food trucks to post around the station.

I completely agree that it would be nice if charge stations existed in nicer locations, with bathrooms, better food options, some vegetation ideally, and now that I have a kiddo, even a little playground would be cool. I would definitely pay a reasonable subscription fee to be a member of a network of chargers that have some thought to the charging experience outside the vehicle.

if we are transitioning to an all-EV future, we really need to think about how better to utilize all this added stationary time—think about how much more time of our lives we are adding in/around our vehicle on any longer trips with multiple charging sessions—it seems like low hanging fruit to offer higher quality amenities/better locations, at least once the market has solved the basic functionality/reliability problems.

I think Nio is on to something with their lounges and optional battery swap locations—hopefully they will bring that here, though I’d prefer a manufacturer agnostic 3rd party do something similar. I’m sure plenty of people would pay a bit more per session or a monthly fee for frequent travelers to wait somewhere nicer than the current Walmart/sheetz/shell/circle K/etc/etc.

The biggest missed opportunity I see so far is that interstate rest areas and pull-offs don’t have fast chargers—but that’s what we get for handing over major infrastructure projects and paradigm shifting systems over to private sector alone to sort out (with lots of tax payer money being thrown around, mostly in the wrong directions), as we do here in America!

I’d love to see what charging in Norway is like (over 80% of new cars are EVs driving in sub-freezing temps much of the year). I bet they aren’t strictly limiting themselves to junk food and dingy parking lots!

 

[onesoil]

I was psyched to see the Rivian supercharger access announcement, but when I looked up all the Superchargers I’ve used with my Teslas for years along the Boston to Plattsburgh NY route, I realized nearly all of them are v2: Hooksett, West Lebanon (v2/v3, but still not accessible), Berlin, South Burlington and Plattsburgh are all not available for CCS charging. I’m just thankful the West Leb RAN is coming s00n, and that random GMP offices have the 100kW Flo chargers as a fallback in a pinch. EA really needs to expand that West Leb charger, and build out a few others.

I believe the Williston Supercharger is going to be available, so with the West Leb RAN, at least you should be able to make it up that far.

I honestly hope someone other than EA comes in with (truly) fast DC chargers. I’ve been burned too many times by shoddy EA chargers (slow speeds, faulty chargers not listed as being down, long lines, etc).

I was pretty disappointed to find out how much money our state government allocated to install useless 50kW chargers around the state (some up to 100kW, but not many). Of course 50kW beats having to call AAA because you’re stranded in the cold with no charger in range, but it just doesn’t cut it for modern EV pack sizes or meet people’s needs while traveling. It just seems like a waste of money to put down slow DC chargers, in my opinion.

 

[SSteveEV]

Bowling Green, OH???Are you sure the Rivian charging station is not the one in Maumee, OH on Conant St in the Meijer parking lot?

Had the same question. Juiced up in Maumee there and back Monday (roughly 12 hrs apart) with no issues.
Passed Bowling Green on my way to Wapakoneta OH.

We should have convoyed from MI
@Dark-Fx @Yellow R1T

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