Electrify America burns a Rivian down

[Zoidz]

Gasoline vandalism would be a pretty simple answer, wouldn't it?

Not from my perspective. Electronic failures happen in EV cars all the time. EVs being torched by arsonists? Less than once a year, if that. The gasoline arsonist was thoughtful enough to unplug it first?

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[defcon888]

Even when you’re charging and walk away someone can touch the screen to cancel your charge session and you have to come out again to restart.

You are correct. We haven't charged our R1T in the wild and when we do, I never leave the vehicle....I usually sit in the car or just walk around the truck a little to stretch. While charging our Volvo XC40 Recharge I have increased my levels of Candy Crush......LOL

 

[SANZC02]

Read this article while literally charging at an EA station for the first time to test it out before a long road trip. Of the 8 chargers I stopped at, all 8 were available and appeared working. My card was accepted first time and my R1S charged without issue. Test successful.

But don’t think I didn’t have an “oh, shit” moment when I saw the headline…

Doubt it’s a systemic issue, but would certainly like to hear the root cause when the investigation is completed.

On my initial road trip I was 33 for 33. Since then I am 8 for 10, of the 2 I am not counting as successful I was able to charge, one of them the cabinet was de-rated, it gave a max of 47 kWh but did not charge me. The second my app said the cabinet was not available but the screen said network issue complimentary session, plugged in and charged 90kW in 38 minutes no charge.

So I guess technically I am 43 for 43 if being able to charge is the success criteria.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Not from my perspective. Electronic failures happen in EV cars all the time. EVs being torched by arsonists? Less than once a year, if that. The gasoline arsonist was thoughtful enough to unplug it first?

Maybe it was just parked there not charging and the arsonist was just an EV driver who has seen it all too much.

 

[Cactus]

I've been charging exclusively at home since getting my truck 3/31. Saw an EA station yesterday and decided to stop in. Fairly well-to-do area, but two of the four chargers were completely down ("network error"), one was blocked, and the 4th wouldn't accept my credit card, and when it finally did it only charged for two minutes before giving a "vehicle error". Two minutes was just enough time to walk into the store and check the app... I nearly dropped my groceries to rush outside, expecting to see the worst (truck in flames, etc.). Fortunately nothing of the sort. Charger just failed at two minutes.

I still got charged for the two minutes, and called to lodge a ticket (for all the good it will do).

I saw the EA video where the CEO travels all the way across the country and was interested to try. Not a good first experience. Think I'll stick to charging at home.

Once agin, EA is Volkswagon's punishment for Dieselgate. It doesn't surprise me that this sort of thing happens when one pulls up to EA chargers: " two of the four chargers were completely down ("network error"), one was blocked, and the 4th wouldn't accept my credit card, and when it finally did it only charged for two minutes before giving a "vehicle error"".

 

[tk21]

Does anyone carry a fire extinguisher? This sort of makes me want to find my in-car one I haven't used for quite some time.

Yes, granted it wouldn’t be useful in this situation as mine is a 2.5gal water can. Would recommend dry-chem or CO2 for electrical fires

 

[Rob O]

I've been charging exclusively at home since getting my truck 3/31. Saw an EA station yesterday and decided to stop in. Fairly well-to-do area, but two of the four chargers were completely down ("network error"), one was blocked, and the 4th wouldn't accept my credit card, and when it finally did it only charged for two minutes before giving a "vehicle error". Two minutes was just enough time to walk into the store and check the app... I nearly dropped my groceries to rush outside, expecting to see the worst (truck in flames, etc.). Fortunately nothing of the sort. Charger just failed at two minutes.

I still got charged for the two minutes, and called to lodge a ticket (for all the good it will do).

I saw the EA video where the CEO travels all the way across the country and was interested to try. Not a good first experience. Think I'll stick to charging at home.

I just returned from driving nearly 3000 miles over 14 days and used EA chargers 75% of the time. The *experience* was a mixed bag … from availability at a given station (working vs not, in use vs open), to output (real versus stated) to the people (charging to 100% at 12kW for no reason, asking me if I’d mind unplugging so they could get on, etc). But EA were easily the most widely available (true) fast chargers on the road, and I never had technical issues. It’s easy to vilify EA, and I was frustrated at times, but we’re in early days with the infrastructure (which is way behind vehicle adoption and battery tech) and it’s a bit of the Wild West out there.

 

[gvtucker]

I just returned from driving nearly 3000 miles over 14 days and used EA chargers 75% of the time. The *experience* was a mixed bag … from availability at a given station (working vs not, in use vs open), to output (real versus stated) to the people (charging to 100% at 12kW for no reason, asking me if I’d mind unplugging so they could get on, etc). But EA were easily the most widely available (true) fast chargers on the road, and I never had technical issues. It’s easy to vilify EA, and I was frustrated at times, but we’re in early days with the infrastructure (which is way behind vehicle adoption and battery tech) and it’s a bit of the Wild West out there.

I had a very similar experience, with a trip of approximately 1000 miles over 3 days. I ran into a broken charger only twice, and never had to wait to charge.

 

[docwhiz]

I had a very similar experience, with a trip of approximately 1000 miles over 3 days. I ran into a broken charger only twice, and never had to wait to charge.

It's telling that this is a "good" experience. Only two broken chargers.
In eight years and many long distance trips, I have never encountered a broken Tesla charger.

 

[SANZC02]

It's telling that this is a "good" experience. Only two broken chargers.
In eight years and many long distance trips, I have never encountered a broken Tesla charger.

Really, you never ran into a broken Tesla charger? Have had a Model S for 7 years, have free Supercharging so stop at them all of the time. I have run into broken connectors, inoperable units, and de-rated power many times.

I will say the Tesla sites are much larger so a down cabinet is usually less impactful and they do get repaired pretty quickly but they do occasionally fail.

 

[docwhiz]

Really, you never ran into a broken Tesla charger? Have had a Model S for 7 years, have free Supercharging so stop at them all of the time. I have run into broken connectors, inoperable units, and de-rated power many times.

I will say the Tesla sites are much larger so a down cabinet is usually less impactful and they do get repaired pretty quickly but they do occasionally fail.

Never ran across a broken/down Tesla charger.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

Really, you never ran into a broken Tesla charger? Have had a Model S for 7 years, have free Supercharging so stop at them all of the time. I have run into broken connectors, inoperable units, and de-rated power many times.

I will say the Tesla sites are much larger so a down cabinet is usually less impactful and they do get repaired pretty quickly but they do occasionally fail.

I had a Model S between 2015 and 2018, and then a Model 3P from 2018 to 2022.

In my experience issues with the chargers were really rare, and crowding was way more of a concern especially towards the end of my Tesla ownership experience due to the sheer number of Tesla's on the road.

When issues with chargers did come up it was usually easily resolved by moving to a different stall and trying again. Sometimes it would be a SW issue where rebooting would sort out the issue.

I think once I ran into an issue where a site was down for maintenance, but it told me that well it advanced so I planned around it.

There was also times where copper thieves would steal the cables or vandals would wreck equipment, and there was a feeling like Tesla didn't have security to help prevent that.

My experience with EA is completely different where its routine to first check the status of the chargers before even deciding which one to park in front of. It's also routine to help a newbie out who is struggling with the payment system where you have to show them how to use the app to activate it instead.

The other issue with EA is they take a really long time to repair their chargers. Sometimes they just scrub the the location from the App so you can't even check on it. This happened awhile ago when some thieves cut every single charging cable at a location.

Some EA locations are so bad that I wish there was a way to block them out from the Rivian Nav app. An example of this is Three Rivers Mall in Kelso, WA (Station 100062) where only 2 out of 4 of the CCS chargers are working and its been that way since Summer of 2022.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Reddit video showing the T on fire, then what's likely the subsequent 12V batteries exploding before the fire dept puts out the flames. Still no real details.

 

[dleewla]

Reddit video showing the T on fire, then what's likely the subsequent 12V batteries exploding before the fire dept puts out the flames. Still no real details.

wowzers...

bless those firefighter putting their lives on the every day.

 

[COdogman]

Yikes. Can’t imagine that burning battery smoke is good for anyone. Glad this doesn’t happen often.

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