Electrify America burns a Rivian down

[docwhiz]

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

Battery didn't catch fire.

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[sdoorex]

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.

Don’t forget the chargers being ICED. I was nearly stranded in Glenwood Springs, CO one time because every stall was blocked by a non-EV of someone staying overnight in the hotel. Ended up backing up onto the sidewalk in order to charge.

Edit: The Supercharger experience is definitely better with plug-and-charge and the integration into navigation is top notch, but I’ve charged at EA almost 100 times in my ID.4 and while it’s not as reliable as Tesla, it’s definitely far from how bad people make it out. In those 100 charges, I’ve only encountered 1 station at which I was unable to charge and that was because of a power outage and there was an alternate EA station 10 miles away that was not impacted. I’ve also never had to wait to charge at EA but have had to wait at Superchargers probably a dozen times, once for over two hours at the only charger for a hundred miles.

 

[Zoidz]

Battery didn't catch fire.

Yes, the primary traction battery assembly did not catch fire. But in the video there are two explosions that appear to be coming from the area of the two 12 volt power system batteries. It's reasonable to guess that could have been the two 12 volt sealed lead acid batteries exploding from heat.

 

[White Shadow]

I just saw this same thread on the Electrify America forums, but the title read, "Rivian burns down Electrify America Charging Station"

 

[Dark-Fx]

I just saw this same thread on the Electrify America forums, but the title read, "Rivian burns down Electrify America Charging Station"

On the pyro forums, "Thoughtless firefighters snuff fire just as things are getting good"

 

[Yellow Buddy]

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.

I haven’t had it 8 years - 7 here. Over 300,000 miles and I’ve come across plenty of broken ones from Tesla. More in the past than recently though.

I think the user population has also become more familiar with how they work and takes better care of them than the EA ones.

That said, I definitely encounter more problems with EA.

The most amusing one was when an Ioniq5 pulled up to plug into the 150kW. I offered to move from the 350kW as my charge rate has dropped below that. We swapped…and somehow it caused both stations to go down. Turns out he worked for EA and he was on assignment to test reliability…oops.

The guy couldn’t figure it out, but he ended up cancelling my charge fees for the day which was nice.

 

[SANZC02]

I haven’t had it 8 years - 7 here. Over 300,000 miles and I’ve come across plenty of broken ones from Tesla. More in the past than recently though.

I think the user population has also become more familiar with how they work and takes better care of them than the EA ones.

That said, I definitely encounter more problems with EA.

The most amusing one was when an Ioniq5 pulled up to plug into the 150kW. I offered to move from the 350kW as my charge rate has dropped below that. We swapped…and somehow it caused both stations to go down. Turns out he worked for EA and he was on assignment to test reliability…oops.

The guy couldn’t figure it out, but he ended up cancelling my charge fees for the day which was nice.

Best part of this story is EA apparently now have people assigned to scoping out reliability. ??

Sounds like your Supercharger experiences aligns well with mine.

 

[VSG]

... just wanted to warn everyone that these trucks will roll catch on fire easier than you’d expect them to.

 

[srnyoung]

...

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.

Funny that's the one you call out...that's my 'home' charger, halfway from home to our property near Mt. St. Helens. Last time we stopped - a couple weeks ago - 3 or 4 were working, for the first time ever. PlugShare says it's back down to just 2 again now.

Wife just stopped in Tukwila and got de-rated power and an error. Again, PS says the whole site is fubar. It's getting better but checking operability on PlugShare remains a requirement for counting on EA at this time.

Regarding this situation, I'm sticking with my notion that something in the Frunk started the fire and the location is coincidental. Speculating based on nothing more than we can all see in the pics and video shared here and on Reddit.

 

[jwardell]

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.

I took that horrible Reddit video and yelled ENHANCE!

First of all, this really reminds me of the angled flamethrower in Contra. I think I agree with comments that might be from brake lines or refrigerant lines going off.
Second, that guy in shorts totally got a better video.
If anyone has any better quality originals I can ENHANCE MORE

 

[Redmond Chad]

I took that horrible Reddit video and yelled ENHANCE!
[...]
If anyone has any better quality originals I can ENHANCE MORE

Correct. Yelling ENHANCE appears to work up to 3 times.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Thanks! I was intending to do this, but figured I'd just swipe a card when I saw the reader. Seemed like it would be faster (in my head, anyway). They put a "temporary hold" on your account for $50 though. ?

Putting a card into the app for next time I feel daring enough to test. ?????????

Yeah I was a little taken back by the 50 dollar charge myself the first time I did it. Second time I used Apple Pay and I don't think it put the hold on my card.

 

[HAL]

If there’s a company (or type of company) that could buy EA and turn it around, who would that be?

EA is owned by Volkswagen America

 

[DuoRivians]

EA is owned by Volkswagen America

Yeah it’s a subsidiary, but subsidiaries are sold off pretty regularly, especially if they’re not core to the business.

 

[milliemc]

Wow! Hope we hear more details about what happened. Gives me 2nd thoughts about leaving someone or dogs in vehicle while charging.

One of us always stays with the car...

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