Rossde

My last trip from SF Bay area to SoCal on I-5 was a year ago. This trip we stopped three times to charge heading to Palm Springs and two times heading home.
at Firebaugh- two chargers were "updating" and the rest were full so there was 15-30 minutes of waiting for chargers to become available. There was good speed for the ones that were working.
Lost Hills - 6 chargers but we could not get speed up past 75 or 80 - so chargers took longer
Burbank: no problem at that charger set although it seemed all were being used.
Palm Springs- got free charging for some reason.
Countryside market on Enos road- only 2 of 4 were working but got free charging. A bank of 10 tesla chargers across the parking lot were mostly empty.
Firebaugh- all six stalls filled up quickly and one person was waiting. Got speed of 150 there.

All in all, these are being used much more often now, so its higher demand now and many chargers were out of service. Lots of new cars there including mustangs and rivian trucks. People i spoke to are waiting for Teslas to open up to non tesla users. I do worry that the cord there will have trouble reaching because etron's have their port near the car doors.

Art234

We drove down to Washington, DC over the weekend from NY. The nav had us stop just outside Wilmington, DE to charge-Electrify America had 6 chargers outside a WaWa about a mile from I-95. When we got there ALL were in use--only 1 was not working.
They were ALL 350 kW units and none appeared to have the CHaDEMO connectors (there are probably only 8 cars which use them any more). The good news was someone was finishing up within 10 minutes of our arrival, and the charger took my etron from 29% to 100% in only 38 minutes. The not so good news is that while each charger had two connectors, you can only use one at a time.......

On the way back today, we stopped in Lawrenceville NJ to find ALL the EA chargers were down for maintenance. In a panic we went to Audi of Princeton, who were kind enough to let us charge for a short while (less than 20kW charge rate). We then drove to a QuikChek on US 1 in North Brunswick, which had 2 EvGo 200kW chargers, both occupied, but one freed up in another few minutes. This one would only charge at 80kW though, and I called EvGo and let them know.

So the OP is right, charging stations are MUCH busier of late, and there are nowhere near enough of them yet!!!

Bill33525

In the same parking lot @QuakerBridge Mall EVgo has several chargers as well. EA is notorious for taking whole sites off line. It's a good idea to monitor sites on your drive through their app to make sure sites are available.

Art234

This was the EA at Quaker Bridge Mall. There was no mention of them being down on their app. A service truck had just arrived and the whole complex was down.
This is the weak spot in the EV world. Until there are enough reliable chargers and technology allows charging in 10 minutes or less EV's will never be able to take over from ICE's.

WetEV

I agree with the "Enough" and "Reliable" chargers. Both are key.

10 minute charge? 20 minutes I agree with you, but we are basically there now.

Gas pumps basically require you stay there until it's done, which is acceptable as it is fast. Charging stations should give you the freedom to do something else while the car is charging, as long as you are back soon after charging is complete. Lower power stations should allow longer planned chargers at a lower charging rate and a lower cost per kWh. So a planned hour stop is plug and go do what you want for an hour. AC overnight charging should be the cheapest.

coldrain85

There are no longer enough charging stations on I-5 between Tracy and the Enos Shell which is technically Bakersfield. There are enough locations, but the number of charging stations is inadequate and then some, especially as you approach the Grapevine from the north. I mentioned some concerns about this route in thread that I started a few weeks ago. I live near Sacramento and have family in Carlsbad so I drive that route at least three times per year. The next trip is planned for the week leading up to Xmas and I plan to avoid I-5 through the central valley. I don't like driving on Hwy 99, but I also don't want to be put in a situation where I have to wait more than a few minutes for a charger to become available. If the chargers along I-5 are all being used you have no choice but to wait because there are no other options that are nearby. Over the next year, public charging is going to become a nightmare at busier locations if it isn't already. There is a big push by the Gov to increase the availability of public charging, but it's not happening fast enough to make up for the increased number of EV's that are on the road.

GL921

i stopped by the EA near my office this morning to charge up while i grabbed a coffee inside target. normally at that hour, the station is pretty empty. today all the spots were taken. one guy left and then rolled down his window to tell me that charger was broken. i pulled up anyway and the screen didn't say anything other than "complimentary session", so i tried plugging and initializing and nothing happened. then when another person left, i took that spot and although the charger was working, it was only giving 35kw instead of 150. so i just grabbed my coffee and left after 10 minutes.

i looked at the EA app and it does NOT say that Charger #2 is broken. just shows "available". it is going to be extremely frustrating when drivers who really rely on these chargers and app information arrive only to find them inoperable with no warning. a lot of patience and "Plan B" routing will be needed as the stations get busier.

coldrain85

The EA app is not reliable at all. It doesn't accurately report information about non-working chargers. It also doesn't accurately report current usage. I used the app before I went to the EA station at the Stanford Mall once. It said that all of the chargers were available and working normally, but when I got there 2 or 3 minutes later they were all full and the majority of them were only pulling 40-85kW. One of them didn't work at all.

aabbccbb

Was this during the weeks of complementary free charging sessions? If so, I'm not sure if it is fair to penalize EA during their upgrade period. I've only done one road trip and I found the status of the three stations I stopped at to be accurate.

Art234

The issue of EA chargers pulling 35kW is a known issue, has to do with the charger's cooling system. Those units need new cables. When we finally got to charge, we had good results. The etron kept charging at or above 80 kw all the way to 97%..then it throttled back to around 55 before it read full. Not bad.