Don40

I just experienced my first EA fiasco after owning an EV for over a year. The EA station in Naples FL, Walmart has 4 stalls 3-350kw and 1- 150kw stall. The weather was cool for Florida 40 degrees and it seem like battery performance was less than optimum for crossing alligator alley on I-75 so numerous people stopped for a charge. The next closest EA charger was 60 miles to the north which I passed and 58 miles to the south across alligator alley a perfect choke point. The story continues 2 of the 3 - 350 kw charges were down, and the 150 kw charger only worked after going to the porsche app and using station 4, but it was labeled as number 1 on the charger plus plug and charge was not working then the charger timed out after 18 minutes. The 350 kw charger was held up by Chevy volts sucking 52kw and taking over 1 hour to charge. This stop alone added 2 hours to my trip to Fort Lauderdale as I was luckily the 4 person in line. As I waited numerous Fords, Mercedes, Chevy were. in line waiting on a charge. A Tesla even pulled up, but left and I am sure found a Tesla supercharger down the road. EA on the app showed there were 4 chargers working so this fooled numerous drivers including myself on the availability. To make matters worse the other Jewel super charger in the area was down.
Sad to say as more people buy EV the infrastructure has to improve or the growth will slow, car manufacturers cannot expect EA alone to support everyone without a massive change in the numbers of charging stations. Why can’t Ford, GM look for the choke points like this and others in the country and invest in a charging station for a few hundred thousand to make these situations less so. Funny I was warned about Naples, but the app showed 4 working charges with 2 occupied. I met a number of sales people in line saying how bad it is in Naples all the time. Not sure how people in really cold weather deal with the loss of distance and slow charging, would definitely make me think twice about buying an EV up north for long distance driving.

Dr. G7

EA was given the money (dieselgate settlement) to develop the charger network. Develop but not maintain. They took the money and ran. It is good to state your displeasure of the EA network on forums...better yet if you complain directly to Giovanni Palazzo President & CEO of Electrify America, LLC. Someone on these forums can get his direct email and phone number?

Ever seen a gas station owned and operated by Ford or GM?

BTW, I've driven the alligator ally. Even with a 1/2 full tank of gas, this drive can be nerve wracking!

tomhartzell

Agree. The only metric in the contract might have been to establish "x" number of sites, while also maybe stating by "y" date. Quality metrics were non-existent. "Each stall operating at 95+ percent of the time, at 80+ percent of rated maximum capacity" should have been mandatory language.

Dr. G7

Apparently EA is one of leading companies getting our $$ as in the Infrastructure Development billions

sonicworld

This guy rented a Taycan on Turo while traveling and came to regret it very quickly.

Dr. G7

Absolutely true.

I do like the unique pronunciation of "Porsh." And that he was impressed with CarPlay

991carreradriver

The one issue that no one has brought up about non Tesla charging locations is personal security. I recently visited an EA location in Riverhead NY during the afternoon in daylight. I knew the area was a bit sketchy but had no choice - I could not make another location. I was absolutely terrified of being carjacked. Including failed starts, I was there about 35 minutes. In that time, I witnessed what could only have been three drug deals going down 20 feet from me. It was terribly upsetting to my partner who was with me. Unfortunately, this is not a one off, some of these sites are behind big box stores, not well lit and terrifying at night, especially for a female. Last night we were driving back to NYC area from eastern long island. I told her we would have to make a charging stop and she went into a panic. It was dark already and all she could think about was the last experience we had in Riverhead. As it turned out, this location was well lit and had several open stores with folks driving in and out. She said to me that she will only buy an EV when there is no legal alternative. The charging experience has done her in for good. I suspect that is the part of the reason that 1/3 of EV owners don't repurchase an EV.

Dr. G7

Only one charging station (in my cross country trip) was dodgy. Others were well lit malls or Wallyworlds. Tesla (that I’ve seen) are always is secure locations. Biggest challenge was non working, out of service stations.

About the 1/3 non repeat, it means majority (2/3) will repeat purchase EV. Tesla is similarly 70% repeat.
https://www.carpro.com/blog/survey-m...es?hs_amp=true

Drifting

I've never had an issue getting the charger to work or feeling safe at a Tesla charging station. I've never had to wait to charge at a Tesla charger other than in LA.
There is much to love about the Taycan, but I will stick with my modified Tesla model 3 performance (did coilovers, brakes) until the charging network is acceptable for non tesla EVs.

I hope to swap out my M3P for a Cayman EV in a couple of years, but I'm still not encouraged by the non tesla charging options.

Zcd1

We would have liked to drive our new EV to Phoenix this past weekend but weren’t willing to risk chance of an EA misadventure. (drove the Tesla instead)

991carreradriver

Unfortunately, this says it all.

kort677

not to diminish your remarks but there are many tesla supercharger locations that are in very nasty places as well.
I remember the one in mobile AL being in a mall parking lot that had a sign to call security to safely walk the 300 yards to the mall it was in.

there are many gas stations in nasty locations as well so driving an ICE won't always shield you from the nasty world out there.

cometguy

Of course. So I'm wondering why the old automakers who are all now building out their BEV line-ups don't get together in alliance to build out the EA/Chargepoint/etc. infrastructure to better than Tesla's, and have it maintained by having gas-station-like shops/restrooms with attendants full-time. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Working together would lower the cost to individual automakers and help everybody transition, and encourage people to buy their BEVs. Not working together, we get the current situation, which is hard to see improving quickly in the coming years.

whiz944

It is almost as though the legacy automakers don't want their customers to buy EVs. Nor the oil companies, the entire ICE parts supplier industry, all the factory and independent mechanics who've spent their lives working on ICE, the legacy automotive press who are dependent on all of the above to push new ICE cars, etc. EVs are hugely disruptive to the status quo.

Spyerx

Porsche should kiss Elon musks *** and ink an exclusive
Deal for their chargers. Pay whatever he wants.