You tube frozen let it go sing along9/27/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() The problem? Both Electrify America and EVgo are notorious for lousy, broken, and frustrating charger stations.Ĭut to an exhausted and overworked Electrify America engineer waving a near empty whiskey bottle around while screaming at their laptop screen: Members also avoid dealing with the finicky credit card readers that are the biggest failure point on these machines instead you just pay via a Smartphone app or RFID card. ![]() (There are billions of Federal and state subsidy dollars oiling the e-infrastructure pump, so to say, greatly encouraging these fast charging network build-outs.) With each network you can pay by credit card for your juice or join the network as a paid member for a few bucks a month and pay less per charge. There are also regional charging networks and energy companies like Shell and convenience store empires like Sheetz and Circle K are also jumping into the fast charging game. Clearly it’s 0 and 2 for the branding consultants on those two monikers. Outside the Tesla club, the lead everybody-else network is called “Electrify America.” The runner up network is called “EVgo”. The hitch is the ghost of a sneering Elon floating over the whole Tesla thing which is a heavy psychic tax I am loath to pay. The Tesla fast-charging network is - irritatingly - near flawless it’s everywhere and almost always works. Dated I know so you kids think Playstation vs Nintendo. Still, in order to make all this even more complicated, these fast charging networks are divided into two technical camps: one network only for Teslas (called NACS, sorry) and another, more hodgepodge collection of fast charging networks serving everybody else (Kia/Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, GM, VW, etc) with a charging standard they all share called CCS. Most EVs will happily (and fully) charge from a Level 2 unit overnight in a garage or driveway. The next step up the amperage ladder is a “Level 2” charger. Sure you can plug it into a wall outlet like a toaster, but even after a few hours you’ll barely get around the block a few times. So what’s the problem? To explain I have to dive into the geeky electro-geopolitics of electric car fast charging in North America. I wanted this to be a fun trip, not Hell on aerodynamic low resistance EV wheels. ![]() To them, the rules were clear: trustworthy cars run on gas dammit, not magic! This isn’t… Europe!!!įor all my bluster, I did have a bit of range anxiety lurking around in my head. Range anxiety is what the industry calls it, and their market surveys find it is a big hurdle in the mass acceptance of EVs by the American consumer.Īfter listening to the kind concerns of my friends, I try to explain about fast charging stations, blah, blah as their eyes glazed over. You turn it on, it works for a bit then dims, then fades, surely leaving you stranded on the roadside: easy prey to roving bands of wild gypsies and dangerous highwaymen. Same drill every time: first, a polite frozen smile, then a beat of thinking along the lines of “how do I tell this idiot he is insane” which would morph into a sweetly concerned question “OK, but, um, what about recharging?” Most normal people my age - outside EV hotbeds like California - think electric cars are crazy hippy mobiles that run out of power quickly, like an old, unreliable flashlight fished out of the family toolbox. I might has well have told them I was planning to head west in a Conestoga wagon. Of course, the whole drive an EV across the county caper stuck my friends in New Hampshire as complete insanity. ![]()
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