Help with charging on Road trips Electrify america and EVGo

[MrPharmer2012]

I went on my first long trip about 245 miles Saturday and had trouble charging, the first Electrify America station had one working charger that the truck routed me to, I re-rerouted to a second charger about 10 miles away all four chargers did not work, I then went to an EVGO near a Walmart and it said charge fault I tried calling the service phone numbers on electrify america device was on a never ending hold, I called the ford dealer ship I bought it from they were not helpful gave me a number that was unavailable so I pulled up my tesla app and found a destination charger and used my 80 amp adapter to charger , can someone point me to a thread or list of phone numbers or maybe a way in the ford pass app on blue oval network were I can see if a charger is functional, I have owned tesla since end of 2016 and on here it gives option to see how many in use etc or out of order, hopefully ford has this option somewhere and i am just overlooking it , but this trip became very frustrating very quickly and i am driving my Model S this week till I figure this out for more rides in the f150

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[invertedspear]

Plugshare is just about the most reliable app. Look at the charger, and check the comments from recent check-ins. You'll often see that the EA app will tell you that 3/4 chargers are available, but plugshare comments will tell you that those 3 chargers are non-functional.

 

[Zprime29]

The CCS ecosystem of DCFC is not reliable. We all pretty much use PlugShare to determine the status of a charge site. EA app is supposed to let you know how many are in use but it isn't reliable. I've had it show a station is available but the station doesn't communicate so it won't charge.

Since none of the CCS companies want to cooperate, there's no integrated software in the truck. Gotta plan ahead.

 

[hturnerfamily]

there currently is no 'for sure' way to know until you arrive... not the best way to 'travel' with EVs, for sure.
Yes, you CANNOT rely on the FordPassApp or even ElectrifyAmerica's own app, to know for sure if all, some, or none of their units are operational...

some may 'look' like they are, and yet, they are not
some may look 'dead', and yet your FordPassApp will still active them

if you are relying on apps to guide you to chargers, you'll find, with experience, which ones to 'trust'... plug share tends to be an easy app for us EV owners to post to, as my FordPassApp has NEVER allowed me to post any feedback, even though it has the place for it, but it will never upload.

I just had a similar situation this weekend, with a 'sketchy' set of DC Fast Chargers in a rural, coastal, Florida area, on the way back from the beach. FordPassApp only showed Level 2 chargers at this location, Google Maps showed NOTHING at this location, and only PLUG SHARE actually showed the two DC Fast Chargers. The plug share reviews, though, gave me pause. Few actually were ever successful in using either, those that did left little to chew on, and most said that they units were either non-operational, or they could not get either to 'activate'.
When I arrived, I chose the 'newer' looking of the two units, as they were not the same provider/manufacturer, and my trust was more in the left unit... but, several swipes of my credit card were unsuccessful. The unit is maybe a 'green lots', or maybe now operated by 'shell recharge', but nothing offered any 'app' to activate it, it seemed mostly for card swipes. I then noticed that it provided for 'tap' of cards, although on a different pad. That worked, and the unit immediately activated and came to life and gave me a much better feeling now that I knew I had some 'fast' charging... although only at 41kwh... slow by other standards, but fast compared to level 2 next door at only 7kwh.
I posted on Plug Share my success, and the hazards of the parking area(not great for an EV truck while towing a camper), and some feedback for others contemplating these units.
Interestingly, just down the road is a brand new installation of Superchargers. When we finally have our CCS to NACS adapters, this will be another good option in an otherwise rural area for fast charging.

these are the very 'reliability' issues that we have lauded for CCS vehicle for years... Chargepoint may be more 'reliable', at least in an operational sense, but you'll also find that they are not nearly as fast as EA, and sometimes they are single, or double units, only, and not as easily maneuverable into/out of. They tend to be, though, the most widely used chargers for DEALERS, and other smaller entities, like Utility providers, EMCs, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, Dothan Utilities, etc., who host these.

 

[MrPharmer2012]

there currently is no 'for sure' way to know until you arrive... not the best way to 'travel' with EVs, for sure.
Yes, you CANNOT rely on the FordPassApp or even ElectrifyAmerica's own app, to know for sure if all, some, or none of their units are operational...

some may 'look' like they are, and yet, they are not
some may look 'dead', and yet your FordPassApp will still active them

if you are relying on apps to guide you to chargers, you'll find, with experience, which ones to 'trust'... plug share tends to be an easy app for us EV owners to post to, as my FordPassApp has NEVER allowed me to post any feedback, even though it has the place for it, but it will never upload.

I just had a similar situation this weekend, with a 'sketchy' set of DC Fast Chargers in a rural, coastal, Florida area, on the way back from the beach. FordPassApp only showed Level 2 chargers at this location, Google Maps showed NOTHING at this location, and only PLUG SHARE actually showed the two DC Fast Chargers. The plug share reviews, though, gave me pause. Few actually were ever successful in using either, those that did left little to chew on, and most said that they units were either non-operational, or they could not get either to 'activate'.
When I arrived, I chose the 'newer' looking of the two units, as they were not the same provider/manufacturer, and my trust was more in the left unit... but, several swipes of my credit card were unsuccessful. The unit is maybe a 'green lots', or maybe now operated by 'shell recharge', but nothing offered any 'app' to activate it, it seemed mostly for card swipes. I then noticed that it provided for 'tap' of cards, although on a different pad. That worked, and the unit immediately activated and came to life and gave me a much better feeling now that I knew I had some 'fast' charging... although only at 41kwh... slow by other standards, but fast compared to level 2 next door at only 7kwh.
I posted on Plug Share my success, and the hazards of the parking area(not great for an EV truck while towing a camper), and some feedback for others contemplating these units.
Interestingly, just down the road is a brand new installation of Superchargers. When we finally have our CCS to NACS adapters, this will be another good option in an otherwise rural area for fast charging.

these are the very 'reliability' issues that we have lauded for CCS vehicle for years... Chargepoint may be more 'reliable', at least in an operational sense, but you'll also find that they are not nearly as fast as EA, and sometimes they are single, or double units, only, and not as easily maneuverable into/out of. They tend to be, though, the most widely used chargers for DEALERS, and other smaller entities, like Utility providers, EMCs, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, Dothan Utilities, etc., who host these.

This whole experience has been less than ideal compared to my teslas, starting to think made a mistake, I looked at fords site etc at all the chargers they said were available and thought okay wont be too bad with the abundance on the map but so far not looking good, Next trip will be to LA this upcoming weekend from San Diego hopefully I can find reliable charging there.

 

[G-Zeus]

THIS is the major barrier to widespread adoption beyond us initial early adopters. Hoping the access to the Tesla network will eliminate these issues, and force a competitive pressure for the other companies to seriously upgrade their reliability and consistent high speeds. I’m still unclear how we will park to access a super charger with the cables not being long enough - I’m not interested in being “that guy” that has to block a couple of spaces to slide in sideways, or otherwise wait for one of the end stations to open up.

 

[Zprime29]

For the locations that are mostly empty anyways, it won't be a big deal. I plan on doing that and if someone asks me to move due to everything getting full then I'll move.

 

[hturnerfamily]

Yes, since Tesla built-out their own charging for their own cars, it makes sense that they have a better experience with charging... let's hope that this translates to us CCS vehicles in the near future... having access to NACS at Superchargers will be nice, and may come in handy, and may give us less range anxiety as well as many more possible charging locations.... it's all good, but it's not yet perfect.

 

[Txxthie]

Yes, since Tesla built-out their own charging for their own cars, it makes sense that they have a better experience with charging... let's hope that this translates to us CCS vehicles in the near future... having access to NACS at Superchargers will be nice, and may come in handy, and may give us less range anxiety as well as many more possible charging locations.... it's all good, but it's not yet perfect.

It will come in handy and will quell range anxiety. It’s not range anxiety but charger anxiety with CCS. I would also consider Tesla’s network almost perfect, I will deal with short cables vs no charger or broken charger.

The Tesla Supercharger design and reliability is far better irregardless of what vehicle plugs into it. Tesla’s connector is superior, the charger is simplified requiring only 1 app and no screen bs or card reader. The charger installation process is also much quicker and cheaper. At this point there is an overwhelming clear winner in DCFC and the government should just give the contract to Tesla.

Ford had no choice but to go with Tesla if they wanted to sell EVs that could travel outside their stated range reliably. The CCS network is not reliable, and most installations have only 4-6 chargers (EA) which is not enough.

If I was selling Lightnings, the upcoming Tesla network availability and wireless Apple CarPlay (No Silverado or CT) would be my top bullet points

 

[GoodSam]

Waiting for pull through type DCFC every 25 miles before any trailer trips...10 years?

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