When charging a Rivian R1S at an Electrify America station in Los Angeles, I got exceedingly slow … [+]
Does this sound familiar: you love your EV but hate charging on the road.
This is an especially exasperating problem for non-Tesla owners. And a daunting challenge for the largest non-Tesla EV charging network in the U.S., Electrify America.
I recently had a conversation with Anthony Lampkin, VP of Operations at Electrify America about the causes and challenges.
As a foreword — and as I explained to Mr. Lampkin — I have been driving EVs for 10 years and have been using Electrify America ever since it installed charging stations near me in Los Angeles in early 2020.
The cause: components
The most persistent and pesky problem is chargers that don’t work — either being completely inoperable or not delivering the charge fast enough.
It’s widely believed that a lack of technicians is the root cause, Lampkin said. But it’s usually a component problem, he said.
“There’s a lot of different components in the system to deliver the power safely,” according to Lampkin.
“Weather affects components. Hot day, cold day. And software trying to navigate the needs of the vehicle versus what the charge is able to deliver and do it in a safe way,” he said.
“A lot of different things are involved in the power and delivery pathway. And not all the time do those things go right.”
EA is now on its fourth generation of chargers and the older chargers — which many charging sites still have — don’t hold up under heavy user loads, Lampkin said.
For example, a problem I was having with a charger at an EA station in Valencia, California (a neighborhood within the town of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County) was due to a component, Lampkin said.
In that case, I was getting slow charging speeds (about 30kW peak) well below what my Chevy Bolt can achieve at peak (about 50 kW) when the battery capacity is low.
And I had the same problem at the same charging station with a Rivian R1S I was driving a few weeks earlier. Instead of getting typical charging speeds of 100kW or above with the Rivian, I was getting only 40kW.
A component in the power cabinet was the culprit, Lampkin said. It was preventing the system from delivering full charging speeds. EA had to send a technician to the site and replace that component.
But I should add that I suspect there was something else going on at the Valencia site in addition to the component problem. At other times, a charger would show a warning on the display stating that it was not able to deliver full charging rates. These messages would come and go and affect more than one charger sometimes.
The larger point is that these kinds of issues can be repeated at multiple EA charging sites across the U.S. every day. Especially as newer EVs, such as Rivian vehicles and the Porsche Taycan, demand much higher charging rates than EVs on the market only a few years ago.
(It should be noted that EV owners — especially those driving an EV for the first time — sometimes blame EA for problems on their end or because they don’t understand how EV charging works. For example, a Chevy Bolt owner may complain to EA that they’re using a “Hyper-Fast” 350kW charger and getting only 50kW. In fact, the Bolt cannot charge at rates higher than about 50kW. This applies to other EVs too that have upper limits on charging rates.)
The challenge: surge in demand
“Utilization increases have been tremendous for us,” Lampkin told me. “We had 5.2 million sessions last year, up from 1.4 million in 2021.”
“There is exceptionally high utilization especially in places like California. And there are things like heat that contribute to premature failures,” he said.
Getting the necessary parts is both the challenge as well as the cause of issues, as described above.
“We…need the parts. If you look at the history of scaling up this new technology in the market. First, you have to get access to the equipment. You have to buy as much as you can as fast as you can and certify. You need to scale it up. You need to make sure you have the technicians available. Then make sure the technicians are all trained.”
“Now we’re at the point that we need to make sure there are enough parts available. And that those parts are properly tested, certified, and available to dispatch in quantities to ensure that we’re keeping the equipment at its optimal level,” he said.
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Omprakash Tiwary is a business writer who delves into the intricacies of the corporate world. With a focus on finance and economic landscape. He offers readers valuable insights into market trends, entrepreneurship, and economic developments.
