EV Charger Wars!!! Tesla, Electrify America, EVGo, ChargePoint, and Shell Recharge! Who will win???

[@davidroddini1512]

Shell recharge seems to be based on the hardware of the charger station itself. The BTC units tend to be very reliable while the BTE ones are less so.

[@BensEcoAdvntr]

100% agreement with your scoring based on my experience with the Bolt all over Maryland, Michigan, and Ohio. ChargePoint is great for me with my limited DCFC speed, anything >55 kW is lost on me. Good news out in the last day is it sounds like VW is seriously considering NACS.

[@theaverageev]

I was hoping they’d announce today, but maybe next week!

[@barryw9473]

Just charged my e-Golf at Tesla Supercharger. Volvo will be providing an adapter next year for my wife's XC40 Recharge. I have complained so many times to EVgo about fake 200 kW stations limited to 200 amps. Once, a customer service rep offered to call maintenance to investigate. Doh! We just took a road trip in XC40 Recharge from SF Bay Area to San Diego and back, and mostly used EA. We used one 350 kW EVgo and car pulled 150 kW. Perfect 150 kW charging at other 5 EA sites except for last one on the way home where site had 2/6 dead stations and could only get 100 kW (instead of 150 kW). Also had to wait 10 minutes once since site was full, but all stations worked. We also used hotel overnight L2 (free) which made life easy.

[@theaverageev]

Thanks for sharing!

[@coopie810]

back in 2021 i tried a 'shell recharge' which was "greenlots" back then and before loading the app, i tried to use the credit card reader which would not work. called and they "reset" the software with no change. So i loaded the app with payment set up and that worked. The next odd thing that happened was after several minutes of charging it dropped the session. Restarted fine, but cut off again after several minutes. Finally got a long session by propping the cable for strain relief to keep tension off connection. --That was with my 2020 Bolt. Which worked fine on an EVGo at Virginia Beach.

[@tkmedia3866]

In the early days of DC charging (2011) there was only one DC charger in the US in California. Drove from a bit south of San Francisco to sacramento daily for work in a imev. Charged in between in vacaville. The unit was a TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power company) unit. It was under a solar canopy and there was a Sonic nearby and had food and ice cream sometime. There was also L2 chargers as backup with J1773 GM Magne Charge, J1772 in the French Avcon and the current round Japanese Yazaki connector. Across the street was a Tesla charger made by Clipper Creek for Roadster charging.

[@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis]

Is it still there?

[@tkmedia3866]

@@JohnGeorgeBauerBuisthat old dc site is still there but as of last year no longer works. Nobody wants to fix it. The old format AC chargers all got converted to the current round j1772. Within 5 miles there is 3 EVgo sites, a EA, 2 chargepoint and 2 Tesla sites.

[@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis]

@@tkmedia3866 thanks for the update!

[@johnpoldo8817]

In US, we have Chargers Anxiety, not range anxiety. Of course, there is zero Tesla anxiety.

[@theaverageev]

It's complicated in the US. EV drivers that aren't Tesla have charging anxiety, but potential EV drivers have range anxiety. Once, people start driving EVs they realize range is not as big of a concern. Total agree Tesla drivers 99.9% have a flawless experience, save for the occasional queue.

[@rikdeere]

I would have to agree that Electrify America is a big let down. Here in the North Houston area, I have been to the the EA station about a dozen times in the past couple months, and have only been able to successfully charge twice. One of those times was registered on the app, and the other was an unlimited free charge at 25kw, due to issues at the station. I've called multiple times to EA and they tell me there are open tickets in process. I would be very concerned using EA on a cross-country trip - totally unreliable. That said, I have the GrizzliE level 2 charger that delivers 10kw in my garage, and do 98% of my charging there. As a side note, the most reliable level 2 public chargers in my area are the free Volta chargers (also by Shell) at the malls. The three years of free charging at EA from Volkswagon is a serious disappointment.

[@theaverageev]

I drove through Houston in April and the EA chargers were a total disaster. That really stinks!

[@barryw9473]

Not a big fan of low power DCFCs. They should all provide at least 150 kW (for 400 V nominal packs), in my opinion, for any station near a highway. I suppose 50 kW is ok when it is in front of a supermarket.

[@theaverageev]

Totally agree! Charging speeds should match dwell time. Anything along major travel corridors must be 350 amps (aka 150kW chargers) or faster!!!

[@ArielBatista]

I am a fan of Elon and Tesla. But you are missing a huge difference. Right now the US Tesla network is for the most part a closed system. Made from over 10 years of research and development. But it's not all peaches and cream. Their stalls are not setup for other cars. And it's going to take some doing to make all work. V3 are the fast ones most of the current ones are V2, which are 150kw shared. Chargepoint is not a network on its own. It sells the hardware and software to others and in many cases is not well kept. We need to wait a bit to see what happens when we all are able to get on the Tesla chargers, in mass. Thanks for the videos.

[@markfitzpatrick6692]

Yes I agree. He keeps making complaining videos about charging. I think if he can’t take it trade for a Tesla 3 or y. You want last the 2 years or ever that I will take to get access. Or get a Mach e if you dont want a Tesla. In the spring of 2024 you can get a adapter for it and. In your mind you will be in heaven on the supercharger network. Right now you are beating a dead horse with your same videos.

[@TheRealJuseBeats]

Elon is dope what you mean? And he is for free speech. He is taking no Ls so far.

[@theaverageev]

Haha