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Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

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Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#131

Post by [deleted] »

wara23arish wrote: post #33
helpfulclippy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Last year I literally put a spreadsheet together of every single electric car approved for sale in the US, with columns for every specification I cared about. I expected to find Tesla to be overhyped, just based on the fact that it is run by a relentless hypefiend. But for what I wanted (a hatchback with fast acceleration and decent range, and big enough to accommodate a bike without taking the wheel off), th…

im curious whats your problem with Sony? I’ve generally loved their products ever since using the CD players

[deleted]

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#132

Post by helpfulclippy »

wara23arish wrote: post #33
helpfulclippy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Last year I literally put a spreadsheet together of every single electric car approved for sale in the US, with columns for every specification I cared about. I expected to find Tesla to be overhyped, just based on the fact that it is run by a relentless hypefiend. But for what I wanted (a hatchback with fast acceleration and decent range, and big enough to accommodate a bike without taking the wheel off), th…

im curious whats your problem with Sony? I’ve generally loved their products ever since using the CD players

Rootkit. Copyright lawsuits against individuals. They welched on the warranty for my Sony Vaio laptop and wasted a ton of my time. Someone got me to buy a PS4, and I hate it and find it to be user-hostile. Basically, any time I have some experience with Sony, it is a bad experience. YMMV.

edit: can someone please tell me why ps4s have to do some lengthy time-wasting fsck-like this every time they lose power? Did no one at Sony know what journaling filesystems were?

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#133

Post by gorkish »

The reports are consistent with the EA cabs doing something that are causing the packs to blow their pyrofuses. The only thing that really makes sense is some kind of transient DC overvoltage. The problem with pyrofuses is that they are slow. They will stop some kind of catastrophic event like a battery fire, but they are too slow to prevent damage.

Having seen inside their cabinets, I wouldn't plug into one if you paid me. Building a reliable charging network is apparently only a secondary business goal of Electrify America.

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#134

Post by matthewdgreen »

bhauer wrote: post #120
mrguyorama wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether it's purposeful or not doesn't matter. Right now Electrify America gives EV charging a bad rap. Tesla shows large scale charging networks are economically viable, and really Tesla should be pushing their network open ASAP, as you can sell fast charging at a serious premium and it would literally be free money for a network that currently is underutilized.

If I were a company still on the low side of EV volume (GM, Ford, BMW, Mercedes, etc.), I would be seriously in negotiations with Tesla to adopt NACS and join the Supercharger network, allowing our customers to avoid the debacle of CCS. I consider any manufacturer that isn't making moves in that direction to be demonstrating an unserious attitude toward EVs. CCS is a total shambles in the United States and its headwi…

Musk promised that the Tesla network would be open to other manufacturers by the end of 2022. Nobody really knows what's going on now, and I sure hope that the late-2022 decision to open-source the NACS standard isn't what's holding progress up. Only one of these two standards is going to win: the faster we pick one the quicker we can make progress.

In this case while I prefer NACS myself, I'm worried that convincing a dozen manufacturers to switch standards is going to take much longer than just adding a second CCS connector to (many) Superchargers. Otherwise we could lose years to this, and still wind up with CCS everywhere.

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#135

Post by foepys »

bhauer wrote: post #118
foepys wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VW has repeatedly stated that they aim to stop producing ICEs by 2035. This is very likely to happen considering that the EU wants to ban registrations of ICE powered cars in the same year.

That is twelve years from now. Even assuming they stick to that plan, which I feel is a naive assumption considering how often they've failed to meet EV plans previously, they can easily continue poisoning the EV waters today and for several years to come.

VW has made multi billion Euro (~20 billion until 2027) investments into EV, from a completely new vehicle platform to investing hundreds of millions into battery tech startups. There was even serious talk about buying a cobalt mine which was abandoned when battery tech got rid of cobalt.

Why would they do that if they want to sabotage it? It doesn't make any sense to that to throw it all away later on purpose.

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#136

Post by schiffern »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #126
adamjcook wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is the opposite for what it is worth. I used to own an ID.4 (which was a great car in my opinion, but I recently moved from Dallas to Detroit and, ironically, was able to go car-free in Detroit). I made a round trip from Dallas to Denver without any Electrify America charger issues in 2021 (no waiting times either). I also made a round trip from Dallas to Detroit in September 2022 and I only encountered…

Zero? I'm about as pro-EV as it gets and solar/wind. Charging away from major interstates in the Midwest is very very very iffy if you aren't in a Tesla, and if you ARE in a Tesla it can get iffy if your destination doesn't have a home charger. For US people, a 500 mile car really is where the sweet spot of convenience is becausee: 1) you're not going to charge it all the way up (unless you have LFP chemistry), so kn…

If you really want a power-dense engine, teh two stroke opposed piston opposed cylinder is an interesting option.[0]

As for range-extending trailers, Tesla cofounder J.B. Straubel had it right. The last time I linked to his "pusher trailer" the response was surprisingly close-minded for HN. The reasoning was (paraphrased) "I don't believe it because I don't trust the builder that it works because I don't believe it."[1]

[0] https://idaoffice.org/posts/rebirth-of-opposed-piston-engine...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20747218

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#137

Post by [deleted] »

bhauer wrote: post #123
russfink wrote: post #6

Gas pumps get periodic state issued inspections. Why not EV chargers?

Not to be flippant, but this potentially has not happened because Tesla has demonstrated it's an unnecessary burden to building a reliable charging network. If you build a charging network intelligently (for example, by putting the user interface in the car, not the stalls) and are motivated to keep it functioning, there's no need for a regulatory agency. Customers should be selecting vehicles that don't have to deal…

[deleted]

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#138

Post by creaturemachine »

foxyv wrote: post #75
jeffbee wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The charging stations near me are built with the AC-DC converters in one set of cabinets and the dispensers in separate cabinets. The dispensers don't seem to have any AC power available to fault into the car.

This is purely speculation because we don't have the chargers to tear down. There could be a fault in the transformer, pushing a couple kilovolts AC into the power rectifier and shorting it, then pushing it straight into the dispenser and the car. However, for all we know it's the cars that are shorting themselves and taking 400 volts at full amperage and dying before the dispenser blows a breaker. I wouldn't be surp…

No need for speculation, it's all here in the sales brochure. https://new.abb.com/ev-charging/high-power-charging Fun fact, getting 350 kW into your Lucid requires pulling from two rectifier cabinets.

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#139

Post by [deleted] »

option wrote: post #35
tapoxi wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a pretty poor safety record with regard to Autopilot/FSD, not to mention way too many controls are behind a tablet interface that you should not look at while driving. It also implies I'm endorsing Musk and I'd be embarrassed to drive it. I'd much rather take the pain of CCS with the hope that the infrastructure bill smooths things out or grants supercharger access to CCS vehicles.

Their safety record and ratings are actually one of the industry’s best. If you consider a car, please do your own research on this - check out actual ratings agencies reports, not news sites. Regarding Musk - this is a weird argument. Are you endorsing oil industry then, if you are buying gas car? Or China if you are buying Polestar/Volvo ev? etc.

[deleted]

Re: Electrify America “fries” EVs at charging stations

#140

Post by dsfyu404ed »

jackmott42 wrote: post #81
option wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their safety record and ratings are actually one of the industry’s best. If you consider a car, please do your own research on this - check out actual ratings agencies reports, not news sites. Regarding Musk - this is a weird argument. Are you endorsing oil industry then, if you are buying gas car? Or China if you are buying Polestar/Volvo ev? etc.

The crash test results are good, that is distinct from overall safety though. Tesla's own marketing along these lines usually ignores important confounding factors. Like that their cars are relatively new and expensive compared to the average of all cars.

>marketing along these lines usually ignores important confounding factors. Like that their cars are relatively new and expensive compared to the average of all cars.

To be fair, Volvo plays the same tune and HN is happy to take it at face value.

At the very least we should strive for consistency...

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