Adventures in EV land day 1: Dealer gave me car with 50 miles ‘in th tank’ waited 30 mins for EA charger, wouldn’t work via app, spent another 20 mins with tech support who was very helpful and got it to work. Now says 1.5hrs to go from 15% to 80 at 40kw. Are all these EA stations just total dumpster fires???
Missing ICE already…
EA chargers in SoCal are very hit or miss, but your chances of a hit are higher than other places in the country. You aren’t charging at full speed (the etron should be able to accept 270 kW) which is why it’s saying 1.5 hours when it should take maybe 30 mins to go from 5% to 80%.
EVs are best charged at home. Pull into the garage, plug it in, wake up to have a “full” tank and go about your day.
They are hit or miss everywhere.
EA is an embarrassment. NACS couldn’t come any quicker.
exactly why the cheap lease for a Q8 still isnt making me sign.
What do you consider cheap? Just curious.
How did you negotiate this? I was looking at one for $79,130 and the best my dealer is coming in at is $988 p mo with $3k down for 42 months at 7500 miles p year
Combination of right place/right time and aggressive dealer. You prob need to look elsewhere and cast wider net.
After this session you have the ability to charge at home or work, right?
Lol, don’t have charger or even 220 yet. So 110 at home or EA until I figure out the home charging situation. At least Audi gave cables for both. Talk about an impulse buy!
Meanwhile, still here charging. 90 mins in (not including wait time and troubleshooting). Never thought I’d miss a gas station.
That’s insane
It’s the station / charger though
At EA I have been spending 30 mins max one time each week and get close to a full charge
A charger was only doing 5kws one time but I moved to another and it was fine.
I have an EA in my town so I just head over twice a week, grab a coffee, and take a call while it’s charging.
I have a much better experience than OP, used the EA chargers in 5 states now in the Midwest and although some don’t work, there’s almost always one available that works and I get decent charging speeds. From 20-80 I’d estimate 25-30 mins. Im usually charging from 15-95% and even that takes about 45 mins.
I do that to skip a stop during my road trips.
So far 7000 miles and about half of them are on fast charging. Have a home charger I use seldomly as I have free at work charging.
I’ve heard EA horror stories. IMO if you have an EV you need a 220 charger at home or else you will hate life.
@Tkilgour There are brokers on here who are offering $599/mo plus tax with 4k DAS for a 36/7.5k Q8 etron lease in socal. You don’t have to look far for an 8% off deal… it’s the 10-11% off that you gotta dig around for.
This is a $83k Premium Plus. The $599/mo are the cheaper models with less features. We looked at a Q7 couple of years ago, and the regular Premium didn’t even have ACC.
Edit: And he saved on the brokers fee. Also, I have a Hyundai Ionic 5 with free EA charging. On the super EA station by my house with 10 chargers - only one is 350kw, others are 150kw or 50kw. 3 are always broken at any given time. The rest are occupied with a bunch of cars waiting around. No real line, just a bunch of angry, anxious people determined not to let anyone cut in front of them, although there is no visible line anywhere. I thought this was just the weekend, but it’s all the time. I found a secret one by my house with only 4 chargers where only 1 or 2 are always broken at any given time. But if there are more than one car charging, you don’t get 150kw. I was getting 150kw. Then an ID4 plugged in, and then I was suddenly getting 90kw. Fun times.
EA station was just shit show! 3 chargers supposedly rated at 150 yet all 3 charged
at different speeds (I had middle one at 40ish). Lots of people waiting (mostly EQS) and in no particular order, one guy parked right in front of me blocking traffic and I let him know there were two people ahead of him and he still tried to snake my spot!
Felt bad charging for 90mins but charger was just slow and needed the juice! Is there some sort of protocol/courtesy one should follow when it comes to queuing and how long one should spend at the charger?
At 90 mins wait time, I’d pay for an alternative. That’s 1.5 hrs, saving 20-30 bucks. I’m not sure that’s worth it unless I had nothing going on and was watching Netflix in the car.
Totally agree but when dealer gave me the car with no juice was kind of screwed and was morbidly curious about the whole EA process.
Any good suggestions for home chargers? Prob still a week or two project to get charger and find an electrician. Just read in fine print to get LADWP charger/install rebate, need to pull permit and get an inspection. Not sure if permit is even required and if it’s worth the headache and delay.
PS, no Netflix in the Audi, screen is just too small!
considering other ICE mid sized SUVs, the Q8 is cheap. Brokers pricing it lower than an SQ5 in most cases.
On my Phone.
Or make a call.
Sometimes being stuck for 30-45 mins at a charger is relaxing. Watch tv, make a call, etc. a break from the daily hustle
I guess that’s the modern day version of meditation. Plug in and tune out.