This Is the Biggest Problem With EV Adoption | WSJ

Los Angeles County has more public DC fast chargers for EVs than any other city in the U.S. The majority of non-Tesla electric vehicles have a CCS port that works at these charging stations as well. The problem?

WSJ’s Joanna Stern hit up 30 EV charging locations in a Rivian R1T and found that 40% of them were broken. Here’s what’s being done to fix the EV charging mess.

Chapters:
0:00 Testing EV chargers in Los Angeles
1:52 Three main problems with the chargers
4:26 Why so many chargers are broken
6:10 The future of EV charging
7:36 What I learned

Tech Things With Joanna Stern
Everything is now a tech thing. In creative and humorous videos, WSJ senior personal tech columnist Joanna Stern explains and reviews the products, services and trends that are changing our world.

#EV #Tech #WSJ

[VG-ornu]

Renting an electric car and having to download the 30 apps was one of the most insufferable experiences ever I’ve been through

[Paul-ourx]

Imagine how upset you would be if regular gas pumps failed this often. But there are usually a few choices of stations within a few blocks of each other.

[JackGirard]

The payment issues are the most baffling. I've seen maybe one broken card reader on a gas pump in the past 5 years.

[NickiStaff]

As someone who personally have drove from Atlanta, Georgia to Los Angeles, California in a Chevrolet bolt EV, I completely agree with all of the points that she said in this video, they are all valid, all across the United States 😢😢😢

[cmw]

27% out of order is amazing. Only 10% having payment issues seemed miraculous until I saw that having to download a different app for every charger wasn't seen as an issue. When trying to use non-Tesla chargers the amount of different apps needed was the biggest pain of all, with every locality seeming to have a different provider.

[willie]

The real question is why are broken chargers not promptly fixed. I know of specific chargers that have not been repaired for months.

[williammark]

This was one of the main reasons I went with a Tesla. I didn’t even bother looking at other options and wouldn’t until this mess is resolved.

[CSHarvey]

Fun part of CCS is that the large connector and cable weight causes leverage that pulls the communication pins apart during the handshake. If the connection clip is loose enough and you dont hold the plug in the socket during the handshake, the plug weight can actually cause it to pull just far enough off the pins to sever the connection and disrupt the handshake. Excellent industrial design!

[pittsee]

I’ve never seen a video telling me “if you want an EV get Tesla” so much 😂👍🏼

[garydmercer]

I will not buy a vehicle with a CCS charging port. Terrible. Only Tesla NAC super chargers are decent. I will only buy an EV with the NAC adapter already installed. Most car manufacturers and adopting the NAC charging standard. That is the way to go.

[EmmanuelHernandez-yzwy]

Tesla owner for 4 years here. Never not once have I ever run into an issue with a Tesla Supercharger not working when I show up. Can't imagine what its like for people dealing with this issue.

[therolando]

The grocery store I go to has had only 1 of 4 Chargepoint Chargers operational for almost a year now. It is insane. I and other users have filled several maintenance requests for them and nothing has gotten done.

[MattHirsch]

They didn't even discuss the problem of derated chargers, where you plug in and it charges much slower than it should.

[awdgsx]

This is why I decided to opt for a Tesla. I really wanted to jump into the new i4 but logistics when taking long road trips to northern california to visit family forced me to go with Telsa and their superior Superchargers. On our recent road trip up north to saw us making a charge stop at a popular exit (Harris Ranch). There was about 6-7 non Tesla chargers with only 5 working and a line of 14 cars waiting to charge!!! That's insane!! Never seen that before. So I could totally see why the EV adoption will take a long time to happen. There was about 80++ Tesla Superchargers at the location.

[franknew]

This was a great video. I did learn from this video that I will be keeping my ICE car for a long, long time. It would've been interesting to know how much added range Joanna got on the Rivian, how much it cost, and how long it took.
I recently saw a similar video where a guy wanted to charge a Rivian in LA and between waiting for an available charger and finding one that worked, it took over an hour to get about 250 miles of range, and it cost $60. I understand these public charging rates in California are extremely high.
I just drove 815 miles from Florida to Maryland in my Lincoln Town Car, getting 25.7 miles per gallon. On my trip, from one gas station to the next one, I drove 342 miles and cost $45 to fill the gas tank in about five minutes. I made the trip in one day, taking about 14 hours due to heavy traffic in some areas. If I was driving an EV, with the extra time charging and trying to find a working and available charger, it probably would have meant staying overnight at a hotel, adding at least $100 to the trip.
I definitely won't be buying an EV anytime soon.

[valramos]

Would have been interesting to see Joanna’s heart rate at these chargers to see which one was the most frustrating.

[bsaxman]

Being a Tesla owner, I've never experienced any of the frustrations demonstrated in this video in any of my long distance trips (I charge at home for local driving). It's easy to see why most car companies have announced deals with Tesla to gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network.

[blusox]

Quick answer is that most charging companies don't regularly maintain their chargers. I don't know if this is because they are not connected so the company does not know if they are working or not. Some big charging companies are now buying Tesla charging hardware, so hopefully they also adopt the Tesla maintenance model.

Like may hear are saying, if you use a Tesla and it's charger network then you hardy have any issues.

[francisbayona]

Such a great video about the realities of EV ownership, especially if you’re an apartment dweller in LA with no dedicated home charging in the parking garage

[alterdavidj]

6 year Tesla owner here. I've never experienced broken Tesla Super Charger. I'm hoping with almost every EV manufacturer adopting NACS and getting access to the Super Charger network starting in 2024 that other EV owners can have the same amazing experience as Tesla owners. I love Tesla but support the adoption of electric transportation even more.