On a recent trip to the Central Coast from the Bay Area with my
Chevy BOLT, my experience with the DC Fast Chargers was really
bad. Let's be clear: I had to charge my car to make it
to my destination. In total on the round trip, I attempted to
use 7 different plugs at EV stations along my route. My first
charge, in Salinas was fine. It charged my car as
requested. The next 6 experiences were awful. I had to
call the customer service number to get help. Sometimes they
were unable to start the station or reboot it and they just told me
to move to another plug! Other times it took about 1/2 hour
to get the charger to work. I would not call that 'fast
charging'. In total 1 of 7 stations worked properly, without
intervention of customer service. That is 14% . Any
teacher will tell you that a grade of 14% is far below
failing.
Chargers have to work smoothly and reliably. People will
give up their EV's if they find that the chargers don't work the
first time, every time. Like their experience at the gas
station.
You all must ensure that there are standards and that EVSE
companies can't just put anything up that is not really fully
functional. So my request to you is : Set standards for
reliability and enforce them!
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