Just picked up my Bolt a couple days ago. I hadn't planned to need charging stations due to short commute. But, wind and cold took more charge then expected. I pulled up to a charging station in the town I was in and had no idea what i was doing! I realized after watching your video I didn't hear a "click". Lol. Thank you for the thorough video!
One addendum I wish I included in the video: if you're getting a stall error the broadest, simplest, most likely to work troubleshooting tip is to quit the Electrify America app (different processes on iOS and Android, but open your app switcher and swipe up if in doubt) and re-open. Frustrating but sometimes this works.
You have no idea how your video just saved me today, I'm visiting Orlando en rented an EV when have never use one before, and could not find how to recharge it in a city I know nothing about, thx dude!!
If first-time viewers want to know how CHAdeMO & CCS connectors look like, please pause the video at 1:01. You can then compare it with the port on your EV. Edit: The stall has the pictures of both connectors in blue & green respectively.
Thank you so very much. This video was extremely helpful before attempting my first charge today. I knew exactly what to do, listen for, etc. great great video. Thanks.
I think the reason they have you do it this way is that if you plug in first, the charger may time out while you are faffing about with the app trying to find the correct cabinet. Doing it the other way around eliminates that possibility.
I've had an electric Audi for a little over six months. I taken a few long road trips. I first watched this video after getting the car. At this point, I'd have to say that Electrify America is still falling behind pretty bad on maintenance...maybe even trending downward over my short experience. It must be very difficult to become profitable with an EV charging network. So for now, I'd encourage folks to use the chargers when they can to help the company remain viable and hopefully improve as time rolls along. Still is is very frustrating to have inoperative and down rated chargers at so many locations.
We have found that when you call the EA phone # no one answers. Also, we’re planning a road trip with our EQE SUV. So we set the car at 100%, only for the road trip. EA repeatedly would not initiate the charge. We changed to other charging stalls, again the same. It would ONLY initiate charging when the car was set at 80%. Using EA is FRUSTRATING in the populated foothills North East of Sacramento. What should take 35 minutes, has been taking 2 hours. 😔
Sir, I want to thank you for not talking extra slow for the damn idiots who aren't bright enough to understand normal speech patterns. And whom apparently like to complain a lot. We the intelligent and capable salute you.
I addrees the issuse about missing charge points in Utah and how route planners suck. I took video of my very road trip with my 2018 Bolt I would a love a critique of things I could have done better by you or your viewers ruclips.net/video/N-kKLUHGvhc/видео.html Max you are so helpful. thank you.
Have not been able to charge with the EA app for 3 weeks. Thinks I'm still plugged in at a station in CA.. App says my charging session is 515 hours and counting. Multiple calls and tickets submitted. EAs been saying they're working on it...
I've never had an issue initiating a session at a working EA station. I do need to do a bit of dance with my e-Golf because it seems it likes to be locked once the CCS plug is inserted into the car, but this dance is required for any DCFC.
Its no wonder Analog has become popular again... A couple of comments, really appreciate your start to finish explanation. I didnt however see which charge type you selected DC 350 ? or other ? the color was hard to identify on the hose - I think thats the identifyer. No one seems to ever define the acronyms used. And is 150 kw and 350 kw "per Hour " how does that translate to charging time if we have a max 300 mile capacity ? I hope I dont have to pull out my slide-rule. thanks for your video
Does the Electrify America app automatically recognize your 30min free charging session? how do you do that through their app? if it doesn't recognize it'll just charge you as a regular customer.
You’ll have to link your premium offer from your participating car brand in the Electrify America app under the account tab. These instructions can be found on their website. Then when you start a charger with the app you’ll have the complementary 30 minute session or whatever your promo offers. www.electrifyamerica.com/premiumoffers/
I have never once gotten the Electrify America app to work for my Bolt EUV. I have $20 in my account, but when I swipe to start charging it comes back almost instantly (ie no time given to plug in) with the message "Charge Error We are unable to start your charge. Please check that you are at the correct charger and your vehicle is plugged in." This happens regardless of whether I'm plugged in first or not. Happens on any station (I moved my car so many times I lost count). Happens at different locations. I called the help line one time, and after 40+ minutes of circular troubleshooting, they have not been able to fix the problem. Made a ticket on the app. Contacted them through Twitter. They respond politely, but the problem is never fixed. Point being, I *highly* recommend using any network other than EA. I've had great luck with EVgo, particularly with Autocharge enabled. But do not rely on EA working if you're on a road trip.
I assume you have deleted the app once or a couple times and then added the app back on and still this same issue? Also try deleting the app, do a phone reboot and then add the app back on and see if that helps?
I’m having the exact same problem. I have no charge at all now and am going to need a tow because the chargers near where I was were EA chargers. Has me thinking something is wrong with my car since this is literally the first time I’m charging since I bought it.
Talking with another Electrify America Charger at the Station, he said just use your Debit Card to easily pay for EV Charging. That way there's no Official Account setup process. He was afraid about Identity Theft. Maybe you could Post a video about this method? Was there any way to use an RFID card for Electrify America. My Cell phone doesn't have the NFC Tapping Feature used in their App to pay. Thank you.
Question: I got a complimentary 1000kwh charge on Electrify America but don’t know how to use it at the electrify stations, can anyone provide the steps for that? Would it be all in the app?
You are incorrect for EA Cali, NorCal and l.a.county Level 2. 2:41 won't let me photo this. Glendale Cali L-2 charge. You are very cute but wrong, must be Tahoe. Besides CP(Chargepoint, blink and their new branding sema connect. Nice lighting in vid though.
step 1. pray to your higher power of preference that there is an open stall step 2. keep praying that when you pull over, the info in the app is correct (app says charger 01 available when is not) step 3. pray more that once you plug your car, the handshake is successful and start charging. step 4. at this point either you turned into a monk or nun step 5. FRUSTRATION KICKS IN! when you realize the service is sub par, your car is capable of higher charging speeds but you are stuck at 90 kw at a 150 kw station. step 6. Feeling of defeat when you realize electrify america or evgone DO NOT CARE about us, they just want the sweet government money
It’s something we can cover in future videos for those who use them. We want to cover the basics for the vast majority of cars. Tesla’s will almost universally want to charge at their own stations or EVgo. Adapters will be covered in this channel later.
A little constructive criticism. Slow down, slow down. Slow down your here to teach. Not to speed through the explanation. Otherwise a very good tutorial
You can slow down ant RUclips video that you watch . Or speed up That's what I love about RUclips.. go to top of screen/ pick round wheel or whatever the icon is.. change speed from there
You are basically paying for the convenience of charging when you are on the road. The big DC chargers themselves can be as much as 500k$ a piece, so you are never going to pay the same rate as you pay at home. I charge at home >90% of the time, so the rate charged at EA isn't a big deal for me since I use these things so rarely.
Not quite. (Most) DC fast chargers have a very different grid connection to the utility company when compared to your power at home. To deliver such high rates, they pay a premium on the power as billed by the utility company. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but most DC fast chargers lose money and I'd expect rates to increase in the future. This is in addition to the fixed cost of the hardware and maintenance. It's an expensive setup given utility pricing schema, hardware, land rights etc. All that said, this is the reason so many folks are suggesting charging at home. Relying on DC fast charging as a primary means to charge your vehicle is not economical, nor does it best utilize the limited infrastructure available.
@@zachsloan7322 Understood. I have a plug-in hybrid that I mostly only charge at home, but on a trip recently I tried out some public charging to see what the experience was like. I ended up paying more per mile to charge than it would have cost to get the same amount of miles from gasoline and it felt pretty darn stupid. And this was with a level 2 charger - not DC fast charging. I would expect to pay a premium for DC fast charging but level 2? Meh. If electrification is going to catch on, we need to figure out how to make this make sense for people. Honestly, I think the best solution is plug-in hybrid and level 1 charging at home and at work. Minimal investment but huge benefit. I bet that would eliminate 80-95% of gasoline use for most people and the change in driving and fueling habits/routines is only positive. But the principle of diminishing returns is really strong when it comes to transitioning to electric - the last 10-20% is painful.
@@DennisKapatos Sounds like we're on the same page. I'm surprised you had to pay for level 2. Most are free or at least competitive with market rates for electricity. Selling level 2 charging at any sort of significant markup is predatory.
One tip that may help - within RUclips, in the lower right hand of the video you'll see a gear icon. Click that, then playback speed, then 0.75 (or similar). This may distort the audio a bit, but ensures that you get the information you need, at the rate that works best for you. Closed captions may also help as many folks take in information more effectively visually.
I hate these guys. We own to EVs ( Ford Mach-e and Id.4). Now that we have the Ford Tesla adapter we will stop using EA. EA is more expensive and usually has less than 75% of pedestals working.
Great video and super helpful for those who may be charging there for the first time!
Just picked up my Bolt a couple days ago. I hadn't planned to need charging stations due to short commute. But, wind and cold took more charge then expected. I pulled up to a charging station in the town I was in and had no idea what i was doing! I realized after watching your video I didn't hear a "click". Lol. Thank you for the thorough video!
One addendum I wish I included in the video: if you're getting a stall error the broadest, simplest, most likely to work troubleshooting tip is to quit the Electrify America app (different processes on iOS and Android, but open your app switcher and swipe up if in doubt) and re-open. Frustrating but sometimes this works.
You have no idea how your video just saved me today, I'm visiting Orlando en rented an EV when have never use one before, and could not find how to recharge it in a city I know nothing about, thx dude!!
If first-time viewers want to know how CHAdeMO & CCS connectors look like, please pause the video at 1:01. You can then compare it with the port on your EV.
Edit: The stall has the pictures of both connectors in blue & green respectively.
Great video! Learned what I needed to know before pulling into a charging station.
Thank you so very much. This video was extremely helpful before attempting my first charge today. I knew exactly what to do, listen for, etc.
great great video. Thanks.
Thanks Max. Useful info for a EV newbie.
Interesting that you swipe first in the app to start it and then the plug-in. I plug-in and then swiping the app. So both methods appear to work.
I think the reason they have you do it this way is that if you plug in first, the charger may time out while you are faffing about with the app trying to find the correct cabinet. Doing it the other way around eliminates that possibility.
@@JackRussell021 yup exactly
I have that app open already. So never had that happen but makes sense. Just good to know either works. Thanks.
Wait……..you actually found an EA charger that works ??? Amazing !
I've had an electric Audi for a little over six months. I taken a few long road trips. I first watched this video after getting the car. At this point, I'd have to say that Electrify America is still falling behind pretty bad on maintenance...maybe even trending downward over my short experience. It must be very difficult to become profitable with an EV charging network. So for now, I'd encourage folks to use the chargers when they can to help the company remain viable and hopefully improve as time rolls along. Still is is very frustrating to have inoperative and down rated chargers at so many locations.
Thank you for explaining how it works in the States.
We have found that when you call the EA phone # no one answers. Also, we’re planning a road trip with our EQE SUV. So we set the car at 100%, only for the road trip. EA repeatedly would not initiate the charge. We changed to other charging stalls, again the same. It would ONLY initiate charging when the car was set at 80%. Using EA is FRUSTRATING in the populated foothills North East of Sacramento. What should take 35 minutes, has been taking 2 hours. 😔
Sir, I want to thank you for not talking extra slow for the damn idiots who aren't bright enough to understand normal speech patterns. And whom apparently like to complain a lot.
We the intelligent and capable salute you.
Great intro video!
Great! Thanks! The 150 KW chargers are normally cheaper than the 350 kw cars that can't take advantage of the faster speeds.
Super helpful!!!
I don’t know if the app changed but it now asks you to load at least $10 to your account. I don’t even know if it is good so I abandoned the workflow.
Nice job, Max!
Thanks for this tutorial!
So helpful . THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I addrees the issuse about missing charge points in Utah and how route planners suck. I took video of my very road trip with my 2018 Bolt I would a love a critique of things I could have done better by you or your viewers ruclips.net/video/N-kKLUHGvhc/видео.html Max you are so helpful. thank you.
Have not been able to charge with the EA app for 3 weeks. Thinks I'm still plugged in at a station in CA.. App says my charging session is 515 hours and counting. Multiple calls and tickets submitted. EAs been saying they're working on it...
Thank you! Your video was very helpful.
I've never had an issue initiating a session at a working EA station. I do need to do a bit of dance with my e-Golf because it seems it likes to be locked once the CCS plug is inserted into the car, but this dance is required for any DCFC.
Its no wonder Analog has become popular again... A couple of comments, really appreciate your start to finish explanation. I didnt however see which charge type you selected DC 350 ? or other ? the color was hard to identify on the hose - I think thats the identifyer. No one seems to ever define the acronyms used. And is 150 kw and 350 kw "per Hour " how does that translate to charging time if we have a max 300 mile capacity ? I hope I dont have to pull out my slide-rule. thanks for your video
Does the Electrify America app automatically recognize your 30min free charging session? how do you do that through their app? if it doesn't recognize it'll just charge you as a regular customer.
You’ll have to link your premium offer from your participating car brand in the Electrify America app under the account tab. These instructions can be found on their website. Then when you start a charger with the app you’ll have the complementary 30 minute session or whatever your promo offers.
www.electrifyamerica.com/premiumoffers/
Valuable video!
That was helpful
I have never once gotten the Electrify America app to work for my Bolt EUV. I have $20 in my account, but when I swipe to start charging it comes back almost instantly (ie no time given to plug in) with the message "Charge Error We are unable to start your charge. Please check that you are at the correct charger and your vehicle is plugged in." This happens regardless of whether I'm plugged in first or not. Happens on any station (I moved my car so many times I lost count). Happens at different locations. I called the help line one time, and after 40+ minutes of circular troubleshooting, they have not been able to fix the problem. Made a ticket on the app. Contacted them through Twitter. They respond politely, but the problem is never fixed.
Point being, I *highly* recommend using any network other than EA. I've had great luck with EVgo, particularly with Autocharge enabled. But do not rely on EA working if you're on a road trip.
Electrify America is pretty unreliable unfortunately. The two empty chargers at this location were down.
I assume you have deleted the app once or a couple times and then added the app back on and still this same issue? Also try deleting the app, do a phone reboot and then add the app back on and see if that helps?
@@bingerschannel6724 yep tried all that, no luck
I’m having the exact same problem. I have no charge at all now and am going to need a tow because the chargers near where I was were EA chargers. Has me thinking something is wrong with my car since this is literally the first time I’m charging since I bought it.
EA does occasionally have L2 AC charging, but it is rare.
in Oregon i am not using a plan and pay 56 cents per kw. if i get the plan, its $7 a month, and not sure what the kw rate is
Talking with another Electrify America Charger at the Station, he said just use your Debit Card to easily pay for EV Charging. That way there's no Official Account setup process. He was afraid about Identity Theft. Maybe you could Post a video about this method? Was there any way to use an RFID card for Electrify America. My Cell phone doesn't have the NFC Tapping Feature used in their App to pay. Thank you.
Is it really worth it even if you only use it once? I read somewhere that once you hit 50 mins, only then does the pass become worth it.
How long does it take to charge?
EA says two cables are to accommodate cars with charge ports at different places on the car body.
Interesting. I'm sure they hadn't redundancy in mind as well.
Question: I got a complimentary 1000kwh charge on Electrify America but don’t know how to use it at the electrify stations, can anyone provide the steps for that? Would it be all in the app?
You are incorrect for EA Cali, NorCal and l.a.county Level 2. 2:41 won't let me photo this. Glendale Cali L-2 charge. You are very cute but wrong, must be Tahoe. Besides CP(Chargepoint, blink and their new branding sema connect. Nice lighting in vid though.
Bolt with fake exhaust pipes is hilarious
Do you make a new Out of Spec channel for every single video? How many channels do you have? Can they not be all one channel?
step 1. pray to your higher power of preference that there is an open stall
step 2. keep praying that when you pull over, the info in the app is correct (app says charger 01 available when is not)
step 3. pray more that once you plug your car, the handshake is successful and start charging.
step 4. at this point either you turned into a monk or nun
step 5. FRUSTRATION KICKS IN! when you realize the service is sub par, your car is capable of higher charging speeds but you are stuck at 90 kw at a 150 kw station.
step 6. Feeling of defeat when you realize electrify america or evgone DO NOT CARE about us, they just want the sweet government money
How do you avoid getting charged 50 bucks
Why did you skip Adapters in the first few minutes?
- Adapters for CCS to Tesla, ccs to j1772 adapter
It’s something we can cover in future videos for those who use them. We want to cover the basics for the vast majority of cars. Tesla’s will almost universally want to charge at their own stations or EVgo. Adapters will be covered in this channel later.
2 minutes in and i realize why we have two Tesla's.
Funny fake exhaust pipes on Bolt EV. It needs some carbon deposits, too, on the bumper.
I deleted the catalytic converter, the buildup is unimaginable. I cleaned it all off for this video
It’s 7 a month now
This is about to go out of business because of tesla
Yup 😂 with their non Tesla charging for electric cars 😂 they’re expanding!
How do you use the app without signing up for some stupid pass with monthly payments. This is utter stupidity that Electrify America is doing!!!
It takes 13 minutes to explain this? Why is it more convoluted than paying at a revolting gas station?
A little constructive criticism. Slow down, slow down. Slow down your here to teach. Not to speed through the explanation. Otherwise a very good tutorial
You can slow down ant RUclips video that you watch
. Or speed up
That's what I love about RUclips.. go to top of screen/ pick round wheel or whatever the icon is.. change speed from there
Wow 4x makeup on the price of electricity. Ridiculous. I hope this comes down as the price and robustness of this charge equipment improves.
You are basically paying for the convenience of charging when you are on the road. The big DC chargers themselves can be as much as 500k$ a piece, so you are never going to pay the same rate as you pay at home. I charge at home >90% of the time, so the rate charged at EA isn't a big deal for me since I use these things so rarely.
Not quite. (Most) DC fast chargers have a very different grid connection to the utility company when compared to your power at home. To deliver such high rates, they pay a premium on the power as billed by the utility company. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but most DC fast chargers lose money and I'd expect rates to increase in the future. This is in addition to the fixed cost of the hardware and maintenance. It's an expensive setup given utility pricing schema, hardware, land rights etc.
All that said, this is the reason so many folks are suggesting charging at home. Relying on DC fast charging as a primary means to charge your vehicle is not economical, nor does it best utilize the limited infrastructure available.
@@zachsloan7322 Understood. I have a plug-in hybrid that I mostly only charge at home, but on a trip recently I tried out some public charging to see what the experience was like. I ended up paying more per mile to charge than it would have cost to get the same amount of miles from gasoline and it felt pretty darn stupid. And this was with a level 2 charger - not DC fast charging. I would expect to pay a premium for DC fast charging but level 2? Meh. If electrification is going to catch on, we need to figure out how to make this make sense for people. Honestly, I think the best solution is plug-in hybrid and level 1 charging at home and at work. Minimal investment but huge benefit. I bet that would eliminate 80-95% of gasoline use for most people and the change in driving and fueling habits/routines is only positive. But the principle of diminishing returns is really strong when it comes to transitioning to electric - the last 10-20% is painful.
@@DennisKapatos Sounds like we're on the same page. I'm surprised you had to pay for level 2. Most are free or at least competitive with market rates for electricity. Selling level 2 charging at any sort of significant markup is predatory.
You were down to 7% ? Boy oh boy.
Please speak a little slower. Some of your viewers are older and more time to unperstand what you are saying.
Will keep in mind, thanks for the feedback!
One tip that may help - within RUclips, in the lower right hand of the video you'll see a gear icon. Click that, then playback speed, then 0.75 (or similar). This may distort the audio a bit, but ensures that you get the information you need, at the rate that works best for you. Closed captions may also help as many folks take in information more effectively visually.
Just not where u charge.
It's just way easier to pull into a gas station and quicker
Your app sucks. Says check card info... it's correct 🤷♂️
Gotta love the fact that Tesla chargers have no screen.
I hate these guys. We own to EVs ( Ford Mach-e and Id.4). Now that we have the Ford Tesla adapter we will stop using EA. EA is more expensive and usually has less than 75% of pedestals working.
Inferior in every way compared to Tesla 😂
Useless commentary