Live Updates: What happens when we drive a broken Porsche across the country?

Sine_Qua_Non said:

My question is why are so many of the charging stations broken? Is it because of the people using it is abusing it, don't know how to use it properly, the quality of materials used to make the charging stations or is someone get paid to "break" them to slow down the rise of EV's in order to get people to stick with ICE vehicles? If it is a combination of these then it would indicate that it is not really ready for public use yet with the growing numbers. 

I'm not sure, but I know they don't have to be: Tesla's Supercharger network is more or less identical hardware (well, it's different hardware, but does the same thing. Sort of like how a Corolla and a Civic are identical). And they're incredibly reliable. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a single broken Supercharger. A friend with a Tesla said "I've seen one charger broken, and occasionally I think I must have dreamed it because the rest are so reliable."

Assuming Ford follows through on their promises, I'll be able to charge at Superchargers next year. That will be a game changer.

Thanks for the great report , 

if you bought the EV in Washington and drove it back to Florida do you think you would had  more problems out in the middle of no where ?

And how many times did you shift the Porsche into 5th gear.....oops !

My suspicion on why EAmericas charges are broken:  A lack of Electricians

Keeping sabotage out of my answer but this is high juice, kill you, kind of electric work. Could be that independent contractors in each market are choosing to do less risky work.  It could be that the work underpays compared to market rates.

It's possible that EAmerica has real employee electricians.  If so, could be one guy covering a whole lot of geography. Overnight travel might also add to high employee turn over. 

Interesting read

Glad you both had a good trip

John Welsh said:

My suspicion on why EAmericas charges are broken:  A lack of Electricians

 

Keeping sabotage out of my answer but this is high juice, kill you, kind of electric work. Could be that independent contractors in each market are choosing to do less risky work.  It could be that the work underpays compared to market rates.

It's possible that EAmerica has real employee electricians.  If so, could be one guy covering a whole lot of geography. Overnight travel might also add to high employee turn over. 

My theory is that EA makes far more money taking subsidies to build new charging stations than it does actually selling power, so they don't bother maintaining the ones that are built. Broken charger? Who cares! We're building more stations and cashing checks!

This seems to be true for all the non-Tesla chargers. Tesla, who built the network to service their car customers, have much more motivation to keep the chargers functioning and they're not getting the federal subsidies (with some small exceptions). Plus they're vertically integrated and build/support their own hardware, which has to make things easier. I know they do software updates to them regularly, which is something that EA can't do as easily.

EA and co poisoned their own well. It was their unreliability that tipped the scales to the very rapid adoption of the Tesla network, and Ford made no secret of that when they announced it.

Tom, I'm curious on your reasoning for buying the Lightning. Decided to avoid all the gasoline you might have put in the Maverick (once it finally arrived)? Wanted to put the charger from the Leaf back into use? Don't get me wrong, the Lightnings are good vehicles. It's just that they only fit certain use cases. I'm curious how you plan on using yours.

-Sean

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

My next car will likely be a hybrid and get all the long trips. My wife wants an electric car when the time comes to replace her 2006 xB. It took her 16 years to get to 100K miles, so it could be several more years before it's replaced though.

The rate of change in EV's is astonishing.   Newest thing out of Europe is charge while driving. 
     No contact charging.   
  I have a electric tooth brush that charges without contact, some phone chargers work without contact.  So the process is well understood. 
   As a result EV's will be lighter in the future  without the need for long range batteries.   Just enough range to get to freeways and high trafficked  roads. 50-100 miles?   
     Tesla just released their 26th update ( happens automatically when charging).   It has 14 improvements.  Among them is now your headlights turn on automatically when the windshield  wipers are on. Etc.  
        

Electric cars will work fine for me. Even the lowest range ones have more range than my bladder.

ShawneeCreek said:

Tom, I'm curious on your reasoning for buying the Lightning. Decided to avoid all the gasoline you might have put in the Maverick (once it finally arrived)? Wanted to put the charger from the Leaf back into use? Don't get me wrong, the Lightnings are good vehicles. It's just that they only fit certain use cases. I'm curious how you plan on using yours.

-Sean

That's a good question! And one I'd be interested in too!  My belief is there are plenty of racetracks within the range of a Lightening towing a garage.  
   Once the Ford can charge at Tesla superchargers and 15 minutes can add so much range ( another 65-75 miles of towing?)  even more tracks will become reachable.  

In reply to John Welsh :

My suspicion on why EAmericas charges are broken:  A lack of Electricians

Keeping sabotage out of my answer but this is high juice, kill you, kind of electric work. Could be that independent contractors in each market are choosing to do less risky work.  It could be that the work underpays compared to market rates.

It's possible that EAmerica has real employee electricians.  If so, could be one guy covering a whole lot of geography. Overnight travel might also add to high employee turn over. 
 

It's not the electricians. The electricians install the charging stations, which for them is simple work. They don't usually repair them in the field, rather they replace them with new or refurbished units when they are damaged. They may replace the connectors, if field replaceable. But most of the issues involve the software. Either between the car and the charger, or with the activation and payment method. The problem is that there are many different layers of software written by various parties that need to integrate with each other. Tesla doesn't have this problem with their network because they control the process for start to finish. They also cared that the end user had a good experience. To put it bluntly, Electrify America didn't give a berkeley about the end user. Electrify America was conceived as a punishment for Volkswagen for Diesel Gate. They just wanted to check the boxes. Many of the other subsidized stations fall into the same category. The end result isn't the main priority, checking boxes and collecting the funding is #1. 

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

It is a shame that funding is not tied to, say, having a certain percentage of fully functioning units within any X mile radius.  Say 90-95%, because things do break after all.

This may be a downside of Tesla's precedent.  "Theirs work all the time, how hard could it be once they are installed?"

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

They are starting to do that, but it's area by area, usually around the 95% range. But the problem is that they can't agree on the metric of what signifies functional. The station itself might be functional, but if it doesn't communicate well with your particular car, or if the payment method is up and running but doesn't work for you, you get no charge from a charger considered functional. Or you can get something in between like the slow charge rate. Technically functional, and might work just fine for the next guy in a different car. Lots of finger pointing, less desire for a solution. It appears the automakers are more inclined to find a solution, hence Ford's talks with Tesla. 

ShawneeCreek said:

Tom, I'm curious on your reasoning for buying the Lightning. Decided to avoid all the gasoline you might have put in the Maverick (once it finally arrived)? Wanted to put the charger from the Leaf back into use? Don't get me wrong, the Lightnings are good vehicles. It's just that they only fit certain use cases. I'm curious how you plan on using yours.

-Sean

A few factors added up to this decision.

I really, really missed driving an EV. I can't overstate how wonderful it is to walk outside to a full tank every morning. And I enjoy the game/math/etc of doing long trips in them. Every time I've had an EV press car, I've spent the whole time going "wow this is awesome." Plus what's not fun about a 3.8 second 0-60.

My F-250 now has more than 200,000 miles and is 23 years old. It's still a great truck, but I was ready for something newer with more creature comforts.

I got really, really tired of putting nearly $100 of gas into my truck seemingly every time I went anywhere. And the range (250-300 miles, 200 towing) was nothing special.

I shopped gas F-150s, and realized a lightly used one with the options I wanted was $50,000.

And, lastly, I spent a week with a Lightning press car and fell in love with it.

So here's my goal: This truck will be my daily driver, and will tow to the FIRM (80 miles away) a few times per month. That's the bulk of my current towing mileage and fuel expense. It'll tow to Sebring, Roebling, etc. a few times per year with some charging stops. And once or twice per year when I race further away, I'll borrow a gas truck, rent a 3/4 ton from Enterprise, or hope for vastly improved charging infrastructure.

It's not a perfect truck for all situations. But I think it will work fairly well for mine. We'll see! 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

That all makes perfect sense. Enjoy that truck. I'm sure it will bring you many smiles per mile. I like that ruby red color on it.

Also, good luck with the Porsche repairs.

californiamilleghia said:

And how many times did you shift the Porsche into 5th gear.....oops !

I think Tom did it twice (the first time on purpose just to see what would happen) and I don't think I did at all, but I did embarrassingly stall the thing on a hill while leaving my Whataburger stop on the final day, which makes us about even.

Tom Suddard said:

ShawneeCreek said:

Tom, I'm curious on your reasoning for buying the Lightning. Decided to avoid all the gasoline you might have put in the Maverick (once it finally arrived)? Wanted to put the charger from the Leaf back into use? Don't get me wrong, the Lightnings are good vehicles. It's just that they only fit certain use cases. I'm curious how you plan on using yours.

-Sean

A few factors added up to this decision.

I really, really missed driving an EV. I can't overstate how wonderful it is to walk outside to a full tank every morning. And I enjoy the game/math/etc of doing long trips in them. Every time I've had an EV press car, I've spent the whole time going "wow this is awesome." Plus what's not fun about a 3.8 second 0-60.

My F-250 now has more than 200,000 miles and is 23 years old. It's still a great truck, but I was ready for something newer with more creature comforts.

I got really, really tired of putting nearly $100 of gas into my truck seemingly every time I went anywhere. And the range (250-300 miles, 200 towing) was nothing special.

I shopped gas F-150s, and realized a lightly used one with the options I wanted was $50,000.

And, lastly, I spent a week with a Lightning press car and fell in love with it.

So here's my goal: This truck will be my daily driver, and will tow to the FIRM (80 miles away) a few times per month. That's the bulk of my current towing mileage and fuel expense. It'll tow to Sebring, Roebling, etc. a few times per year with some charging stops. And once or twice per year when I race further away, I'll borrow a gas truck, rent a 3/4 ton from Enterprise, or hope for vastly improved charging infrastructure.

It's not a perfect truck for all situations. But I think it will work fairly well for mine. We'll see! 

How is the Ford Tesla deal going to work?  Can you just buy an adaptor  and charge your Ford at Tesla superchargers?   Or does something else need to happen first?  
 ps ; I too really love the color of that truck.   

So, did ya'll pull the transaxle out of the Cayman yet? 

In reply to John Welsh :

Electricians are in short supply period.  They are rapidly approaching what doctors make with less liability.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to John Welsh :

Electricians are in short supply period.  They are rapidly approaching what doctors make with less liability.

Less liability, training usually paid for by employer (no school debt), can start making salary immediately....

Tom Suddard said:

It's dinner time!

after taking a road trip recently in our F150 (2010 gas model though, boo) and having at least one more scheduled this summer, I can confirm the center console is a functional table. In fact, I considered building something out of plywood that would sit there and either clip in or be a bit more stationary and have a little lip all the way around so silverware (erm, well actually just the mayo-knife) wouldn't slip off the sides. 

Oh yeah, the center console table is awesome:

I haven't pulled the Cayman's transmission yet--should be out next month, but have a few projects ahead of it. 

Checking back for Cayman update. 

In the words of Ted Knight (Judge Elihu Smails_)      in Caddy Shack

WELL