electromotive
Well-known member
It appears that Drive The ARC is no longer offering free charging.
https://drivethearc.com/drivethearc-app-faqs/ seems to say it's over. Look under Commercial Phase.DaveinOlyWA said:How did you determine this?
and, I can't believe this error.... Ugh. :roll:What's the reason to end free EV charging campaign?
This is a demonstration experiment, and one of the purpose is to verify the feasibility of EV charging service which covers moving between cities. We've just started variable discount service to do it.
Is the pricing different between 50 kWh and 100 kWh chargers?
No. The pricing is same even if charger output is different.
cwerdna said:https://drivethearc.com/drivethearc-app-faqs/ seems to say it's over. Look under Commercial Phase.DaveinOlyWA said:How did you determine this?
and, I can't believe this error.... Ugh. :roll:What's the reason to end free EV charging campaign?
This is a demonstration experiment, and one of the purpose is to verify the feasibility of EV charging service which covers moving between cities. We've just started variable discount service to do it.
Is the pricing different between 50 kWh and 100 kWh chargers?
No. The pricing is same even if charger output is different.
I used another DTA location w/my Bolt last night sorta on the way home from an excursion.cwerdna said:One annoying part is that normally, I receive credit 15 minutes after the charge. I only got credit on my 2nd session ($4.20). The other one ($13.50), I didn't receive credit for. I verified that for sure I had a 100% promo ticket for that 45 minute session. I ended up calling DTA support to report it. Hope they properly credit me in the end. Otherwise, I'll be pretty pissed as that $13.50 only got my 18.85 kWh since I started at above 55% and let it keep going until I hit my 45 minute session limit.
Also, I've found that once Bolt gets somewhere past ~90% SoC, charging rate slows to about 11 kW.
...
update: Re: credit, I guess my call to DrivetheARC support did some good. I received my $13.50 credit many hours later, at 3 am. Yay!
cwerdna said:I used another DTA location w/my Bolt last night sorta on the way home from an excursion.cwerdna said:One annoying part is that normally, I receive credit 15 minutes after the charge. I only got credit on my 2nd session ($4.20). The other one ($13.50), I didn't receive credit for. I verified that for sure I had a 100% promo ticket for that 45 minute session. I ended up calling DTA support to report it. Hope they properly credit me in the end. Otherwise, I'll be pretty pissed as that $13.50 only got my 18.85 kWh since I started at above 55% and let it keep going until I hit my 45 minute session limit.
Also, I've found that once Bolt gets somewhere past ~90% SoC, charging rate slows to about 11 kW.
...
update: Re: credit, I guess my call to DrivetheARC support did some good. I received my $13.50 credit many hours later, at 3 am. Yay!
The particular BTC Power charging was taller and had a similar handle and cable to the heavier ones that Electrify America has. Unfortunately, even though my handle got locked to the car (you can hear the actuator), my sessions would stop about 1 to 3 minutes in. There was sort of a hint on Plugshare check-ins so I parked sideways so that the cable didn't need to reach that far. Didn't help. Still had a stoppage.
Finally, I was able to sort of support the cable via one of the vertical posts and that helped. I had 45 minute + another 20 minute session w/o issue.
Unfortunately, I hit the credit issue again. One session ($13.50) I received no credit for. This time, I pinged EVgo via their web site's support form. They didn't get the right session in the reply so I had to reply again w/more info and they finally credited me.
For the CCS fanboys/anti-CHAdeMO people who keep wanting CHAdeMO to go away, please take a look at https://www.torquenews.com/8861/chevrolet-bolt-ev-and-spark-ev-charging-port-issues-and-corrections. The Spark EV issue is known but I haven't followed closely. The problems w/the heavier cables and handles + needing to lift so that the handshake can complete and the handle can get locked to the car are also known, but not every knows about that as evidenced by fairly common complaints about EA (charger "didn't work") on Bolt FB groups. People echo needing to lift/support the handle to start a session + the usual use the app, not a credit card many many times. Often the reply is "oh, I didn't know about that". (Obviously the app vs. credit card reader issue is EA specific and nothing to do w/CCS.)
And yes, I did that, as well. I had no problem starting the session nor with it locking to the car. It would just stop 1 to 3 minutes with charging "finished" and no indication anywhere as to why (e.g. error).
At least CHAdeMO has an some more evolution time and doesn't have this sort of issue, AFAIK whereas CCS cars have been shipping in the US since early 2014 (https://insideevs.com/news/320873/chevrolet-presents-dc-fast-charging-for-2014-spark-ev-w-video/) and we still have problems or new ones (e.g. heavy liquid cooled cables).
And, to top it off, on CCS, the locking mechanism is on the car side and can lead to problems like https://www.audiworld.com/forums/audi-e-tron-232/locked-charge-port-door-solution-another-terrible-holiday-trip-failure-audi-ea-2984096/. (Remember that Electrify America, what that guy used is a wholly-owned subsidiary of VW of America. VW owns Audi, the company.)
I don't see any details yet. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.DRIVEtheARC charging stations will start congestion pricing at each of our 26 locations at our 55 fast charging stations on Sep/3/2020. Please see the details at https://drivethearc.com/.
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