[SkykingUSA]

I finally charged my car at an EA DC fast charger today, and thought I would share the experience. The short story is that everything went perfectly. I couldn't be happier with the experience.

Here's the longer story. It was around 11:30 a.m. on a Sunday, and I dropped my wife off at her sister's house and had about 2 hours to kill. I figured I would try to DC fast charge, mostly to make sure it worked on the car and to make sure the free EA charging was also working. I had tried to do this once before during my time off work, and all three charging stations I went to were full with waiting lines, so I left because I didn't want to wait around.

After dropping my wife off, I pressed the charge button on the nav screen in the car and it came up with a long list of charging locations. I scrolled through them until I found an EA station and selected it and the nav system guided me directly to the charge point. I was in the San Fernando valley near Los Angeles at the time so there were lots of stations available and the one I chose was only about 8 mi away. When I got to the station I learned it was in a Target parking lot and there were three charge points with one presently unused. The other two were being used by a BMW i4 and a Porsche Taycan.

I pulled into the empty slot, parked, and then realized my charge port is on the rear right side and I need to back in. Noob mistake. After backing in, I got out to plug the car in and watched the screen on the charge point. Within 30 seconds it had recognized the car and started charging - no input from me required. I didn't really want much of a charge since this was only a test, so I opened the myBMW app on my phone and set the charge limit to 70%. Since I was already at 61% I figured this shouldn't take long. You can see below how long it took and what charging levels I got.

In summary, I don't think it could have been a smoother experience, unless I actually pulled into the spot properly to begin with instead of having to back out and then back in again. Since I don't normally DC fast charge, I can't say that this is representative of anything in my area, but just thought I'd share anyway since it was new to me and maybe new to some others. I only hope that when I need to fast charge in the future, it also goes this well.

[agorski]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

I didn't really want much of a charge since this was only a test, so I opened the myBMW app on my phone and set the charge limit to 70%.

Did you hear about the EA pilot program where they're limiting 10 stations in SoCal to 85% SOC max? It's an attempt to shorten the waiting lines at the busiest stations in urban areas. They probably wouldn't do this in road trip locations since people sometimes need more to get to the next station with a reserve.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by agorski

Did you hear about the EA pilot program where they're limiting 10 stations in SoCal to 85% SOC max? It's an attempt to shorten the waiting lines at the busiest stations in urban areas. They probably wouldn't do this in road trip locations since people sometimes need more to get to the next station with a reserve.

I have not, but hopefully that will help with the waiting.

[scas12]

I used an EA station this weekend too, got from 51 to 72% in 10 mins, timed it as I wanted to simulate a gas stop timing. Very happy with that level of performance.

[MikeElmendorf]

My fast charging experience has been very positive as well. Have only used EA a couple of times as they just haven’t been where I needed to fast charge.

I did use a Tesla Supercharger with the new magic dock a couple weeks ago. It was no better (and maybe a little worse) than most of the other fast chargers I’ve used in terms of speed.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by agorski

Did you hear about the EA pilot program where they're limiting 10 stations in SoCal to 85% SOC max? It's an attempt to shorten the waiting lines at the busiest stations in urban areas. They probably wouldn't do this in road trip locations since people sometimes need more to get to the next station with a reserve.

Interestingly, I saw the list of affected stations last night and the one I went to is one of the ten on the list! Since I didn't try charging past 85% I don't know if it was in effect while I was there, but there were certainly no lines or waiting at that site yesterday.