EVgo DC chargers were horrible up until the beginning of 2018. They're still not perfect, but improvement is being made.

[Pigwich]

As has been pointed out in another post, EVgo has a policy of turning off their fast chargers after a 30 minute session, regardless of the SOC of the vehicle. Of course, customer service says this is to "protect the battery of the car" which we all know to be some major BS. Nowhere on the chargers is this pointed out, and a customer is only left to find out that their car only took 1/3 of a charge upon returning an hour later. Since (unfortunately) the Bolt starts tapering it's charge so early, you would need at least three sessions to charge a flat battery. Also, EVgo charges PER SESSION, something like $10. I appreciate that they are offering a "premium" service, and it's within their right to be complete fuckers about the pricing, but to be fuckers about the pricing AND to be fuckers about wasting hours of my time too? especially without any warning? When I plug the car in and swipe my card, I expect the machine to charge my car. If it has to charge a lot, I have to pay a lot, and that's FINE, but if I'm expecting to take an hour to fill the battery, and I walk up 50 minutes later and my car is less than half charged because it just shut off with no advanced warning? Well, I start the charge AGAIN and then go off to watch the ducks swim around for another 45 minutes, only to find AGAIN that it shut off early.This is horse shit. And you don't get the "Your charge was interrupted" text message either. On the other had, the Greenlots charger at the McDonalds in Banning kicks ass - It charges you for the power you use, at a higher rate of course, and your car gets charged. Time-based charging is not a fair business practice, and if people want to whine about vehicles camping out at fast chargers, maybe they ought to think about how flawed the current EVgo system is and how it makes stays longer at fast chargers.

Bottom line? The current EVgo policy is a giant busted piece of crap, and until they fix it, BOLT drivers are advised to use other vendors if at all possible. Take a minute to write a nice bitchy letter to EVgo and tell them they need to change this, ESPECIALLY since the hardware is more than capable of reading state of charge and estimating charge duration.

[LeftieBiker]

Or, Bolt drivers could complain about the policy, and in the meantime assume that EVGo chargers are practically for half hour sessions only, and advise others of that.

[SparkE]

If a person *knows* that they are going to be using EVgo DCFCs on a regular basis (at least 60 kWh/month), then you should just pay for the most expensive subscription rate - especially if you don't have easy access to overnight charging, and no easy access to non-EVgo DCFC charging.

3 DCFC charges of 30 mins using credit card (no sub) : ~60 kWh is ~$30 (3x$10)

3 charges of 30 mins on "Flex" plan (no monthly subscription price, but signed up) : ~60 kWh is ~$33 (3x$5 + 3x$6)

3 charges of 30 mins on "on-the-go" plan : ~60 kWh is ~$24 ($15/mo fee + 3x$3) which is ~$0.40/kWh
6 charges of 30 mins on "on-the-go" plan : ~120 kWh is ~$33 ($15/mo fee + 6x$3) which is ~$0.275/kWh
9 charges of 30 mins on "on-the-go" plan : ~180 kWh is ~$42 ($15/mo fee + 9x$3) which is ~$0.233/kWh

If you sign up for the most expensive plan, the cost for using their L2 units is $1/hr (so about 14.3 cents/kWh IF you can charge at 7 kW/hr). That may be less expensive than charging at home.

Now, I really dislike EVgo for many reasons (the first post outlines one of them) - but if you know that you are most likely going to be using one of their DCFCs about once a week for about 30 mins each time, then you should just sign up. Personally, I go out of my way to NOT use EVgo chargers, and so far I haven't had to. (I have pointed out non-EVgo DCFCs in the south bay on this forum several times.) I did get a free EVgo card for their 'flex' plan in case I got stuck one day, but haven't had to use it yet.

FYI - a guy driving from Salinas or Gilroy or Los Banos does have non-EVgo CCS DCFCs (multiple ones) along the route, and several non-EVgo 50 kW CCS DCFCs in the south bay (Fremont, San Jose/Santa Clara, Campbell), not even counting the 20 or 24 kW DCFCs in the south bay.

[SparkE]

Oh, one of the things that I *hate* about the EVgo DCFCs is that they are one of the main suppliers of the "free charges" provided by some auto vendors when you buy or lease (BMW/ChargeNow, Ford 1-2-3 charge, Nissan no-charge-to-charge). That means that finding an EVgo station that isn't being clogged by some prick who is going from 65%-to-90% SoC "because it's free" instead of charging because they NEED electrons to get where they are going can be a challenge. The 30-minute limit is there because of those 'free' cards - it gets the car out of there if there is anybody waiting (people get *really* mad if you try to re-up: you are supposed to go to the back of the line).

Up until recently, no car 'needed' more than a 30 minute charge : the car would be well over 80% full, even if the battery was at 5% when pulling up. But the problem was the pricks charging up to 95% using their 'free' card, since the last 5-10% of charge is at a very slow rate (under L2 rate at the end). This 30-min limit got the pricks out of the line (because there was no way they were going to wait in line to get another 8%). It often even got people out of line 'early' when somebody pulled up behind them, because they knew they could only stay for another 5-8 minutes anyways, so why stay that long for only 5-10 extra miles and get glared at the whole time...

Frankly, I think that all the 'free' cards should have been limited to 20 mins of free charging per 12 hour period AND the electrons were only free until the car dropped it's charge rate to under (say) 20 kW. After either of those conditions, then they would have to pay for charging. That would have severely limited the blockage at the DCFCs.

Anyhow, there *IS* a reason for the limit - but what they SHOULD do is to NOT have a timeout if you are paying for the electricity - or make the timeout one hour, or 50 min, or something reasonable.

[EldRick]

Go to the EVgo web site and use the contact link to tell them what you think.
It does little good to gripe here, but if they got a few hundred notes complaining about the policy they might revisit it.

[sgt1372]

As has been pointed out in another post, EVgo has a policy of turning off their fast chargers after a 30 minute session, regardless of the SOC of the vehicle. Of course, customer service says this is to "protect the battery of the car" which we all know to be some major BS. Nowhere on the chargers is this pointed out, and a customer is only left to find out that their car only took 1/3 of a charge upon returning an hour later. Since (unfortunately) the Bolt starts tapering it's charge so early, you would need at least three sessions to charge a flat battery. Also, EVgo charges PER SESSION, something like $10.

Yeah, just learned this myself.

EvGo installed 2 new "fast" chargers near my house but they only charge at a 50kw/hr max rate and that it would probably take 3 sessions and 90 mins at a cost of $30 to fully recharge after a 160-180 mile RT into the City. Not worth the time or $.

Gotta get that L2 installed in my house. Going to request a refund of my Tesla M3 deposit to reimburse myself for the cost of installation, since I've decided that I won't need the M3 now that I have the Bolt.

[GetOffYourGas]

Such language in this thread. I understand the frustration, but this is unusual for this forum.

I agree with LeftieBiker. Bolt drivers should complain loudly and often at EVGo. EVGo will soon realize that Bolt drivers will become their #1 source of customers in the next couple of years. They certainly wouldn't want you all to switch to a competing network.

Of course, up here in upstate NY, I'm left with practically no chargers at all. So complaining about poor charging practices sounds like the ultimate first world problem for an EV enthusiast. We should all be so lucky!

[Pigwich]

Oh my god, yes get an L2 charger. And, let me preach my usual preach, don't spend a lot of money on an EVSE with fancy features, spend it on the electrician running some big fat 6 gauge wire out to your garage. Good luck.

[Pigwich]

Complaining about poor charging practices sounds like the ultimate first world problem for an EV enthusiast. We should all be so lucky!

I hear you loud and clear, but DO think of it this way - Let us iron out all the bad practices BEFORE they get a chance to become widespread. It's better to fix things now. And yes, I can have a potty mouth, especially when I'm still walking funny from the day before. My apologies.

[SparkE]

No apologies necessary, IMO. EVgo *are* fuckers - total, complete fuckers.