Left Stranded In Our Electric Car! Here's How We Survived 

Out of Spec Dave would just go to the nearest ice machine plug in to 110 and take a nap 💤

I love when a charge site has J1772 as a backup: even if it would take my car 8 hours to fully charge.

"full efficiency mode" closing the sunroof to keep from making the car hot yet Kyle is still in a sweatshirt

I would have level 2'd for 10 or 20 miles of additional range...

Glad our team was able to fix things in a few days! While we run interoperability with 50+ OEMS, we are always finding ways to improve. Keep the feedback coming Kyle!

Last time we experienced this, neither DCFC nor L2 would work. Disconnecting 12V battery for 30 seconds fixed the car issue (Leaf).

Exact same thing happened to my 2019 Etron at a Chargepoint station. Used that same charger on the way to an event that morning. On my way back it wouldn't charge that evening. Limped the car 20 miles away and spent the night on a hotel's level 2. Car was back to normal the next day. Not blaming the car, blaming Chargepoint.

For the record I hate this title but it’s not incorrect 🤣

“IN THE MIDDLE OF … ABSOLUTELY … NO .. WHERE!” lol 😂

On so many videos you guys show why it makes sense to arrive to the charger at the lowest percent possible. I still never do it, and this video is the exact reason why! You can never be sure about what to expect from charge stations!

So is this a case where the site host just wasn't installing the updates on their chargers? It is an example of why the ChargePoint business model doesn't work. This is why site hosts shouldn't be responsible for updates and maintenance.

The statement made at the end, 100% correct!

Imagine if he had arrived in Sterling with 2% left like he normally does...

Why didn't you give the Level 2 AC charger in town a try? You could have determined if the car would not accept a charging session there, and you could have taken a food break to recover some 5-10% extra power for your limp out of town.

Living in the Midwest with generally 80+ miles between chargers has me always worried about this. Hasn’t happened yet though!

Did you try turning it off and back on again? Standard electronics troubleshooting. I've had issues at times with level 2 ChargePoint chargers that were fixed by calling the support number and their team eventually resetting the station. Takes a few minutes, but worth it to not have to go somewhere else and hope I can make it on what I have left in the cells

Judging by my experience here in the UK with a Chargepoint Charger (used by Instavolt) and a VAG group EV you don’t get there (the E up), got mine charging by having ignition on before trying to plug it in. Otherwise would cut out. Randomly found this out on a forum 2-3 days before collecting the car. Worth a try.

Lots of states like mine that consider driving on the shoulder or emergency stop lane you receive a moving violation that gives 2 points to your driving record ......

this is why people have range anxiety

I've had this happen twice. First time, arrived in my Mach-E at an EA station wouldn't charge any vehicle. I was getting far worse efficiency than expected for some reason (hasn't happened again since,) so I arrived at the station on static (the EV version of "on fumes.") 5 miles of range showing. There was a "municipal 62.5kW charger" 6 miles away. Unfortunately, the two available routes were: Freeway directly there. Side roads that were far more circuitous, more like 8-9 miles. I chose the freeway, but drove 55 (in a 70 zone that all traffic was doing 75.) Made it to within half a mile of the station when turtle mode kicked in. Got to it, though! Charged fine. Second time was on a cross-country road trip in my Rivian towing a trailer. It was my last charge stop on the outbound portion of the trip, then a couple weeks later, the first charge stop on the return portion. An EA with 10 stalls at an outlet mall in Arizona. On the outbound leg, I had arrived at it in severe turtle mode - couldn't exceed 20 MPH for the last mile. Thankfully the charger worked fine then. It was also late, so all was empty, and I could just pull nose-in across many parking spots to the end stall. On the return trip, I arrived with plenty of spare charge, but absolutely needed more to make it up the freeway to the next charger. Parked nose-in to the "opposite end" stall, making the entrance-aisle only one car wide. Plugged in - got a vehicle charge error. Tried a couple times, kept getting the error. There were plenty of people successfully charging. Maybe it was just the one dispenser? Tried the adjacent dispenser when someone left. Nope. Moved around to another stall at the other end (doing the "parallel across multiple spots" again since they had emptied.) Still didn't work. Tried the next dispenser over, still didn't work. Finally tried a middle stall, completely blocking the aisle with my trailer sticking out (thankfully there was access from both sides.) Tried two more dispensers, still no joy. The error made it absolutely sound like a vehicle problem, and I saw plenty of other vehicles charging successfully, so at that point, I was convinced it was a vehicle problem. Called Rivian support, spent an hour troubleshooting with no joy. I'd have to get the vehicle to the nearest Rivian Service Center - in the next city I was going to be traveling toward anyway. So I decided to just go slow on the highway and get at least as close as I could to the Service Center before needing to get towed. Just as I was preparing to drive, another Rivian (also towing!) pulled in. I decided to wait and see. Yep, he had the same problems. At that point we decided it was definitely EA. Both of us spent an hour on the phone with EA, who was no help at all. The other Rivian owner was heading the opposite direction from me, and there was an EVgo in his direction within his range. I had just short of enough range to reach both an EA and a (50kW) EVgo in the direction I was going. So I went ahead and risked it. Drove slow (45-55) on the 75 MPH interstate with no AC in hot weather. About 10 miles before the chargers, the slow driving had gotten us enough spare range that we knew we'd be able to make it to one of them. Of course they were both off the freeway about the same distance - in opposite directions. So I had to pick one or the other. Just in case it was an EA system-wide issue, I chose the EVgo. Worked fine. Added enough charge to get to the EA and back, and went over to the EA. Thankfully, that one worked fine.

About 2 weeks ago my Q8 etron wouldn't charge at my local EA with ABB chargers. Same exact issue that you had. It would start and then within a minute have a charge session error. It worked fine at a Signet unit down the street. Today it worked just fine on the ABB units just like my etrons have for years.

Excellent video! Many thanks for all the lessons included here.

did you call charge point wile you where there?

"Where are we? Uhhh" Look at the charger behind you.

This video was both unexpected and fun! Enjoyed it.

Good to see that you were driving along at 20-25mph at the beginning because this is an excellent way to double or nearly double your range in emergency situations. A Chevy Bolt recently got about 500 miles of range by driving on a race track at 22mph constantly (switching drivers half way). It just goes to show that cars, EV or otherwise, spend almost all of their energy just trying to push through the air which gets exponentially harder to do as you increase speed. So, if you see you might not make it to the nearest charge station, immediately put on your hazards and get down to between 20 and 25mph. Cruise control works great here. And if possible, turn off the air or heater and open the windows if necessary. If it's very cold, heated seats will help.

On my first day of a 1500 mile trip I made some mistakes and ended up in a small town with a predicted -4% charge at my destination. I realized Tesla estimates range at posted highway speeds which was 75 mph. So I drove the remaining 60 miles at 50 mph and arrived with 10 miles to spare.

YOU GOT A BRAIN AND SOLD IT

This is the problem with OOS constantly telling people to run their battery down before charging, for most Americans the charging infrastructure isn’t reliable enough for that so charge often charge early and don’t get stuck.

Thank you, this has increased my confidence to the extent I am pushing the length of my trips.

Appreciate the reviews. Looking forward to the day I randomly bump into y'all in FoCo. Keep Rockin'

Kyle, in my 2021 e-tron I have a shortcut for charging next to the HUD on/off. Shows up as a plug icon. One press and I see SoC. The 2019 should also let you long press on the deepest menu link and add the shortcut?

Can interoperability bug happen on level 2 chargers also? I was recently in San Francisco with a Zero DSR/X and was looking for a charge. I found Rivian waypoint chargers near Pyron Park. I signed up for the Rivian network and started to charge. I got 1/2 kWh and the charger stopped charging, very similar to your experience in Sterling, CO.

This video saved my butt. I watched it last weekend and needed the tricks of the trade this week. Thanks for all you do. We are ended up driving 45 on the interstate and arriving at my charger with 1 mile left

That was quick! Watching while editing :D

This video definitely soothed my range anxiety! Thank you!

Great work Kyle getting CP to update these particular chargers.

Thanks, this was great. Love my '23 I5 RWD. Avg. is 3.3, and I easily get 280-285 miles with AC or heat, up to 300 without. And it hauls my teardrop for a efficiency drop to about 1.8. Literally the same averages as my 2015 Ford Escape for all these numbers. But costs soooo much less to "fuel" up.

That is why we always traveled with Tesla adapter set and Teslatap and 40ft Jlong extension and 100ft 120v heavy duty extension cord lol you can plug into anyone's stove or dryer outlet this way !

Just for the sake of consideration, why not go to a level 2 for just enough time to pick up a few % to make it to a level 3?

Same thing happened with my I-Pace in Northern Minnesota. Clicks contactors, connects for a second, then disconnects. What is going on? All the other cars seem to work on this charger. Had the limp to hibbing Minnesota in 20° weather without heat.

The reason charging stations don't charge is because their diesel generators are out of diesel.

did you call the charge point help line ?

Great final thoughts about the importance of charging that needs to happen to enable the EV sales to increase.

this interoperability problem sounds fascinating!

Ive had this happen before, exactly the same way but with a circle K charger. I went somewhere else and it charged fine.

On my first EV road trip in a Bolt, I was saved by the miracle of a 20mph construction zone that lasted over 20 miles! (might have been 30) Car went from -30 miles estimated for the next stop to +30 when I reached Gallup NM from Bluff UT! The worst road construction zone of my life was a Godsend as it would have been dangerous to drive slowly on that 70mph highway otherwise. I also learned to do a much better job of reading the trip planner. I somehow thought that charging in Bluff was optional and had only added a small charge just for fun.

Kyle, can you confirm, you set dashboard view to show date/time (time code 5:36?) I’m pretty sure you always would like to see a consumption data. Why I’m asking, because sometimes I have the charging issue with my etron 2019. After the issue happens, dashboard view resets to the date/time view and the car is failing to charge on any chargers. The issue will go away after a few hours.

My wife and I are new to the EV world and this video is very informative. She bought a 2024 Kona EV and I got jealous and bought one 3 weeks later. Next time you're in Fort Morgan, let us know. Maybe we can have mini EV meet. 😁

For me It’s hard to stay excited about EVs when dealing with issues like this, huge depreciation, and high insurance costs. The industry truly has to do better because you’re going to run out of enthusiasts. Normal people get fed up.

Kyle, these companies first question must be: - someone connected / removed the cable from the machine and we didn’t make a sale, why? Automatically reportable, you can interrogate remotely car model, car software version, connector signal, transaction method, etc, etc and make a judgement on that basis. If you choose not to service Etron, tell owners and they won’t get trapped at your facility. There will be a story of someone dying at the side of the road because of failed infrastructure.

It is odd that there isn't a fail-safe charging mode like a 120V mode where charging is slow but existent, better something than 0...

Yay! Etron content! Now you just need a Merlin purple RS etron GT on the channel.

was having lots of issues with various chargepoint and a 21 etron around a month ago. Tried one again and seem to be working okay.

Thank you. Please make a short of these so they can be easily shared 👍🏻

First trip I took in my Bolt when I was experimenting with road tripping it was Denver to Grand Lake. They had a level2 charger in their yacht club parking area, cost a dollar an hour back then. They have more now. Still a tourist trap, but a good one. Been to Sterling a bunch, or at least through it. Good little town.

Why not just plug it into a regular 120 V plug? Yes, that will take forever, but all you need to do is add a few extra miles of charge. Much less risky than getting stranded. I've done this a few times. There are lots of open plugs everyone.

What was the point of deflating the air suspension? Do the bags leak so much that you have to run a compressor? Or some kind of active suspension / esp /whatever sucking up the kilowatts?

Charging BEAST.... when it works ;-)

My wife almost experienced this with her iX today. EA station on i-80 nothing would charge until she activated one using the BMW app instead of plugging in first.

Nearly had a similar event in Marathon Ontario. I didn't look at the user reviews on Plugshare about the DCFC station there and failed to note that it was offline...I had to backtrack ~100km (60miles) with only 18% SOC remaining and the car predicted -5% SOC upon arrival! I drafted behind some slow moving big-rigs to avoid slowing traffic but passed them when going down hill and arrived with 2% SOC in my LFP M3.

That's why my first 'electric' car is going to be a Toyota Prius PRIME, with only 72 km of electric range, but with a gasoline engine in it so I don't have to worry about charging up when I'm away from home.

I didn't realize or forgot how bad the etron is for efficiency. Good thing is has an amazing charge curve. I did a test going ~40mph in my Model 3 LR for several miles and my consumption was hovering around 150 wh/mi. (6.6mi/kwh)

Plug into an icecube fridge outlet 😅

Had the same issue at a site here in FL. 4 Charge point chargers that only 1 would charge everything and it was in debug mode. The other 3 would do the same thing to my Model 3 and a Mach-e that was at the site too. Connect for about 5-15 seconds then stop.

I definitely didn't off-road on a mud trail in New Mexico in a bolt to make it to a charger... And I definitely wasn't inspired by the Out of Spec way...

update on the xcharge you installed earlier???

Middle of Bumf--k, (name-your-state). Bad charger. N(ICE)! 😂

That charger location saved me (it was working fine when I was there) from a different charger not working (about 20 minutes away) just a few weeks ago. Around the corner there’s the best brewery/restaurant called “Parts & Labor”. It’s a converted Cadillac dealer/service station. Great people working there, really good beer and food. Awesome vive in general. If you’re going to get stranded, that’s the place to do it. I was doing a 8,400 + mile road trip in my Rivian R1S from MN to the lower west coast. Edit : Ha! @9:34 when you were scrolling through the reviews, you mentioned an R1S charged there….That was my review 🤣. In fact, if you would have read my review, I believe you are about to head to the EA charger I said wasn’t working that “forced me” to stop at this one.

Hey, i’ve had this exact same issue with a 2019 e-tron and Chargepoint dc hardware in Colorado. I’m not the only one with this issue, if you search Plugshare, you’ll notice that a lot of Chargepoint hardware locations have failed check-ins from 2019 e-tron owners. it’s also intermittent. 5-10% it works, 90% it doesnt charge with the exact same behavior. for me, it made me uncomfortable relying on them. Other evs i’ve driven and charged on the exact same hardware have had no issues, and Chargepoint did not respond to my support request about it.

In this episode of Our of Spec Reviews @KyleConner stars as Mr. Magoo.... Beep...Beep "Road Hog"!!!!. Stay safe, Tim 😂

Reminds me of my experience with an iPace in Europe. Only Ionity worked reliably. So happy that I have Teslas here in the US

I had the same problem when I stopped at a Shell station instead of a Conoco in my Tundra.

Looking at a 2019 and the owner says it charges at 80kW max. I thought this odd. It's supposed to be 105kW. What could cause this?

How fast were you driving the car with 2.2mi/kw?

ETRON does a great charge curve. When I’ve had to hyper mile I’ve gotten almost 3.0

Sterling, Colorado. They really are in the middle of no where. I use to visit a call center in Sterling. You fly into Denver, turn your back on the mountains. Drive for hours. If you end up in Kansas, you drove to far. But not by much.

Kyle and Andreas You're living on the EDGE😂🎉

I love the attitude. It’s issues like this that make EVs entertaining! It reinforces my decision to take the leap to an EV!

If I remember correctly, Sterling CO. is a town centered on railroading (huge locomotive maintenance facility).

Yep I contacted the city of Wetaskiwin Alberta for advertising chargers at city hall that they had turned off. The chargers were not broken. The city made them inactive but advertised online that they were available. Bad for tourism for sure.

Thank you. Great information. I am not as savvy with extending the range on my EV. I am still hesitant to take extended trips.

Francis has some 50KW BTC chargers That will not charge EGMP cars.

I have exactly same interoperability issues with my 2023 ID4 at Volta DC stations

You could do a tight draft off a big 8 wheeler truck also. I have done that to increase the efficiency and extend the mileage

I would like to see a stranded car get pulled by another car for 3-4 miles while in regen mode. This should add 20+ miles to the car and charge-by-towing. Since the car being pulled has regen active, it should be relatively safe since it won't catch up and hit the car ahead without a steep hill.

Talked to an EA repairman who said not all dispensers run the same s/w version. CPOs apparently do not have s/w to verify the s/w version on dispensers.

Wow! I agree with you! My only worry in driving a Tesla is waiting for a charging station. So far I have been very lucky.

All the chargpoint ones our company have are at least half broken or more. Oh but I heard if there is a power outage, plug in your car and twirl the cable around and a siphon effect will draw in electrons.... 🙂

I've had problems charging my r1t at the Sterling chargepoint station because I like to go to the brewery next door on my way to Denver. I'm really shocked that it has a 10. I've had problems there multiple times which is why I only go there if I've got enough to limp to fort Morgan

Kyle, you didn't want to wait at a 150kW charger[2 hour movie], but risk waiting for a tow(...?)

Good video to show how you can "beat" the GOM. and that the GOM is truly a GUESS-o-meter.

what version of the etron is it?

Our charge port died on 2019 etron around 4 year mark so always only buy ones with dual charge ports !

I know that Tesla sells a mobile connector and an outlet adapter case, so maybe buying that and getting a NACS to J-1772 adapter for long road trips might be a way to charge if everything else fails, even though it’s expensive to acquire everything

I wish there was a car company who planned ahead and layed the groundwork for an efficient network of chargers intergrated into the ui system which would plan your trip and be conveniently located to basic human necessities, that what would be "super" convenient. I think it should be called "Superchargers" 😉

Well…back in my day…..we’d look for a welding shop to see if we can get a little charge using there outlet!

You’ve so Out of Spec’d your eTron that it didn’t know what to do when you plugged into a DCFC at 18%. 😂

Do you know what every fast-charging hub needs? 10-20x 50A L2 EVSEs for people to plug into when fast-charging either isn't working with their car or are all occupied. Waiting for a while to make sure you have enough range to reach the next fast-charger still beats getting stranded. Also, if it is a problem with the car's HVDC system, the on-board charger may also trip out.

We call this Hyper mile'n, and also in Oz we could use bush Supercharging where we tow ev with ev at about 25 m/h and charge at 50kw with regen for 10 mins can add 50 miles range, just watch for over heating...