Out of Spec Reviews
4 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2022–2023
45:46 · 1.1M views · Dec 22, 2022
Kyle Conner of Out of Spec Reviews finds that new Electrify America chargers co-developed with BTC fail in cold weather, then checks ChargePoint, EVgo and other EA stations during a cold snap.
Cited in EV threads as evidence that public fast-charging reliability suffers in cold temperatures.
4 comments from Hacker News
When you’re behind, it’s easier to sling mud then catch up, especially when you’re a conservative multinational without recent experience swinging for the fences (to give credit due, Toyota’s hybrid synergy drive was the result of their fear of US emissions standards decades ago). Tesla spent $1B on their global Supercharger network. Does Toyota not have $1B to invest? Their market cap is $226B, so clearly this isn’t the case. Get building y’all. You just need a charger team to identify locations, coordinate plans and permits with the local AHJ (authority having jurisdiction), and to engage local electrical contractors to receive the equipment and install. Every Toyota dealer is a possible location to operate a charger installer team out of if so desired (for residential and level 2 requirements). (Tangentially, make sure your fast DC chargers actually work in the cold: this video ["Kyle finds out that the new Electrify America chargers that they co-developed with BTC don't work in cold temperatures. He also heads to ChargePoint, EVgo, and other EA chargers to see if they have similar issues in this cold snap."]) Norway’s ban on new combustion vehicle sales goes into effect in 2025; registration data shows they’re almost at 100% EV and hybrid sales (with hybrids making up less than 10% of new car sales), and their mobility story hasn’t come to a grinding halt. The evidence is overwhelming that challenges raised (cold weather, charging infra) can be solved for with time and resou
In the US at least their charging network is top tier. EA is rolling out pretty wide with US highways but most non-Tesla Supercharger site's reliability is laughable right now. To the point where they simply don't work when it's cold outside [0]. We (US) really need more competition in this space. 0: this video
Maybe because they have actually used an electric car? CCS is not fit for purpose, even more so the CCS chargers. this video They are absolute garbage hardware with a clunky, fragile connector. And the only company deploying them at scale is doing so because they (VW) were forced to when settling Dieselgate.
This is right after some Electrify America co-produced/co-designed stations didn't work in the cold, with his hypothesis being the voltage leak detection system within the charger breaking and thus not allowing current to flow: this video