Background:
Electrify America operates an electric vehicle DC fast charging network in the US, with 612 charging locations currently and 125 new stations in the works. It was founded by Volkswagen, and was established in 2016 as part of its efforts to offset emissions during their emissions scandal. They have a decent footprint with some locations in shopping malls, Walmart, Target and Bank of America parking lots.
Charging Experience:
My family has an Audi e-Tron, and with that came some Electrify America charging credits. So on a recent trip to Santa Barbara, California we utilized the Electrify America station at the Camarillo Premium Outlets for our outbound and return trip. This is one of Electrify America’s larger charging outposts, with a total of 10 chargers and it’s conveniently located off the 101 Freeway.
Of the 10 total chargers, 8 have the CCS 150 kW, 2 have the CCS 350 kW and there is 1 with a CHAdeMO 50 kW attached to one of the 150kW chargers.
On the Electrify America app, you can view all of the locations and track the available chargers real time for each location.
One other great thing is that the Electrify America station at the Camarillo Premium Outlets is in the back of the parking lot, across a Panera Bread and Johnny Rockets. So, if you want to grab a quick bite, food is near and it’s located in the back of the lot so you don’t have to worry about shoppers stealing your parking spot and preventing you from charging.
A thing that would be nice for improvement is if there was full pull through parking. Currently, there are poles blocking pull through access. Depending on the location of your charging port on your car, allowing pull through access will make it easier to access all chargers rather than having to back into the parking space if the charger is on the wrong side for your car.
We had a bit of an issue connecting the charging port to our car on both outbound and return trips. Some of the charging cables seemed not to register well with our car and on both trips we had to change stations once. (We tried using the same station that worked on our outbound trip, but another vehicle was using it). Not sure if it was our own car issue, but it did cost a good 5 minutes to try a different station each time. Glad it ended up working out though, and in about 20 minutes we were able to get about 100 miles in range for our car. Not bad at all!
Cost:
So for this station the price is $0.43/kwH and there is an Idle Fee once the charging stops after a 10 minute grace period. Not the cheapest, as for our 20 minute charge, getting an extra 100 miles of range ran us $17. But, the speed of charging and being able to get back on the road in just 20 minutes was nice.
A reader kindly pointed out that if you’re going to be charging a decent amount during a month, you can get the Pass+ which drops the price for charging over 25% to $0.31/kWH, but costs $4 a month. So your breakeven point would be using about 33 kWH. Not a bad deal if you’re going to be using Electrify America during a month and you can cancel the pass on months that you aren’t charging there.
The Verdict:
Overall, it was a pleasant pit stop to quickly charge up our electric vehicle on our road trip. Nice to have DC fast charging available to make the road trip faster, and the outlet location also allows you to shop or grab a quick bite while you wait for the charge.
Have you charged at an Electrify America station before? Comment your experience below!
Safe travels,
Ty
Have any questions? Comment below or email me at takeofftotravel@gmail.com. You can also view all my other posts here! Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for helping me make my decision on to buy a Tesla or Camry hybrid….you got 100 miles for 17.00 and with the Camry hybrid it would be 2 gallons on gas as it’s gets 54/51 per gallon ….and cost 15 k less …..thanks for helping me make my decision
Buy the Pass+, it’s $4/mo and reduces /kWh to $.31. You can buy Pass+ for a month, then cancel it. Break even point is around 30kWh’s. Still cheaper then EVgo (ripoff). I will upgrade to Pass+ for longer trips or during a 30 day period where I need electrons for driving
Oh that’s great I totally forgot about that, I’ll add that option to the post. Thanks for sharing!
So for 100 miles range, given 21 mpg average for a regular Audi SUV, you could have fueled up in less than five minutes and paid around $20 in CA fuel prices? Versus 20+ minutes and $17? This is why I am having a hard time with electric vehicles- they just don’t work for road trips and unless you have solar panels at your house are costing you in electricity and time! And I live in Texas so almost everything is a road trip or at least 15-20 miles, while fuel is cheaper here, I don’t want to take a 10 hour road trip to the beach and make it 12 hours because I have to stop three times to recharge. We need stronger, longer lasting batteries and quicker charging, or hydrogen fuel cell cars for those states that need those capabilities. This may be a case of one size of environmentally friendly car does not fit all places. But most mainline car makers have gone all in on electric cars. Thank you for the data point as I’d wondered how much places charged for charging up!
Thanks for reading! Yeah, the fast chargers price seem to be almost like gas prices. Electric charging at home is where we mainly charge as it is cheaper. Hopefully technology continues to innovate!
Lara, I’ve driven a few EVs cross country. You can’t drive 10 hours straight. I’ve been able to keep my costs around $.065 (6.5 cents) per mile for longer trips. This includes paid charging. Car that gets 30mgh, at $3/gal runs $.10/mi. So it it cheaper and better for this planet we all share