New EV owner here. We charge at home so I don’t need to use them, but stores nearby have chargers. I tried them to see how they work. They are often broken.
One store has a Volta charger (free!). It worked great the first time; the next time I went it was broken.
Walmart has an Electrify America fast charger. The first time I went, 1 of 3 was not working. The next time I went, 1 of 3 was not working, but it was a different one.
Was I unlucky, or are these charging networks unreliable? Has it been getting better or worse over time?
I had the 110v wall charger for a Chevy Volt that came with the car. To be fair, I bought the car certified pre-owned, so I guess it was about 5 years old when it broke. I left it outside in inclement weather 24/7. I’m not sure if it was covered under warranty. What broke were the connections inside of the plug handle. I took it apart and soldered it back together. That lasted another six months, and then it broke again. I traded the car in after that, so I never tried to file a warranty claim or anything, but I don’t think it was covered. I didn’t trade the car in because of the charger though. I just happened to find the exact used truck I wanted, in the exact color I wanted, right about when the charger broke, so it worked out.
Edit: I just wanted to add that I loved that car! It was a great car. Literally the only thing I didn’t like about it is that there was no knob to change the AC temp. You had to hold your finger on the touch button and wait like 30 seconds while it slowly adjusted. Everything else about the car was great. One of my favorite features was the little button on the end of the blinker indicator that gave 3 quick polite little horn beeps. I used that all the time to alert people that they were in my way, where a full-fledged horn honk would seem rude.
You beep people that are in your way? (Kind of joking)
Are you British?
In many places in America we give a quick honk to let someone know the light is green after 5 seconds or so (or a 5 second blast after 1 second if you’re in Chicago for example… partly joking) generally they are looking at their phone or otherwise distracted.
It’s a polite “hey bud, you’re holding up traffic”
Oh I thought maybe you meant someone walking on the road. Ya I might quickly beep but pretty rare. Someone looking at their phone I would beep.