Significant EVgo shutdown?

[lpickup]

In today's batch of updates, EVgo has changed the names of 18 of their sites today to something along the lines of:

<name> - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*

That certainly sounds like a permanent closure to me, and even more concerning is that based on past experience with these kind of EVgo closures, this may only be the beginning of a wave of several such updates over the next few days.

What do you think? Is this a temporary or permanent closure?

One of the frustrating things is that when I looked up the Plugshare entry of one of these stations, I see the following comment from an EVgo person just 2 days ago:


Uhhhh....is this a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing? These canned responses are sometimes quite annoying in that they seem to lack sincerity and even truthfulness.

The following is a list of affected sites:

Plaza on Mall Blvd - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*​	300 Mall Blvd	Monroeville	PA
Dunkin' Donuts - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	9009 20th St	Vero Beach	FL
Village Square Mall - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	4000 Oxford Dr	Bethel Park	PA
Dunkin Donuts - Dearborn Heights - *Scheduled for removal in 2 weeks*	4345 S Telegraph Rd	Dearborn Heights	MI
Dunkin' Donuts - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	20050 West Rd	Trenton	MI
BP - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	2211 Vinnies Way	Charlotte	NC
BP - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	1327 Shearers Rd	Mooresville	NC
BP - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	12922 Walker Branch Rd	Charlotte	NC
Earp's Express - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	7020 Brighton Park Dr	Charlotte	NC
BP - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	7910 Cambridge Commons Dr	Charlotte	NC
BP - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	9311 Steele Creek Rd	Charlotte​	NC
Dunkin' Donuts - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	39600 Ann Arbor Rd E	Plymouth	MI
Dunkin' Donuts - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	1057 W Royalton Rd	Broadview Heights	OH
Community First Credit Union - *Scheduled for removal in 2 weeks*	13910 Village Lake Cir	Jacksonville	FL
Public Parking - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	1764 W Broadway Ave	Maryville	TN
Outpost Natural Foods - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	7590 W Mequon Rd	Mequon	WI
Dunkin Donuts - Ferndale - *Scheduled for removal in 2 weeks*	22451 Woodward Ave	Ferndale	MI
Exxon - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	1111 Highway 321 N	Lenoir City	TN

For now I will be leaving these sites alone, but in 2 weeks I may move them to Closed Permanently. I will go through and mark any that don't appear to be up (which may in fact be the case for most of them!) as Closed Temporarily.

Interesting to note: I know that the ones in Charlotte, NC all recently were transitioned from Greenlots (Shell Recharge) over to EVgo, and now EVgo might be on the verge of dumping them.

 

[lpickup]

One of the affected stations had this Plugshare comment added by a local, which perhaps sheds some light on this:

EVgo app says that this unit will be removed in 2 weeks. Support response "Thank you for contacting EVgo regarding your concerns for charger Roxanne. This charger is being replaced because it was deemed a safety hazard by our Field Operations team. Our Field Technicians are hard at work and will have this charger replaced in the near future." Any guess what EVgo thinks is 'near future'?

So perhaps only a temporary closure?

 

[lpickup]

Related: EVgo announces ‘ReNew’ maintenance program to upgrade and replace hundreds of chargers

 

[Plugz]

Glad you found the info regarding the ReNew program. There are some old EVgo sites in central Maryland that could get replaced. I will keep an eye on them.

 

[Delta5]

I think all the EVGo's in Wisconsin should be removed because they've all been delisted from the EVgo app.

I live in Milwaukee and contacted EVGo regarding the four Outpost Natural Foods locations with chargers, including the Mequon location listed above. Their email response, "These chargers are being removed." Those four plus two more in Madison have all been delisted.

 

[lpickup]

Thanks for the update (and reminder--I will go through this list and check on them and take appropriate action).

EVgo started life (as NRG) as a very regional (almost local) provider as opposed to a national network, and while it looked for awhile like they may have broken that barrier, I wonder if they expanded a little too fast and are retrenching a bit now. Which is a bit of a shame because we need the competition, and EVgo, while expensive, is at least fairly reliable (at least in my area) and I do think they are headed in the right direction with their siting strategy and deploying 350kW dual charging stations with two dedicated spots; supplying Tesla charging (even though I never got it working at our local grocery store); and even their attempt to get a "plug and charge" like system working (even though it's not technically the standard).

But at the same time they have apparently pulled out of some regions and even some outlets (last fall they pulled out of many Walmart locations, and even to this day it's not like they have been replaced by a competitor's site)

Hopefully their ReNew program will allow them to refocus their efforts and get back on a good footing, even if it means temporarily pulling out of some markets.

 

[lpickup]

From the above list, I have removed all except for the following:

Dunkin' Donuts - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	9009 20th St	Vero Beach	FL
Dunkin Donuts - Dearborn Heights - *Scheduled for removal in 2 weeks*	4345 S Telegraph Rd	Dearborn Heights	MI
BP - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	2211 Vinnies Way	Charlotte	NC
BP - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	12922 Walker Branch Rd	Charlotte	NC
Earp's Express - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	7020 Brighton Park Dr	Charlotte	NC
Dunkin' Donuts - *Station will be removed from service in 2 weeks*	1057 W Royalton Rd	Broadview Heights	OH

The BP station at 12922 Walker Branch Rd in Charlotte is actually now OPEN as a Freewire station (EVgo is gone).

The other stations have Plugshare entries/comments that indicate at least a non-zero chance that perhaps the outage is temporary, so I will keep them around for now.

 

[Falcon73]

I hope EVgo can get it together. I DO like them the most and certainly more than EA. Autocharge is very handy as well.

EVgo has upgraded a couple sites here locally to much better units, but SEAN was still down when I visited over the w/e. They could use some new sites too. Looking at the above list, they are outside of California, but I know they emailed me that the Delano one was going down (it probably preceded the above). Actually, no West Coast stations are listed above and that's probably telling.

 

[Delta5]

Interesting info about EVgo. Makes sense.

Losing public DC chargers isn’t good but in my experience with EVgo around Chicago & Milwaukee, it might be for the best. Their chargers I’ve used around here are old and often in poor shape. The 6 in Wisconsin perpetually had low PlugShare scores and lots of complaints from others. And many of them around Chicago are the same way, with some having been offline for months. EA is much more reliable here, and that’s saying something.

I just hope some other company (or a revitalized EVgo) replaces the chargers. Since they were active sites, parking, power, & platforms are there; they just need working chargers.

 

[DonTom]

EV-GO obviously uses canned messages, perhaps five or six different ones. I doubt if a real person is involved. We all get the same five ot six different messages when we cannot charge at an EV-Go station on Plugshare. Such as the one I received yesterday, but they no longer insert the location so they can use the exact same canned message everywhere.

EVgo Response
We’re so sorry for the inconvenience. We are currently awaiting the parts necessary to repair this charger. If you’d like us to notify you when the charger is back in service or if we can assist with anything else, please contact us directly using the free EVgo app, by emailing support@EVgo.com, or calling 1-877-494-3833.

Or:

EVgo Response
We're sorry to hear that this charging station is still causing you inconvenience. We are aware of the issue and are currently awaiting the parts necessary to fix this problem. Although we don’t have an exact date for repair completion at this time, we’re working as quickly as possible to repair this charger and apologize for the inconvenience. If you’d like us to notify you when the charger is back in service or if we can assist with anything else, please contact us directly using the free EVgo app, by emailing support@EVgo.com, or calling 1-877-494-3833.

Or:

EVgo Response
We're sorry for the inconvenience. Our technicians are actively monitoring this station while working to reach a resolution. We invite you to download the EVgo app or visit www.evgo.com to find the next available station nearby. If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact Customer Support at 877-494-3833.

or:

EVgo Response
We’re so sorry for the inconvenience. We are working as quickly as possible to have the charger back in service. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide an exact date for when the charger will be up and running again, but please know we are working on it and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. Please use the EVgo app to find the next closest station. If you have any questions, please call 1-877-494-3833.

 

[lpickup]

Here's one I just ran into today:


The "problem"? The problem is the entire site has been removed and it looks like even the conduits have been capped off. Sometimes EVgo does a reasonable job of notifying users and even putting in the Plugshare entry that the site is being decommissioned or will be out of service, but in this case nothing. They just packed up their stations and left everything in limbo.

I want to like EVgo, but that particular response is insulting.

 

[DonTom]

Here's one I just ran into today:

View attachment 214
The "problem"? The problem is the entire site has been removed and it looks like even the conduits have been capped off. Sometimes EVgo does a reasonable job of notifying users and even putting in the Plugshare entry that the site is being decommissioned or will be out of service, but in this case nothing. They just packed up their stations and left everything in limbo.

I want to like EVgo, but that particular response is insulting.

Kinda proves they used canned replies. They would be better off to say nothing at all instead of feeding us obvious untrue nonsense.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[DonTom]

Nyack Road EV-Go and Soda Springs EV-Go (all on CA I-80) adds up to six charge stations out of service--all of them at these locations. Also the only one at Incline Village, NV.

Are these all being replaced? For sure something is happening with EV-Go. All seven of these chargers say "maintenance mode" on the screen and have been out of service for months.

-Don- Reno, NV