EVgo CCS woes

Regarding a 2014 BEV with DCFC...

I've got about a 50% success rate with L3 EVGo / CCS charging (L2 charging works 100% of the time).

When trying to charge from an EVgo CCS station, half the time (having connected the CCS cable) the EVgo station refuses to start charging.

I've made a solid mechanical connection by firmly inserting the CCS plug, but if I don't immediately hear activation of the locking servo (which prevents disconnecting a CCS cable during charging) then I know the session won't start.

Sometimes I can get the i3 and the EVSE to acknowledge each other by playing around with the connection.

Just today I fought with an EVGo DCFC connection for fifteen minutes before giving up and moving over to an L2 connection.

Suggestions would be appreciated!

Some have indicated better success rates if when first installing the connector to lift up slightly to take some of the weight off of the receptacle. This is reported to allow better contacts between the ACV input lines that are used as signal lines when doing CCS charging. Those pins serve dual functions...the ACV input lines when doing EVSE charging, and data signal lines when doing CCS charging. Supposedly, it's the initial handshake that is the majority of the problem.

Let us know if that makes any difference for you. While I've had my i3 for over 4-years now, I've still not needed to try a CCS unit. I meant to try it before the warranty expired, but never got around to it.

At least around here a lot of the CCS connector's latches are broken off, preventing the car from locking, causing the session to fail. This problem seems to only be common with the "type 1" CCS connectors that we commonly use here in America. The European-common CCS type 2 has a different locking latch design, in which the latch is inside of the car's receptacle.

I've had 100% success with EVgo if the ambient temp is less than 90 F or so. 0% success if it's hotter than that.

I’ve been using EVgo CCS units regularly since they started appearing in the SF Bay Area in 2015. Initially the failure rate was minimal but over time it increased. To the point that by 2017, I was seeing about a 25% fail. Then EVgo replaced most of the cables/connectors and added the tension/retractor cables to the setup. This year, reliability has been essentially perfect again.

The only suggestion I have is to let EVgo know about the problems. They have the ability to correct the situation. In addition to the customer service number, they seem to monitor PlugShare comments on individual stations. I’ve seen their techs post notices about repair status such as parts on back order.

For what it’s worth, the trick of lifting the handle never worked for me.