We recently returned from a vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC. We live in PA and the trip from home to Myrtle Beach and back was 590 miles each way. We traveled most of the way there and back on US 95 which has a number of Electrify America charging stations along the route. Unfortunately, we experienced issues at every EA station going to Myrtle Beach which I'll detail below:

1st stop: 4 EA charging stations, all open. The first station I used communicated with car but ask for a credit card to continue so I called EA customer support and the fellow that helped me was very nice and rebooted the station remotely (he was in Tennessee) which then allowed me to start charging at no cost.

2nd stop: 4 EA charging stations, all open. Tried the first two stations and received a communication error on both. It was pouring down rain so we decided to move onto the next available EA station about 20 miles away.

3rd stop: 4 EA charging stations, only two were on and both of those were in use so we waited about 20 minutes for one of those to be available. This charging station worked and we charged for free.

4th stop: 4 EA charging stations, tow were throttled down to only 30 kW (useless) and the other two were in use. We waited a 1/2 hour to start charging only to find that this station was also throttled down to 80 kW. This was our last charging stop before leaving US 95 and heading to the coast.

There are no EA charging stations in all of Myrtle Beach (shocking). There is a 62 kW ChargePoint station at the Hyundai dealership which charged $0.50 pkWhr but we had no other options but to charge there during our stay.

On the way home we only needed three stops and all three stations worked.

As for our range, it was great as we averaged 325 miles at 100% SOC. The car performed wonderfully on the road and on the way there we had heavy rain for many miles. Due to the weight of the EQS SUV and four new all-season tires we had installed, it was the most secure feeling I've ever experienced on wet roads. I watched full-size trucks in front of us hydro-planing while we were stable on the road. We love this car and agree it is the best car overall we've ever owned.

If we had access to Tesla's Superchargers, charging would have been less stressful. Our daughter and her husband also traveled to Myrtle Beach in their Tesla Model 3 and the they experienced no issues at all. In fact, one of their charging stops had 40 stations! Mercedes and other manufactures did the right thing by signing agreements with Tesla to switch to NACS charging ports and gaining access to Tesla Superchargers. I can confirm that the Electrify America charging network is not in very good working order and may be in real trouble when most EV manufacturers switch to NACS charging ports.

 

If Tesla keeps rolling out the Magic Dock retrofits at the current pace, it may not be long before you can make that same trip using Tesla Superchargers. For short weekend trips up to 250 miles (one way) I find charging overnight at hotel destination chargers has allowed me to avoid EA altogether. It helps to arrive at the hotel early enough to secure a charger parking spot. It's not uncommon to find ICE vehicles in the EV spots, especially when the hotels are sold out.

 

About those cars parked in the EV spots.......yeah, when I had a Tesla S Moderl I drove over to Sweetwater to the Tesla Supercharger site located behind a hotel (Holiday Inn Express). It was about three AM and no Teslas charging..........most likely because a pickup towing a horse trailer had parked length wise in front of the Chargers. Grrrrrrrr. The Child in me wanted to cut the valve stems on the truck and trailer.

 

EA is so bad you'd think the company is run by teenagers as an after-school project. Doesn’t make sense why it's so bad