On a drive back from New Hampshire, we made a stop at the Electrify America chargers in Seabrook. We had good luck in the past, and thought we would do some shopping at the Wal-Mart nearby while waiting for the charge. It was even quite a thrill when we pulled in and saw that the Hyper Fast (up to 350kW) charging station was available. It even prompted a high five when we parked.

We had a few hiccups getting the charger to start, but after three attempts, the whir of electricity production began. I checked my Ford app and saw that I would be at 80 percent in 30 minutes. That prompted a woo-hoo.

After picking up a “few things” at Wal-Mart in the next 25 minutes, we checked the status of the charge. Unfortunately, the output had dropped to 17 kW and, according to the app, the charge would take another hour. Not the news you want to hear on a Sunday evening when headed home.

As nice as Wal-Mart may be, the thought of another hour in there was not in the cards. Instead, we would take what we could get for charge and get home. When we got out to the car, we saw that we had added only 32 percent in the 34 minutes the car sat at the charger. That’s hardly hyper and certainly not fast. I’ll report it to the folks at Electrify America, but if history is any indication, I don’t expect to hear back and won’t count on them repairing the station any time soon.

Under consideration in the 2024 climate bill are provisions calling for inspection and maintenance of charging stations in Massachusetts. Surprisingly (and frustratingly), as this article points out, one out of every five visits reportedly ends without charging. The most vocal opponents of these provisions were charging companies who neglect maintenance at these the stations. But we will proceed despite the opposition. These companies must do better in order to convince people to make the transition to electric vehicles and we will hold them accountable.