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well if yall really want your mind blown on EA not working as it is suppose too. But in my case for the good. I can charge any car on the BMW 2 year charging. I thought it would be locked to the car but nope... I for the heck of it one plugged in my audi and clicked the bmw charge account and... it charged the car for free. so I pushed it and with an adaptor plugged in my buddies tesla yup it started right up on the bmw account and charged the car for free. at least in my case it doesnt seem to care what car is plugged into and using the account.
You know, you can also give your Netflix password to your neighbors.
 
w

You know, you can also give your Netflix password to your neighbors.
not in a few months you cant :) But with the cars account I figured it would check the vin or something first to make sure the correct car was plugged in but in my case anyway dosent seem to matter.
 
not in a few months you cant :) But with the cars account I figured it would check the vin or something first to make sure the correct car was plugged in but in my case anyway dosent seem to matter.
Well, (IMHO) it's never been ethical, but technically possible, at least for now. Suppliers tend to close these holes once they lose too much revenue and/or they become well publicised.
 
Well, (IMHO) it's never been ethical, but technically possible, at least for now. Suppliers tend to close these holes once they lose too much revenue and/or they become well publicised.
well to be fair it does say the car comes with two years of bmw charging it doesn't say anywhere it is specifically for that car. actually other then a short blurp on their web site there really isnt much info on the included charging other then you get it with the car. most all the info on even how to use it or activate it comes from EA not BMW. so is it a loop hole when the rules aren't provided? I saw nothing that said i had to only charge this car with it. I even told corporate I was able to do it ( during my many phone calls with them) they didn't seen to care honestly. IM actually an honest guy all around. Yeah I did it but I also told on myself and no one cared so... Like the old flintstones cartoon when wilma and betty goes shopping... da da da danta da charge it :)

also foot note if you knew all I been through with BMW ( my other posts) I think they can spare me a few extra charges :)
 
Discussion starter · #45 ·
Out of curiosity how much was the cost for the charge?

Also how much of an increase in battery did you receive?

Thank You
$12 and it went from 48-80% in 25 minutes. Didn't get the full 30 because I have it set to charge to 80% and stop. I got refunded so no harm no foul, and the next time I went, I figured out how to use it properly
 
Discussion starter · #46 ·
I will try to help by adding a few obvious (stupid) questions:

Have you set up a free account, using the code provided by your bmw dealer?

Have you set that free account as the default payment method?

For my first charging session I also thought I was being charged and filed a complaint via the app. I later discovered that I had already been given the credit automatically.

I'd bet that EA is accustomed to first time customers complaining about being charged.

I don't know whether the unit can potentially charge two vehicles, but sometimes one cable can be out of order.

So another thread about EA plug issue
Yeah, it was user error. I was rushing for no reason, and ended up starting before I fully read what to do, and ended up paying with my credit card. I got refunded, and the next time I went, I got it to work properly.
 
Discussion starter · #47 ·
That is correct. One charger for One car - the 2 hoses are to easier reach to different charge port locations.

I have come across EA chargers where one side works while the other is broken so you may have to repark to reach.

The new EA chargers remove this confusion by including only a single longer charge cable.
Your first point is what I keep seeing, and I'm sorry, that just doesn't make sense. The cords are on opposite sides of a 2-foot wide tower with equal length cords. No matter where a charging port is, 2 feet is 2 feet. One will not be THAT much longer to reach a port on the left rear vs one on the right front. I must be missing something lol! Another point about one person plugged in and in use while another is waiting makes a bit more sense, if there are 2 cars straddling one charger station, but even then, if only one cord can be used at a time, all you are doing is saving 10 seconds by having the second cord plugged in and ready to go once the first one is done being used.

If they are now only using 1 long cord that could reach any side of any car, that makes more sense.
 
Your first point is what I keep seeing, and I'm sorry, that just doesn't make sense. The cords are on opposite sides of a 2-foot wide tower with equal length cords. No matter where a charging port is, 2 feet is 2 feet. One will not be THAT much longer to reach a port on the left rear vs one on the right front. I must be missing something lol! Another point about one person plugged in and in use while another is waiting makes a bit more sense, if there are 2 cars straddling one charger station, but even then, if only one cord can be used at a time, all you are doing is saving 10 seconds by having the second cord plugged in and ready to go once the first one is done being used.

If they are now only using 1 long cord that could reach any side of any car, that makes more sense.
They’re designed with two cables for two plug types (even though it turned out that wasn’t needed as much today).
 
Also it's possible that they use the same chargers in other locations where it might have TWO parking spots, one in front and one behind (other side) and perhaps in those markets they both work at once? Dunno, but one never knows.

ANYWAY thanks for this thread, I was reading through all EA threads before picking up our car tomorrow (!) just to better understand. I now have my EA app all set up, BMW free plan entered, Credit Card entered... I just don't see any way to select the plan as the "primary" payment method... On the PAYMENT screen I see my EA Current balance at top, then my 2023 BMW Membership, and below that my saved Credit Card.
Am I missing something, or am I good to go?

BTW I was wondering if I could do this before actually taking delivery, and the answer is YES - but my car is already at the dealer waiting on me so for all it knows I am sitting with a Dealer employee trying to set it up. Might not work months in advance... IF it did you could charge other cars while waiting!!! Poorly defined promotion...
 
Also it's possible that they use the same chargers in other locations where it might have TWO parking spots, one in front and one behind (other side) and perhaps in those markets they both work at once? Dunno, but one never knows.

ANYWAY thanks for this thread, I was reading through all EA threads before picking up our car tomorrow (!) just to better understand. I now have my EA app all set up, BMW free plan entered, Credit Card entered... I just don't see any way to select the plan as the "primary" payment method... On the PAYMENT screen I see my EA Current balance at top, then my 2023 BMW Membership, and below that my saved Credit Card.
Am I missing something, or am I good to go?

BTW I was wondering if I could do this before actually taking delivery, and the answer is YES - but my car is already at the dealer waiting on me so for all it knows I am sitting with a Dealer employee trying to set it up. Might not work months in advance... IF it did you could charge other cars while waiting!!! Poorly defined promotion...
you should be good.....sounds like the way I set mine up when picked up my car August 2022. Enjoy!
 
Oops, I meant to post this here but accidentally posted it in a similar thread I was reading...

I took our new-ish i4 to an EA fast charger (the only one in our city :-/ but luckily only ~13 mins away) just to go through the process to see how smooth it was, before we have to do it on a road trip someday. The car had only been charged once fully at our home, and another short session immediately before I decided to head to the EA station to try it. I used the onboard Nav, filtered to only show EA and nav'd to it to do the pre-conditioning. It went smoothly, but interesting to go through it the first time. BTW I also did use only the EA app to start the charging session. It also gave me notifications for "Your charging sessions started", "Your charging sessions stopped" and a final "Charging sessions summary", all notifications pop up the EA app if you click on them.

I arrived at ~44%, and it projected 31 minutes to hit 80%. Actually it got close to 80% well before the projected time, so I bumped the SOC target up to 85% to enjoy a bit more free juice. I stopped it manually at 84%. So a 40% charge in 24 mins.
And I felt slightly guilty about going above 80%... I rationalized it by driving home and using up maybe 2% so when I got home and stowed it in the garage it was sitting at only 82%.
I know I know it's not a big deal. I figured 80-target might be a bit conservative anyway.

BTW it started charging at a rate of 147 kWh, and slowed to about 55 by the time it was done. But Mission Accomplished - now I know that a 150 kWh charger will give me 40% in under our free 30 mins. And if I arrived at a lower SOC I can likely get over well 50% charge within the free session. In fact, I wish I had decided to go to the EA station before I started charging in the garage; I had charged from ~33 to ~44 at home before I disconnected. I could have gotten a bit better charge. But it's academic really.

One odd glitch - I was watching the charging session in the EA app, ready to hit the STOP button if it got up to 29 minutes. I minimized that window with the little double arrows at the top right, to check other parts of the app, thinking I would be able to go back to my charging session, but I never was able to see a way to bring it up again. Anyone know how? They need a highlighted button somewhere that reads something like "Active Session" so you can pull it up again. In my case, I got out and used the STOP button on the dispenser screen itself when I hit 84%.
 
Oops, I meant to post this here but accidentally posted it in a similar thread I was reading...

I took our new-ish i4 to an EA fast charger (the only one in our city :-/ but luckily only ~13 mins away) just to go through the process to see how smooth it was, before we have to do it on a road trip someday. The car had only been charged once fully at our home, and another short session immediately before I decided to head to the EA station to try it. I used the onboard Nav, filtered to only show EA and nav'd to it to do the pre-conditioning. It went smoothly, but interesting to go through it the first time. BTW I also did use only the EA app to start the charging session. It also gave me notifications for "Your charging sessions started", "Your charging sessions stopped" and a final "Charging sessions summary", all notifications pop up the EA app if you click on them.

I arrived at ~44%, and it projected 31 minutes to hit 80%. Actually it got close to 80% well before the projected time, so I bumped the SOC target up to 85% to enjoy a bit more free juice. I stopped it manually at 84%. So a 40% charge in 24 mins.
And I felt slightly guilty about going above 80%... I rationalized it by driving home and using up maybe 2% so when I got home and stowed it in the garage it was sitting at only 82%.
I know I know it's not a big deal. I figured 80-target might be a bit conservative anyway.

BTW it started charging at a rate of 147 kWh, and slowed to about 55 by the time it was done. But Mission Accomplished - now I know that a 150 kWh charger will give me 40% in under our free 30 mins. And if I arrived at a lower SOC I can likely get over well 50% charge within the free session. In fact, I wish I had decided to go to the EA station before I started charging in the garage; I had charged from ~33 to ~44 at home before I disconnected. I could have gotten a bit better charge. But it's academic really.

One odd glitch - I was watching the charging session in the EA app, ready to hit the STOP button if it got up to 29 minutes. I minimized that window with the little double arrows at the top right, to check other parts of the app, thinking I would be able to go back to my charging session, but I never was able to see a way to bring it up again. Anyone know how? They need a highlighted button somewhere that reads something like "Active Session" so you can pull it up again. In my case, I got out and used the STOP button on the dispenser screen itself when I hit 84%.
I'm not sure if I understand your question. I think you're saying you reduced the window and lost your active session? In the past, I've just reopened the app and I usually can get back to the active session once the app is reopened. I think I've also used the text messages to get back to the active updates. Other than closing and restarting the app, I'm not aware of anyway to back up once you've left your original EA session.
 
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