PowerFlex

This is a strange app. It shows you a “heatmap” for an area and then you zoom in to get closer and closer to the actual location of the charger(s). It does show price and type and availability. But if you filter by CCS, it shows locations and even indicates availability in green, but then shows a “0” in the middle. When you zoom into that charger you see that it doesn’t even HAVE a CCS installed! If I’m planning a road trip, and I filter by CCS, I really only want to know about CCS. This is a huge problem with this app because when you’re busy driving and seeking out the next quick charge, the app will easily mislead you to a 6kwh location when you have already told it you only want CCS Fast Charge locations. Until the day there is finally a universal charging app that homogenizes all these networks and filters and terms and pricing protocols, it behooves developers to get at least the basics like this absolutely right.

The new app is a huge improvement. Powerflex is different than the rest of the charging companies out there and that’s reflected a little in the complexity of their app. The upgrades on this new version make the charging preferences and such optional and way more intuitive. Really looking forward to the pay as you go payment option.

The app upgraded automatically a couple of days ago. When I started using it this morning, the charge station didn’t work. I tried to restart app , log out login and add fund to the account. I also changed a few parking spots but never worked. I called the support number. The support engineer can’t resolve the problem. He saw my session in the backend and station was ready to deliver power. We ended up with the conclusion that my car could have some issue. I drove to supercharge and charged successfully. Apparently my car is ok. Then, I drove to a different PowerFlex station and tried again. I saw similar issue. The session seemed established but my car still reported charging equipment was not ready. I clicked ending session button and started answering a call. Surprisingly, the station started delivering power without a session. I was charging for free. It is apparently an app bug introduced by the upgrade. I highly suspect that there are not enough tests before release.