At Electrify America, we’re committed to delivering a positive charging experience for every driver. As we explore strategies to reduce wait times and increase throughput across our network, we’ve enforced a State of Charge (SOC) limit at select locations.
Once a vehicle reaches 85% State of Charge, the charging session will automatically end, and drivers will have 10 minutes to move their vehicle before idle fees are incurred.
Inspired by our customers' feedback, this effort will be conducted across various stations. Our team will continuously monitor station performance and customer sentiment and adjust as needed.
Check the Electrify America mobile app or website to explore nearby stations included in the Congestion Reduction Effort.
Stations included in the effort will appear with the “85% Limit” banner or pop-up shown below.
Example from Locate a Charger map
Example from the mobile app
To find which stations are included in the Congestion Reduction Effort, you can view your preferred station within the Electrify America mobile app. Participating stations will display an “85% Limit” banner when selected in the app.
The stations selected for this effort are highly-utilized locations that were carefully selected in urban areas where DC fast charging is more accessible with other stations nearby. Locations along highway corridors are not part of our Congestion Reduction Effort to ensure EV drivers can get enough charge to make it to their destination. Visit the Locate a Charger page to find another charging station near you if you’d like to explore other locations not involved in the Congestion Reduction Effort.
This station is part of the Congestion Reduction Effort and has been identified as a high utilization station. To reduce wait times and ensure EV drivers can charge in a timely manner, the chargers at this station will end your session once your vehicle reaches 85% State of Charge (SOC). For more information on charging speeds, please see the section “What happens when I charge” on the Getting Started with Electrify America webpage.
The goal of the Congestion Reduction Effort is to reduce queuing at select high utilization charging stations – thereby allowing more people to charge in a timely manner.
The Congestion Reduction Effort will limit your charging session to an 85% SOC.
If you try to start a charging session with an SOC at or above 85%, your charge will not initiate and you will receive a "Charge Error" message on either the HMI screen or within the Electrify America app, depending on how the charge was initiated.
SOC is the equivalent of a fuel gauge for the battery pack in an EV. SOC is calculated by the vehicle and communicated from the vehicle to the charger. The units of SOC are percentage points, with 0% meaning no charge left and 100% meaning fully charged. If your car makes the information available, our charging stations will tell you the SOC of your vehicle as you charge.
Each electric vehicle is different. It can often be found on your vehicle's dash or instrument cluster, but please see your vehicle's owner’s manual or automotive website for details.
This Congestion Reduction Effort is currently limited to specific charging stations. We will be reviewing customer feedback and evaluating next steps.
We will share additional information as we evaluate the next steps for this effort.
The goal of this Congestion Reduction Effort is to reduce queuing and evaluate customer feedback. We will be monitoring the effort daily and making ongoing changes and adjustments as necessary.
We are evaluating the impact of State of Charge (SOC) limit enforcement on charging station congestion and queueing by reviewing customer feedback and station throughput. We will be monitoring the effort daily and making ongoing changes as necessary.
We are currently limiting SOC at select locations. We considered station utilization and the distance between stations when selecting locations for effort programs.
The charging stations in the Congestion Reduction Effort were chosen due to high utilization and queuing concerns.
The 85% State of Charge (SOC) limit will be enforced on all charging sessions at select locations. Please visit the Locate a Charger page to find another charging station near you if you’d like to explore other locations not involved in the Congestion Reduction Effort.
The 85% State of Charge (SOC) limit will be enforced on all charging sessions at select locations. Please visit the Locate a Charger page to find another charging station near you if you’d like to explore other locations not involved in the Congestion Reduction Effort.
We recommend planning your trip before departing and identifying which locations are included in the effort program. Please visit the Locate a Charger page to find another charging station near you if you’d like to explore other locations not involved in the Congestion Reduction Effort.
To reduce congestion at the effort stations, all charging sessions and EVs will be limited to 85% State of Charge (SOC). Due to fluctuating customer utilization demands, this limitation will be in effect for all customers at all hours of this effort to allow customers to charge in a quick and efficient manner.
Once your EV has reached 85% SOC, the charger will stop charging your vehicle, and the 10-minute grace period will begin. After the grace period is over, idle fees will be incurred.
Chargers in the Congestion Reduction Effort are programmed to stop charging when your electric vehicle (EV) has reached 85% State of Charge (SOC). They have also been programmed not to begin a charge if it exceeds the SOC limit established. If you unplug and plug back in, the charger will communicate with your vehicle, register the vehicle's SOC, and will not begin to charge.
When you plug your EV into an Electrify America charger, the EV and the charger communicate – the vehicle tells the charger the current battery SOC, the battery temperature, and other information necessary to start a charging session. After that information is passed over from the vehicle, the Electrify America charger will start the charge if the SOC is below 85%.
Yes, other EV charging networks have enabled State of Charge (SOC) limitations.
Please see the “What happens when I charge” section on the Getting Started with Electrify America webpage.
The range of each EV is different and depends on many variables such as the weather, the EV battery health, the terrain, etc. For further questions regarding your EV’s range, please see your vehicle manufacturer’s owner’s manual or automotive website.
Toward the end of any charging session, you may notice charging speeds (kW) slow down. EVs “bulk charge” and slow their charging speed when they reach about 80%. Because of this, we recommend unplugging your vehicle after bulk charging has occurred.
Yes. Once your EV has reached 85% State of Charge, the charger will stop charging your vehicle, and the 10-minute grace period will begin before idle fees are incurred.
Electrify America anticipates that this will help reduce wait times for EV drivers.
In addition to rolling out idle fees across the network, Electrify America will continue to build more and larger charging stations to better serve the EV community.