City of Pasadena PWP State of DC Fast Chargers June 3, 2025 – 27% Operational

As many know the state of DC Fast charging in Pasadena has declined significantly.  While efforts are being made, the improvements have been minimal at best.

A recently provided report on the state of DC Fast chargers paints a picture that is worse than has been reported…  Pasadena Now refused to approve a comment made on their story, that claimed that PWP reports 60% of chargers are working and that ZERO DC Fast chargers are operational in Glendale.  Both of which claims are blatantly false.

The data provided through a PRA request   There are some obvious missteps the city is taking regarding the control and management of the DC Fast charger systems.  Hopefully we see some adjustments and corrections made.

Several people have sent in correspondence related to the City Budget for 2025-2026 related to the state of EV Charging.

PRA last week.

I converted the pdf into an Excel file to more easily digest the
information and it is worse than what I have experienced.

The summary on the bottom of the Excel says it all.

45 Total
12 Operational
28 Non Operational
5 Partial- Not operational
33 Total not functioning properly
27% Percent Operational
73% Percent Non Operational

1. The new parking of 2 hours on fast chargers is not acceptable, it
is not a best practice to "allow" a 2 hour use of a fast charger.  Del
Mar has a 30min posted limit.  That's what we need at all locations.
If you leave and come back or switch to another charger, that's ok,
but at least give someone else a change to charge.

2.  The rate PWP is charging is low, to the point that many charge on
PWP chargers vs at home because the rate can be less.   The rate is
about half of what others including Tesla, charge.  Why? The rate
seriously needs to be increased to at least a 25% increase.  Still
competitive and have funds to properly maintain chargers.

3. Someone needs to ask where all the money went? Where did the millions go?

4. Overstay fees need to be implemented, if you are fully charged or
over the 30 minutes on DC fast charging you should be charged 50cents
a minute or more. Tesla charges $1 per minute.  This is a precious
resource that needs property use rules. And those that don't follow
should be penalized.

5. Parking enforcement needs to better patrol the EV charges and
enforce CVC 22511 which is posted.

6. We need to stop comparing with other cities that may or may not
have worse charging situations.  Why not compare to cities that have
better charging and have partnerships with EV charging companies like
IONNA and Gravity and EVCS and others...

7. On point 6, the bottom line may be that PWP/Pasadena should not be
in the EV charging space. Mismanagement challenges and other issues
have plagued the project.  Perhaps it makes sense to engage multiple
vendors/providers to install / replace those charger locations that
are not working, like Glanarm/Arroyo. That site has been mostly out of
service for many months. There is basically one working charger and it
is a handicap parking spot.
Most of the chargers PWP has deployed are slower than the slowest
Tesla Supercharger at 50Kw from PWP to 72kW from Tesla... The latest
generation of common DC Fast Chargers are upwards of 250kW and even
much higher.  That's where we need to be.