Flo is the name of the company that provides Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations to Westchester County.
Here is the automated email from Flo to me after I charged my EV yesterday at one of the 50 county administered spots south of the County Center in an unmarked surface parking lot. I've never seen more than the five cars, including mine, that I saw yesterday.
| from: | FLO® <no-reply@flo.com> |
| reply-to: | FLO® <service@flo.ca>
|
| to: | Kenneth Matinale
|
| date: | Apr 14, 2025, 5:44 PM |
| subject: | Summary of your usage session |
_______________________________
Note the Session duration of six hours. It took my car batteries from 44% to 80% charged. That's the slowest I've experienced. I have 80% as the limit in my car settings, as it's recommended for good battery maintenance.
Here is my email to Flo:
| from: | Kenneth Matinale |
| to: | service@flo.ca
|
| date: | Apr 14, 2025, 2:41 PM |
| subject: | App problem reading IDs. |
Screen shot of some of your charging ports at the Westchester County Center in New York State. Taken today around 12:30 PM. These ports always state that their charging speed is limited. I'm charging my EV there now.
The same phone the same day got all five ID digits at the North White Plains train station about a mile away. The fifth digit wrapped down to a second line but was visible.
Both locations are run by Westchester County, NY.
Kenneth Matinale
______________________________________
That's the end of that email.
As you can see, for some reason, many of the 50 EV charging "ports" do not display all five digits. To make it more difficult, the physical numbers are not in sequence, so you cannot even guess the number where you parked. You park, look at the five digit number of the equipment that you will use on your car. Then you look for that number in the Flo app but usually you cannot find it. And with 50 ports, good luck cruising in the app. Finally, it may not be there. Then what?
Maybe it's got something to do with the electrician truck that's parked there 100% of the times that I look at that parking lot.
Remember this from my message to Flo: "These ports always state that their charging speed is limited."
And by always, I mean every time I've charged there.
By the way, three of the ten charging ports at the North White Plains train station are out of service but that is indicated only if you try to access them using the Flo app.
It's good that Westchester County is at least trying to provide much needed EV charging stations. The City of White Plains got into it about six years ago but it has yet to replace its very outdated stuff and increase the number substantially. It's my understanding that the county knows that there is an electrical problem at the 50 EV charging stations (I think they are considered 25, each with two "ports"). The issue here is how many months does it take to get things going? It traces back to November, 2024.
The new county executive will be giving the state of the county speech later this month. No doubt he will mention this as an achievement. Hopefully, such remarks will be objective and informative.
Electric Vehicle charging stations: Westchester County promotes them before activation. What the heck? February 14, 2025
Videos of empty Westchester County EV charging stations, the ones celebrated prematurely. Saturday, February 15, 2025
Westchester County budget for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations. Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Status 4 weeks after 50 EV charging stations announcement: not so good. Friday, March 7, 2025
I charged my EV there Saturday February 22, 2025 at mid day. Three other cars were charging. Many stations did not have full IDs. I had to walk along and try to view them using the app on my phone. Then move my car to one that might work. I got this message, which I sent to the company, Flo:
"Charging output restricted to 6 A due to power sharing between charging stations."
_________________________________________
