NorCal to SoCal: there and back again in about 900 miles (Jan 2024)

Finally. A proper road trip with an April 2023 Mach-E Premium RWD standard range (71 kWh battery). Let me say that the Mach-E was a delight to drive and was easily the best part of the traveling experience. This trip was from home in the Bay Area down to far inland Southern California.

The pros:

• Surprisingly comfortable
• Blue Cruise took so much stress away (in-lane repositioning is nice; disengagements were rare)
• It's nice having 2 driver profiles
• Charging was relatively quick and easy
• Great range efficiency in stop-and-go rush hour traffic
• Met a few Mach-E owners; mostly met other EV others (Kias, Hyundais, Mercedes)

The cons:

• A patchwork of apps for charging networks
• "Where Is That Charger?" game: Is it off the freeway? Is it in a parking garage (and what floor)? Do I go nose-in or tail-in to reach the plug?
• FordPass was down for a few hours on the return trip
• Ford Navigation maps are a little clunky to use, sometimes turn-by-turn directions aren't announced, and it's hard to use while in motion (voice commands aren't super accurate)
• Blue Cruise is still a little twitchy when people cut you off and the brakes are applied hard
• Charging past 80% at a DC Fast Charger is slow
• Average charge for the first 5-10 mins about 105 kW, average charge for 10-25 mins about 60 kW
• Anxiety over how much range did we actually have, where are the chargers?!?!, how long is this wait going to be?

The learnings:

• Enjoy the ride: You can just drive normally (no need to go slow or do hacks like turn off climate controls)
• There are plenty of chargers and most are working
• It's OK to get the car down to 20% SOC; we were timid
• When plug-and-charge works, it's nice
• Average wait is 15 min if there's a lot of stalls, most people are civil and wait in a line
• Install all the apps for all the networks (and create accounts)
• It totally works to use your phone maps to plan a route, and then use Ford Nav to set only the next charger
• Save all the chargers ahead of time in Ford Nav

The details:

I found myself in the position of having to bring a trunkload of family heirlooms to a relative at the other end of the state. So we folded down the back seats and loaded in probably 100 lbs. of stuff. Then we added our luggage and some gifts for the relatives. So going down we started with a full 100% charge, correct PSI in the tires, 2 adults, 2 sets of luggage, and cargo.

Going down, we left a little after 9:00 AM and got to our SoCal destination about 7:30 PM:

• Approx 445 miles
• Approx 8 hours 15 mins driving
• Approx 3 hours of Blue Cruise
• 1 hour 15 mins spent charging
• 4 charging sessions (24% to 85%, 39% to 74%, 58% to 80%, 27% to 71%)
• 15 mins waiting in line to charge
• Additional 10 mins resting or waiting for food or taking breaks
• Approx cost $71 on charging, average 2.81 miles/kWh

The ride was comfortable. The weather was cool (50s and 60s F). We "let the robot drive" (aka Blue Cruise) a lot. We hit some traffic snags on the main I-5 interstate and of course in the greater Los Angeles area. During the 1h 15m charging we did meal and rest breaks. It was actually nice stopping often. There were a few queues for the charging stalls; it wasn't too bad. Charging cables and plugs were in good repair and clean.

Of course, the range was not quite an issue but more of a learning experience. My average when it's just myself rolling around the Bay Area is about 3 mi per kWh (sometimes 3.5 mi/kWh). I charge to 80% and usually the GOM shows about 225 miles. For this trip we went to 100% and the GOM read 248 miles. Once we got on the road it varied a lot:

• About 2.5 mi/kWh on the flats (hauling 2 adults + luggage + cargo)
• About 1.8 mi/kWh climbing
• About 2.8 mi/kWh descending
• About 3.5 mi/kWh in heavy traffic

We're just learning how to use the public charging network and we stuck to Electrify America's DCFC stations. Most were easy to find. Plug-and-charge is nice and it worked about half the time. The other half it was figuring out how to pull up the EA app or use the EA Apple Wallet card (and where to tag it). After a couple of charges we understood how it all works.

Instead of planning the whole route in the Ford navigation, we mapped it out with Apple Maps and ABRP. Then when we were leaving a charger, we'd put the next charger in the system. We found this to be a flexible way of scheduling when we wanted to take our next rest break or if we saw the DCFC stations were full head of us.

Fast forward a few days for the return trip:

I came back solo this time: it was just me and luggage. The car felt lighter and quieter. The weather was warmer, but there were some scary moments descending the Grape Vine hills where it was super dense low-visibility cloud/fog almost the whole 20 miles downhill. Leaving the LA area was tough; but that's SoCal rush hour for you. The car got excellent mileage in the super slow stop-and-go traffic and 1-pedal drive mode: the trip meter read 5.2 mi/kWh for a while.

I left SoCal about 7:55 AM and got home to NorCal about 6:15 PM:

• Approx 452 miles
• Approx 8 hours 30 mins driving
• Approx 4.5 hours of Blue Cruise
• 1 hour 19 mins spent charging
• 5 charging sessions (36% to 70%, 41% to 70%, 38% to 79%, 50% to 80%, 48% to 59%)
• 15 mins waiting in line to charge
• Additional 15 mins resting or waiting for food or taking breaks
• Approx cost $61 on charging, average 3.32 miles/kWh

Ford Nav generally works well. But on those LA freeways it was trying to optimize for faster time and started giving complicated instructions like exit the freeway for a few blocks, or drive south to another parallel freeway. I ended up ignoring some of the instructions and the rerouting happened OK. Setting a charger destination point can be tricky: if the car is stopped typing works fine, but if the car is in motion you have to use Saved destinations or use the voice control. Since you might not know the exact name of the charging stop, asking for it with voice command means it might present you with a few options, but it's a list and hard to know if the stations are near the highway. And, it might be the address to the charger but not the exact charger so battery prewarming might not work. So instead, you can use the Chargers search, but if you're driving towards a point over 100 miles away you might not see the charger you want until you get close. I ended up switching to Apple Maps using Siri to find out the name of the station, and then tell Ford Nav the name---that worked mostly.

There was a weird glitch: because of today's Ford App outage my saved locations didn't load for the middle of the trip. But using the Apple Maps trick to figure out the station name, I was able to set the destination point while the car was rolling.

Driving efficiency was pretty good:

• 2.8 mi/kWh on the flats
• 5.2 mi/kWh in rush hour traffic
• 2.2 mi/kWh climbing
• 3.3 mi/kWh descending

Cost-wise:

• Approx 294 kWh used
• Approx cost $135
• Compared with an ICE using Premium gas* ($154), savings about $19

*Using prices in metro areas. On the interstate it's often cheaper. So charging might actually be slightly more?

You can activate chargers from within the vehicle with the charge assist app on the home screen. You should also have free EA charging for buying the car.

That was a great write up and glad to hear most everything went well for you.

I'm a little confused as to why you used the Ford Nav at all? You seemed to keep having issues with it when you could have just used Apple Maps to plan the trip. From the Bay Area it would have shown you the charging stops between there and your destination and the SOC left when you would arrive at each stop. I used Apple Maps when I drove from here in Sonora (NorCal) to Phoenix which was just over 700 miles and it chose 5 charging stops. One stop was very busy so I chose to go to the next closest which I was easily able to make.

markboris said:

That was a great write up and glad to hear most everything went well for you.

I'm a little confused as to why you used the Ford Nav at all? You seemed to keep having issues with it when you could have just used Apple Maps to plan the trip. From the Bay Area it would have shown you the charging stops between there and your destination and the SOC left when you would arrive at each stop. I used Apple Maps when I drove from here in Sonora (NorCal) to Phoenix which was just over 700 miles and it chose 5 charging stops. One stop was very busy so I chose to go to the next closest which I was easily able to make.

Click to expand...

if you want precondition battery for charging than FordNav have to use

IgorKl said:

if you want precondition battery for charging than FordNav have to use

Click to expand...

Good point. When I drove down a few months ago it was warm, around 80˚+ the whole way.

IgorKl said:

if you want precondition battery for charging than FordNav have to use

Click to expand...

This. ^^^

Also to experience another nav system. The Ford Nav does have carpool lane assistance, which is helpful in LA because can only enter/exit every few miles. And if I for some reason didn't have my phone could I still use a nav system?

EVCheese said:

Finally. A proper road trip with an April 2023 Mach-E Premium RWD standard range (71 kWh battery). Let me say that the Mach-E was a delight to drive and was easily the best part of the traveling experience. This trip was from home in the Bay Area down to far inland Southern California.

The pros:

• Surprisingly comfortable
• Blue Cruise took so much stress away (in-lane repositioning is nice; disengagements were rare)
• It's nice having 2 driver profiles
• Charging was relatively quick and easy
• Great range efficiency in stop-and-go rush hour traffic
• Met a few Mach-E owners; mostly met other EV others (Kias, Hyundais, Mercedes)

The cons:

• A patchwork of apps for charging networks
• "Where Is That Charger?" game: Is it off the freeway? Is it in a parking garage (and what floor)? Do I go nose-in or tail-in to reach the plug?
• FordPass was down for a few hours on the return trip
• Ford Navigation maps are a little clunky to use, sometimes turn-by-turn directions aren't announced, and it's hard to use while in motion (voice commands aren't super accurate)
• Blue Cruise is still a little twitchy when people cut you off and the brakes are applied hard
• Charging past 80% at a DC Fast Charger is slow
• Average charge for the first 5-10 mins about 105 kW, average charge for 10-25 mins about 60 kW
• Anxiety over how much range did we actually have, where are the chargers?!?!, how long is this wait going to be?

The learnings:

• Enjoy the ride: You can just drive normally (no need to go slow or do hacks like turn off climate controls)
• There are plenty of chargers and most are working
• It's OK to get the car down to 20% SOC; we were timid
• When plug-and-charge works, it's nice
• Average wait is 15 min if there's a lot of stalls, most people are civil and wait in a line
• Install all the apps for all the networks (and create accounts)
• It totally works to use your phone maps to plan a route, and then use Ford Nav to set only the next charger
• Save all the chargers ahead of time in Ford Nav

The details:

I found myself in the position of having to bring a trunkload of family heirlooms to a relative at the other end of the state. So we folded down the back seats and loaded in probably 100 lbs. of stuff. Then we added our luggage and some gifts for the relatives. So going down we started with a full 100% charge, correct PSI in the tires, 2 adults, 2 sets of luggage, and cargo.

Going down, we left a little after 9:00 AM and got to our SoCal destination about 7:30 PM:

• Approx 445 miles
• Approx 8 hours 15 mins travel
• Approx 3 hours of Blue Cruise
• 1 hour 15 mins spent charging
• 4 charging sessions (24% to 85%, 39% to 74%, 58% to 80%, 27% to 71%)
• 15 mins waiting in line to charge
• Additional 10 mins resting or waiting for food or taking breaks

The ride was comfortable. The weather was cool (50s and 60s F). We "let the robot drive" (aka Blue Cruise) a lot. We hit some traffic snags on the main I-5 interstate and of course in the greater Los Angeles area. During the 1h 15m charging we did meal and rest breaks. It was actually nice stopping often. There were a few queues for the charging stalls; it wasn't too bad. Charging cables and plugs were in good repair and clean.

Of course, the range was not quite an issue but more of a learning experience. My average when it's just myself rolling around the Bay Area is about 3 mi per kWh (sometimes 3.5 mi/kWh). I charge to 80% and usually the GOM shows about 225 miles. For this trip we went to 100% and the GOM read 248 miles. Once we got on the road it varied a lot:

• About 2.5 mi/kWh on the flats (hauling 2 adults + luggage + cargo)
• About 1.8 mi/kWh climbing
• About 2.8 mi/kWh descending
• About 3.5 mi/kWh in heavy traffic

We're just learning how to use the public charging network and we stuck to Electrify America's DCFC stations. Most were easy to find. Plug-and-charge is nice and it worked about half the time. The other half it was figuring out how to pull up the EA app or use the EA Apple Wallet card (and where to tag it). After a couple of charges we understood how it all works.

Instead of planning the whole route in the Ford navigation, we mapped it out with Apple Maps and ABRP. Then when we were leaving a charger, we'd put the next charger in the system. We found this to be a flexible way of scheduling when we wanted to take our next rest break or if we saw the DCFC stations were full head of us.

Fast forward a few days for the return trip:

I came back solo this time: it was just me and luggage. The car felt lighter and quieter. The weather was warmer, but there were some scary moments descending the Grape Vine hills where it was super dense low-visibility cloud/fog almost the whole 20 miles downhill. Leaving the LA area was tough; but that's SoCal rush hour for you. The car got excellent mileage in the super slow stop-and-go traffic and 1-pedal drive mode: the trip meter read 5.2 mi/kWh for a while.

I left SoCal about 7:55 AM and got home to NorCal about 6:15 PM:

• Approx 452 miles
• Approx 8 hours 30 mins travel
• Approx 4.5 hours of Blue Cruise
• 1 hour 19 mins spent charging
• 5 charging sessions (36% to 70%, 41% to 70%, 38% to 79%, 50% to 80%, 48% to 59%)
• 15 mins waiting in line to charge
• Additional 15 mins resting or waiting for food or taking breaks

Ford Nav generally works well. But on those LA freeways it was trying to optimize for faster time and started giving complicated instructions like exit the freeway for a few blocks, or drive south to another parallel freeway. I ended up ignoring some of the instructions and the rerouting happened OK. Setting a charger destination point can be tricky: if the car is stopped typing works fine, but if the car is in motion you have to use Saved destinations or use the voice control. The Since you might not know the exact name of the charging stop, asking for it with voice command means it might present you with a few options, but it's a list and hard to know if the stations are near the highway. And, it might be the address to the charger but no the exact charger so battery prewarming might not work. So instead, you can use the Chargers search, but if you're driving towards a point over 100 miles away you might not see the charger you want until you get close. I ended up switching to Apple Maps using Siri to find out the name of the station, and then tell Ford Nav the name---that worked mostly.

There was a weird glitch: because of today's Ford App outage my saved locations didn't load for the middle of the trip. But using the Apple Maps trick to figure out the station name, I was able to set the destination point while the car was rolling.

Driving efficiency was pretty good:

• 2.8 mi/kWh on the flats
• 5.2 mi/kWh in rush hour traffic
• 2.2 mi/kWh climbing
• 3.3 mi/kWh descending

Click to expand...

That's awesome! We're so glad to see the adventures everyone is taking with their Mach-E!

IgorKl said:

if you want precondition battery for charging than FordNav have to use

Click to expand...

What do you mean by pre-conditioning the battery?

MerylLynn said:

What do you mean by pre-conditioning the battery?

Click to expand...

The car will warm the battery to ensure it is at an optimal temperature for fast charging. Cold batteries don't charge as fast as warm ones. FordNav will trigger the battery warming automatically while you are driving, usually about 20 miles from the charger.

The battery likes to be pretty warm, so "warm" ambient air temps for you may not fit the battery's definition of "warm"

EVCheese said:

Finally. A proper road trip with an April 2023 Mach-E Premium RWD standard range (71 kWh battery). Let me say that the Mach-E was a delight to drive and was easily the best part of the traveling experience. This trip was from home in the Bay Area down to far inland Southern California.

The pros:

• Surprisingly comfortable
• Blue Cruise took so much stress away (in-lane repositioning is nice; disengagements were rare)
• It's nice having 2 driver profiles
• Charging was relatively quick and easy
• Great range efficiency in stop-and-go rush hour traffic
• Met a few Mach-E owners; mostly met other EV others (Kias, Hyundais, Mercedes)

The cons:

• A patchwork of apps for charging networks
• "Where Is That Charger?" game: Is it off the freeway? Is it in a parking garage (and what floor)? Do I go nose-in or tail-in to reach the plug?
• FordPass was down for a few hours on the return trip
• Ford Navigation maps are a little clunky to use, sometimes turn-by-turn directions aren't announced, and it's hard to use while in motion (voice commands aren't super accurate)
• Blue Cruise is still a little twitchy when people cut you off and the brakes are applied hard
• Charging past 80% at a DC Fast Charger is slow
• Average charge for the first 5-10 mins about 105 kW, average charge for 10-25 mins about 60 kW
• Anxiety over how much range did we actually have, where are the chargers?!?!, how long is this wait going to be?

The learnings:

• Enjoy the ride: You can just drive normally (no need to go slow or do hacks like turn off climate controls)
• There are plenty of chargers and most are working
• It's OK to get the car down to 20% SOC; we were timid
• When plug-and-charge works, it's nice
• Average wait is 15 min if there's a lot of stalls, most people are civil and wait in a line
• Install all the apps for all the networks (and create accounts)
• It totally works to use your phone maps to plan a route, and then use Ford Nav to set only the next charger
• Save all the chargers ahead of time in Ford Nav

The details:

I found myself in the position of having to bring a trunkload of family heirlooms to a relative at the other end of the state. So we folded down the back seats and loaded in probably 100 lbs. of stuff. Then we added our luggage and some gifts for the relatives. So going down we started with a full 100% charge, correct PSI in the tires, 2 adults, 2 sets of luggage, and cargo.

Going down, we left a little after 9:00 AM and got to our SoCal destination about 7:30 PM:

• Approx 445 miles
• Approx 8 hours 15 mins travel
• Approx 3 hours of Blue Cruise
• 1 hour 15 mins spent charging
• 4 charging sessions (24% to 85%, 39% to 74%, 58% to 80%, 27% to 71%)
• 15 mins waiting in line to charge
• Additional 10 mins resting or waiting for food or taking breaks

The ride was comfortable. The weather was cool (50s and 60s F). We "let the robot drive" (aka Blue Cruise) a lot. We hit some traffic snags on the main I-5 interstate and of course in the greater Los Angeles area. During the 1h 15m charging we did meal and rest breaks. It was actually nice stopping often. There were a few queues for the charging stalls; it wasn't too bad. Charging cables and plugs were in good repair and clean.

Of course, the range was not quite an issue but more of a learning experience. My average when it's just myself rolling around the Bay Area is about 3 mi per kWh (sometimes 3.5 mi/kWh). I charge to 80% and usually the GOM shows about 225 miles. For this trip we went to 100% and the GOM read 248 miles. Once we got on the road it varied a lot:

• About 2.5 mi/kWh on the flats (hauling 2 adults + luggage + cargo)
• About 1.8 mi/kWh climbing
• About 2.8 mi/kWh descending
• About 3.5 mi/kWh in heavy traffic

We're just learning how to use the public charging network and we stuck to Electrify America's DCFC stations. Most were easy to find. Plug-and-charge is nice and it worked about half the time. The other half it was figuring out how to pull up the EA app or use the EA Apple Wallet card (and where to tag it). After a couple of charges we understood how it all works.

Instead of planning the whole route in the Ford navigation, we mapped it out with Apple Maps and ABRP. Then when we were leaving a charger, we'd put the next charger in the system. We found this to be a flexible way of scheduling when we wanted to take our next rest break or if we saw the DCFC stations were full head of us.

Fast forward a few days for the return trip:

I came back solo this time: it was just me and luggage. The car felt lighter and quieter. The weather was warmer, but there were some scary moments descending the Grape Vine hills where it was super dense low-visibility cloud/fog almost the whole 20 miles downhill. Leaving the LA area was tough; but that's SoCal rush hour for you. The car got excellent mileage in the super slow stop-and-go traffic and 1-pedal drive mode: the trip meter read 5.2 mi/kWh for a while.

I left SoCal about 7:55 AM and got home to NorCal about 6:15 PM:

• Approx 452 miles
• Approx 8 hours 30 mins travel
• Approx 4.5 hours of Blue Cruise
• 1 hour 19 mins spent charging
• 5 charging sessions (36% to 70%, 41% to 70%, 38% to 79%, 50% to 80%, 48% to 59%)
• 15 mins waiting in line to charge
• Additional 15 mins resting or waiting for food or taking breaks

Ford Nav generally works well. But on those LA freeways it was trying to optimize for faster time and started giving complicated instructions like exit the freeway for a few blocks, or drive south to another parallel freeway. I ended up ignoring some of the instructions and the rerouting happened OK. Setting a charger destination point can be tricky: if the car is stopped typing works fine, but if the car is in motion you have to use Saved destinations or use the voice control. The Since you might not know the exact name of the charging stop, asking for it with voice command means it might present you with a few options, but it's a list and hard to know if the stations are near the highway. And, it might be the address to the charger but no the exact charger so battery prewarming might not work. So instead, you can use the Chargers search, but if you're driving towards a point over 100 miles away you might not see the charger you want until you get close. I ended up switching to Apple Maps using Siri to find out the name of the station, and then tell Ford Nav the name---that worked mostly.

There was a weird glitch: because of today's Ford App outage my saved locations didn't load for the middle of the trip. But using the Apple Maps trick to figure out the station name, I was able to set the destination point while the car was rolling.

Driving efficiency was pretty good:

• 2.8 mi/kWh on the flats
• 5.2 mi/kWh in rush hour traffic
• 2.2 mi/kWh climbing
• 3.3 mi/kWh descending

Click to expand...

Thank you for the kwH estimates. I live on a big hill and am a little flustered, getting just 1.8 kwH going up, 2.8 to 3.1vgoing down (in a new 2023 AWD).

I am still surprised to see writeups about trips. I have just gone ahead and done them, assuming they are part of owing a vehicle, whatever kind. I am in Portland, OR and my son lives in the Methow Valley, Northcentral Washington. 400 miles. We go up to ski or hike, so just headed out in January 2023 with a 4 month old PremierDualExt. Being winter, we stopped to charge more often: every 100 miles on average. We are in our latter 70's so stops are ...necessary. Charged at Walmarts and a supermarket (two EAs and an EVgo?). Hood River/Yakima/Leavenworth. Most of the trip above freezing. 9 hours. Then 7 days later we got sick, finally diagnosed as Covid, and we headed straight home to Oregon. I did all the driving home (being less ill than my wife). Drove straight thru, no problems, same charging stations in reverse. 8 hours. Best long distance rides I have ever had. I didn't record any data like EVCheese, but my typical is 3.0 mi/kWh.

In short, we all have nice cars. "Let's go places!" (sorry about that quote, but it applies)

FordFamily said:

I am still surprised to see writeups about trips. I have just gone ahead and done them, assuming they are part of owing a vehicle, whatever kind. I am in Portland, OR and my son lives in the Methow Valley, Northcentral Washington. 400 miles. We go up to ski or hike, so just headed out in January 2023 with a 4 month old PremierDualExt. Being winter, we stopped to charge more often: every 100 miles on average. We are in our latter 70's so stops are ...necessary. Charged at Walmarts and a supermarket (two EAs and an EVgo?). Hood River/Yakima/Leavenworth. Most of the trip above freezing. 9 hours. Then 7 days later we got sick, finally diagnosed as Covid, and we headed straight home to Oregon. I did all the driving home (being less ill than my wife). Drove straight thru, no problems, same charging stations in reverse. 8 hours. Best long distance rides I have ever had. I didn't record any data like EVCheese, but my typical is 3.0 mi/kWh.

In short, we all have nice cars. "Let's go places!" (sorry about that quote, but it applies)

Click to expand...

Part of this is quelling range anxiety. In the gas car, we have our usual stops every couple of hours. In the EV, to do the same means longer charging at every stop. It's a new world for me and I had a lot of questions. There's a lot of FUD out there. I feel like putting this data out there just helps reinforce that the EV is a practical vehicle.

MellowJohnny said:

The car will warm the battery to ensure it is at an optimal temperature for fast charging. Cold batteries don't charge as fast as warm ones. FordNav will trigger the battery warming automatically while you are driving, usually about 20 miles from the charger.

The battery likes to be pretty warm, so "warm" ambient air temps for you may not fit the battery's definition of "warm"

Click to expand...

It should also cool the battery if it’s too warm. ??

HuntingPudel said:

It should also cool the battery if it’s too warm. ??

Click to expand...

Ah yes, excellent point! Forgot about "summer"....seems so far away

thanks for the writeup

since you posted range, i wonder if you noted the percentage climate control. eg, what could you have saved if you could deal with the annoyed Passengers