JohnnyForensic
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- First Name
- John
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- Apr 14, 2021
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- VA, US
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- '21 Infinite Blue MME 4X Premium
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A little over 600 miles in total, this was my first “long range” trip with the Mach-E. Bottom line up front, the trip was smooth and largely free of issues. Even in mid-30 degree temperatures, ascending into the Appalachian mountains, and driving 60-70 mph for the most part, I still managed to hit about an overall 3.1 efficiency. I used Plug and Charge at three EA stations each direction with absolutely no hiccups whatsoever.
Instead of documenting all of the charging stops and the charge rates, I’ll just talk about the things I found interesting and/or learned on the trip.
Speed kills…your range.
We all know that driving faster means shoving more electrons through the pipe, but it’s really noticeable on long stretches of fast highway. Where I live, most of my highways are limited to 55 mph, so I typically have an overall efficiency in the 3.1 - 3.3 range. Going up the side of a mountain at 70 mph frequently dropped that to low 2.X values. However, I didn’t have range anxiety, because I…
Add one more charging stop than was necessary (and maybe even two).
If I were really, really crazy, I could have pushed through one-direction on two charges, but the hotel garage not only didn’t have EV charging, but also high speed EV charging options for Cleveland are really limited in general. EVgo seems to have the area largely locked-up (and I mean that very, very loosely because even what they offer is sparse) with 50 kw chargers, and the one charger even remotely nearby my North Cleveland hotel has been broken for over a month according to PlugShare, so I mapped out a route with three brief charging stops along the way. This let me arrive at the hotel with more than 50% battery, needing about 25% to get back to the closest Electrify America charger. Honestly, this not only eliminated range anxiety, but it reduced the stress of the overall trip.
All three of my stops were at Sheetz gas stations/convenience stores with EA 300 kw chargers. For road trips, these locations turned out to work really well. Sheetz stores generally have decently clean bathrooms, a good selection of drinks and snacks, and a full fast-food “made to order” menu inside. It’s not five star dining in any sense of the word, but you can get something fast and hot.
With the three planned charging stops, I found that I would plug in, wait for Plug and Charge to activate, make sure that everything was running, and then go inside to use the facilities. By the time I came out with snack and drink in hand, I was almost always well over my charging target to get me to the next location without concern. Two of the three stations were nearly empty; I shared one with a Chevy Bolt who left shortly after I arrived and another with a Jaguar I-PACE, but he seemed to have a really hard time getting the station to operate successfully. I couldn’t tell if it was user error or a problem with the station, but I kept watching him futz with the charger while the light on his charge port flashed red. At some point after further futzing and looking frustrated, he made it turn green, and then he seemed satisfied.
The speed of the charging was a particularly nice surprise after reading so much here about how “slowly” Mach-E charges. I don’t have the charging curve update, but the ten or fifteen minutes I was inside anyway did everything I needed at the charger. Could it have been faster? Sure. Did I once feel like I was “waiting” on my charge? Never. If I had needed to go above 80%, sure, then I think I would have been getting a little too good at Tiles or Blocks, but not even needing to hit 80%, the car was ready to go as soon as I was.
Interesting note: If I pressed “stop” on the charger, invariably I’d see red rings on my charge port and a charge station fault message when I started the car. If I stopped charging by pressing the Mach-E’s unlock button, it terminated cleanly each time.
I met another Mach-E driver at my second charging stop on the way out which was the busiest of all, but there was still no wait for a charger. I pulled into the slot next to his, and that’s when I realized something…
We’re a bunch of electro-heads on this board.
When I got out of the car, I started doing the plug and charge dance, and I noticed that the other Mach-E driver was staring at my car quizzically, in a way other than “ey, we have the same ride!” I said hello, and he asked me, “What does the X on your Mach-E badge mean?” I told him it meant mine had the extended range battery, and he said, “Oh, is THAT it. Huh. What kind of range do you get at 80% on this?” I had to think a second and do the mental math, but we chatted briefly about the range and he seemed satisfied, if not perhaps a little sad that he didn’t have an X on the bottom of his door too.
I can’t fathom the idea of buying something as expensive and important as a car—especially a brand new model and an EV—without having read every scrap of everything I could find on it, and it’s hard to remember that this behavior is not the norm.
When you have a well-planned route, this car is great for road tripping.
As most of us do, I used a combination of PlugShare and ABRP to plan out my route. What I found incredibly useful, however, is the Apple Maps EV routing in combination with Maps’ Guide feature. I put each planned stop from the ABRP route into a Guide I created for this trip (called “Cleveland Trip,” suitably enough). Sorted by distance, it put each Sheetz/EA station in order, with the terminating point being the hotel. When I got into the car, I’d press CarPlay’s Maps’ “Destinations” button, scroll to the bottom, tap “Guides,” and tap “Cleveland Trip.” This brought-up my ordered list of pre-selected waypoints, and when I’d press the next one, Siri would happily tell me how long it would be to the next destination and with what amount of charge I’d arrive. This too removed range anxiety, as I had the preferred chargers easily at hand, accessible with a couple of stabs of my finger. Even if you don’t have the update with the EV routing, you’ll still have Guides available, and the ABRP data + Guides is a winning combination. (Why not just use ABRP? I don’t like the interface—at all—and Apple Maps has really upped its game over the past couple of years to be a real contender with Google Maps and Waze. Why not use the built-in nav and charge routing? With the two complete navigation misses in Harrisonburg, VA and the one to the charger in Woodstock, VA, I just can’t trust it, especially in a location with which I’m not already at least familiar.) While I chose to charge to 80% each time, I also found that when Siri adds charging stops itself with EV routing, she’ll tell you to what percentage you need to charge when you pull into the waypoint charge station (e.g. “Charge to at least 67%. This should take you about 13 minutes.”)
One thing I have noticed on many long drives around my home area is that with wireless CarPlay, Siri would occasionally tell me that she lost contact with the car and could no longer tell me my state of charge. Since I was going the distance, I connected my iPhone with a cable to the USB-C port, and not once did I have that issue. Solid as a rock.
I never longed for an ICE vehicle on this trip, except for…
…those charging stops, but not for the reason you think. I found having the multiple stops actually did make me feel more refreshed upon arrival at my destination, and I didn’t suffer from stiff/swollen legs, a sore butt, or any of the other maladies common with cannonballing it to my destination. Even the short charging breaks I took every couple of hours served well to make me arrive at my destination thinking, “What, I’m here already?” No, the issue was in the particular path that works best for this trip sees a long and winding drive along both the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes. As I passed the numerous travel stops along the way, I saw that each one had plenty of dino-juice pumps, but only one had EV charging—and it was the forbidden Tesla Supercharger.
Each of my Sheetz locations were pretty much right off the turnpike—in one case less than about 500 feet—but it required me to exit the toll gate to pay the toll and then re-enter the toll road to pay the toll again. Each one of my three stops required this same action, and I’m positive that the “fresh” toll each time will add up to be much, much higher than it would have been with a single entry and exit. Those ICE vehicles all had ample gas stations within the toll road itself at the travel centers, but those of us with J1772 sockets have to enjoy quite an expanded “toll tax.” That said, with my EZ Pass ensconced in the frit to the right of my rear-view mirror, I had no issues with any of the tollgates recognizing my transponder. Charger coverage is something that I’m sure will improve with time (and Federal funding), in that more of the travel centers will start adding DCFC.
So, why “almost?”
On the way back from Cleveland, it snowed (in mid-April?!) almost the entire drive back. At one point on the PA Turnpike, Assistive Cruise and Emergency Brake Assist shut off because the radar area filled with snow. Understandable. At the next charge stop, I cleared the snow while I waited.
In leaving this charge stop, everything was fine for about 20 miles, and then suddenly lane centering quit and cruise control went from Intelligent to just Adaptive. I’m not sure why that happened—there was no error…it just stopped working—but after the next charging stop (and power cycle) it went back to normal and behaved the rest of the way home.
I had two interesting run-ins with other Mach-Es at different stops. At one, I saw my first Iced-Out white-on-white Mach-E from that limited color run. It was less impressive in person than from the pics, but maybe because it was filthy due to the snow and road grime that was all over everything and everyone.
At another, there was a Mach-E charging in a slot, and I pulled in next to it. The driver got back into his car, burger in hand, from the Sheetz. He sat in his car and charged a while, got out, and looked a little confused how to shut things off and complete his transaction, but he eventually did. Then in what I can only call “BEVving,” for lack of a better term, he pulled directly into a gas pump bay as if he were going to pump gas, and just sat there. His car was off, and he took up a gas pump for about twenty minutes. After which, he started his car and left. It was kind of bizarre. I thought he might get out and take a pic or something “for the lulz,” (like “look, electric car at a gas pump”) but nope. Just sat there for an oddly long time and then drove off again. There were plenty of parking spaces available if he just wanted to sit there longer, so why park in front of a gas pump?
All in all, this was a great road trip, and it made me feel much more confident about doing this again—a little pre-planning and a little technological assistance go a long way.
Instead of documenting all of the charging stops and the charge rates, I’ll just talk about the things I found interesting and/or learned on the trip.
Speed kills…your range.
We all know that driving faster means shoving more electrons through the pipe, but it’s really noticeable on long stretches of fast highway. Where I live, most of my highways are limited to 55 mph, so I typically have an overall efficiency in the 3.1 - 3.3 range. Going up the side of a mountain at 70 mph frequently dropped that to low 2.X values. However, I didn’t have range anxiety, because I…
Add one more charging stop than was necessary (and maybe even two).
If I were really, really crazy, I could have pushed through one-direction on two charges, but the hotel garage not only didn’t have EV charging, but also high speed EV charging options for Cleveland are really limited in general. EVgo seems to have the area largely locked-up (and I mean that very, very loosely because even what they offer is sparse) with 50 kw chargers, and the one charger even remotely nearby my North Cleveland hotel has been broken for over a month according to PlugShare, so I mapped out a route with three brief charging stops along the way. This let me arrive at the hotel with more than 50% battery, needing about 25% to get back to the closest Electrify America charger. Honestly, this not only eliminated range anxiety, but it reduced the stress of the overall trip.
All three of my stops were at Sheetz gas stations/convenience stores with EA 300 kw chargers. For road trips, these locations turned out to work really well. Sheetz stores generally have decently clean bathrooms, a good selection of drinks and snacks, and a full fast-food “made to order” menu inside. It’s not five star dining in any sense of the word, but you can get something fast and hot.
With the three planned charging stops, I found that I would plug in, wait for Plug and Charge to activate, make sure that everything was running, and then go inside to use the facilities. By the time I came out with snack and drink in hand, I was almost always well over my charging target to get me to the next location without concern. Two of the three stations were nearly empty; I shared one with a Chevy Bolt who left shortly after I arrived and another with a Jaguar I-PACE, but he seemed to have a really hard time getting the station to operate successfully. I couldn’t tell if it was user error or a problem with the station, but I kept watching him futz with the charger while the light on his charge port flashed red. At some point after further futzing and looking frustrated, he made it turn green, and then he seemed satisfied.
The speed of the charging was a particularly nice surprise after reading so much here about how “slowly” Mach-E charges. I don’t have the charging curve update, but the ten or fifteen minutes I was inside anyway did everything I needed at the charger. Could it have been faster? Sure. Did I once feel like I was “waiting” on my charge? Never. If I had needed to go above 80%, sure, then I think I would have been getting a little too good at Tiles or Blocks, but not even needing to hit 80%, the car was ready to go as soon as I was.
Interesting note: If I pressed “stop” on the charger, invariably I’d see red rings on my charge port and a charge station fault message when I started the car. If I stopped charging by pressing the Mach-E’s unlock button, it terminated cleanly each time.
I met another Mach-E driver at my second charging stop on the way out which was the busiest of all, but there was still no wait for a charger. I pulled into the slot next to his, and that’s when I realized something…
We’re a bunch of electro-heads on this board.
When I got out of the car, I started doing the plug and charge dance, and I noticed that the other Mach-E driver was staring at my car quizzically, in a way other than “ey, we have the same ride!” I said hello, and he asked me, “What does the X on your Mach-E badge mean?” I told him it meant mine had the extended range battery, and he said, “Oh, is THAT it. Huh. What kind of range do you get at 80% on this?” I had to think a second and do the mental math, but we chatted briefly about the range and he seemed satisfied, if not perhaps a little sad that he didn’t have an X on the bottom of his door too.
I can’t fathom the idea of buying something as expensive and important as a car—especially a brand new model and an EV—without having read every scrap of everything I could find on it, and it’s hard to remember that this behavior is not the norm.
When you have a well-planned route, this car is great for road tripping.
As most of us do, I used a combination of PlugShare and ABRP to plan out my route. What I found incredibly useful, however, is the Apple Maps EV routing in combination with Maps’ Guide feature. I put each planned stop from the ABRP route into a Guide I created for this trip (called “Cleveland Trip,” suitably enough). Sorted by distance, it put each Sheetz/EA station in order, with the terminating point being the hotel. When I got into the car, I’d press CarPlay’s Maps’ “Destinations” button, scroll to the bottom, tap “Guides,” and tap “Cleveland Trip.” This brought-up my ordered list of pre-selected waypoints, and when I’d press the next one, Siri would happily tell me how long it would be to the next destination and with what amount of charge I’d arrive. This too removed range anxiety, as I had the preferred chargers easily at hand, accessible with a couple of stabs of my finger. Even if you don’t have the update with the EV routing, you’ll still have Guides available, and the ABRP data + Guides is a winning combination. (Why not just use ABRP? I don’t like the interface—at all—and Apple Maps has really upped its game over the past couple of years to be a real contender with Google Maps and Waze. Why not use the built-in nav and charge routing? With the two complete navigation misses in Harrisonburg, VA and the one to the charger in Woodstock, VA, I just can’t trust it, especially in a location with which I’m not already at least familiar.) While I chose to charge to 80% each time, I also found that when Siri adds charging stops itself with EV routing, she’ll tell you to what percentage you need to charge when you pull into the waypoint charge station (e.g. “Charge to at least 67%. This should take you about 13 minutes.”)
One thing I have noticed on many long drives around my home area is that with wireless CarPlay, Siri would occasionally tell me that she lost contact with the car and could no longer tell me my state of charge. Since I was going the distance, I connected my iPhone with a cable to the USB-C port, and not once did I have that issue. Solid as a rock.
I never longed for an ICE vehicle on this trip, except for…
…those charging stops, but not for the reason you think. I found having the multiple stops actually did make me feel more refreshed upon arrival at my destination, and I didn’t suffer from stiff/swollen legs, a sore butt, or any of the other maladies common with cannonballing it to my destination. Even the short charging breaks I took every couple of hours served well to make me arrive at my destination thinking, “What, I’m here already?” No, the issue was in the particular path that works best for this trip sees a long and winding drive along both the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes. As I passed the numerous travel stops along the way, I saw that each one had plenty of dino-juice pumps, but only one had EV charging—and it was the forbidden Tesla Supercharger.
Each of my Sheetz locations were pretty much right off the turnpike—in one case less than about 500 feet—but it required me to exit the toll gate to pay the toll and then re-enter the toll road to pay the toll again. Each one of my three stops required this same action, and I’m positive that the “fresh” toll each time will add up to be much, much higher than it would have been with a single entry and exit. Those ICE vehicles all had ample gas stations within the toll road itself at the travel centers, but those of us with J1772 sockets have to enjoy quite an expanded “toll tax.” That said, with my EZ Pass ensconced in the frit to the right of my rear-view mirror, I had no issues with any of the tollgates recognizing my transponder. Charger coverage is something that I’m sure will improve with time (and Federal funding), in that more of the travel centers will start adding DCFC.
So, why “almost?”
On the way back from Cleveland, it snowed (in mid-April?!) almost the entire drive back. At one point on the PA Turnpike, Assistive Cruise and Emergency Brake Assist shut off because the radar area filled with snow. Understandable. At the next charge stop, I cleared the snow while I waited.
In leaving this charge stop, everything was fine for about 20 miles, and then suddenly lane centering quit and cruise control went from Intelligent to just Adaptive. I’m not sure why that happened—there was no error…it just stopped working—but after the next charging stop (and power cycle) it went back to normal and behaved the rest of the way home.
I had two interesting run-ins with other Mach-Es at different stops. At one, I saw my first Iced-Out white-on-white Mach-E from that limited color run. It was less impressive in person than from the pics, but maybe because it was filthy due to the snow and road grime that was all over everything and everyone.
At another, there was a Mach-E charging in a slot, and I pulled in next to it. The driver got back into his car, burger in hand, from the Sheetz. He sat in his car and charged a while, got out, and looked a little confused how to shut things off and complete his transaction, but he eventually did. Then in what I can only call “BEVving,” for lack of a better term, he pulled directly into a gas pump bay as if he were going to pump gas, and just sat there. His car was off, and he took up a gas pump for about twenty minutes. After which, he started his car and left. It was kind of bizarre. I thought he might get out and take a pic or something “for the lulz,” (like “look, electric car at a gas pump”) but nope. Just sat there for an oddly long time and then drove off again. There were plenty of parking spaces available if he just wanted to sit there longer, so why park in front of a gas pump?
All in all, this was a great road trip, and it made me feel much more confident about doing this again—a little pre-planning and a little technological assistance go a long way.
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