jglor
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Jason
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Threads
- 9
- Messages
- 165
- Reaction score
- 283
- Location
- California
- Vehicles
- Premium Dark Matter Gray RWD Mach-E
- Thread starter
- #1
First road trip in Mach-E
A couple of weeks ago we took our first road trip in the Mach-E from the North County San Diego area to San Francisco. Other than a test charge at an Electrify America near my house, this was also the first time charging away from home. I have a Standard Battery Premium that I bought last November.
I used A Better Route Planner and PlugShare to pre-plan my charging. I had 3 stops planned out before our arrival. I filtered on Electrify America only because I had 500 kWh of free charging that I haven't used, so I wanted to take advantage. The hotel has charging, so it didn't matter what state of charge I arrived with. Also, we weren't planning on driving much during our stay, instead using public transportation or walking.
We started the trip with a 100% charge. Picked my son up from school at 1:30pm and headed up. I would have liked to have left earlier, but he had a class that he couldn't skip. The first leg of the trip was the longest and hardest. Our first charge stop was in Santa Clarita. I was using Waze for navigation. It recommended taking the 15 to the 210 and across to the 5. I was expecting to take the 5 all the way up, but I guess it picked that way because of traffic in LA.
Still managed to hit a lot of traffic. Also, we missed the exit to the 91 because Waze had frozen up and I thought we had a few more miles to go. Fortunately we were able to take the next exit, then just hop back on the freeway in the other direction.
We had a lot of problems with Waze and Android Auto the whole trip. It would just close and then restart. Sometimes it would resume navigation, and sometimes I'd have to re-select our destination. I don't know if the issue was with the car, my phone, the Waze app or Android Auto itself, but it happened a lot. I used wired, because wireless kills my phone battery.
Also, for the entire first leg, Bluecruise would not engage. It would give me the hands-on blue circle, but would never go full blue. I know the I-15 is mapped, so I don't know what was going on there, I couldn't go hands-free during the first leg of the tripat all.
We finally got to the first charging stop at the Walmart in Santa Clarita at about 5:30pm with 41% state of charge. All of the chargers were in use, except one that was broken. Fortunately we only had to wait 2 minutes before someone pulled out. This was the only charger on the way up where there were any other cars. Went into the Walmart to use the facilities and get a couple of treats, then came back out. The car was at 80%. I don't have the charge curve update, so it dropped down to about 9kWh at 80%. I guess I'll never have to worry about idle fees, since it will never get to 100% at that rate. Left at 6:00pm
Headed back on the road. No more traffic and Bluecruise decided to work. It just needed the car to be turned off and on again, I guess.
Second leg was much easier. Next stop was at a gas station in Lost Hills. Arrived at with 37% at 7:40pm. 2 chargers in the front of the lot were being iced, but the 3 in the back of the lot were fine. Got some dinner at the Taco Bell and ate it while waiting for the car to hit 80%. Left at 8:10pm.
Next stop was at a Target in Los Banos. This one was a little further off the highway. Arrived with 21% just after 10:00pm. Unfortunately the Target had just closed at 10:00pm, but the Walmart next door was open. Left at 10:40pm with 80%.
Finally arrived at the hotel in San Francisco at 12:40am and 17% state of charge.
Final Notes: It really was a nice drive. Pre-planning the stops helped break up the long drive. Bluecruise (when it started working) was great, but I've had it since November, so I know what to expect.
Instead of charging to what A Better Route Planner recommended, we just charged to 80% at each stop. On our first stop, we weren't even back to the car before it hit 80%. At the other two, we had to wait a couple of minutes, but not that long.
Stopping at the first stop at 41% seems like we could have gone further, but because of traffic, we'd been in the car for 4 hours already, so we all needed to stop anyway. Starting the trip with 100% made the first leg longer too. If I wanted to cannonball it, we might have been able to cut out a stop somewhere or at least gone further before the first charge, but I think that would have been rough.
For that particular route, I probably didn't really need to pre-plan all of the stops, or could have made adjustments on the fly, but like I said, this was the first road trip, so I wanted to be very conservative.
Leaving earlier in the morning would have been much better (probably less traffic), but that wasn't an option. I don't know if I'll write up a second post for the drive home, but here's a spoiler: We left at 11:00am (after a big breakfast) and had almost no traffic the whole way home.
A couple of weeks ago we took our first road trip in the Mach-E from the North County San Diego area to San Francisco. Other than a test charge at an Electrify America near my house, this was also the first time charging away from home. I have a Standard Battery Premium that I bought last November.
I used A Better Route Planner and PlugShare to pre-plan my charging. I had 3 stops planned out before our arrival. I filtered on Electrify America only because I had 500 kWh of free charging that I haven't used, so I wanted to take advantage. The hotel has charging, so it didn't matter what state of charge I arrived with. Also, we weren't planning on driving much during our stay, instead using public transportation or walking.
We started the trip with a 100% charge. Picked my son up from school at 1:30pm and headed up. I would have liked to have left earlier, but he had a class that he couldn't skip. The first leg of the trip was the longest and hardest. Our first charge stop was in Santa Clarita. I was using Waze for navigation. It recommended taking the 15 to the 210 and across to the 5. I was expecting to take the 5 all the way up, but I guess it picked that way because of traffic in LA.
Still managed to hit a lot of traffic. Also, we missed the exit to the 91 because Waze had frozen up and I thought we had a few more miles to go. Fortunately we were able to take the next exit, then just hop back on the freeway in the other direction.
We had a lot of problems with Waze and Android Auto the whole trip. It would just close and then restart. Sometimes it would resume navigation, and sometimes I'd have to re-select our destination. I don't know if the issue was with the car, my phone, the Waze app or Android Auto itself, but it happened a lot. I used wired, because wireless kills my phone battery.
Also, for the entire first leg, Bluecruise would not engage. It would give me the hands-on blue circle, but would never go full blue. I know the I-15 is mapped, so I don't know what was going on there, I couldn't go hands-free during the first leg of the tripat all.
We finally got to the first charging stop at the Walmart in Santa Clarita at about 5:30pm with 41% state of charge. All of the chargers were in use, except one that was broken. Fortunately we only had to wait 2 minutes before someone pulled out. This was the only charger on the way up where there were any other cars. Went into the Walmart to use the facilities and get a couple of treats, then came back out. The car was at 80%. I don't have the charge curve update, so it dropped down to about 9kWh at 80%. I guess I'll never have to worry about idle fees, since it will never get to 100% at that rate. Left at 6:00pm
Headed back on the road. No more traffic and Bluecruise decided to work. It just needed the car to be turned off and on again, I guess.
Second leg was much easier. Next stop was at a gas station in Lost Hills. Arrived at with 37% at 7:40pm. 2 chargers in the front of the lot were being iced, but the 3 in the back of the lot were fine. Got some dinner at the Taco Bell and ate it while waiting for the car to hit 80%. Left at 8:10pm.
Next stop was at a Target in Los Banos. This one was a little further off the highway. Arrived with 21% just after 10:00pm. Unfortunately the Target had just closed at 10:00pm, but the Walmart next door was open. Left at 10:40pm with 80%.
Finally arrived at the hotel in San Francisco at 12:40am and 17% state of charge.
Final Notes: It really was a nice drive. Pre-planning the stops helped break up the long drive. Bluecruise (when it started working) was great, but I've had it since November, so I know what to expect.
Instead of charging to what A Better Route Planner recommended, we just charged to 80% at each stop. On our first stop, we weren't even back to the car before it hit 80%. At the other two, we had to wait a couple of minutes, but not that long.
Stopping at the first stop at 41% seems like we could have gone further, but because of traffic, we'd been in the car for 4 hours already, so we all needed to stop anyway. Starting the trip with 100% made the first leg longer too. If I wanted to cannonball it, we might have been able to cut out a stop somewhere or at least gone further before the first charge, but I think that would have been rough.
For that particular route, I probably didn't really need to pre-plan all of the stops, or could have made adjustments on the fly, but like I said, this was the first road trip, so I wanted to be very conservative.
Leaving earlier in the morning would have been much better (probably less traffic), but that wasn't an option. I don't know if I'll write up a second post for the drive home, but here's a spoiler: We left at 11:00am (after a big breakfast) and had almost no traffic the whole way home.
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