Enjoy your new car...

[JoeDimwit]

Consider what you just said. Do you really think towing to another charger is an acceptable fallback? With kids? Any of you use roadside assistance yet? I can virtually guarantee you that like all other roadside assistance, a tow will be at least a two-hour process.

As for “needing” a charger to work, what I was trying to say is that on road trips, when you need to get somewhere, you need to freaking charge. And if a charger doesn’t work, you need to keep driving to others until you find one that does. This past Sunday I had to drive to THREE until I found one that worked, and the third one required a different, longer route home. All of this with my son along for the ride. I would never want anybody, certainly another parent, to be in this situation.

I love my MME, but the public charging is currently a total crapshoot and we do other prospective buyers a disservice by downplaying the risk and possible inconvenience.

I understand what you’re saying, but I can also see an argument where you’re overemphasizing the “while the kids were in the car” side of the complaint. Which war zone are you driving into to charge?

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[Mirak]

Well, I think for the most part I can charge at home. My office is within 15 miles so no commute. I worry about other issues such as the software and the weird messages like pull over now! My daughters would also be thoroughly pissed if we got stuck somewhere!

I don’t think you need to worry about that, at least more than any other car. Public charging is the only area I’ve encountered serious inconvenience and anxiety.

 

[Mirak]

I understand what you’re saying, but I can also see an argument where you’re overemphasizing the “while the kids were in the car” side of the complaint. Which war zone are you driving into to charge?

Dude, really? If you think subjecting your children to these situations doesn’t make the inconvenience and anxiety much, much worse, you’re either not a parent or a very different parent than I. I’d better leave it there.

 

[JoeDimwit]

Dude, really? If you think subjecting your children to these situations doesn’t make the inconvenience and anxiety much, much worse, you’re either not a parent or a very different parent than I. I’d better leave it there.

I’m not trying to offend. I just don’t get the anxiety being increased because of children being in the car when you need to charge unless you need to go into a dangerous area to charge for some reason.

 

[Mirak]

I’m not trying to offend. I just don’t get the anxiety being increased because of children being in the car when you need to charge unless you need to go into a dangerous area to charge for some reason.

New macheforum public charging standard: “Unless you’re in Compton, Syria, or Baltimore don’t sweat public charging. And you can always call for a tow. These life experiences make kids tougher.”

 

[ChasingCoral]

I can't get your hyperlink to work.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap tap tap tap tap.

NOTHING.

I'm going to slowly mope around the neighborhood now and occasionally pester you to fix this. I cannot enjoy this forum until you fix that link.

Fix it, Mark. ?

Try driving your Mach E instead. Then you’ll get it!

 

[ChasingCoral]

As for “needing” a charger to work, what I was trying to say is that on road trips, when you need to get somewhere, you need to freaking charge. And if a charger doesn’t work, you need to keep driving to others until you find one that does. This past Sunday I had to drive to THREE until I found one that worked, and the third one required a different, longer route home.

Agreed that some public charging is poorly maintained. Did you:
Use PlugShare to make sure they hadn’t been reported as non-working before heading to them?
Report them on PlugShare to save others the same anguish?

 

[Mirak]

Agreed that some public charging is poorly maintained. Did you:
Use PlugShare to make sure they hadn’t been reported as non-working before heading to them?
Report them on PlugShare to save others the same anguish?

Yes to both. Interestingly, one of them had another MME report a few weeks ago that it didn’t work for them, either. But it did work for other cars so I just assumed it was a one-off. Now I think that the MME may have a problem specifically with ChargePoint 50kW machines. Tried two different ones and neither worked for me, and one of them likewise failed for the other MME.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Yes to both. Interestingly, one of them had another MME report a few weeks ago that it didn’t work for them, either. But it did work for other cars so I just assumed it was a one-off. Now I think that the MME may have a problem specifically with ChargePoint 50kW machines. Tried two different ones and neither worked for me, and one of them likewise failed for the other MME.

I did fine with a higher capacity ChargePoint charger in Georgia.

 

[Mirak]

I did fine with a higher capacity ChargePoint charger in Georgia.

Yes me too. The third charger I went to was a 125kW ChargePoint and it worked fine except that it was capped at 62.5kW. When I called CP about all the issues I had had, the rep confirmed the cap on the third charger but had no idea why. I was the only car there.

It seems that ChargePoint just sells the public stations to third parties, basically like vending machines. The 3P has a lot of control over the machine and has the maintenance responsibility, but CP still provides customer service to end users.

Electrify America seems a lot faster and more reliable, but also a lot less common in my area.

 

[americanflannel]

What 240v charging issue do you have?

I can't get my perfectly fine 240v 30amp circuit to charge the car. Now granted it's only one charger I have tried, I am going to get a replacement and see if that works AND try another house.

But if you go in the charging thread here you will see people (specifically in Illinoise) not being able to charge the Mustang on 240 in their house with any charger when other cars work in the same location on the same charger. I am scared I have that situation. 110v charging isn't going to work for me and I bought the car with the idea I have a house, I have 240v and this car should just work in that situation. (And it should. If you have standardized charging that means it works when every other car works in the same situation)

I will raise holy hell over this if A: another make and model of charger doesn't charge in my house and B: in the other house it also doesn't work with both chargers.

The people in Il. have had Ford engineers at my house, I will want that at minimum because this is a true engineering and marketing issue if this continues to happen with multiple people.

 

[sockmeister]

To add another data point, I have had no problems with my car. Out of all the complaints and early build problems reported on this forum and on the wiki, the only thing I've noticed is the driver display buzzing sound, but I'm not bothered by it.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Yes me too. The third charger I went to was a 125kW ChargePoint and it worked fine except that it was capped at 62.5kW... I was the only car there.

Ditto.

 

[Mirak]

To add another data point, I have had no problems with my car. Out of all the complaints and early build problems reported on this forum and on the wiki, the only thing I've noticed is the driver display buzzing sound, but I'm not bothered by it.

Agree. Aside from the public charging mess and the driver’s screen buzz, which I consider to be more a minor nuisance, my only other issues are a few relatively minor software bugs. It is so much fun to drive!

 

[BMT1071]

New macheforum public charging standard: “Unless you’re in Compton, Syria, or Baltimore don’t sweat public charging. And you can always call for a tow. These life experiences make kids tougher.”

I guess my main point is there are options available. Yes, being stranded with your kids would take the suck factor to another level. Knock on wood, it has never happened to me. But unless you're in an unsafe area, it hardly seems like the end of the world. As long as the Nintendo Switch still works, I could probably stop just about anywhere with my boys.
I'll also say that you'd be hard pressed to find a vehicle at any price with any propulsion system that hasn't left a driver in sneaker mode at some point.
Like on many other threads there seems to be an unrealistic expectation that the MME (and the charging network) should be 100% perfect with no possibility of a failure or breakdown anywhere ever.

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