First Mustang Mach E Road Trip ?

[Greddy1]

When I go to plugshare.com and plan the trip I took to Cleveland yesterday, and specified 50kw stations only, there were only 4 on the trip with one of those under repair. I could probably make that work knowing what I know now but I still would have to account for a minimum of an hour charge in each direction just to account for any driving I do in Cleveland and it's $18.00 a hour for that which is more than I would spend in gas on my other personal car so I cant justify why I would pay exhorbitint prices for electricity plus minimum of 2 additional hours of time sitting around to only get about 60 miles of range

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[dbsb3233]

When I go to plugshare.com and plan the trip I took to Cleveland yesterday, and specified 50kw stations only, there were only 4 on the trip with one of those under repair. I could probably make that work knowing what I know now but I still would have to account for a minimum of an hour charge in each direction just to account for any driving I do in Cleveland and it's $18.00 a hour for that which is more than I would spend in gas on my other personal car so I cant justify why I would pay exhorbitint prices for electricity plus minimum of 2 additional hours of time sitting around to only get about 60 miles of range

Do you take I-71? There's an EA station in Mansfield, right off the interstate. You could do a quick top-up there if needed. Should only need 5-10 minutes on those 150 kW chargers.

Do have have a place to charge at your destination in Cleveland, or are you looking to cover the whole round-trip distance?

 

[buzznwood]

I had questions too whether we would decide to drive the Mach-E on long road trips, or continue to drive our Escape (our other car). But after our first road trip (1600 miles round-trip), all the other pluses in the MME outweigh the charging times. But only IF there's good charger coverage on the route (which there was). The 94 kW average wasn't a problem for us.

Good to know that is worked out fine with the FE so by association the Premium & RT.1 trims would also work well. With the ranges of the GT & GTPE being just estimates there is still time for improvements but I doubt it will change by much if at all.

No doubt the the 235 vs 250 will be down to the differences in tires & wheel design but taking the 80% rule into account and battery size you are looking at a pretty poor range under ideal conditions on the GTPE by 2021 standards , so ford making improvements to the charge rate would go a long way towards making the GTPE a usable option, either by fixing the ridiculous 80% cliff or sustaining 150kw for a lot longer when possible.

 

[dbsb3233]

Good to know that is worked out fine with the FE so by association the Premium & RT.1 trims would also work well. With the ranges of the GT & GTPE being just estimates there is still time for improvements but I doubt it will change by much if at all.

No doubt the the 235 vs 250 will be down to the differences in tires & wheel design but taking the 80% rule into account and battery size you are looking at a pretty poor range under ideal conditions on the GTPE by 2021 standards , so ford making improvements to the charge rate would go a long way towards making the GTPE a usable option, either by fixing the ridiculous 80% cliff or sustaining 150kw for a lot longer when possible.

Yeah, the GT versions are spec'd for power and speed, not efficiency and range.

Trade-offs.

 

[Greddy1]

Do you take I-71? There's an EA station in Mansfield, right off the interstate. You could do a quick top-up there if needed. Should only need 5-10 minutes on those 150 kW chargers.

Do have have a place to charge at your destination in Cleveland, or are you looking to cover the whole round-trip distance?

The Mansfield locations show as 50KW stations

 

[OH2AZ2OH]

The Mansfield locations show as 50KW stations

Plug share shows one 50kW Chademo station and 4 CCS stations rated at 150+kW.

 

[Greddy1]

Plug share shows one 50kW Chademo station and 4 CCS stations rated at 150+kW.

I'm not sure why the Ford pass app doesn't show that and the CCS plug works on my FE?

 

[BMT1071]

I'm not sure why the Ford pass app doesn't show that and the CCS plug works on my FE?

Yes, CCS works on all MMEs. Plug Share and/or ABRP are virtually must have apps if you are going to road trip in a BEV.

 

[dbsb3233]

The Mansfield locations show as 50KW stations

No, it's a standard Electrify America location, with two 150 kW CCS and two 350 kW CCS. In the Walmart parking lot.

https://www.plugshare.com/location/169426

You might have accidentally selected the nearby Dunkin Donuts ChargePoint instead? It's only 50 kW. And ignore the CHAdeMO 50 kW charger. The Mach-E uses CCS, not CHAdeMO.

I'd recommend the Electrify America app as the #1 thing to have, followed by PlugShare. EA is the clear top choice for speed (power levels), capacity (usually at least 4 chargers), and consistency. Their app is the easiest way to spot their chargers apart from all others. Plugshare has so many others that they sometimes lay on top of each other. And you can miss chargers if you have the filters set wrong.

 

[dbsb3233]

I'm not sure why the Ford pass app doesn't show that and the CCS plug works on my FE?

FordPass shows it on the map, with 150 kW. Again, maybe you just accidentally clicked on the Dunkin Donuts Chargepoint instead, rather than the Electrify America at Walmart?

 

[raadsel]

Also don’t forget when the EA chargers become more frequented you could end up with long waits. This will probably start happening late next year with the flood of new EVs. EA probably won’t keep expanding the way Tesla has once the $2 billion VW had to put in is used up.

I can't agree with this. Electrify America, while owned by VW, is set up as a separate company. Yes, it was started based on "penalty" money that VW had to use because of the Diesel-gate scandal. However, as an independent company they are looking to make a profit, and part of that is expanding their network as demand requires.

The issue for the moment, up until this year roughly 98% of cars taking road trips were Tesla -- there's been little demand for CCS chargers. As more longer range non-Tesla EVs become available, you'll see EA and Chargepoint and likely other companies come in to fill the "need" of cars wanting to fast charge. EA has just as much reason as any other company to increase their profits -- and to increase profits, as demand grows, will require expanding out their fast charging network.

And if that isn't enough, with VW switching over to EVs, they'll also be pushing EA to increase capacity -- if just to ensure they can sell EVs in the US, as no one will buy their EVs if they can't road trip the car.

 

[raadsel]

No, it's a standard Electrify America location, with two 150 kW CCS and two 350 kW CCS. In the Walmart parking lot.

https://www.plugshare.com/location/169426

You might have accidentally selected the nearby Dunkin Donuts ChargePoint instead? It's only 50 kW. And ignore the CHAdeMO 50 kW charger. The Mach-E uses CCS, not CHAdeMO.

I'd recommend the Electrify America app as the #1 thing to have, followed by PlugShare. EA is the clear top choice for speed (power levels), capacity (usually at least 4 chargers), and consistency. Their app is the easiest way to spot their chargers apart from all others. Plugshare has so many others that they sometimes lay on top of each other. And you can miss chargers if you have the filters set wrong.

For road trips, I'd recommend A Better Route Planner (ABRP) as the number one app to have, followed by the EA app and Plugshare. There are other fast chargers out there than EA -- for example, I've noticed that, in Oklahoma, the local electric companies have installed fast chargers in some of the towns/cities. There also appear to be some (though a very small percentage) of fast Chargepoint chargers (150 kW).

ABRP will help you plan your route with those chargers, as well as the percent charge you need. It will also warn you, and give you maximum recommended speeds, for parts of the route which has a long stretch with no fast chargers.

Last, it has lots of customization options, such as telling it which charging networks you want to use, as well as prioritizing particular charging networks, like EA, or chargers you want to avoid. It allows you to tell it what speed you plan to drive (in relation to the speed limit) so it can better calculate your electric usage, how much charge you want upon arriving at your destination, and charging stops, how much weight you'll have in the vehicle, road conditions. Last, with the paid app, you can get real time information on road/weather conditions, traffic, and charger availability, to help better plan your route.

 

[dbsb3233]

I can't agree with this. Electrify America, while owned by VW, is set up as a separate company. Yes, it was started based on "penalty" money that VW had to use because of the Diesel-gate scandal. However, as an independent company they are looking to make a profit, and part of that is expanding their network as demand requires.

The issue for the moment, up until this year roughly 98% of cars taking road trips were Tesla -- there's been little demand for CCS chargers. As more longer range non-Tesla EVs become available, you'll see EA and Chargepoint and likely other companies come in to fill the "need" of cars wanting to fast charge. EA has just as much reason as any other company to increase their profits -- and to increase profits, as demand grows, will require expanding out their fast charging network.

And if that isn't enough, with VW switching over to EVs, they'll also be pushing EA to increase capacity -- if just to ensure they can sell EVs in the US, as no one will buy their EVs if they can't road trip the car.

Generally true. The question is when they can actually be profitable. Right now it's gotta be a money pit at such scant sales volumes. And even though BEVs are ramping up, I suspect we're talking more like 5-8 years than next year.

These high power stations are very expensive to buy, install, maintain, upgrade, and administer. And they often suck down power at the worst (demand) times, forcing them to install very expensive batteries at some locations.

 

[dbsb3233]

For road trips, I'd recommend A Better Route Planner (ABRP) as the number one app to have, followed by the EA app and Plugshare. There are other fast chargers out there than EA -- for example, I've noticed that, in Oklahoma, the local electric companies have installed fast chargers in some of the towns/cities. There also appear to be some (though a very small percentage) of fast Chargepoint chargers (150 kW).

ABRP will help you plan your route with those chargers, as well as the percent charge you need. It will also warn you, and give you maximum recommended speeds, for parts of the route which has a long stretch with no fast chargers.

Last, it has lots of customization options, such as telling it which charging networks you want to use, as well as prioritizing particular charging networks, like EA, or chargers you want to avoid. It allows you to tell it what speed you plan to drive (in relation to the speed limit) so it can better calculate your electric usage, how much charge you want upon arriving at your destination, and charging stops, how much weight you'll have in the vehicle, road conditions. Last, with the paid app, you can get real time information on road/weather conditions, traffic, and charger availability, to help better plan your route.

ABRP is good too for initial high level planning, but when it comes time to actually drive the route, I don't find it as useful. But yes, there's 4-5 apps that are really must-haves. EA, Plugshare, ABRP, ChargePoint, maybe EVgo if in a region where there's many of those, and any other charger network apps. Frankly, I'm not even using FordPass for anything to do with charging, other than checking the car battery status.

If wanting the EA Pass+ discount, that's needed anyway. I just find the EA-only map a good starting point, because it's usually easiest, fastest, most consistent and dependable with the least research. Then I drill down into the other options with Plugshare, which are a lot trickier and varied.

 

[cargo]

That's my argument about EV and cold weather. My trip was 136 miles I had 40 miles remaining when I got there the loss in between was due to cold weather conditions

I wonder if your car has other issues, I've never read anywhere someone having that kind of loss

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