Fed up: Charging Edition

[nixietube]

So there are things I love (power, comfort, sportiness) and things I don't love (creakiness, glitchiness, size) about my Mach-E, but if there is one thing that borderline makes me hate it, it's the charging experience. I have had such bad luck here I'm just about fed up and am considering selling it.

Before that, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone else has had some luck improving their Fast Charging experience. My problem is that I do apartment living and the garage doesn't have a EV hookup, so I need to go to a Fast Charge station to avoid sitting there charging for a full day. After 2-3 minutes, the thing fails. I sat at a station for an hour yesterday trying to get any of the chargers to work and just kept getting an error. I've had the same problem at other stations and the provider doesn't seem to matter (or they all stink perhaps). The car tells you _nothing_, no logs, no error codes, just look in the manual (thanks)! I'm at 15% right now and am not sure where I should gamble trying to get back to 80%.

It's all the stress of my own personal and recurring gas shortage. Maybe it's the chargers/charging network. Maybe it's the car. Frankly it doesn't matter - the experience sucks and gives me major buyers remorse.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I could do about this?

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[timbop]

Are you doing "plug-n-charge" or starting the session from the app before plugging in?

 

[ChasingCoral]

So there are things I love (power, comfort, sportiness) and things I don't love (creakiness, glitchiness, size) about my Mach-E, but if there is one thing that borderline makes me hate it, it's the charging experience. I have had such bad luck here I'm just about fed up and am considering selling it.

Before that, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone else has had some luck improving their Fast Charging experience. My problem is that I do apartment living and the garage doesn't have a EV hookup, so I need to go to a Fast Charge station to avoid sitting there charging for a full day. After 2-3 minutes, the thing fails. I sat at a station for an hour yesterday trying to get any of the chargers to work and just kept getting an error. I've had the same problem at other stations and the provider doesn't seem to matter (or they all stink perhaps). The car tells you _nothing_, no logs, no error codes, just look in the manual (thanks)! I'm at 15% right now and am not sure where I should gamble trying to get back to 80%.

It's all the stress of my own personal and recurring gas shortage. Maybe it's the chargers/charging network. Maybe it's the car. Frankly it doesn't matter - the experience sucks and gives me major buyers remorse.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I could do about this?

I've only had a couple of quick fails when DCFC charging over a dozen times now.

 

[nixietube]

Are you doing "plug-n-charge" or starting the session from the app before plugging in?

I've tried;

• Using the specific App for that charger
• Using the FordPass app to initiate the session
• Paying adhoc (just swiping my CC)
• Using the EVgo Card (when it was an EVgo station)

Same result. I've tried EVgo, ElectrifyAmerica and ChargePoint (though I don't remember if that was a fast charger or not). Had a good experience with a Blink charger the other day, but, not a fast charger and I couldn't sit there for a full day to let it finish.

 

[scubadev]

I was about to start a new thread about just this. I'm a prospective buyer, and while I would be able to charge at home, I need the ability to rely on the electrify America network for long distance travel.

I saw a lot of initial problems with charging at stations, and it sounds like they haven't gone away..... Is anyone out there having a positive experience with the charging situation?

 

[KAustin]

Are you calling the support lines when you are running into issues?

 

[ARK]

So the issue isn't that it fails to start up, it does start up, start charging, but it just abruptly completely stops after only a couple minutes of charging ?

What charging speeds do you get before it fails? Also, do you have an extended range or standard range battery? If the Mach-E isn't giving you any kind of error code, is there anything the charging station's display is telling you when this happens?

 

[timbop]

I've tried;

• Using the specific App for that charger
• Using the FordPass app to initiate the session
• Paying adhoc (just swiping my CC)
• Using the EVgo Card (when it was an EVgo station)

Same result. I've tried EVgo, ElectrifyAmerica and ChargePoint (though I don't remember if that was a fast charger or not). Had a good experience with a Blink charger the other day, but, not a fast charger and I couldn't sit there for a full day to let it finish.

It sounds like you have a real problem with the car, not the same thing others have seen. You need to contact your dealer

 

[mixduptransistor]

So there are things I love (power, comfort, sportiness) and things I don't love (creakiness, glitchiness, size) about my Mach-E, but if there is one thing that borderline makes me hate it, it's the charging experience. I have had such bad luck here I'm just about fed up and am considering selling it.

Before that, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone else has had some luck improving their Fast Charging experience. My problem is that I do apartment living and the garage doesn't have a EV hookup, so I need to go to a Fast Charge station to avoid sitting there charging for a full day. After 2-3 minutes, the thing fails. I sat at a station for an hour yesterday trying to get any of the chargers to work and just kept getting an error. I've had the same problem at other stations and the provider doesn't seem to matter (or they all stink perhaps). The car tells you _nothing_, no logs, no error codes, just look in the manual (thanks)! I'm at 15% right now and am not sure where I should gamble trying to get back to 80%.

It's all the stress of my own personal and recurring gas shortage. Maybe it's the chargers/charging network. Maybe it's the car. Frankly it doesn't matter - the experience sucks and gives me major buyers remorse.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I could do about this?

1. I highly suggest you don't own an EV if you can't charge at home. Did it with my Tesla for two years and I bought a house to get out of that situation
2. What you have happening sounds like an issue I had with my Mach E, and you need to take it to a dealer. They will need to update all the software on the charging related modules on the car. Secondarily I would disable plug-and-charge if you have it enabled, but that would only affect Electrify America stations

 

[BillPitman]

So there are things I love (power, comfort, sportiness) and things I don't love (creakiness, glitchiness, size) about my Mach-E, but if there is one thing that borderline makes me hate it, it's the charging experience. I have had such bad luck here I'm just about fed up and am considering selling it.

Before that, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone else has had some luck improving their Fast Charging experience. My problem is that I do apartment living and the garage doesn't have a EV hookup, so I need to go to a Fast Charge station to avoid sitting there charging for a full day. After 2-3 minutes, the thing fails. I sat at a station for an hour yesterday trying to get any of the chargers to work and just kept getting an error. I've had the same problem at other stations and the provider doesn't seem to matter (or they all stink perhaps). The car tells you _nothing_, no logs, no error codes, just look in the manual (thanks)! I'm at 15% right now and am not sure where I should gamble trying to get back to 80%.

It's all the stress of my own personal and recurring gas shortage. Maybe it's the chargers/charging network. Maybe it's the car. Frankly it doesn't matter - the experience sucks and gives me major buyers remorse.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I could do about this?

Question- you live in an apartment- do you park outside, or have assigned inside parking. If outside, is there assigned parking , and within 10 feet of the building?
I have a residential home, and will be installing an outlet to use the Ford-supplied " charger". It charges at 20-22 miles/ hour......

 

[smp]

Question- you live in an apartment- do you park outside, or have assigned inside parking. If outside, is there assigned parking , and within 10 feet of the building?
I have a residential home, and will be installing an outlet to use the Ford-supplied " charger". It charges at 20-22 miles/ hour......

The OP said, "...I do apartment living and the garage doesn't have a EV hookup..." so that kind of steals the deal there. I am assuming there are no 110VAC or 240VAC outlets, nor any EV Charge stations by the OP statement.

smp

 

[N2bonz54]

I was about to start a new thread about just this. I'm a prospective buyer, and while I would be able to charge at home, I need the ability to rely on the electrify America network for long distance travel.

I saw a lot of initial problems with charging at stations, and it sounds like they haven't gone away..... Is anyone out there having a positive experience with the charging situation?

I have used EA fast chargers twice with plug n charge. Got a default after about 10 minutes of charging. Reset and completed the charging session. The second session at the same charger 1 month later went fine. I called EA with the first fault. They reset the charger and that seemed to clear the problem....

 

[Mirak]

I have three pieces of advice for you….

First, go to a service center and have them install all updates. It is possible that one or more will assist with the charging faults you have been experiencing. Can’t say for sure because Ford has not been very forthcoming about what all the service center updates do, but the last time I was there they installed EIGHT.

Second, keep a log of the charger brand and serial number, plus the fault. You need to make a record to help troubleshoot it.

Third, you bought an EV without home charging. That was probably a mistake. I’m not saying it is insurmountable, but you need to think creatively about a solution. Go to PlugShare.com and search for all J1772 outlets near your home and work. These are the public 240v chargers that aren’t fast by any means, but they can charge your car up overnight, or over the course of a workday. The solution may not be perfect.

 

[milepost1]

So the issue isn't that it fails to start up, it does start up, start charging, but it just abruptly completely stops after only a couple minutes of charging ?

What charging speeds do you get before it fails? Also, do you have an extended range or standard range battery? If the Mach-E isn't giving you any kind of error code, is there anything the charging station's display is telling you when this happens?

Call the help line of the EV charge network. They should be able to get it going. then once you know whcih one works you can go to that station going forward.

 

[smp]

The US Department of Energy maintains spreadsheets of all US EV charging stations by state:
https://afdc.energy.gov/stations/states

The spreadsheets are loaded with information about each station - pretty much any question that you may have about it.

I downloaded NH for myself, and, so far, the data checks out as accurate and up-to-date.

I suggest that anyone (like me!) who is uncertain about the availability of charging stations should download the spreadsheets for the states you are most interested in.

I hope this helps!

smp

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