First Mustang Mach E Road Trip ?

Greddy1

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jrstinkfish

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I took my brand new (literally brand new, picked it up Wednesday) Mach-E from Memphis to Denison, TX, to visit family this past Friday. Maybe not a great idea, but I wanted to get to know the car, and this seemed like a great way to do it quickly.

Had to make 4 stops along the way, charged to 80% and then moved on to the next segment. It added about 2 hours to my trip, and the novelty wore off a bit after the 4th charging session :) Still, it was fun to try, and I have to do it again on the way back Monday. At my first stop in Forrest City, AR, a couple of guys towing a landscaping trailer pulled up behind me and talked to me about it for a few minutes, drove off, then came back to ask more questions.

I am really pleased that the charging was as easy as it was. I plugged in and the only input needed from me was to press Continue after it did all the handshaking, sync’d to my Ford account and showed me the rate. Amazed that it worked so well every time. Still a pain in the ass to wait during charging, but we know this going in. At least I haven’t had to pay a dime to charge yet, thanks Ford!

The drive flew by, it was almost as if the car needed very little from me with the cruise control going, just needed me to keep it on the road. I found the ride very smooth and comfortable. My last charging stop was about 20 minutes off my route, but I really had no choice unless I wanted to spend an extra hour or more in Hope, AR, getting to 100%.

I don’t think I’ll do it again — a 1000-mile round trip is just easier in a rental right now. But I’m pleased to know it can be done, even if it cost me two extra hours. Also I found lots of little things it can do that I didn’t know even after all my research.
 

theo1000

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So im here in rural MO right now have a planned 110v charging in my cabin right now. 110v 3mph. I have planned it and do this often so no big beans for me. But is so not something regular folks need in their lives. To make road tripping work ou in this vast country we need a DCFC charger in every town with more than 1000 souls.
 

dbsb3233

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If it's just a vacation cabin, probably not worth the expense to install 240V for just very infrequent use.
 

dbsb3233

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So im here in rural MO right now have a planned 110v charging in my cabin right now. 110v 3mph. I have planned it and do this often so no big beans for me. But is so not something regular folks need in their lives. To make road tripping work ou in this vast country we need a DCFC charger in every town with more than 1000 souls.
I wouldn't say every town, but at least every 100 miles (town or not).
 


theo1000

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Yes and most of them on plug share are L1 and L2
Yah! L1 & L2 is not going to cut it at all. The couple of L2 Charge point stations within 50 miles in any direction actually had a queue. 3-4 TSLA's, a Bolt and a local Leaf were jockeying for position all Saturday. As soon as the TSLA guys got in, they refused to move, even after one was fully charged.

Nah! L3 DCFC needs to get here, there are enough EV even in rural areas that they are needed, the profits will come. Every lake with bunch of cabins needs one. I bet next year there will be 10 EV's jostling for those 2 L2 chargers. Next week is memorial day, I'm going to see if I can have my buddy count the EV's that roll through the L2 chargers, esp. the ones that can't get a charge.
 

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Might be an OK location in small towns, more for the reason that there may not be anybody else putting in chargers there. Dealers often need them just to properly do sales and service of EVs (at least L2, anyway).

But as you said, I look at dealerships as more of a fall-back at best. Some have proposed dealerships as primary locations, simply because there's thousands of them, and they sell the cars anyway. But that doesn't make any more sense than dealers being gas stations. Primary road trip DCFC needs better placement than dealerships. Dealerships often need to lock down access to their lots after-hours, don't need to incur the expense of point-of-sale DCFC chargers (and sure don't need to give it away for free), need their chargers open for their own use, as well as the placement issues I noted above.

We just need more build-out from actual charging networks like EA, IMO.
We don't disagree much here. I was thinking of small towns, cuz I drive in them a lot. And they mostly don't have any L3 availability, which is bad for people who don't live in single family homes.

Also, yes, they are expensive. I'm thinking that Ford should pay at least half the cost of installing the DCFCs in a dealership. (I do think that the comparison of DCFC network to gas stations is a little strained, for a variety of reasons. They are different animals, with different capacities and needs.)

Finally, I agree philosophically that DCFC should probably not be done by car manufacturers over the long term, because of the tendency to make them proprietary, which is a bad deal.

Having said all of that, if Ford and Chevy would install two L3s in every dealership in the next six months, it would go a long way, very quickly, in filling some big holes in the current charging infrastructure. so, I guess, I'm arguing for stop-gap as well as fall back.
 

guyofthesky

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But for those people in small towns who live in apartments, they need a DCFC close by to charge once per week. Or, at least, it would be nice...
 

dbsb3233

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We don't disagree much here. I was thinking of small towns, cuz I drive in them a lot. And they mostly don't have any L3 availability, which is bad for people who don't live in single family homes.
Even for the people without a single family home, I think the right solution is L2 being installed where people live (apartments, condos). I know some won't have that and will need to DCFC, but frankly, I don't think people that don't have L2 available for 90% of their routine charging for good candidates for BEV at all. Full-time DCFC is a poor use of precious resources, and is bad for the batteries anyway.

A little DCFC in cities/towns is OK, and even potentially necessary for travelers. But I don't want to see that become the routine way to charge for locals. Lots of L2 is the answer for local driving, IMO.
Also, yes, they are expensive. I'm thinking that Ford should pay at least half the cost of installing the DCFCs in a dealership. (I do think that the comparison of DCFC network to gas stations is a little strained, for a variety of reasons. They are different animals, with different capacities and needs.)
If a dealership chooses to install DCFC, that's fine. But I don't see any good reason for Ford to pay for any of it. They actually make less profit on BEV than ICE sales, so it doesn't make sense for them to subsidize chargers like that.
Finally, I agree philosophically that DCFC should probably not be done by car manufacturers over the long term, because of the tendency to make them proprietary, which is a bad deal.

Having said all of that, if Ford and Chevy would install two L3s in every dealership in the next six months, it would go a long way, very quickly, in filling some big holes in the current charging infrastructure. so, I guess, I'm arguing for stop-gap as well as fall back.
I get the desire to want more DCFC. And we definitely need it. I just don't agree that Ford should be installing chargers just because they sell a some BEVs. And because Tesla did it that way (they had little choice as the trailblazer a decade before the rest). Ford doing it would in effect subsidize their competition (since all but Tesla use CCS). And limiting them would be a terrible waste of resources. Better to promote EA, CP, EVgo and the others that are universal (minus Tesla).
 

dbsb3233

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But for those people in small towns who live in apartments, they need a DCFC close by to charge once per week. Or, at least, it would be nice...
They should lobby their landlords to install much cheaper L2.

It's much easier to simply plug in overnight than sit for half an hour at one location to DCFC every week anyway.
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