Blue Oval Charge Network Electrify America Charging Membership

dbsb3233

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This sucks. I was hoping they would actually be able to honor the Pass+ discount (which can be turned on/off by the month). By creating their own discount, it surely means they're not going to honor actual EA Pass+ through P&C. :(

I've done enough road trips in the MME this summer to justify EA Pass+ from April to August, but I'll deactivate it at that point. So roughly $20/yr. The only downside is that I have to activate each charge session in the EA app, but that's easy. And by many accounts, actually quicker than the P&C handshake.

Only downside to that is finding an EA station where there's no cell service. That sort of happened to me at the EA in Winnemucca NV. There was cell service, but the tower was apparently so far away (or misidentified?) that the EA app thought I wasn't present at the charger and refused to activate. It will only activate if the phone is present at the charger. (Others reported the similar problem on Plugshare with other EVs.)

I know $50/yr isn't a huge amount, but it's just annoying to actually pay more for what's so far of little-to-no benefit. I'll likely stick with EA Pass+.
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zhackwyatt

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The problem isn't just about paying. It's about paying for an inferior product. I'd probably most likely be willing to pay for Maps out of all of the rest, but it looks like they didn't use HERE maps and instead rolled their own off of OpenStreetMaps. So it doesn't have the hotel we're staying at in Santa Barbara (this is a major chain btw.) And its charge planner, the one thing an EV's mapping system really needs to be good at, is still much less easy to use than both PlugShare and ChargeHub, so not even in the same ballpark as what Tesla has.
Curious. Is your main complaint about having to pay to get access to something you don't want to even use in the first place?
 

J Duce

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How were you able to add to your balance? I know we get the 250kwh free, but not sure how we can purchase additional kwh through the app? Tried through the connected services site as well. Thanks.
Good to see a fellow NYC resident on here.
 

dbsb3233

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Yeah an ongoing relationship with my wallet is what he meant. Blue Cruise I'm willing to pay for as long as it doesn't suck. Losing plug and charge will be annoying because it was advertised as a key feature both by Ford and by many of the reviews out there. And if you're selling an EV in 2021, having a good route/charge planner included should be table stakes, but of course nobody except for Tesla has really gotten it right. Hopefully in a few years it'll be standard in Google/Apple maps and we won't have to worry about it any more.
I'm kind of curious why charge networks (like EA) don't just create their own Plug&Charge capability. Seems like all it would need is something like the VIN number communicated in the handshake. Not sure if that's part of the protocol or not.
 


mikeflash

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Yeah an ongoing relationship with my wallet is what he meant. Blue Cruise I'm willing to pay for as long as it doesn't suck. Losing plug and charge will be annoying because it was advertised as a key feature both by Ford and by many of the reviews out there. And if you're selling an EV in 2021, having a good route/charge planner included should be table stakes, but of course nobody except for Tesla has really gotten it right. Hopefully in a few years it'll be standard in Google/Apple maps and we won't have to worry about it any more.
Amen. And I would add Waze to the maps apps/planners. Also I am sure there is some reason why you have to shut down car play but it seems like they could be made to coexist simultaneously.
 

AZBill

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I'm kind of curious why charge networks (like EA) don't just create their own Plug&Charge capability. Seems like all it would need is something like the VIN number communicated in the handshake. Not sure if that's part of the protocol or not.
They should be able to do this. I have 2 EVs and the VIN numbers are entered in the EA app already. My Mach E supports P&C, but my Bolt does not.
 

theo1000

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To be honest these are very low fees. Just the digital connectivity package on the Etron is $500 for 18 months! and its not very good either. There is a reason Ford was able to keep the base prices so low. If all this was standard the base price probably moved up $1000 - $2000.

Blue Cruise in particular is an expensive to engineer package and I don't want them to skimp on it.
 

dbsb3233

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They should be able to do this. I have 2 EVs and the VIN numbers are entered in the EA app already. My Mach E supports P&C, but my Bolt does not.
The car wouldn't even need to support P&C if the charger would do it itself. P&C in the car just means the car is automatically authorizing the charger for payment. But if EA (for instance) can get the VIN in a car handshake upon plugging in, that would be all that's needed for the charger to automatically start charging (if the user has pre-authorized automatic payment to that VIN). The car will automatically start accepting juice whenever it starts flowing.
 

shutterbug

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I know $50/yr isn't a huge amount, but it's just annoying to actually pay more for what's so far of little-to-no benefit. I'll likely stick with EA Pass+.
So if Ford simply bumped up the price of the car by $1,000 on the QT, and told everyone that they would pay discounted EA price for 5 years, everyone would hail the P&C as revolutionary.
 

dbsb3233

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So if Ford simply bumped up the price of the car by $1,000 on the QT, and told everyone that they would pay discounted EA price for 5 years, everyone would hail the P&C as revolutionary.
Not me. I prefer when it's unbundled so I'm not paying for something I'm not using.

Of course, that only goes so far. There are always going to be things in every car that we're paying for but we don't ever use.

In my case though, I'm fine without P&C. At least so far. I still have it turned off, and I'm using EA Pass+ on road trips, activating each session on my phone.
 

OlyPen

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Why is everything with Ford an "introductory" subscription/trial? FordPass charging we get 2 years of supposedly. I forget how long we get the maps for. Mobile hotspot is a 3 month trial. Same with SiriusXM. Blue Cruise is going to be a $600 "introductory" 3 year offer. Now we have this as a $50 one year "introductory" subscription. How many in app purchases are they going to put into one car?
A thousand.
 

bradjc

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So Ford wants to charge for the EA membership through their own app/service? And they want a full year up front, $2 more than the Pass+ plan for a year, and the discount isn't as good (25% versus about 28% for Pass+ in many states)? And, presumably, this discount only applies on the one car where this is registered and if P&C works? So you wouldn't get the discount if you charged a friend's car, a rental car, or a second EV? P&C as currently implemented seems like a marketing gimmick rather than a useful tool for EV drivers.
 

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And, presumably, this discount only applies on the one car where this is registered and if P&C works? So you wouldn't get the discount if you charged a friend's car, a rental car, or a second EV?
Within the Blue Oval Charge Network on the FordPass app, there is an option to share charging access. Not sure yet if this is across multiple users on one car or if it could go across multiple cars.
 

TRP

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Within the Blue Oval Charge Network on the FordPass app, there is an option to share charging access. Not sure yet if this is across multiple users on one car or if it could go across multiple cars.
I know it works across multiple users on 1 car. My wife and I share the info on ours now.
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