Is the EA $4mo membership worth it? My experience

[dbsb3233]

This is somewhat incorrect. You can use your free charging without P&C as long as you initiate the charge with the Fordpass app and not EA's. You absolutely can ALSO use the EA rate with P&C enabled as long as you initiate the charge on the EA APP before plugging in - although leaving P&C enabled in that case is a waste of time.

I'll defer to @dbsb3233 for corroboration, as I know he has done a lot of P&C and EA membership charging

Unfortunately I haven't tested either of those specific combinations. When I EA charged with Pass+ (activating the charge with the EA app), I made sure to have P&C turned off in FordPass app.

And when I recently started using P&C instead, I simply turned on P&C in the FP app. (I had previous set up Connected Services, but left P&C off then.) I got a message immediately that it was active. I plugged in, and it worked perfectly. It started charging using the EA normal rates, then credited my free kWh at the end on the summary screen.

I've never tried to activate a session through the FP app.

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[ChasingCoral]

I've never tried to activate a session through the FP app.

I have. That works too.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I wasn't sure if this would be a good deal for us long term. Figured maybe use if for a month and shut it off until needed again some months later.

Recent trip to MD from TN and back. Paid the $4. You also have to decide how to reload the account when it falls below a certain point. I chose $40.
First DCFC stop cost $19 and saved $7, 31cents/kw vs 43cents.
Next stop saved $6. Already saved enough to pay half a year, almost.

On the way home stopped in Staunton VA at a Walmart with EA chargers. Plugged into a 350kwh machine, swapped phone and started charging. Pretty much as fast as plug and charge. Hit 80% in 25 min. Stopped the session and it showed no charge/fee. Free session? Seems to be so. Why? ?‍

We have 2 more stops to get home and will see what they charge us, if any and report back.

Anyway, back to my original point. If you are wondering if paying for an EA membership is worth it, consider that with 2-4 sessions you have saved half of the yearly cost of $48.
I'll likely just keep the account open since I forsee a few more trips to Baltimore in the cards for us this year.

I'm wondering how much of a pain is it to turn off EA Pass+ for a couple of months then restart it again. Has anyone done that?

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

This is somewhat incorrect. You can use your free charging without P&C as long as you initiate the charge with the Fordpass app and not EA's. You absolutely can ALSO use the EA rate with P&C enabled as long as you initiate the charge on the EA APP before plugging in - although leaving P&C enabled in that case is a waste of time.

I'll defer to @dbsb3233 for corroboration, as I know he has done a lot of P&C and EA membership charging

I can't speak to the EA membership side, but I can corroborate your app statement. On the road trip I'm on right now, I had P&C fail at one of the EA stops (more on that on my main thread when I write up this trip tonight or tomorrow). As stated, activating with FordPass enabled the deduction of the free charging. (I'm still going through my initial freebie kWh.)

 

[Major]

Most of my trips in the Mach-E so far have been on the route between Houston and San Antonio. Never found a fast charger on that route. Consequently, if the trip is to be over 150 miles from my house, I ride with someone else.

 

[dbsb3233]

I'm wondering how much of a pain is it to turn off EA Pass+ for a couple of months then restart it again. Has anyone done that?

Easy. I just turned mine off in the EA app. Just went into ACCOUNT, PLANS, CHANGE PLAN. It'll terminate at the end of the current 30-day period. And IIRC, it activated immediately when selected Pass+ months ago. Simple and intuitive (far more so than the Ford process).

On my first 2 road trips (1600-2000 miles each), the EA app worked almost flawlessly. But I just returned from another 1600 mile trip (same route and EA stations) and it didn't go nearly as smoothly. Had problems at every station initiating a charge. Part of it was spotty cell signal, part was EA chargers that simply failed to start (having to move to a different charger), and then it would lock up the phone app by getting stuck on the "Initiating Charge" screen. Another time the charger list wouldn't even appear when clicking on the location. I rarely had those problems the first 2 trips, but it was every stop this time. So I decided it was time to give P&C a try on the way home. I had previously set Connected Services up, but not turned on P&C because there were lots of reports of it not working (4-6 months ago). Used P&C for the final 3 charges of the trip, and it worked perfectly.

So far I still have the initial free kWh that it's pulling from, but when that runs out I will probably just sign up for the $50/yr Ford plan that (presumably) mirrors Pass+ discount rates. We do enough road trips to justify it, even though we won't be able to turn it on/off by the month.

 

[dbsb3233]

Most of my trips in the Mach-E so far have been on the route between Houston and San Antonio. Never found a fast charger on that route. Consequently, if the trip is to be over 150 miles from my house, I ride with someone else.

EA shows a station in Columbus (Snappy's Market), right along I-10.

 

[timbop]

Most of my trips in the Mach-E so far have been on the route between Houston and San Antonio. Never found a fast charger on that route. Consequently, if the trip is to be over 150 miles from my house, I ride with someone else.

In addition to the one in columbus that @dbsb3233 mentioned there are actually several charger locations in San Antonio, including 8 stations at the walmart on thousand oaks drive:

 

[TRP]

OK, made it home late last night. Made 3 stops between MD and TN/home.

Our first stop was in Staunton VA at a Walmart. Initiated the session and went inside to the Subway. Came back out at 80% after 30min and found that the session was Free. Not sure why but, OK.

Next stop was in Wyethville VA at a Sheetz gas station/convenient store. Charged up to 80% at a cost of $16.76, I didn't look at the machine but figured savings of roughly $6 or so.

Last stop was in Kodiak TN right at the Sevierville exit that takes you to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, this is at a HD dealer. Only needed a little boost to make it home so cost was only $2.36 at savings of 76cents.

Only had 1 charge station fault and was able to get it working even after that. I think it was due to me being slow to get my phone near the machine quick enough after plugging in. Anyway, it worked after I tried again.

This trip saved me $20 vs paying full price and cost less than $80 for the round trip. We did recharge at our townhouse in MD upon arrival and before heading home.

My experience with the EA network has been very positive so far. No phone calls to support, no long waits for a machine to start charging, plenty of dining options at each stop.

My only complaint would be I feel EVs are being treated as second class citizens at these stations. There are no canopies so you are in the full sun or rain, no trash cans nearby and no windshield was buckets at any of the stations we used, even the Sheetz which is a gas station and could easily provide a trash can and windshield bucket. C'mon EA, are we not cars too?

So this trip paid for half a year of membership and I will be making a few more trips there this year so for us it was definitely worth the coast of admission.

 

[Tampamike]

Two points:

1) EA Pass+ is easy to activate and deactivate as needed. Went on a 3 week road trip a month ago and activated it before we left - had already used up the free kwh’s from Ford. The first charge discount makes up for the $4 monthly fee. Deactivated it through the app when the trip was done - simple. I’ll do it again before the next road trip.

2) You don’t have to deactivate P+C. Just use the EA app to select and initiate the charger BEFORE you plug in. This is contrary to what it tells you to do but it works fine. Then plug in and start the charge on the charger. That way, P+C doesn’t take over and you get the E+A Pass+ discounted rate. This worked for me every time. Once, just to see if P+C still was active, I just plugged the MME in and, voila, P+C took over and started the charge just like it’s supposed to albeit at the higher EA rate.

 

[Tampamike]

My only complaint would be I feel EVs are being treated as second class citizens at these stations. There are no canopies so you are in the full sun or rain, no trash cans nearby and no windshield was buckets at any of the stations we used, even the Sheetz which is a gas station and could easily provide a trash can and windshield bucket. C'mon EA, are we not cars too?

THIS!

Shade, trash cans and windshield washers! The trash can absence became a running joke for us.

I guess attended (even occasionally) charging stations are not in the EA business plan.

 

[dbsb3233]

My only complaint would be I feel EVs are being treated as second class citizens at these stations. There are no canopies so you are in the full sun or rain, no trash cans nearby and no windshield was buckets at any of the stations we used, even the Sheetz which is a gas station and could easily provide a trash can and windshield bucket. C'mon EA, are we not cars too

Personally, I'd rather they use the budget for putting in more chargers than diverting $$$ to canopies, or trash and cleaning supplies that come with ongoing labor costs.

Walmarts nearly always have trash cans in the parking lots (by the cart racks). And nearly all stores/restaurants have them inside. I keep glass cleaner and a roll of paper towels in my frunk.

Maybe in 5-10 years when DCFC is everywhere, and we can pick and choose the ones with amenities will spending that money on them make more sense, but for now I just want the money going to more stations.

 

[TRP]

THIS!

Shade, trash cans and windshield washers! The trash can absence became a running joke for us.

I guess attended (even occasionally) charging stations are not in the EA business plan.

I can see the trash can and windshield bucket at the Walmart locations. Well the windshield bucket anyway. But the canopy? C'mon, this is a no brainer and should be a standard thing

 

[TRP]

Personally, I'd rather they spend the money on putting in more chargers than diverting $$$ to canopies, or trash and cleaning supplies that come with ongoing labor costs.

Walmarts nearly always have trash cans in the parking lots (by the cart racks). And nearly all stores/restaurants have them inside. I keep glass cleaner and a roll of paper towels in my frunk.

Maybe in 5-10 years when DCFC is everywhere, and we can pick and choose the ones with amenities will spending that money on them make more sense, but for now I just want the money going to more stations.

More stations are definitely needed, I agree with you there. I've yet to see a Walmart with a trash can near the cart corral, maybe I've just not noticed them. I can also forgive the Walmart locations for the windshield bucket, it would be difficult for them to maintain that. The canopy however, how much can that add to the construction costs upfront? A few thousand? Seems pretty easy to incorporate into the design, IMHO

 

[dbsb3233]

More stations are definitely needed, I agree with you there. I've yet to see a Walmart with a trash can near the cart corral, maybe I've just not noticed them. I can also forgive the Walmart locations for the windshield bucket, it would be difficult for them to maintain that. The canopy however, how much can that add to the construction costs upfront? A few thousand? Seems pretty easy to incorporate into the design, IMHO

Probably a lot more than that. While they usually wouldn't need to be quite this large, this says the typical gas station canopy runs $35K-$80K.

https://www.commtank.com/services/gas-station-construction-company/

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