Mach-E Misinformation?

[Eraser]

First off, apologies if the post title triggered anyone.

I was reading this Motortrend article (posted yesterday) titled Ford Mustang Mach-E EV: A Road-Trip Fast-Charging Strategy Guide. I was genuinely confused by the premise. Based on my experience having my Mach-E for about a year, there really isn't much "strategy" needed. If I need to go on a long road trip, I simply put in my destination on the built-in navigation system, then the system tells me everything I need to know to get from point A to point B. If I can't make the trip based on my SOC, the system will tell me where to stop, and for how long.

What is all this nonsense using A Better Route Planner and manually figuring out the same information provided instantly by the built-in navigation system? Am I missing something here, or is this person just ignorant of the feature set of the Mach-E? If the latter is true, that is pretty sad coming from Motortrend, I was under the impression they are a reputable source car related information.

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[JoeDimwit]

Not many people plan routes for trips over 200 miles sitting in their car.

that’s about the only answer I can come up with.

 

[rodhx]

The main thing you’re missing is you live in the easiest state for EV nav systems. Here where chargers are much less common the Ford nav sometimes gives absolutely nonsensical routes. ABRP & Plugshare are essential tools for route planning homework. From my experience I would never blindly trust the built-in guidance where chargers are sparse.

 

[bruceski88]

First off, apologies if the post title triggered anyone.

I was reading this Motortrend article (posted yesterday) titled Ford Mustang Mach-E EV: A Road-Trip Fast-Charging Strategy Guide. I was genuinely confused by the premise. Based on my experience having my Mach-E for about a year, there really isn't much "strategy" needed. If I need to go on a long road trip, I simply put in my destination on the built-in navigation system, then the system tells me everything I need to know to get from point A to point B. If I can't make the trip based on my SOC, the system will tell me where to stop, and for how long.

What is all this nonsense using A Better Route Planner and manually figuring out the same information provided instantly by the built-in navigation system? Am I missing something here, or is this person just ignorant of the feature set of the Mach-E? If the latter is true, that is pretty sad coming from Motortrend, I was under the impression they are a reputable source car related information.

Sometimes we don’t want to drive 3+ hrs before stopping so we stop sooner and use that stop to fill up. Different places to stop may have better or different amenities.

 

[RickMachE]

How can OP have been on this forum since June 2020 and not know this? Must be a dozen threads discussing this.

 

[Eraser]

The main thing you’re missing is you live in the easiest state for EV nav systems. Here where chargers are much less common the Ford nav sometimes gives absolutely nonsensical routes. ABRP & Plugshare are essential tools for route planning homework. From my experience I would never blindly trust the built-in guidance where chargers are sparse.

If their are out of network charge stations that don't show up in the built-in nav system I can see where it might come up with some off the wall routes in those cases. Good point.

 

[RickMachE]

ABRP gives much more flexibility. PlugShare tells you if the charge location sucks. GoogleMaps tells you the most correct route so you can see if ABRP or Ford Nav is trying to take you on a stupid detour.

 

[Eraser]

How can OP have been on this forum since June 2020 and not know this? Must be a dozen threads discussing this.

Guess that is what I get for not looking first before posting. Oh well, I'll take my lashings for wasting a few bytes of data .

 

[RickMachE]

Also, tried to send a trip yesterday from FordPass to vehicle, after others had issues. Failed. Today it worked. No server issues with ABRP.

 

[Carsinmyblood]

This has been discussed quite a few times... My wife and I used 2 planners on our phones and the car's because we prefer certain places over the one's suggested by any or all of them. We might want to stop early at our first and schedule the rest out of phase with the established planner's suggestions in order to better time a restaurant, shopping, hotel or other reason.

it's good to have choices and options.

I find articles are usually wanting for depth of knowledge and worth what it cost to read it.

 

[hybrid2bev]

First off, apologies if the post title triggered anyone.

I was reading this Motortrend article (posted yesterday) titled Ford Mustang Mach-E EV: A Road-Trip Fast-Charging Strategy Guide. I was genuinely confused by the premise. Based on my experience having my Mach-E for about a year, there really isn't much "strategy" needed. If I need to go on a long road trip, I simply put in my destination on the built-in navigation system, then the system tells me everything I need to know to get from point A to point B. If I can't make the trip based on my SOC, the system will tell me where to stop, and for how long.

What is all this nonsense using A Better Route Planner and manually figuring out the same information provided instantly by the built-in navigation system? Am I missing something here, or is this person just ignorant of the feature set of the Mach-E? If the latter is true, that is pretty sad coming from Motortrend, I was under the impression they are a reputable source car related information.

Mostly because the on board route planner does not always do a good job.

To the onboard nav any DC charger is considered fast. The nav will sometimes send you to a 'fast' DC charger that is 25kW or 50kW instead of the 350kW EA station just a few miles further away. The onboard plan can sometimes say to charge for hours at Harley dealership when you could have been charging for minutes at an EA site.

ABRP is always a good way to double check that the on board system is in fact giving you the best route.

 

[Logal727]

ABRP gives much more flexibility. PlugShare tells you if the charge location sucks. GoogleMaps tells you the most correct route so you can see if ABRP or Ford Nav is trying to take you on a stupid detour.

Ford Nav has Plugshare ratings as well, I feel like Ford Nav is good for most people, it’s always good to double check though on another app

 

[NewGuy]

I don't have my Mach E yet, but when I took it for a test drive I used the in-car nav to get back to the dealership. It had the location wrong. It was on the wrong side of a divided roadway. That didn't exactly instill confidence in the Ford nav.

I wish Google would build (or acquire) something like ABRP. You can't beat Google's traffic information.

 

[benk016]

When the Mach E first came out, the route planning in the car was not good at all. Its since been updated and works a ton better now. Its still not always the best though.

The old routing would just pick whichever charger was closest to the route without considering other factors so it would always try routing me to 20kw chargers or even level 2 chargers when a DCFC was a few blocks down the road.

 

[HuntingPudel]

As was previously said, options and cross-checking information is a good thing. Also, one app might think a charging site is open while another might think it’s out of service. ?‍?

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