Another example of why using FordPass by itself is a really bad idea

[RickMachE]

Over the past nearly two weeks, we took a trip from Michigan to Georgia, then to South Carolina, then home. This was our third trip (first was Florida in September, second was Massachusetts in October). Also our first trip where the weather was cold.

Planned the trip with FordPass, ABRP, PlugShare, and GoogleMaps. I have receipts and data to look at, and have a nice head cold, so not doing all that today, but again FordPass showed it's lack of flexibility and sometimes downright bad information.

Great example on the way home yesterday. Asheville, NC with 100% charge from the hotel to Ann Arbor, MI. Total of about 625 miles. Done close to this route before.

FordPass recommended we stop 5 times. At one point it had us detouring off the highway for no reason. Drive 151 miles, stop and charge for 9 minutes. Drive 86 miles and charge for 21 minutes. Drive 116 miles and charge for 32 mins. Drive 133 miles and charge for 37 minutes. Drive, and detour, and pay a toll, and charge for 23 minutes. Arrive home with 12%. Total trip time of 13:45, with charging of 2:04. Ridiculous. Not only are there too many charging stops, but FordPass wants us to detour onto a toll road because it can't see that we can easily drive 200 miles on the last leg with a safety margin.

ABRP recommended 3 stops. Drive 179 miles, charge for 29 minutes. Drive 116 miles, charge for 35 minutes. Drive 131 miles and charge for 1:29 (to 95%). Arrive home with 5%. Total trip time of 12:26, with charging of 2:32 (I have it set for 10 minutes of overhead per charger).

We left at 8:35AM and arrived home at 8:13, which included traffic delays. We stopped exactly where ABRP recommended. First leg was 176 miles and we charged for 25 minutes. Second was 134 miles and charged for 24:30 (because we had more left on the first stop and charged to 80%, and faster than ABRP said). Drove 142 miles (including a detour) and charged for 50 minutes (from 28% to 95%). This clearly shows that ABRP has no idea of the charging speed above 80% on the Mach-E, at least as of yesterday. We arrived home with 12% charge, which included running the heat in the last hour or so. Total driving time was 9:23 (GoogleMaps says 9:12). Total time on a working charger was 1:40. Total time getting on and off the highway and to/from the chargers, plus dealing with one charger that didn't work, was 24 minutes, i.e. an extra 8 minutes per charger.

For the trip, charging added a total of 2:04, or 18% overhead for 3 charges. Part of this is due to the slowing between 80 and 95% on the last charge to get home.

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[RonTCat]

Over the past nearly two weeks, we took a trip from Michigan to Georgia, then to South Carolina, then home. This was our third trip (first was Florida in September, second was Massachusetts in October). Also our first trip where the weather was cold.

Planned the trip with FordPass, ABRP, PlugShare, and GoogleMaps. I have receipts and data to look at, and have a nice head cold, so not doing all that today, but again FordPass showed it's lack of flexibility and sometimes downright bad information.

Great example on the way home yesterday. Asheville, NC with 100% charge from the hotel to Ann Arbor, MI. Total of about 625 miles. Done close to this route before.

FordPass recommended we stop 5 times. At one point it had us detouring off the highway for no reason. Drive 151 miles, stop and charge for 9 minutes. Drive 86 miles and charge for 21 minutes. Drive 116 miles and charge for 32 mins. Drive 133 miles and charge for 37 minutes. Drive, and detour, and pay a toll, and charge for 23 minutes. Arrive home with 12%. Total trip time of 13:45, with charging of 2:04. Ridiculous. Not only are there too many charging stops, but FordPass wants us to detour onto a toll road because it can't see that we can easily drive 200 miles on the last leg with a safety margin.

ABRP recommended 3 stops. Drive 179 miles, charge for 29 minutes. Drive 116 miles, charge for 35 minutes. Drive 131 miles and charge for 1:29 (to 95%). Arrive home with 5%. Total trip time of 12:26, with charging of 2:32 (I have it set for 10 minutes of overhead per charger).

We left at 8:35AM and arrived home at 8:13, which included traffic delays. We stopped exactly where ABRP recommended. First leg was 176 miles and we charged for 25 minutes. Second was 134 miles and charged for 24:30 (because we had more left on the first stop and charged to 80%, and faster than ABRP said). Drove 142 miles (including a detour) and charged for 50 minutes (from 28% to 95%). This clearly shows that ABRP has no idea of the charging speed above 80% on the Mach-E, at least as of yesterday. We arrived home with 12% charge, which included running the heat in the last hour or so. Total driving time was 9:23 (GoogleMaps says 9:12). Total time on a working charger was 1:40. Total time getting on and off the highway and to/from the chargers, plus dealing with one charger that didn't work, was 24 minutes, i.e. an extra 8 minutes per charger.

For the trip, charging added a total of 2:04, or 18% overhead for 3 charges. Part of this is due to the slowing between 80 and 95% on the last charge to get home.

That why it's a better route planner, not just a OK route planner.

 

[benk016]

ABRP has not updated the MME charging speeds yet for 2021 models. Once more people start getting the OTA to enable the faster charging they will update it with the above 80% changes.

They didn't want to update it early and have people getting bad routing because it thought it could charge faster above 80%. So instead they are keeping it how it is, so you might get some longer charging estimates, but will actually spend less time there if going above 80%.

 

[hybrid2bev]

ABRP has not updated the MME charging speeds yet for 2021 models. Once more people start getting the OTA to enable the faster charging they will update it with the above 80% changes.

They didn't want to update it early and have people getting bad routing because it thought it could charge faster above 80%. So instead they are keeping it how it is, so you might get some longer charging estimates, but will actually spend less time there if going above 80%.

I have a 21 with the updated charge curve. In ABRP I changed my vehicle to a 22 with 3% battery degradation to account for my 21 having 88 kWh instead of 91 kWh. Now I see the improvement in the charging time.

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