First “long” road trip ended not as planned, help!

[rsfloodco]

Yesterday we took a roundtrip that was to be 230 miles. Just outside the winter maximum of 215 showing. I’ve only charged publically twice and that was just to get the prime parking. From reading, I assumed a 10m quick charge at a rapid charger would get me home. Btw, it’s 10:30pm following and long day of driving and youth soccer. Also, I’m using ford app to guide me. And so the story begins:
Found a free public charger at a park and had time to kill before the game. Thought “score”. 20 minutes later, it added 2miles.
Station 1 on the way home. A Target with a bank of chargers. None fit the MME but the small one which is broke but gives me another 2 miles after 20minutes. At 30%
Station 2 is at a public municipality and after 25 minutes, I’ve added 2 miles assume it’s also broke and go to the next. At 22%
Station 3 is at a Wells Fargo and didn’t take credit cards but only a charge “fob/card”. I assume private. At 20%
Station 4 is a Cum and go. We’re at 12% at this point and after 1.5 hours I get approx 8 miles and just over what I need according to car and Apple Maps. Leave with 14%
It’s after 1:30 am when this disaster ends. I back into my garage with 0% and 1 mile showing. It’d been like that for well over a mile. My wife is firmly wanting rid of the car. My son’s exhausted and I’m PO’d.
Help please. Where did I go wrong? This can’t be normal. How do I improve my outcome next time?

Sponsored

 

[SnBGC]

Were the public EVSEs level 2 or DCFC? Or a mix?
Doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. Sounds like a malfunction with the car to me.

 

[skiingj]

Sorry to hear. It would be good to know the name/location of the chargers. I've found Electrify America to have the best stations.

 

[ChasingCoral]

It sounds like you were using all Level 2 chargers. Those are like the one you used at home and rather slow.
Start by watching this Ford video


Then get the details from this one

 

[Flint302]

Maybe get an app like PlugShare and filter out everything under 50 Kw and CCS. This way you won't be bothered with the Level 2 stations.

 

[ebeponyan]

Yesterday we took a roundtrip that was to be 230 miles. Just outside the winter maximum of 215 showing. I’ve only charged publically twice and that was just to get the prime parking. From reading, I assumed a 10m quick charge at a rapid charger would get me home. Btw, it’s 10:30pm following and long day of driving and youth soccer. Also, I’m using ford app to guide me. And so the story begins:
Found a free public charger at a park and had time to kill before the game. Thought “score”. 20 minutes later, it added 2miles.
Station 1 on the way home. A Target with a bank of chargers. None fit the MME but the small one which is broke but gives me another 2 miles after 20minutes. At 30%
Station 2 is at a public municipality and after 25 minutes, I’ve added 2 miles assume it’s also broke and go to the next. At 22%
Station 3 is at a Wells Fargo and didn’t take credit cards but only a charge “fob/card”. I assume private. At 20%
Station 4 is a Cum and go. We’re at 12% at this point and after 1.5 hours I get approx 8 miles and just over what I need according to car and Apple Maps. Leave with 14%
It’s after 1:30 am when this disaster ends. I back into my garage with 0% and 1 mile showing. It’d been like that for well over a mile. My wife is firmly wanting rid of the car. My son’s exhausted and I’m PO’d.
Help please. Where did I go wrong? This can’t be normal. How do I improve my outcome next time?

Downloading PlugShare will be your best bet for finding chargers nearby with the ability to filter by all kinds of variables and reviews from the active userbase will help give you advanced warning of potentially bad chargers.

It's hard to say where you "went wrong" without knowing exactly what chargers you went to, but you might have been using L2 AC chargers or suuuper slow/ancient/unreliable DC fast chargers when a 150kW EA station was just around the corner in a Walmart parking lot. That's where PlugShare comes in.

It is an unfortunate truth that we're still in an age of having 20 different apps and cards and accounts in order to use all of the chargers out in the world. However, if you stick with Ford's "in network" chargers (and particularly Electrify America, which is generally considered at this time the fastest, most reliable and most consistently spread across the country), then you should be able to get by on Plug&Charge alone (recommend having the Electrify America app set up as a backup though).

It's also a best practice to run your trip plan through A Better Route Planner before hitting the road. While PlugShare is great for finding the best, fastest and nearest chargers to you, ABRP will plot out a whole itinerary for you from point A to B, and tends to be much better at doing so than the built-in Ford navigation.

Sorry it went awry for you, and it's hard to know what you don't know- particularly when Ford dealerships are so inept at conveying important information about EV ownership. It's harder to get through EV road tripping without a little extra planning overhead, but once you get in the groove, you may even find that you enjoy grabbing a burger, a bubble tea and spending some quality family time while your car fills up. Don't be disheartened, it's only up from here (assuming no STOP SAFELY NOW shenanigans).

EDIT: shoutout to the videos posted by @ChasingCoral as well. The second one (StateOfCharge) does a great job of demystifying charging. It may be worth noting that older videos will likely mention Mach-E DC charge speeds dropping off sharply at 80%. While this is no longer the case for 2022 owners and 2021 owners who have had CSP 21P22 applied by their dealer, the concept still holds that DC charging will be slower at higher percentages.

 

[JellyBelly]

If you are using ford pass - you can filter ford pass to show you only DC fast chargers. Looks like by description of teh charger locations, as others have already said, they are are L2 chargers and not fast to charge.

 

[dml105]

Need more info about your charging locations. Were any the big fat receptacles that required you to flip the extra port down?

 

[ebeponyan]

Maybe get an app like PlugShare and filter out everything under 50 Kw and CCS. This way you won't be bothered with the Level 2 stations.

To be clear, filter OUT <50kW power level, filter ON the Quick Charge (CCS/SAE Combo) for compatible DC fast chargers.

More fast chargers are being added all the time, it's been fun over the last year to watch them spring up while idly browsing vacation destinations.

 

[rsfloodco]

Thank you. 100% operator error. Ugh! I never noticed the little flip down cover that allows the rapid charger to connect. Wow did I learn that the hard way!

It sounds like you were using all Level 2 chargers. Those are like the one you used at home and rather slow.
Start by watching this Ford video


Then get the details from this one

 

[SnBGC]

Most public L2 would be 208v so on a road trip one could expect around 14-15 miles of added range per hour.

However, it is fairly common for public L2 to be installed with circuit share so only 7 miles of added range per hour if another vehicle is using the other plug or if the installer didn't set up the machines correctly (which is incredibly easy to make that mistake).

This is a good case for a kW while charging on L2 might be very helpful

 

[ebeponyan]

Thank you. 100% operator error. Ugh! I never noticed the little flip down cover that allows the rapid charger to connect. Wow did I learn that the hard way!

Sounds like it's time to find a fast charger near a local flower and/or ice cream shop to make amends.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

I don’t recommend the FordPass app, but maybe that’s because I’m not used to it. I use PlugShare and set the setting for only showing chargers with CCS connections and only chargers greater than 100KW. Once I find a charger I check the recent reviews to make sure it’s been functioning well.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Most public L2 charging station are around 5 kW (208V x 24A) which would charge at around 13 mi/hr added range. So after charging for 20 minutes you'd expect to see about 4 miles of added range.

L2 chargers only make sense if you can park the car for several hours or longer to charge. If you only want to spend 20 minutes you need to seek out DC fast chargers only. Use Plugshare or ABRP to find them. DC fast chargers are going to be about 20 times faster than a L2 station, it's a huge difference.

 

[RickMachE]

In short, where you went wrong @rsfloodco, was two-fold. One, not understanding the difference between level 2 and DC charging. Second, not finding a DC charger BEFORE YOUR TRIP to make sure you knew how to use it and have a successful charge session. Now you know, so you can get ready for the next trip.

Sponsored