Wife no longer wants the ordered MME after road trip in my Lightning !

[Hammered]

The only other thing I would do I look at the difference in charging times on the same trip with a MME and the lightning. I think you would be surprised how much less time you spend charging the MME. Ultimately do what you wife wants or buy and try. this market you would probably make money flipping the MME

It's not so much charging -- same base 2017 400v platform. The difference is miles per minute recovered. The lightning and its 2 miles per kwh at best vs the mach e getting more than 50% better per kWh, especially at speed means more range per unit of time charging.

Now compare the mach e range gained compared to say a hummer, and they're about the same.

Truth is the 400v platform is NOT a road-trip vehicle. More than a single 30m charge required, forget it. ICE wins. PHEV w/ 50 mile range is the sweet spot for us Mucrians with our major cities several hours driving distance apart.

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[back_at_it_19]

Thanks to everyone who chimed in!

She is used to charging - she currently has a PHEV and she loves it because the ICE backup to the EV.

I think she is not used to having to wait at a public fast charger (in lieu of a gas pump) on the road....

Appreciate the very supportive comments and will see when it comes in - maybe she will "fall in love" with the new MME by the time she gets used to my Lightning and charging for another 6 months ???.

Our experience in WA and OR over many 250-300 mile one-way trips has never included waiting for a fast charger (all EA). If it did, I wouldn’t wait again and would switch very quickly to another vehicle. March 2021 FE, 35k miles. If the infrastructure can’t keep up, I’m out. Or I’d rent for the trip. So far so good though.

 

[Hammered]

Our experience in WA and OR over many 250-300 mile one-way trips has never included waiting for a fast charger (all EA). If it did, I wouldn’t wait again and would switch very quickly to another vehicle. March 2021 FE, 35k miles. If the infrastructure can’t keep up, I’m out. Or I’d rent for the trip. So far so good though.

Cross country EV road parade = a bad idea. Not sure why it didn't dawn on them sooner ?

Musical chairs chargers anyone?

 

[cafdiniz]

Maybe try this to convince her:
Estimate what would be, on a regular year, X minutes on Costco lines to buy gas VS Y minutes charging the car during road-trips.

 

[Reign of Ravens]

I guess it depends on how often you're making these trips. Once or twice a year? I'm sure you can learn to live with it - schedule it around meal times, or load up a movie or TV show and watch it in segments while you're waiting for the charge to complete. We're all used to gas stations and are approaching charging like going to a gas station. There's a lot that can be done to make it so it doesn't seem like as big a deal. Or if the time is too much of a hit, then rent a gas-powered vehicle specifically for these trips until infrastructure gets better.

The above seem like inconveniences, and there's no getting around the fact that compared to what we're used to, they are. But compare that to the inconvenience of having to stop off at a gas station every week, sometimes multiple times a week (depending on how much you drive), time and money spent on oil changes, combined with the cost, noise, and lack of throttle response with a gas-powered car... I'd think you come out ahead on time, experience, and cost by going electric and charging at home, but you have more data to do the calculation and see if that's true for your wife's situation.

If you're making these trips a lot more frequently, though, then that changes things. At that point you need to be more dedicated to the current EV technology, or look at Kia's 800 volt-architecture vehicles (I assume the Porsche Taycan isn't a consideration, but it also has 800 V architecture)... but that doesn't guarantee that you'll be using chargers that can feed the higher speeds. A plug-in hybrid, as others have said, may be the best of both worlds until things improve a bit further.

 

[Guss-E 2021]

Yeah but if you talk her into it, and then she doesn't like it (which would be crazy, I know), she will resent the fact you talked her into it. Get her a Lincoln Aviator instead.

Right. The gas savings with that should do the trick. Oh, wait a minute.... ??

 

[4sallypat]

I guess it depends on how often you're making these trips. Once or twice a year? I'm sure you can learn to live with it - schedule it around meal times, or load up a movie or TV show and watch it in segments while you're waiting for the charge to complete. We're all used to gas stations and are approaching charging like going to a gas station. There's a lot that can be done to make it so it doesn't seem like as big a deal. Or if the time is too much of a hit, then rent a gas-powered vehicle specifically for these trips until infrastructure gets better.

The above seem like inconveniences, and there's no getting around the fact that compared to what we're used to, they are. But compare that to the inconvenience of having to stop off at a gas station every week, sometimes multiple times a week (depending on how much you drive), time and money spent on oil changes, combined with the cost, noise, and lack of throttle response with a gas-powered car... I'd think you come out ahead on time, experience, and cost by going electric and charging at home, but you have more data to do the calculation and see if that's true for your wife's situation.

If you're making these trips a lot more frequently, though, then that changes things. At that point you need to be more dedicated to the current EV technology, or look at Kia's 800 volt-architecture vehicles (I assume the Porsche Taycan isn't a consideration, but it also has 800 V architecture)... but that doesn't guarantee that you'll be using chargers that can feed the higher speeds. A plug-in hybrid, as others have said, may be the best of both worlds until things improve a bit further.

Yes, I see your point.

We don't do distance road trips frequently - if any - it's only a few times out of the year.

Typically we fly domestic and international way more than take road trips...

She is used to driving to/from work and plugging in her PHEV so she never sees the charge time (2 hours) because she is home and the PHEV is in the garage.

I figure her recent negativity is from the travel during the day, lack of working chargers, frustration with having to wait and potential cost of charging ($.43 kw/H) is what got her thinking....

The fuel savings now ($7/gallon) compared to the cost of electricity at home ($0.21 kw/h) might convince her to drop the ICE portion of her PHEV, although she rarely dips into the fuel tank as her daily commute is covered by the 50 mile EV range.

I might be able to switch her over to the MME if I "had" to give the PHEV to the youngest new driver in the house....

 

[DennisD]

Cross country EV road parade = a bad idea. Not sure why it didn't dawn on them sooner ?

Musical chairs chargers anyone?

That is exactly what I was thinking.

Its like when you are at a sporting event and expect to use the bathroom during halftime without waiting and then say you are never going to go to said event again because it took too long?

Unless you are in a planned "parade" of other EV's, I am guessing the wait time would be much less.

 

[sotek2345]

Having two Ford EVs in the household sounds like a miserable experience. I want our cars to succeed but there are days when the MME and/or the charging experience is just a giant headache. I'd only try to convince her to get a MME if there is an additional ICE/hybrid vehicle in the garage.

This is exactly what we are doing after the great experience to date with our Mach-e. My Lightning is currently 22 miles from my dealer and waiting on a transport truck. Once I have it my wife and I will be Ford EV only. We love road tripping in the Mach-e and expect to like doing it in the Lightning just as much if not more (so much more room!).

My daughter still has an ICE (2007 VW Beetle) because we weren't buying an expensive EV for a 16 year old.

 

[Vulnox]

I agree on getting a Lincoln plug-in hybrid instead. Even with higher gas prices, if you are mainly only paying them on really long road trips you don't take the Lighting, it won't be terrible.

I am looking at getting one to replace my F-150 I think once the plug-in Aviator has BlueCruise (or Lincoln Glide I think they call it). I love my F-150, but have had three in a row and with fewer home projects and that lately, a more comfortable long distance cruiser would be nice.

I am fine with the MME for sub-5 hour drives and the added time charging adds to that. But if we were doing 5+ hours or multi-day, I would rather take the F-150 PowerBoost and trade higher fuel costs for cutting hours off the trip. Once we get to the point of 300+kW charging with decent curve from 10-80% of 10 minutes or less, I will be good to fully step away from ICE. I look forward to that day too!

 

[tuminatr]

It's not so much charging -- same base 2017 400v platform. The difference is miles per minute recovered. The lightning and its 2 miles per kwh at best vs the mach e getting more than 50% better per kWh, especially at speed means more range per unit of time charging.

Now compare the mach e range gained compared to say a hummer, and they're about the same.

Truth is the 400v platform is NOT a road-trip vehicle. More than a single 30m charge required, forget it. ICE wins. PHEV w/ 50 mile range is the sweet spot for us Mucrians with our major cities several hours driving distance apart.

That's a common misconception. Road tripping is more about efficientcy and range. Here is a common trip I take from saint Paul to Chicago first is with my 400v Mach E 6h 59 minutes second with a Hyundai Ioniq 5 800v 7h 26 minutes.

 

[moparguy]

See if you can sell her on this
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2024-hyundai-ioniq-6-first-drive-review/

Rumors it will have 380 miles worth or range, 350 kw fast charging, I feel if those numbers turned to be true, this will make a huge fuss in the EV world.

 

[Dnorwood98]

My unpopular opinion (maybe). We need to reframe our mindset. How long would that journey have taken by horseback or carriage? Yes we might need to account for more time, but that is because we have been conditioned to expect trips to happen quickly due to the use of ICE engines.

As battery technology improves, so will range. As charging infrastructure/technology improves, charge times will be shorter.

If she doesn't want it, that's her preference.

 

[jotay21]

The charging issue on road trips is precisely why my F150 is our road trip vehicle. I wanted a lightning to replace it, but no way I could comfortably travel long distances in an EV. Her Mach E is perfect for the driving she does within 50 miles of our house(daily), but I would not want to deal with charging on the road. I will stick with ICE for that.

 

[jotay21]

My unpopular opinion (maybe). We need to reframe our mindset. How long would that journey have taken by horseback or carriage? Yes we might need to account for more time, but that is because we have been conditioned to expect trips to happen quickly due to the use of ICE engines.

As battery technology improves, so will range. As charging infrastructure/technology improves, charge times will be shorter.

If she doesn't want it, that's her preference.

At no point should technology impact experience adversely.

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