Ford's CEO had a charging 'reality check' on his electric F-150 Lightning road trip

[skiingj]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/new...544cc751b4342b986016b4db5958c36&ei=19#image=1

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[ctenidae]

Good. He's correct- you'll never learn any of that in a presentation.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Farley said he visited a popular charging depot on Interstate 5 in Coalinga, California, where there were plenty of Tesla Superchargers. The Ford CEO, however, had to use a low-speed charger that he said delivered him a 40% charge in about 40 minutes.

Was just at that I-5/Coalinga EA charging station Friday night and I can attest to its shittiness. Didn't see Farley though...

I'm glad he's getting a taste of what we all deal with on road trips. Hopefully he'll take Mike's (@mkhuffman) advice and stop with the free kWh's with new purchases...

 

[RKinWA]

Was just at that I-5/Coalinga EA charging station Friday night and I can attest to its shittiness. Didn't see Farley though...

I'm glad he's getting a taste of what we all deal with on road trips. Hopefully he'll take Mike's (@mkhuffman) advice and stop with the free kWh's with new purchases...

Yeah that definitely has an impact on availability. I was at a small station once with 4 bays, 2 were out, the other was taken up by a woman in a BMW. When I spoke with her she said "I have a charger at home, but I want to use up my free charges first." I held my tongue as it isn't her fault I guess. There were two vehicles waiting for spots.

I do everything I can to avoid DCFC and only do it if necessary. I still have all 250 kWh in my balance ?

 

[RedTiv]

I’m actually surprised that the Ford PR team let him stop at a charger that was not a perfect experience.

 

[RickMachE]

250kWh of free charging should NOT be discontinued. It encourages people to try DC fast charging, and take EVs out for a drive.

The free YEARS of DC Fast Charging offered by other manufacturers are the issue.

 

[Vulnox]

250kWh of free charging should NOT be discontinued. It encourages people to try DC fast charging, and take EVs out for a drive.

The free YEARS of DC Fast Charging offered by other manufacturers are the issue.

Absolutely, even those that are against the free DCFC stuff agree that Ford (and others) that offer a limited initial bank are not part of the problem.

I was staying with relatives in Colorado that just got their first EV, an Ioniq, and they said they go about once a week to an EA station to charge since it's free instead of charging at home. I didn't want to get into an argument or anything with them, and it would be kind of hard to, as their salesperson pushed the free charging as a "perk" of buying the car and how much money it would save them over their ICE vehicle in those two years.

If Hyundai/KIA dealerships are pushing this as a daily/weekly use perk, it's no wonder it's such a problem. At least with Ford even if a dealership pushed it, that driver would be an issue for 3 or 4 visits and likely be out of their 250kWh (depending where they are on charge percent when they plug in and all that, could be more, could be less).

But I think a lot on here either still have all or most of their initial credit, because it being limited means we hang onto it until we legitimately need it. We only dipped into ours on our first road trip, and I plan on doing another in a couple weeks and will dip into it a bit more. It's an awesome perk still, as it's making this trip effectively "free", but it means I am only using the credit when I would be using a station anyway. So getting a benefit without contributing to the crowding problem.

So limited perks like that can definitely stay.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Yeah that definitely has an impact on availability. I was at a small station once with 4 bays, 2 were out, the other was taken up by a woman in a BMW. When I spoke with her she said "I have a charger at home, but I want to use up my free charges first." I held my tongue as it isn't her fault I guess. There were two vehicles waiting for spots.

I do everything I can to avoid DCFC and only do it if necessary. I still have all 250 kWh in my balance ?

I used all my balance but other than charging up once because the dealership delivered the car with 6% charge and I didn’t have an L2 EVSE installed at home yet, I only used it on road trips when I would have used a charging space anyway…

 

[RedTiv]

Absolutely, even those that are against the free DCFC stuff agree that Ford (and others) that offer a limited initial bank are not part of the problem.

I was staying with relatives in Colorado that just got their first EV, an Ioniq, and they said they go about once a week to an EA station to charge since it's free instead of charging at home. I didn't want to get into an argument or anything with them, and it would be kind of hard to, as their salesperson pushed the free charging as a "perk" of buying the car and how much money it would save them over their ICE vehicle in those two years.

If Hyundai/KIA dealerships are pushing this as a daily/weekly use perk, it's no wonder it's such a problem. At least with Ford even if a dealership pushed it, that driver would be an issue for 3 or 4 visits and likely be out of their 250kWh (depending where they are on charge percent when they plug in and all that, could be more, could be less).

But I think a lot on here either still have all or most of their initial credit, because it being limited means we hang onto it until we legitimately need it. We only dipped into ours on our first road trip, and I plan on doing another in a couple weeks and will dip into it a bit more. It's an awesome perk still, as it's making this trip effectively "free", but it means I am only using the credit when I would be using a station anyway. So getting a benefit without contributing to the crowding problem.

So limited perks like that can definitely stay.

But this would not be an issue with gas cars. If you bought a new Toyota and received a $1000 Shell gas card, you would just use it at the thousands of Shell gas stations across the country and no one would say anything about It. We need to promote EV ownership to help bring about more chargers.

Basically, we are in the rut of the charging situation. Once theres at least one charging station at every interstate exit, we will start looking golden.

 

[RKinWA]

But this would not be an issue with gas cars. If you bought a new Toyota and received a $1000 Shell gas card, you would just use it at the thousands of Shell gas stations across the country and no one would say anything about It. We need to promote EV ownership to help bring about more chargers.

Basically, we are in the rut of the charging situation. Once theres at least one charging station at every interstate exit, we will start looking golden.

This is true, but in fairness, they have been building gas stations for 100 years, EV charging stations have a lot of catching up to do, and they will eventually, it's the early people that have to endure the growing pains.

 

[Vulnox]

But this would not be an issue with gas cars. If you bought a new Toyota and received a $1000 Shell gas card, you would just use it at the thousands of Shell gas stations across the country and no one would say anything about It. We need to promote EV ownership to help bring about more chargers.

Basically, we are in the rut of the charging situation. Once theres at least one charging station at every interstate exit, we will start looking golden.

It's not the same at all, a $1000 shell gas card would be like the 250kWh we get with the car, which as I said in my post was good.

This is a limitless Shell gift card for two years. With thousands of cars sold specifically told to use Shell, that would cause issues even with the plentiful gas stations because people would be trying to use it on their way to/from work, creating a choke point.

It wouldn't be as bad as EV stations, but nowhere in my post did I say we didn't need more stations. I think that's a given. But people can be enticed to buy an EV without giving them unlimited EV charging for two years (or equivalent). Stations take time to roll out and those kinds of incentives just put pain on people that need the stations for legitimate travel usage which may lead to them not buying another EV because the experience sucked. That will lead to less EV ownership and less need to expand charging stations, the opposite of what you want.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I used all my balance but other than charging up once because the dealership delivered the car with 6% charge and I didn’t have an L2 EVSE installed at home yet, I only used it on road trips when I would have used a charging space anyway…

Although my dealer charged my car to 100% before I test drove it, I also only used my “free” 250 KWh on road trips. Well on the one road trip to get my dog. ??

 

[TheVirtualTim]

What made things particular bad ... is that some manufacturers offered "unlimited" free charging such that owners were charging their cars all the way to 100%. So not only were you waiting for people who didn't need a charge to make it to their destination ... it was made so much worse because charing that last bit gets painfully slow.

As I recall, VW changed their program to limit each session to just 30 minutes ... with a 60 minute waiting period before you can plug-in again (you can plug-in... it just wont be free). This helped with the problem of people just leaving the car plugged until it reached 100%.

 

[bp99]

I’m actually surprised that the Ford PR team let him stop at a charger that was not a perfect experience.

Why? It helps justify the NACS move and access to Super Chargers. This experience is something the PR team can use when the NACS adapters start shipping next year.

 

[RedTiv]

Why? It helps justify the NACS move and access to Super Chargers. This experience is something the PR team can use when the NACS adapters start shipping next year.

A slow charge can be due to a faulty charger or due to a bad charge curve on the vehicle, something that NACS won’t fix.

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