Thanks Ford! My NACS adapter apparently comes with complimentary 250kWh of fast charging + 22,000 points

[david_quick]

Ford vehicles are the only ones it will currently work with. Tesla hasn’t authorized other manufacturers yet.

Thus purports to work ( near end of video) using A2Z and Tesla SC.

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[dbsb3233]

I don’t think it’s spoiled to wonder why they didn’t make thousands of them before announcing you could get one. I have a sub-500 order number and the estimated ship date is April. I’ve not received the OTA that enables plug & charge.

It’s like being given a Christmas present, then when you open the box there’s a note that says, “Coming Soon”.

I wouldn’t mind so much, except they sent adapters to all their social media influencers. No one is being honest that there is a 1-3 month wait.

Because they were field testing them before geen-lighting mass production.

 

[generaltso]

Thus purports to work ( near end of video) using A2Z and Tesla SC.

That‘s on a station with Magic Dock. They don’t need special authorization.

 

[dbsb3233]

Saw a couple videos showing people testing the A2Z one but no one showed what car they were using. They did not look like a Ford.

 

[AZBill]

The west coast owners kinda got hosed on this because the reservation portal went live at 0500 Pacific Time on 29 February. I put my reservation in at 0530 and the ETA is May.

I am an early riser in Phoenix, got an April delivery date.

 

[AZBill]

That‘s on a station with Magic Dock. They don’t need special authorization.

They will work until they get too hot, then it trips the signal, and charging shuts off. The Tesla adapter sends the temperature to the charger, and if it gets too hot drops the charge rate accordingly.

 

[dbsb3233]

I used to design and market cell phones for Motorola. I can assure you that when we announced a new phone, we had hundreds of thousands already made. Imagine Apple announced a new phone available for order today. When you place your order, they tell you it will be 3-4 months before you’ll actually get it. Are you going to be happy?

My argument is that their announcement was misleading. They could say “Tesla is ready to charge Ford vehicles starting today. Rollouts of the needed adapter and OTA to enable plug&charge will begin in April and continue as quickly as manufacturing will allow.”

Instead they chose to pretend like suddenly every Ford owner could use Tesla chargers with a big media splash, leaving out that most people would have to wait at least a couple months.

Worst of all, people seem to think that if you somehow criticize Ford for this, you’re some kind of terrible person. It’s no better than Tesla fanboys freaking out when anyone suggests that Tesla and Musk aren’t perfect.

This one is more complicated because Ford doesn't make the adapters. Tesla does.

Ford could have said "Summer 2024" instead of "Spring 2024" and made everyone wait until they had 50k adapters in stock, but the whole point was to help as many owners as fast as they could. It's not just a new product like a new cell phone, it's support for existing products in use. Making timing to help some more important than waiting for all.

Plus just activating access is the bigger part of this - earlier than promised. If someone really needs it bad enough, they can buy a 3rd party adapter.

My criticism would be about an unannounced free-for-all based on reservation order. Should have just given everyone that wanted one 2 weeks to confirm shipping address, then ship by VIN#.

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

We bought our MME in November 1923
[/QUOTE]
Wow, did you buy it directly from Henry Ford himself ? ? ?

 

[generaltso]

They will work until they get too hot, then it trips the signal, and charging shuts off. The Tesla adapter sends the temperature to the charger, and if it gets too hot drops the charge rate accordingly.

I haven’t seen reports of them overheating. Was that in the video?

 

[Thunderanger]

My adapter is not expected until July. What a bummer! Can’t use Tesla charging until then. Seems crazy!

Mine as well. Darn it.

 

[timbop]

I used to design and market cell phones for Motorola. I can assure you that when we announced a new phone, we had hundreds of thousands already made. Imagine Apple announced a new phone available for order today. When you place your order, they tell you it will be 3-4 months before you’ll actually get it. Are you going to be happy?

My argument is that their announcement was misleading. They could say “Tesla is ready to charge Ford vehicles starting today. Rollouts of the needed adapter and OTA to enable plug&charge will begin in April and continue as quickly as manufacturing will allow.”

Instead they chose to pretend like suddenly every Ford owner could use Tesla chargers with a big media splash, leaving out that most people would have to wait at least a couple months.

Worst of all, people seem to think that if you somehow criticize Ford for this, you’re some kind of terrible person. It’s no better than Tesla fanboys freaking out when anyone suggests that Tesla and Musk aren’t perfect.

Not a Ford stan, just trying to point out that Ford was not obligated in any way to give current owners a free adapter, and at a considerable expense to Ford. Sure the overly enthusiastic wording is a little misleading, but the entire marketing industry is based on exaggeration. Turning that gesture into a complaint fest is the surest way to guarantee that they won't make the same mistake in the future. I want them to keep updating my 21 with OTAs, and it is obviously expensive and difficult for them to have to keep making patches that work correctly on all cars as the versions and integration of components evolve over time. That costs Ford money, too.

As to your belief that they should have waited until all of the adapters were tested, made, and warehoused before making any kind of announcement you missing the whole point. You worked for the manufacturer of the phone, and no one else was going to start selling your phones first. In this case Ford is simply a reseller of Tesla's adapters, and for a short time Ford will start getting them first - after which other resellers like GM will be selling them. Furthermore in the case of the adapters, they double the number of charging stations available to drivers and increase the reliability of said chargers - something which is a huge stumbling block for EV adoption. Ford has a stockpile of EV's and needs any advantage it can get to move them, and an advantage in charging is huge. Finally, Ford is constantly being crucified for not communicating and missing dates; from the beginning they said customers would begin getting adapters in spring 2024. April is in Spring 2024.

Ford doesn't control production of the adapters and is at the mercy of Tesla, so in order to make the announcement when 25,000 or more adapters are available they would have to:

• Make no announcement about the testing progress in February
• Ship NO adapters in April while the grumbling started
• Ship NO adapters in May while the grumbling continued
• Ship NO adapters in June while the grumbling really picked up about Ford's incompetence given the other OEMs had adapters
• Ship NO adapters in July while the torches and pitchforks were passed around
• Ship NO adapters in August in the face of a revolt
• Announce and start shipping adapters in September after the summer travel season

The end result of that would be:

• GM and others WOULD have announced the availability of adapters
• GM and others would have shipped many adapters to customers long before Ford
• Ford would have been crucified once again for missing dates AND not delivering adapters when other manufacturers did
• Access to supercharging is one of the things that will help get the EV inventory moving, so another 6 months of overstock would hurt financially and reputation-wise

So yes, I am asking you to put your big boy pants on and recognize that Ford HAD to make the announcement before having a stockpile, and has to ship the adapters out as soon as they get them.

 

[timbop]

Should have just given everyone that wanted one 2 weeks to confirm shipping address, then ship by VIN#

The problem with that is all the people who bought them recently will be up in arms because "I bought my car expecting a Tesla adapter". I don't think doing it in VIN order or anything else would have been fair. At best they could have had a lottery system to randomize the distribution order, but no matter what they did there would be complaints.

What they absolutely DID get wrong is the announcement of it. I know social media is the en vogue way to make announcements, but I suspect the demographics of MME ownership skew against that being effective. They have all of our email addresses, so an email blast at the same time of the social media posts would have been better.

 

[dbsb3233]

The problem with that is all the people who bought them recently will be up in arms because "I bought my car expecting a Tesla adapter". I don't think doing it in VIN order or anything else would have been fair. At best they could have had a lottery system to randomize the distribution order, but no matter what they did there would be complaints.

What they absolutely DID get wrong is the announcement of it. I know social media is the en vogue way to make announcements, but I suspect the demographics of MME ownership skew against that being effective. They have all of our email addresses, so an email blast at the same time of the social media posts would have been better.

With advanced warning, like concert tix ("They go on sale next Thursday at 8am ET, so be ready!"). It was the totally blind part dictating the shipping timing that was the bad move. Of course, that would have probably taken the servers completely down and been a huge mess.

I agree that people will complain about any method, but using a method that has more logical justification at least gets most people to understand and accept it. I think most people (not all) would accept that earliest VIN# or purchase date would have a much better fairness to it than this blind method did. The owners "suffering" the longest get relief the soonest. And it would have avoided the server rush if it was made clear it didn't matter when you confirmed your shipping address within the 2 weeks, because that wouldn't determine shipping order.

I suspect they just took the simplest path to getting the adapters out as fast as possible. I can't blame them too much for that, although it seems like just a little more effort could have produced what I think most would have considered a fairer method.

But bottom line is it's just a $230 part they're giving us for free. If someone is really desperate, they can pay for an A2Z adapter today. The more important piece is just being authorized for access to use SCs, and Ford delivered early on that one. I still give them an A- overall.

 

[dkstudio]

Sign up as a beta tester and get advance OTA's. Just sayin.

 

[AZBill]

I haven’t seen reports of them overheating. Was that in the video?

I have not seen a test with a Hummer or Rivian, both of which can pull 500A longer than a Lightning, in the hot Phoenix weather. No videos of that yet. The A2Z web site indicates it has a cutoff switch at 85C.

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