Charging FAIL & GREAT Surprise When We Compare The Model Y & Mach-E On The World’s Toughest EV Test!

[Shayne]

The issue with not being able to start a charge was an issue with the charging stations. But the slow charging curve that has been reported so far is the Mach-E. The good news is that Ford can change that with OTA updates. The short answer is no, you shouldn't be worried. Unless you do a lot of road trips, most of your charging isn't going to happen at DC fast chargers anyway.

There is two talking the charger and the car. Just like it maybe a game patch and a graphics card driver that will fix an issue the same is true for the charger and the car. I am not sure who will patch it but I assume they are both talking to each other.

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[JamieGeek]

I will say after a week of driving it I would strongly encourage that you consider a Standard range car. When I drive I try and keep a little book where I record the distance driven every day. I personally average 30 to 40 miles in a day. If you have a place to charge at home, the range even on the SR AWD is more than enough. I'd personally save the change and go for a Standard range for every day driving as 200 miles + on a charge seems realistic from my experience. For road trips where the ER would have the advantage, well, um, let's just say I'm not sure the charging network is quite flushed out for the majority of folks. So save the dough!!!

Funny posting that recommendation when most of us here reserved our cars over a year ago...

 

[ChasingCoral]

zap and dash

I like it. I’ll remember that one!

 

[ChasingCoral]

on my commute to work it is not uncommon for traffic to go 75-80 mph .

Sure. But how far is it?

 

[generaltso]

I will say after a week of driving it I would strongly encourage that you consider a Standard range car. When I drive I try and keep a little book where I record the distance driven every day. I personally average 30 to 40 miles in a day. If you have a place to charge at home, the range even on the SR AWD is more than enough. I'd personally save the change and go for a Standard range for every day driving as 200 miles + on a charge seems realistic from my experience. For road trips where the ER would have the advantage, well, um, let's just say I'm not sure the charging network is quite flushed out for the majority of folks. So save the dough!!!

That‘s exactly why I went with the standard range. It’s more than enough for my 10 mile commute to work. I just couldn’t justify spending $5000 for an additional 60 (now 59) miles of range when I would hardly ever use it. Everyone’s use case is different, but most people will probably end up carting around more weight in batteries than they really need.

 

[rgparham]

Sure. But how far is it?

26 miles each way. some days 120 miles of use
so should not be a problem with my er battery

 

[ARK]

I will say after a week of driving it I would strongly encourage that you consider a Standard range car. When I drive I try and keep a little book where I record the distance driven every day. I personally average 30 to 40 miles in a day. If you have a place to charge at home, the range even on the SR AWD is more than enough. I'd personally save the change and go for a Standard range for every day driving as 200 miles + on a charge seems realistic from my experience. For road trips where the ER would have the advantage, well, um, let's just say I'm not sure the charging network is quite flushed out for the majority of folks. So save the dough!!!

This was my thinking too. Unless someone makes regular use of the extra miles on the ER (or at least comes close to so they at least get the peace of mind), $5,000 is a lot of cash to put down in order to save 20-30 minutes in having potentially one less fast charging stop or two on a road trip each year.

The AWD ER does accelerate faster than the AWD SR, but I suspect the AWD SR may have slightly better figures for grip, braking, and the like. Actually it would be great if you guys did do a comparison of an AWD ER and AWD SR if you ever get the chance down the line, would be interesting to see how small or not so small these differences can really be.

 

[malba2366]

The fast charging on these cars is looking pretty bad for the forseeable future. I don't think Ford is going to allow faster charging for a quite a while, if ever. If they were going to, they would have enabled it on these journalist test cars to prevent the inevitable dings on the reviews.

 

[malba2366]

That‘s exactly why I went with the standard range. It’s more than enough for my 10 mile commute to work. I just couldn’t justify spending $5000 for an additional 60 (now 59) miles of range when I would hardly ever use it. Everyone’s use case is different, but most people will probably end up carting around more weight in batteries than they really need.

The $5000 premium is getting you a nice step up in performance as well.

 

[mr_raider]

I'm glad I ordered the SR version. 160+ miles in the dead of winter going uphill is plenty for me. The extra 7k for the bigger battery would have been money wasted for me.

 

[JSOrange97]

That‘s exactly why I went with the standard range. It’s more than enough for my 10 mile commute to work. I just couldn’t justify spending $5000 for an additional 60 (now 59) miles of range when I would hardly ever use it. Everyone’s use case is different, but most people will probably end up carting around more weight in batteries than they really need.

This is opening up an existing wound for me... with the price reduction, I went with ER because the NJ EV rebate (before it was taken away) effectively covered the additional cost of the ER. Now, not so much.

 

[generaltso]

The $5000 premium is getting you a nice step up in performance as well.

Yup, that’s also true, but still not worth $5000 to me. The 5.2s 0-60 time of the SR is far better performance than any car I’ve ever owned. If it was $1000 for the bigger battery, I probably would have sprung for it.

 

[generaltso]

This is opening up an existing wound for me... with the price reduction, I went with ER because the NJ EV rebate (before it was taken away) effectively covered the additional cost of the ER. Now, not so much.

Yeah, that sucks for NJ buyers since the rules changed after ordering. At least you’ll still get the sales tax exemption. I would love to get that.

 

[Randy E.]

Of all the comments, the end suggestion by Roman seems spot on. Moving forward, Ford, perhaps their best play, would be to buy out the majority stake of Electrify America and fix their issues, thus having an entire network at their disposal. Ford could then lower their Ford charging prices for their own vehicles, prioritize stations, while - perhaps - charging slightly more for other vehicles using their stations (if regs don't get in the way, etc...).

Bottom Line: Owning the entire "stack" as it's call in Silicon Valley is a big advantage. Apple does it, Tesla follows that lead, so should anyone seriously looking to move their entire fleet to EV (or 80%+ of it at least).

Ford's Mach-E is impressive. I'm with the subjective view that the ME looks way better than the MY. Model Y looks like a big bubble car that women drive. No offense to women, nor the Y not having a strong looking stance, I simply prefer a more aggressive looking vehicle, and Ford, by most accounts has that edge.

NOTE: Does anyone remember Woody Allen's movie, sleeper? Yes, those vehicles, that's what the Telsa vehicles always remind me of. Ha!

If most are going to use this for a commuter car, either works just fine via home charging, and random chargers wherever won't really matter. Families (if you fit that category) are like 90% mini-van or 3-row something for road trips where neither vehicle really applies.

Ford has a definite winner on their hands. Hard to believe this is their FIRST true launch into an all-EV. Get a few hundred pounds of weight out, add some some software updates improving range efficiency and this platform is going to have legs.

 

[JamieGeek]

Of all the comments, the end suggestion by Roman seems spot on. Moving forward, Ford, perhaps their best play, would be to buy out the majority stake of Electrify America and fix their issues, thus having an entire network at their disposal. Ford could then lower their Ford charging prices for their own vehicles, prioritize stations, while - perhaps - charging slightly more for other vehicles using their stations (if regs don't get in the way, etc...).

Bottom Line: Owning the entire "stack" as it's call in Silicon Valley is a big advantage. Apple does it, Tesla follows that lead, so should anyone seriously looking to move their entire fleet to EV (or 80%+ of it at least).

Ford's Mach-E is impressive. I'm with the subjective view that the ME looks way better than the MY. Model Y looks like a big bubble car that women drive. No offense to women, nor the Y not having a strong looking stance, I simply prefer a more aggressive looking vehicle, and Ford, by most accounts has that edge.

NOTE: Does anyone remember Woody Allen's movie, sleeper? Yes, those vehicles, that's what the Telsa vehicles always remind me of. Ha!

If most are going to use this for a commuter car, either works just fine via home charging, and random chargers wherever won't really matter. Families (if you fit that category) are like 90% mini-van or 3-row something for road trips where neither vehicle really applies.

Ford has a definite winner on their hands. Hard to believe this is their FIRST true launch into an all-EV. Get a few hundred pounds of weight out, add some some software updates improving range efficiency and this platform is going to have legs.

Couterpoint: No

Ford's experience has been with not owning everything: Think ICE cars with gas stations everywhere. There is no reason why they would move away from that model.

Sure there are issues right now with some of the systems. That will get worked out because the different systems are competing with each other (well kind of: yes there are many locations where there is only a DCFC from a single vendor). Over time it will fix itself as more and more EVs get on the road and demand (and competition) go up.

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