Mach-e for Road Trips just sucks. Not even close. More expensive than gas

[Tampamike]

I just checked my last electricity bill - actually is 10.9 cents per kWh. So, even better.

Look - i LOVE my Mach-e. It's AWESOME for getting around my area. It's SUPER fun to drive (i have the GT Performance) and it's WAY smoother than my F150. Have saved a ton of money on gas the last 3 years.

I was just so surprised about the poor Public Charging infrastructure and the price of Public Charing.

(And I didn't suggest that anyone not buy an EV - i just said I understand their arguments better now)

For me, I wouldn't make an EV my only car, but as a 2nd car, it's brilliant.

Cheers

Yeah, ya kinda learned the hard way I guess. My MME IS my only car and we make a bunch of road trips in it. I’d have known about that bum EA station and avoided it. As for the EA membership, you can activate it when you need it and then cancel it - good for a month and you can buy it one month at a time, so if you’re gonna charge at least 3 times on the trip, you’ll come out ahead with the membership. The same with Tesla.

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[AliRafiee]

I agree that filling up on the road is not the best experience. We need to get the charge time down to about 5 minutes in order to compare it to driving an ICE car.

But pretty sure that the prices you paid on this trip still offsets the low cost of ownership in the past few years you have been driving it.

I didn’t buy my EV because of gas prices. I bought it because of less maintenance and the fact that I don’t want to go to gas stations, I have a full battery every morning for $1. The performance is a plus.

 

[Riotous]

Yeah, ya kinda learned the hard way I guess. My MME IS my only car and we make a bunch of road trips in it. I’d have known about that bum EA station and avoided it. As for the EA membership, you can activate it when you need it and then cancel it - good for a month and you can buy it one month at a time, so if you’re gonna charge at least 3 times on the trip, you’ll come out ahead with the membership. The same with Tesla.

Good advice, appreciate! Honestly, the Mach-e is a LOT smoother drive than my truck... I'd like to roadtrip more in it...

 

[MacherAWD]

Good advice, appreciate! Honestly, the Mach-e is a LOT smoother drive than my truck... I'd like to roadtrip more in it...

Texas is tough, its like the mid-west. When you guys say roadtrip you are open highway, 80mph and going for hours, not ideal. Up in new england if we are going 80 for more than 3hrs we can be in 5 different states or another country. Longest road trip I have taken in 20 years is less than 300 miles.

 

[Riotous]

You're right about that - every road trip for us starts with a 9 hour drive to Amarillo, and we're still in Texas, dammit (on our way to New Mexico, Colorado, Utah...)

 

[ARK]

I just checked my last electricity bill - actually is 10.9 cents per kWh. So, even better.

Look - i LOVE my Mach-e. It's AWESOME for getting around my area. It's SUPER fun to drive (i have the GT Performance) and it's WAY smoother than my F150. Have saved a ton of money on gas the last 3 years.

I was just so surprised about the poor Public Charging infrastructure and the price of Public Charing.

(And I didn't suggest that anyone not buy an EV - i just said I understand their arguments better now)

For me, I wouldn't make an EV my only car, but as a 2nd car, it's brilliant.

Cheers

To be honest though, if someone is on their first road trip after three years of ownership and 30,000 miles, I feel like a worse road trip experience is hugely outweighed by the better day-to-day, typical driving experience in an EV. But a lot of people do look to how the experience pans out on a rare thing for most vehicles (a road trip) in making their purchase decision.

 

[ack154]

I just checked my last electricity bill - actually is 10.9 cents per kWh. So, even better.

Definitely cheaper than upstate NY.

My bill has separate "delivery" and "supply" charges. Just the delivery (the pleasure of them providing you with electricity) is roughly $0.11/kWh. The supply charge is the actual cost of the electricity itself. That's just about $0.075/kWh. So not counting all of the other non-usage-based stuff, it's typically about $0.19/kWh. Then there's another $25 or so of other taxes and charges per month.

 

[AliRafiee]

You're right about that - every road trip for us starts with a 9 hour drive to Amarillo, and we're still in Texas, dammit (on our way to New Mexico, Colorado, Utah...)

I’m glad I’m not there anymore. Lived in Dallas for 30 years. Now I’m 1 hour from the beach and 1 hour from the ski slopes. Not to mention all the forests to ride my dirt bike in.

 

[Sikkun]

What F150 is averaging 30MPG on a road trip?

 

[ChehRob]

Friend just reported some range anxiety. In wilderness area of California. I have experienced the same. Both involved a lapse in planning. Oh yes, it may be relevant to note that both were ICEs.

 

[Monke]

We used to pay $40 round trip of 750 miles to the west side of Dallas when we paid per minute at EA. I see no reason to go through all the troubles and to waste my time driving my MME to Dallas after the price increase at EA stations. MME is a good car and save us money when driving in town. We are still waiting for a Tesla adapter. We might try one more grocery trip to Dallas once we have the adapter and see how much more we have to pay compared to gas money.

 

[Rabidsquirrel22]

If you got 1.9 miles per kWh, you were driving crazy fast, you should have gotten like 2.6 or so at the worst. What mpg do you get in your F-150 driving that fast?

For the GT, 1.9 isn’t good but it’s not far from the normal highway speed efficiency. I usually get 2.2-2.4 on long highway stretches, but I have seen 1.9 before in summer weather - going from Bay City up to Grayling on I-75 driving 75 mph the whole time.

I’ve heard highway speeds in Texas are higher, so if he drove 80 mph and/or had a headwind then 1.9 is very realistic.

 

[RickMachE]

I just checked my last electricity bill - actually is 10.9 cents per kWh. So, even better.

Look - i LOVE my Mach-e. It's AWESOME for getting around my area. It's SUPER fun to drive (i have the GT Performance) and it's WAY smoother than my F150. Have saved a ton of money on gas the last 3 years.

I was just so surprised about the poor Public Charging infrastructure and the price of Public Charing.

(And I didn't suggest that anyone not buy an EV - i just said I understand their arguments better now)

For me, I wouldn't make an EV my only car, but as a 2nd car, it's brilliant.

Cheers

Make sure you're looking at the actual incremental cost, including all "per kWh" charges. My electric company advertises like 0.5 cents. Now, add in all the other stuff and you're at 15.5 cents.

We used to pay $40 round trip of 750 miles to the west side of Dallas when we paid per minute at EA. I see no reason to go through all the troubles and to waste my time driving my MME to Dallas after the price increase at EA stations. MME is a good car and save us money when driving in town. We are still waiting for a Tesla adapter. We might try one more grocery trip to Dallas once we have the adapter and see how much more we have to pay compared to gas money.

There is no reason to wait. Go to ABRP and tell it you now have an adapter in the car setup, and then plan the trip. Then, open the Tesla app and lookup the cost of each station. VIOLA! No surprises!


Facts - DC fast charging costs vary WIDELY by LOCATION, NETWORK, and TIME OF DAY (sometimes). There is no blanket "X is cheaper".

A few states still charge "by the minute". In those states, charging to 80% at every stop usually pays off hugely, like an average of 15 cents per kWh.

In some places (CA for example), you can find an EA station for one price, and a few miles away one for a lower price.

In some places Tesla is vastly cheaper than EA (Oregon). In other places, Tesla is more expensive. In some places, they're comparable.

Before each trip, I evaluate the route and see what ABRP offers up. If it's mostly Tesla, then I look to see if EA makes any sense on the trip. The morning of the trip, I'll activate, then immediately downgrade, one or both memberships if it will pay off. With the Mach-E, it takes longer than the Lightning, but on a multi-day trip, both can pay off.

We did 5,300 miles to CA, and 4,700 miles across 10 states and 8 national parks without Tesla (except 1 Magic Dock location in Moab). Then, we got an adapter and took a trip through Canada to Burlington, where CCS fast chargers are scarce. We used Tesla pretty exclusively, and it was a vastly improved experience.

The key is PLANNING. If you don't like to plan, don't trip in an EV. We got rid of our gas F-150 at the end of 2023, and haven't looked back.

A future trip will be through Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and into Canada to catch some skiing. So don't tell me "road trips are hard"... ?

 

[RickMachE]

For the GT, 1.9 isn’t good but it’s not far from the normal highway speed efficiency. I usually get 2.2-2.4 on long highway stretches, but I have seen 1.9 before in summer weather - going from Bay City up to Grayling on I-75 driving 75 mph the whole time.

I’ve heard highway speeds in Texas are higher, so if he drove 80 mph and/or had a headwind then 1.9 is very realistic.

He has since said "oops, 2.4"...

 

[luckie]

It’s always funny when someone learns while roadtripping that commercial fast chargers cost just as much as buying gasoline AND the knee jerk reaction then argues we should just buy a gasoline vehicle as a result (not what OP was arguing directly just reminded me).

…, that one should buy/keep the car that is ALWAYS obscenely expensive to fuel up because the new car once a year (?) might cost as much.

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