Calgary - Oregon Coast - Bay Area - Central Oregon - Calgary charging logs

[music_cities]

I finished my two week vacation trip from Calgary to the Bay Area and back, with a focus on Oregon. Photos to come! I kept a detailed charging log, you can view it here.

https://www.icloud.com/numbers/016_...o_Oregon/California_loop_trip_charging_report

2022 GT (Canadian, with Magnaride)
14 days.
5461 km
1287kwh (charge logs)
23.57 kWh/100km (calculated from distance and charge logs)
23.0 kWh/100km (from vehicle's trip log)

361 kWh from Level 2
320 kWh from Tesla Superchargers
90 kWh from Level 1
516 kWh from non-Tesla DCFC (CCS)

Total cost $CAD 643 ($CAD 0.1177 per km), probably about the same as driving an ICE car.

I didn't realize that the Electrify America app was available on Canadian iPhones in the Canadian App Store, so we didn't set up a membership and tried to use their credit-card readers. This made them quite expensive and less reliable (credit card reader on these is an additional point of failure).

Plug-N-Charge and the "Charge Assist" in-vehicle app never worked. But, the Ford App on the phone did work for Blue Oval network chargers.

Tesla Superchargers were great when they were in a convenient location near a sight or restaurant (Fernie, Hood River, Redding). But, we also used them sometimes when they weren't near anything (Newport, Ukiah, Chemult).

I am still amazed at the general unreliability of payment systems. It often took us a few tries to activate a charger, whether through Blue Oval, some other app, or the credit card. Even the Tesla Superchargers sometimes took two tries. But the only absolute failure was at the Willits EA, where two stations were down and a third's credit card reader didn't work.

I adore DCFCs in restaurant areas, or near tourist sights, or both! I adore L2 charging at or near hotels. Not a big fan of DCFCs near some suburban mall (e.g. Eureka).

Driving the 101 through Oregon with a MachE is a wonderful experience. Especially with a GT!

BlueCruise wasn't very useful on this trip, we were rarely on divided highways. But lane-keeping and dynamic cruise control were essential.

We listened to a lot of podcasts. Strangely, CarPlay would sometimes lose volume — rebooted Sync and rebooted the phone many times.

Here's the "Day by day charging commentary" from the above spreadsheet:

DAY CHARGING SUMMARY:

Lunch in Fernie was great. Sandpoint stop was not that great, as there were no amenities on a Sunday and figuring out how to pay was confusing. Hotel valet charging was great but might have preferred self-park so that we didn't have to go to bed not yet plugged in.

Great day. Electrify America worked well. Tesla stop was scenic and a brewery. Parking lot next to hotel was very good.

Slow level 2 charging was convenient at stops, but we arrived at the home exchange with not much power left, and the home exchange only has level 1.

This was inconvenient as the EVCS charger in Yachats where we wanted to eat lunch was broken. However we had a nice afternoon in Newport instead.

Seems like a long driving day for not much charging.

One stop on the way to the hotel

Long day. A little annoying as the Eureka charger wasn't near any restaurants. The Log House charger was a bit slow (we tried the 150kW one). The Willit charger didn't even work. Thank goodness for the Ukiah Tesla charger, which changed our route a little. Sunset drive on narrow mountain roads, very nice. Convenient charger near the final restaurant

We didn't move the car for more than a day. They live near a microbrewery that was having their anniversary party.

Drove to San Francisco but stopped for some shopping and lunch at an outlet mall that had a charger. We should have checked the price

Charged in the parkade where we parked for two nights, so we could ride BART, Cable cars, Streetcars, and take automated Waymo robotaxi.

Brief charge while waiting to meet a friend for lunch. Great afternoon break in Redding. In Klamath Falls we couldn't find a hotel with a charger, so charged while eating dinner

Long day in Central Oregon. Snow turned us around, so we had to do an unexpected charge in Chemult. Lunch charge worked well. Hotel overnight charge to 100% continues to be amazing

Pasco was a good experience, since we missed Canadian Thanksgiving we were happy to find a Turkey-dressing-cranberry sub near a charger. Spokane we had hoped to hit the cheaper Tesla charger but ran out of time. In Sandpoint we got a bit concerned because the only L2 was occupied. It freed up after dinner. There were NEMA 14-50 plugs nearby, but it was dark and they weren't on Plugshare so I didn't notice them until morning. Updated Plugshare.

Great charging day, but only because we were able to charge to 100% at the hotel. Otherwise it would have gotten complex, we might have had to spend 45 minutes at a lonely charger in the morning doing nothing.

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[JeffGo]

Check for the P&C setting in FordPass. On a recent trip P&C on my new GT did not work for me. Later investigation found a setting that I never saw (or needed) when I had a '21, which did have P&C. Look at Energy/Access & Permissions/Plug & Charge.

 

[music_cities]

Check for the P&C setting in FordPass. On a recent trip P&C on my new GT did not work for me. Later investigation found a setting that I never saw (or needed) when I had a '21, which did have P&C. Look at Energy/Access & Permissions/Plug & Charge.

Thanks for responding. Yeah it was off before my trip when I first tried my NACS Adapter at a supercharger. So I turned it on before my trip, thanks to someone's helpful comment here. But, it didn't work at EA chargers, they would complain "payment failed". And, at EA chargers there doesn't seem to be a way to start a session with a credit card *before* plugging into the car. So I'd plug into the car, try to pay with a credit card, but usually before I had a chance to pay with a credit card it would try to bill Ford through Plug-n-charge, and then fail.

Eventually I turned Plug-n-charge off so that I could use a credit card at EA, but that was also unreliable.

Come to think of it, I never actually tried to use the Ford App on my phone to activate an EA charger. I wonder if that would have worked?

 

[leehinde]

Strangely, CarPlay would sometimes lose volume — rebooted Sync and rebooted the phone many times.

The quicker way to fix this is to turn CarPlay off and back on in the Phone list.

 

[JeffGo]

Thanks for responding. Yeah it was off before my trip when I first tried my NACS Adapter at a supercharger. So I turned it on before my trip, thanks to someone's helpful comment here. But, it didn't work at EA chargers, they would complain "payment failed". And, at EA chargers there doesn't seem to be a way to start a session with a credit card *before* plugging into the car. So I'd plug into the car, try to pay with a credit card, but usually before I had a chance to pay with a credit card it would try to bill Ford through Plug-n-charge, and then fail.

Eventually I turned Plug-n-charge off so that I could use a credit card at EA, but that was also unreliable.

Come to think of it, I never actually tried to use the Ford App on my phone to activate an EA charger. I wonder if that would have worked?

Hmm, I first noticed it at an EA charger in Olympia, WA - would not take P&C, had to swipe a credit card (the charge went through some nail salon in MD?). I turned P&C on when I got back home, then tried at an EA near me and it worked fine. So not all the EAs behave the same, I guess.

 

[music_cities]

Hmm, I first noticed it at an EA charger in Olympia, WA - would not take P&C, had to swipe a credit card (the charge went through some nail salon in MD?). I turned P&C on when I got back home, then tried at an EA near me and it worked fine. So not all the EAs behave the same, I guess.

I think there's some weird problem in my billing setup. "Charge Assist" in the car also doesn't work, it keeps telling me to subscribe to the Blue Oval charge network. Which I am. I tried phoning Ford but didn't get anywhere. I thought I had a breakthrough when they explained that I needed to have the same credit card entered in both places (app and wallet website). At least the phone app works for most "In Network" chargers.

 

[highland58]

We drove from the Seattle area to the Oregon coast in July, through Longview and Astoria down to Newport. We used EA the entire trip, still working on the free charges from Ford, so the cost of "fuel" was $0. I had Tesla adapters, but we did not use them. I think the free KWHs expire when the car is 3 years old, which will be next month, so we got to use most of them.

 

[music_cities]

We drove from the Seattle area to the Oregon coast in July, through Longview and Astoria down to Newport. We used EA the entire trip, still working on the free charges from Ford, so the cost of "fuel" was $0. I had Tesla adapters, but we did not use them. I think the free KWHs expire when the car is 3 years old, which will be next month, so we got to use most of them.

Free juice is always nice. But I didn’t find the EA stations (nor the Tesla stations) along the Oregon coast to be near anything useful. We used the Tesla in Newport while waiting on a restaurant waiting list, and an EA in North Bend (near Coos Bay) because it was conveniently on the way before lunch and the next two Tesla superchargers were older incompatible ones.

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