Plug & Charge Fail and the 80% Cliff is Real

[agoldman]

wow this stinks. Seems like it's probably best just to use other regular chargers till they get this worked out. Too frustrating. The EV revolution ain't going to happen smoothly with crap like this going on. Does Tesla have these sort of problems? Might have to rethink my long distance vehicle brand.

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[hybrid2bev]

Pretty disappointing. I really thought we'd get the $0.31/kWh rate as part of the "Ford Pass Charging Network" subscription. I'm struggling then to think what's worth paying for the "FordPass Charging Network" subscription after the free trial.

Is there anywhere in the FordPass app to link an Electrify America plan? Maybe if you have a Pass+ membership you can link it into your FordPass membership?

I'm just struggling to think why Ford thinks we don't want the EA member price.

I don’t see any connection. I would think that if I have to have an EA membership to get the discount price, then I’ll just do my charging business directly via the EA app.

 

[BlueMach]

I don’t see any connection. I would think that if I have to have an EA membership to get the discount price, then I’ll just do my charging business directly via the EA app.

Yeah. It just somewhat negates the perk of Plug&Charge and the selling point of the "FordPass Charging Network" if I have to use the Electrify America app and disable Plug&Charge to get my member rate. Frustrating, and hopefully something they will fix ASAP.

 

[FirstBEV]

yes, HOLY MOLY! A gallon of gas is about 33.7 KHw equivalent, so a charge of $29.63 USD for 65 KWh ends up costing approximately $15.36 USD per gallon-of-gas equivalent! So much for EVs being cheaper than ICE (on public charging at least).


Maths
65 KWhs delivered / 33.7 KWhs gallon gas equivalent = 1.929 gallons of gas equivalent
$29.63 USD charged / 1.929 gallons of gas equivalent = $15.36 USD per gallon

The difference is how efficiently a BEV uses that energy vs an ICE.

65 KWhs should give you 200 miles range (based on 88 KWh giving 270 miles range in the AWD ER). 2 gallons of gas would not let you drive 200 miles. On a car that gets 30 mpg, 2 gallons would give you 60 miles of range. At $2.50 a gallon that’s 8.3 cents per mile. $29.63 for 200 miles would be 14.8 cents per mile. So almost double the price (not 6 times the price as $15 per gallon would imply).

And you’re paying a huge premium to charge fast on the go. Other slower public chargers are cheaper and home charging (what most people will do most of the time) is way cheaper. The premium price for EA fast charging should only really be used if you’re going on a road trip.

 

[timbop]

I don’t see any connection. I would think that if I have to have an EA membership to get the discount price, then I’ll just do my charging business directly via the EA app.

With plug-n-charge, I wonder how it would work. Would you have to activate through EA first and then plug in? Would that disable the P&C handshake? Or, is there a way to attach your car's ID to your EA account through EA itself?

I've been wondering about this for a while...

 

[dbsb3233]

I don’t see any connection. I would think that if I have to have an EA membership to get the discount price, then I’ll just do my charging business directly via the EA app.

Exactly. Which could be a problem too if P&C steps in first once you plug in.

I've still gotta think Ford has thought through that though, and will give us Pass+ rates through FordPass (when it's working right). Otherwise they have to know people won't sign up for FordPass when it's time to actually pay for it.

 

[hybrid2bev]

Exactly. Which could be a problem too if P&C steps in first once you plug in.

I've still gotta think Ford has thought through that though, and will give us Pass+ rates through FordPass (when it's working right). Otherwise they have to know people won't sign up for FordPass when it's time to actually pay for it.

I guess I’d have to sign up with EA to see how Ford Pass and EA work together.

 

[ChasingCoral]

But you shouldn’t have to sign up with Fordpass. At least that was my understanding.

It has been our hope that the FordPass member rate gets us the EA Pass+ rate. If it doesn't, I'll sign up for EA Pass+ before our Florida trip to get the member pricing.

 

[dbsb3233]

I guess I’d have to sign up with EA to see how Ford Pass and EA work together.

I think it's just the opposite. FordPass is supposed to work seemlessly with EA (and the others in its network). Signing up with EA could confuse that and make it hard to know which is taking precedence (for the price).

At least for the purposes of finding out what rate we're supposed to be getting when it's working right.

Now, AFTER that, if we find we really aren't supposed to be getting a discount, then doing as you say might be needed, to see whether FordPass picks up the EA Pass+ rate.

 

[ChasingCoral]

But the MME gets almost 90 to 100 miles per gallon. Do the same comparison vs a 20 mpg Explorer.

Or an 18 mpg Mustang.

 

[dbsb3233]

It has been our hope that the FordPass member rate gets us the EA Pass+ rate. If it doesn't, I'll sign up for EA Pass+ before our Florida trip to get the member pricing.

I've been meaning to look and see how long the minimum membership is for. Like, are we locking into $48 for the year, or can we just pay the $4 for the 1 or 2 months we're traveling in?

 

[ChasingCoral]

wow this stinks. Seems like it's probably best just to use other regular chargers till they get this worked out. Too frustrating. The EV revolution ain't going to happen smoothly with crap like this going on. Does Tesla have these sort of problems? Might have to rethink my long distance vehicle brand.

Remember we're on the bleeding edge here. Probably only a handful of real customers have tried Plug & Charge with their own money. Some of this will take some evolution over the first few months I'm afraid. The real question is how responsive Ford is at fixing these issues.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I've been meaning to look and see how long the minimum membership is for. Like, are we locking into $48 for the year, or can we just pay the $4 for the 1 or 2 months we're traveling in?

That's one of my questions too.

 

[BlueMach]

It has been our hope that the FordPass member rate gets us the EA Pass+ rate. If it doesn't, I'll sign up for EA Pass+ before our Florida trip to get the member pricing.

Yeah it's not the end of the world to keep using the EA app, just a disappointment to not get to use Plug&Charge, which was honestly a huge selling point of this car. I'm just not willing to pay 40% more for the electricity to use Plug&Charge.

 

[FirstBEV]

I've been meaning to look and see how long the minimum membership is for. Like, are we locking into $48 for the year, or can we just pay the $4 for the 1 or 2 months we're traveling in?

https://www.electrifyamerica.com/subscription-agreement/

It looks like you can change from a Pass+ membership to a Pass membership (no fee, but no discount) at any time.

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