RickMachE

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If you set your max charge to 80% this should not be an issue anywhere.
True, but EA gives a 10 minute grace period at the end of charging, and then you pay to not charge, 40 cents a minute, which costs more than charging. I think I would rather pay for slow charging than no charging. ?
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medicnj

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True, but EA gives a 10 minute grace period at then end of charging, and then you pay to not charge, 40 cents a minute, which costs more than charging. I think I would rather pay for slow charging than no charging. ?

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Gotcha, figured if you set to 80% it would stop and you would not be charged. ohh well. that sucks...but understandable as you don't want to hog a spot.
 

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If you set your max charge to 80% this should not be an issue anywhere.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no general setting to "charge to x%"; you have to have charged somewhere at least once to set the preference for that location
 
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What were your distractions for the kids?
In the car we loaded up on coloring books, those Melissa & Doug Water Wow paint books, car friendly activities, books, and the iPad made more than one appearance :)

For outside on our stops, besides the chalk we had these big magnetic dominoes and a ball. Many of the chargers are tucked away in a parking lot so you do have some space without the kids running around in a busy parking lot.

We over prepared with stuff but in reality we needed to plan our days so we weren't driving for more than 2 hours or so with awake kids.
  • On both legs of the trip we did a zoo stop (Columbus and St. Louis). Both also had free Level 2 chargers. Thanks PlugShare!
  • Playground stops
  • Meals
  • Naps and driving after falling asleep at night
It wasn't perfect but they did better than I would have guessed. Pack your patience and be willing to stretch out the trip to accommodate more stopping than you would without young kids.
 
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Thanks for the write-up. I, too, am a Penn Stater and recently moved from State College to Pasadena, CA. I'm picking up my GT Performance in State College in November and am trying to decide whether to drive it back to CA or have it shipped. This will be my first EV, so I'm a bit apprehensive about the cross-country drive. The more I read about successful long distance excursions, the more I'm leaning toward the drive.

P.S. The team is looking pretty good today. We are!
Penn State! They're looking good. Next road trip is next weekend for the Auburn game.

I'd vote for doing the drive! A few notes on planning which may help ease your concerns:
  • A Better Routeplanner: Used to plan our trip in advance. Found that it was overly conservative even with adjusting some of the settings. Because it doesn't pull real-time data from the car, I found it had limited value on the drive but very useful for getting an idea in advance of where stations are.
  • PlugShare: Useful for finding hotels with chargers, checking charger locations and availability.
  • Mach-E Navigation: We used it almost exclusively and found that it did a good job of mapping out stations. There are some flaws but it did do a good job identifying stations and giving feedback on how long to charge at each. Image below as an example of how it maps out stations and shows available range.
  • @Mach-E VLOG posted a video with good info on the planning tools. https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/road-trip-planning-tools.8318/
Out of curiosity, can you switch dealers so it's delivered to CA?

Ford Mustang Mach-E 2000 Mile Road Trip:  Charging and Efficiency of the Mach-E 20210828_104854
 


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Good write up; I’ve experienced many of the same things. I’ve come to the conclusion that I should not trust the charging data collected by the MME, especially the charging logs. They can be really inaccurate and sometimes ridiculously off the mark.

However, the car is a very solid road-tripper and I’ve always been confident with range. I just hope that Ford can do a better job with the charging curve.
 

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I think the 33kW is the default output when the EA charger doesn't know what to do. I'm not sure if it is an EA problem or a MME problem. I'd lean toward an EA charger problem because I have the same experience from you: if i switch bays or even just chargers at the same bay, things go back to normal. I'm sure others here can shed some more light on this issue.
The 33KW is due to the cable chiller in the EA unit not working. It defaults to 30-35 KW in that case. If you start to charge and do not hear the high pitched whining from the EA unit, the chiller is broken, so try another charger. If the unit is made by ABB and you are in a hot climate, probability is high that it will be broken.
 

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The 33KW is due to the cable chiller in the EA unit not working. It defaults to 30-35 KW in that case. If you start to charge and do not hear the high pitched whining from the EA unit, the chiller is broken, so try another charger. If the unit is made by ABB and you are in a hot climate, probability is high that it will be broken.
Extremely useful information! Thank you
 

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Penn State! They're looking good. Next road trip is next weekend for the Auburn game.

I'd vote for doing the drive! A few notes on planning which may help ease your concerns:
  • A Better Routeplanner: Used to plan our trip in advance. Found that it was overly conservative even with adjusting some of the settings. Because it doesn't pull real-time data from the car, I found it had limited value on the drive but very useful for getting an idea in advance of where stations are.
  • PlugShare: Useful for finding hotels with chargers, checking charger locations and availability.
  • Mach-E Navigation: We used it almost exclusively and found that it did a good job of mapping out stations. There are some flaws but it did do a good job identifying stations and giving feedback on how long to charge at each. Image below as an example of how it maps out stations and shows available range.
  • @Mach-E VLOG posted a video with good info on the planning tools. https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/road-trip-planning-tools.8318/
Out of curiosity, can you switch dealers so it's delivered to CA?

Ford Mustang Mach-E 2000 Mile Road Trip:  Charging and Efficiency of the Mach-E 20210828_104854
Sorry for the late reply. My car was supposed to start being built last week. As it gets closer to completion and I have an exact delivery date, I'll decide what to do. I asked my PA dealer to look into having it delivered to a CA dealer, so we'll see what happens there. I've purchased several cars from the PA dealer, and they didn't charge a markup. We're attending a wedding in DC in November and will pay a visit to State College during that trip. Both my sons live there, and I still have some business interests there. I've enjoyed seeing the country on our previous cross-country drives, so right now I'm leaning in that direction.

Enjoy the White Out. I had season tickets for 30 years and am going to miss tailgating and the Beaver Stadium atmosphere. I'm hoping PSU makes it to the Rose Bowl in the near future.
 

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Great write up and I'm sure a great trip. You mentioned you have an infinite Blue Mach e and also met one on the trip. I also have an infinite Blue and I think its a great looking car. It's beyond me why Ford would discontinue that color when it seems so popular.
 

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We had a road trip planned and happened to take delivery of our extended range, RWD MME 2 weeks beforehand. Now or never... we dove head first and packed up the car, our 4 year old daughter, 2 year old son, and dog and headed from NJ to St. Louis.

For those who like to delve into the data and numbers I wanted to start this thread in hopes you could teach me a thing or two about some oddities related to charging.

Before I get to that, the car and the trip were/are amazing. There was ample room in the back seat for two young kids, our dog, and more than enough toys to (attempt to) keep our kids entertained. The frunk and below floor storage in the rear gave us much needed storage for extra items leaving the trunk for our luggage and items we needed easy access to. The car was a gem to drive and got lots of attention on the road and at DCFCs. As many before have stated, this car is such a joy to drive. Are there some quirks... definitely, but nothing that made us regret the purchase or taking it on our adventure.

Now on to the purpose of this thread.

Observations and Questions:
1. On about half my charge sessions when I plugged in, the DCFC would charge but max out at +/- 33kW or ramp up to high speed but only for a few minutes and then drop down to about 33 kW. This was not an 80% charge cliff issue. The car was often only at 20% SoC or less. Solution: I would unplug, switch bays and then it would ramp up to 110-120 kW. This was definitely not a one off and not a coincidence, it happened multiple times at multiple EA stations. 110-120 speed seemed to be the most consistent max. draw I would pull. Is this an issue with the MME (what it is calling for) or with EA's DCFCs?

2. A few EA bays wouldn't activate. Solution: Switched bays and then no problem.

3. At one EA station both on the trip out and the trip home (different stations), EA charged (kWh) the car but there was some error and didn't charge me ($). No complaints.

4. After using up my Plug & Charge allowance and deactivating to use EA's Pass+ rate I noticed two times the EA app was showing power of 200+ kW whereas the DCFC console was showing a more realistic charge rate. Obviously the 200+ was wrong but it makes me skeptical to leave the car charging by itself and rely on the EA app.

5. In PA, the EA stations were $/min, $0.24 for Pass+. If you do the math, charging is so cheap if you can keep even a modest charge rate. The cost per kWh was on par with charging from home. I wish I realized this earlier and deactivated Plug & Charge on our way out to STL. Save your credits for $/kWh stations.

6. At the two $/min EA stations we stopped at, our charge speeds were well above any of the other $/kWh stations. We maxed out near 157 and stayed at a higher charge rate far longer. I'm not sure if this was coincidence, a result of similar conditions (they were back-to-back on the same day), or what but it was a pleasant surprise from the previous speeds were getting (note 1 above).

7. Be leery of the 'Trip' screen data.
  • Prior to our trip I reset 'Trip 1' intending to use this to track our trip. After leg 1 (220 miles, 95 degree heat, 75 MPH highway driving) it was reporting 3.9 mi/kWh. Amazing! Not so fast. If I did the math myself (see notes below and the attached chart) I was getting closer to 3.0 mi/kWH. I hadn't noticed previously but my 'Trip 1' mi/kWh was (and remains) identical to my 'Trip 2' value, which has been tracking the lifetime of my driving. The data provided is just wrong! All the posts about ignoring the GOM (yes I know) and instead multiplying your mi/kWh x battery pack (in my case 88) have no value if the car is not reporting accurate mi/kWh. Has anyone else had this issue with 'Trip 1' showing the same efficiency as 'Trip 2?'
  • Times are inaccurate. As others have suggested it seems to restart at 24 Hrs and not keep track of days, but I couldn't validate that.
  • I abandoned using 'Trip 1' for the trip out to STL. On the trip home I tried to be diligent about capturing the data on 'This Trip' for each leg before I shut the car off and those values seemed to be more accurate.
  • 'This Trip': Anyone figure out what causes 'This Trip' to reset to 0? Most of the time when you turn the car on it does but there were plenty of times where multiple stop-and-start cycles would track on the same trip. It's not based on a home or charging location either. Tried out that theory. Seems to be random.
8. DCFC-ing was a really nice break every few hours on a long road trip, especially with little kids. Not once did we feel like we were sitting around waiting for the car to finish charging. It was a good time for meals, to stretch our legs, and for the kids to play. It's nice that most of the Walmart EA stations are in the back corner of a parking lot. (Maybe one of you found our kids' chalk art.) We met plenty of folks who just wanted to chat about the car and few who did a stealth drive by photoshoot.

See attached for a log I kept to keep track of mileage, SoC, charge sessions, etc. I couldn't figure out how to upload the actual Excel file.
  • Column numbers (top row has the numbers) 1-5 provide basic info on mileage and SoC
  • Columns 6-8 provide info on energy consumption using some basic calculations based on the SoC change and mileage for each leg, along with what the 'Trip Screen' reported for mi/kWh
  • Columns 9-17 have info on the charge session including both kWh reported by the EVSE as well as calculated based on the SoC change multiplied by an 88 kWh usable battery

9. Energy Usage and Efficiency (Columns 6, 7): Based on the SoC change multiplied by an 88 kW usable battery I calculated out how much energy was used each leg and the mi/kWh based on the odometer reading. I used this for comparison to the 'Trips' mi/kWh (see point 6 above). Note: On the trip home using the 'This Trip' screen the mi/kWh were all within 0.1 mi/kWh which I can chalk up to rounding.

10. Energy Usage, Calculated vs Charger Reported (Columns 11-13): Note that the EVSE reported a difference of between -9% less and up to 14% more kWh compared to a calculation of SoC change multiplied by the battery pack.
  • Negative values were all on small charges so I assume that's a rounding issue.
  • EA stations pretty consistently reported +/- 5% more kWh than a SoC calculation. Is this typical efficiency loss?
  • The 14% was a free ChargePoint station. Not sure what the deal is with that one.
11. If any of my assumptions or calculations are incorrect , feedback is appreciated. I wish the car would visualize some of this for us.

Closing Notes:
  • Have some patience with Electrify America stations. All of our charge sessions worked out fine, but they often took a bit of troubleshooting and reconnecting.
  • Plug & Charge worked well.
  • $/min DCFCs are so cheap if you can maintain a decent charge speed! Do the math and save your Plug & Charge kWh for $/kWh stations.
  • Expect charge speeds to be below the 150kW advertised max. for the car. The majority of the charging was well below this.
  • Ford should provide better logs, historical data, and infographics on the efficiency and battery usage of the car. It's virtually non-existent other than the 'Trips' screen mi/kWh which I've lost faith in (see point 7 above). I would love to be able to see efficiency logs/graphics, charge curves, etc. built into the UI.
  • I only saw one other MME our entire trip and it was at an EA station in Ohio. Ironically we were both Infinite Blue, extended range, RWD. He was a Buckeye fan and I'm a Penn Stater so we'll let that bit of poor judgement slide.

For those who got through this long post, I give you credit. For those who may have feedback, similar or different experiences, chime in.

The car is a winner and this road trip proved it to us.


Great write up! A bit too detailed for my personal taste but I do appreciate it. I guess I have been lucky so far. My electronics have been fairly accurate regarding the range. I ahve been driving across the state of South Carolina regularly. When I am on the highway doing 80, it says 2.2 - 2.5. I have never gotten even close to 3.0 while on the highway. I have noticed that if I have reset it recently or just jumped in and had good mileage before getting on, that it will take a few minutes and begin trending down, but it has been accurate.

I also have not had the same experiences at EA here in SC. I had 1 that trended down to 100 but all of the stalls were full and it seemed to happened when the last guy hooked up. For the other times, fingers crossed/knock on wood, charging has maxed out at 150 every time. With that said, EA has been more expensive than I expected. They are charging 0.42cents per KW. It's still way cheaper than filling my F250 Power Stroke but it was 0.16cents per KW just last year, quit the increase!
 

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With that said, EA has been more expensive than I expected. They are charging 0.42cents per KW. It's still way cheaper than filling my F250 Power Stroke but it was 0.16cents per KW just last year, quit the increase!
Looks like SC was one of the states that used to only allow per-minute pricing. The 43c base rate (before Pass+ discount) is nearly universal across the US for all but the per-minute states. The per-minute rates usually work out to be cheaper, but that's just a temporary thing until those remaining state laws can change to allow for per-kWh pricing.

https://chargedevs.com/newswire/electrify-america-now-offers-kwh-pricing-for-charging-in-30-states/
 

RickMachE

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Looks like SC was one of the states that used to only allow per-minute pricing. The 43c base rate (before Pass+ discount) is nearly universal across the US for all but the per-minute states. The per-minute rates usually work out to be cheaper, but that's just a temporary thing until those remaining state laws can change to allow for per-kWh pricing.

https://chargedevs.com/newswire/electrify-america-now-offers-kwh-pricing-for-charging-in-30-states/
Correct. SC is now per kWh, no longer per minute. Remaining per minute states are Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
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