3600 Mile Roadtrip Review (12 Day, 7 State Trip)

[ebeponyan]

Greetings all.

The Intense Morning Sun at Big Bend, Moab, UT

My wife and I have just returned from an 12 day, 7 state, ~3600 mile bouldering blast through the American West in our Mach-E4X. This post will serve as a summary, and I'll follow up with subsequent entries around specific days and/or topics. I appreciate your patience, these may take some time to put together. As this is a car forum and not a bouldering forum, I'll try to keep the focus on the Mustang Mach-E. To that point, if you have any questions about range, cargo space, charging, speed, feel, comfort, or topics I haven't listed below, I'd be happy to answer. I can also field broader questions about this trip, but again, the focus should really be on the car here (PMs are open for details on other topics).

A rough itinerary

Some driving highlights:
> HWY 101
> Crater Lake NP
> HWY 395
> Tioga Pass, CA
> Death Valley NP
> Las Vegas, NV
> Capitol Reef NP
> Canyonlands NP
> City of Rocks, ID
> Leavenworth, WA

Final Trip Summary

Some topics I expect to cover:
> Route Planning
> Navigation
> Charging Infrastructure
> Fuel Costs
> Efficiency
> Faults/Bugs
> Wildfire Smoke
> Car Camping
> Desert Heat
> Unpaved Roads
> Public Reception
> Lots of glamorous MME photos
> Other EVs on the road

Cheers.

 

[silverelan]

How reliable did you find charging station hardware? Any issues?

 

[ebeponyan]

How reliable did you find charging station hardware? Any issues?

I'll have a full post covering this including breakdowns by charger type and network, but the short answer is... mostly reliable. We only had real trouble on our last leg passing through Eastern Washington. Perhaps there was a bit of hubris at play there as we were effectively in our own back yard at that point and maybe took some unnecessary risks. I would recommend always having a contingency in case the next fast charger is down though, because they occasionally are.

 

[timbop]

Presumably you weren't driving 400 miles an hour; did you happen to notice when the driving time got messed up? I'm wondering if they store the driving time in seconds in a 16 bit int or something?

 

[JamieGeek]

Presumably you weren't driving 400 miles an hour; did you happen to notice when the driving time got messed up? I'm wondering if they store the driving time in seconds in a 16 bit int or something?

Naah they just use a queued event for the tick and if the queue is full it just skips the tick

So 8 hours is actually about 10...

 

[ChasingCoral]

Greetings all.

The Intense Morning Sun at Big Bend, Moab, UT

My wife and I have just returned from an 12 day, 7 state, ~3600 mile bouldering blast through the American West in our Mach-E4X. This post will serve as a summary, and I'll follow up with subsequent entries around specific days and/or topics. I appreciate your patience, these may take some time to put together. As this is a car forum and not a bouldering forum, I'll try to keep the focus on the Mustang Mach-E. To that point, if you have any questions about range, cargo space, charging, speed, feel, comfort, or topics I haven't listed below, I'd be happy to answer. I can also field broader questions about this trip, but again, the focus should really be on the car here (PMs are open for details on other topics).

A rough itinerary

Some driving highlights:
> HWY 101
> Crater Lake NP
> HWY 395
> Tioga Pass, CA
> Death Valley NP
> Las Vegas, NV
> Capitol Reef NP
> Canyonlands NP
> City of Rocks, ID
> Leavenworth, WA

Final Trip Summary

Some topics I expect to cover:
> Route Planning
> Navigation
> Charging Infrastructure
> Fuel Costs
> Efficiency
> Faults/Bugs
> Wildfire Smoke
> Car Camping
> Desert Heat
> Unpaved Roads
> Public Reception
> Lots of glamorous MME photos
> Other EVs on the road

Cheers.

Looking forward to the details!

 

[Brian707]

Did most of the places you stayed at overnight have L2 Chargers? I want to do a long road trip next year and just messing around with planning I find them hard to come by. Hotels in the Midwest anyway.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Did most of the places you stayed at overnight have L2 Chargers? I want to do a long road trip next year and just messing around with planning I find them hard to come by. Hotels in the Midwest anyway.

... This post will serve as a summary, and I'll follow up with subsequent entries around specific days and/or topics. I appreciate your patience, these may take some time to put together.

Come on folks. You're putting the Q&A before the presentation. Give the OP time to post the details before you ask 100 questions. ?

 

[ebeponyan]

Presumably you weren't driving 400 miles an hour; did you happen to notice when the driving time got messed up? I'm wondering if they store the driving time in seconds in a 16 bit int or something?

Not specifically, no. And I don't see an obvious pattern looking through my pictures either. It persisted across some days, and reset on others. The highest I noticed was around 23.5 hours, so I guess it's possible that it resets at 24?

 

[ebeponyan]

Did most of the places you stayed at overnight have L2 Chargers? I want to do a long road trip next year and just messing around with planning I find them hard to come by. Hotels in the Midwest anyway.

Most nights either had a charger or a 14-50 to get us back up to 100%. I'll have a post later on trip planning, but we leaned heavily on PlugShare when determining where to stay.

 

[timbop]

Not specifically, no. And I don't see an obvious pattern looking through my pictures either. It persisted across some days, and reset on others. The highest I noticed was around 23.5 hours, so I guess it's possible that it resets at 24?

Ahh, yeah that seems to make sense: 2 days + 8 hrs = 56hrs; 3500mi/56hr comes out to 62 mph. My guess is in the display they simply don't display the "days" portion.

 

[SeattleMachE]

Looking forward to your write up, your route is the type of road trip I’m looking to do in the next year or two!

 

[ebeponyan]

Charging:

Getting a few extra kWh on a stop in Nevada

With one notable exception on our last day, charging went pretty smoothly for us. We used Plug&Charge with EA until we depleted the remainder of our 250kWh charging bundle from Ford, then disabled P&C and upgraded our EA membership to benefit from the cheaper pricing. It's mildly annoying that EA and Ford can't figure out a way to reconcile an EA+ membership with Plug&Charge, but hardly an insurmountable obstacle. There's going to be some overlap between this post and a later post on trip planning, so I may gloss over some topics here.

Errors/Issues:
> Because you lot of doomers always want to hear the bad stuff first. Our first problem was with a Greenlots free charger at the rest area in Amargosa Valley (exiting Death Valley through Furnace Creek). After a call to support and attempts at P&C, RFID activation, app activation and direct remote activation, we continually received the red ring of death on the charge port, "vehicle timeout" messages from the charger, and "charge station fault" messages from FordPass. There was free wifi though, so we plugged briefly into the functioning L2 on site, and plotted to top off a little further down the road (pictured above).
> Our last leg found us charging somewhat slowly at the EA stating in Yakima, WA. Perhaps unwisely, we decided to make the short (but mountainous) hop up to Ellensburg which had two chargers online and available. By the time we arrived, however, both available stations were occupied- a Polestar 2 was charging on station 4 and an XC-40 Recharge was struggling to activate station 1. We queued up by the Polestar 2, but when it came time to charge, we were met with a red ring/vehicle timeout/charge station fault. After 15 fruitless minutes on the phone with EA, we decided to swap places with the XC-40 an try our luck with station 1. Station 4 activated immediately for the XC-40 (much to their relief) but we had another unsuccessful 40 minutes on the phone with support while they filled up. After station 4 was freed up and reset one more time, we were able to get a complimentary charge. By now though, another Mach-E and Porsche Taycan had lined up behind us. For their sake, we decided to unplug a little early, top off in Leavenworth and to treat ourselves to a beer and sausage.
> For the fellow Washingtonians and/or armchair geographers out there, our 22% would have been just enough to get to the top of Blewett Pass (an estimate which was later confirmed, we would have hit zero right at the top) and then glide down on six electrons a prayer to the new EA station in Leavenworth. Snoqualmie Pass and the North Bend station would have been a real stretch at 80 miles, even if most of those were downhill. We arrived to the similar sight of 2 available stations being just filled (this time by a pair of ID.4s). Unlike in Ellensburg (and a surprising number of other EA locations) the 350kW chargers were online. We had enough juice to get home at this point, but what the hell, it's on the way into town, let's add a few kWh here and get the bad taste out of our mouth- a palate cleanser before we hit the sausage garden. BIG NOPE. This time we get, in addition to the usual errors, the wrench icon, POWERTRAIN SYSTEM FAULT and SERVICE VEHICLE SOON. At this point, if I wasn't a member of this forum, things would have looked pretty bleak. Imagine going to the gas station and getting a message that, not only has no gas been added, but also the parts of your car that make it a car might have died, and you should maybe get that looked at. Thankfully, others have reported this issue, and that it tends to clear itself after a short power cycle. With that, we drove to a reliable L2 charger in town, powered down, and waited a few minutes, and the errors cleared. After this, we were able to successfully charge again and to finally have that beer. EDIT 2024: most of these issues have been resolved OTA or by application of TSBs at a dealership over the following year or two. The Mach-E is pretty reliable now with fast charging, can't quite say the same for EA.

This is not great


Usage Breakdown:

Overnight L2 was also free, PayDC here includes kWh covered in the Ford charging bundle

We opted to just not charge at L1 for those two nights with 5-15s as there were free chargers in town. We also carry a SplitVolt 24A portable charger with a 14-30 plug so we can use dryer outlets as needed and (in emergencies with an adapter) RV TT-30 outlets.

EA was the only network to deliver over 120kW (and did so regularly). Peak charging speed was once as high as 163kW at ~40% SoC. We encountered two stations that had a time-based rather than a kWh-based pricing structure. I find the practice to be annoying at best, but we did end up slightly ahead at these chargers due to the speed at which the Mach-E can pull power especially at lower SoCs.


Anomalies:
> The battery charge logs on FordPass are not showing one charge of ~42% at a free CP fast charger in Utah. Otherwise, all of our charge sessions are accounted for here. EDIT 2024: FordPass charging data is still garbage, even on the 5.0 beta
> Don't tell Ford, but there is a ~90kWh discrepancy in my favor between what was deducted from my charging bundle balance and what was actually delivered to the car. This includes a couple charging sessions which neither reduced the allotment, nor were charged to my card, and a few which were wildly underestimated.

Free 50kW charging from CalTrans with a side of authentic California wildfire smoke.

Cost:
> Of the ~1080kWh of charging done on this trip, just about half of it was free (irrespective of the Ford charging bundle).
> Total charging cost was $70 with the charging bundle (180kWh to start with, but see anomalies above). Without the charging bundle, if all charging was paid out of pocket, it would have been closer to $180.
> With current gas prices, we would have paid $720 in fuel costs with our old CRV.
> With current gas prices, that $180 translates to an equivalent of ~80mpg.
> Blink L2 chargers are highway robbery. L2 costs more than DCFC from EA.
EDIT 2024: with EA's dynamic pricing model, rates have generally gone up quite a bit since 2021. Check ahead as there may be considerable differences between stations, especially right across state lines.

Recommendations:
> Do not count on 350kW chargers at EA stations. They were almost always either offline, or did not activate for the Mach-E. EDIT 2024: these stations are compatible after software updates (if online at all), but it's still a courtesy to plug in at a 150kW station if available to let the 800V cars take better advantage. The extended battery Mach-Es can pull slightly above 150kW for a short burst, but it makes a much bigger difference to, say, an IONIQ5. Be courteous, like you want Tesla drivers to be courteous to you when you have to block a supercharger.
> Always hit the button at the charge port to disengage fast charging and end a charging session. Using the charger interface to stop the session has resulted in error messages for me in the past.
> Check ahead for availability charging apps, but try to have a contingency in case the next DCFC is offline or full. Being stuck is not fun.
> Overnight charging is great, especially considering the 80% cliff on the charging curve. It's nice to get some extra miles on the first leg of a long driving day.
> Take your time at fast chargers, look for food options within walking distance of chargers, plan bathroom breaks around chargers as well. It can even be a fun diversion to look for chargers as you roll into a new town.
> Free DCFCs exist, and can be found pretty easily on PlugShare. They're often only 50kW, but can be paired with a nice lunch or a museum visit to great effect.
> Even if I didn't use most of them, I felt more comfortable knowing that I had RFIDs for pretty much all of the charging networks that I would encounter in areas where cell service may be lacking.
> The 4+ EA+ membership will pay off almost immediately once you blow through the Ford charging bundle. EDIT 2024: it's $7 now, but will still pay off quick

 

[ebeponyan]

Mach-E "Mustang" Reception:

On the banks of the mighty Columbia, a first encounter with onlookers.

People notice this car. Attention is inescapable, and mostly positive. Among these folks were:
> A group of firemen came up to us at the free L2 charger outside their station in Northern Utah and really tested my recall knowledge of the technical spec sheet. The top speed was a letdown, but it was otherwise well received.
> A young family (not pictured) at the rest stop above who asked about its utility as a family vehicle. Not sure how to translate crash pads to children and dogs, but this car is s p a c i o u s.
> A state inspections officer and Mustang enthusiast who wanted to like it, but just couldn't get over the front end. A few miles down the road and I was kicking myself for not retorting that he wouldn't be seeing much of the front end anyway.
> A couple charging their Polestar 2 who wanted a Mach-E, but just couldn't find one in time.
> A pair of dudes who'd only seen it in commercials, and were stoked to see their first MME in person.
> Food truck operators who saw the badge, but didn't see a Mustang.
> An older man crossing the street "asking" up or down with his thumbs, and smiling when I returned two thumbs up.


EV Bingo:

A wild Mustang Mach-E spotted in Klamath Falls, OR

This should be a lighter chapter. During these long driving days, EV spotting was a natural way to pass the time without taking our eyes off the road. Not counting dealership mannequins, we saw 4 Mach-Es in the wild, all in Washington and Oregon.

On the road and at our various charging stops, here's the catalog of BEVs that we encountered:
> All of the (modern) Teslas
> Nissan Leaf
> Chevy Bolt
> Porsche Taycan
> Audi e-tron Sportback
> VW ID.4
> Kia Soul
> Hyundai Kona
> Volvo XC-40
> Polestar 2
> BMW i3

Pretty much everything except a MINI, e-Niro and I-Pace, at least off the top of my head. There aren't any real conclusions to draw from this data, but it was mildly interesting to collect.

 

[ebeponyan]

Adverse Conditions:

Desert Heat:

Zabriske Point in Death Vally NP, CA.

I'm including Death Valley here on reputation only as the temperature hadn't yet crept out of the 90s in the early morning hours as we passed through. DVNP will make another notable appearance later in this post though. Each of our 6 full days through California and Utah reached temperatures in the mid 100s in the late afternoon. That said, we did not see a major reduction in range (attributable to external temperature or climate conditioning) over this time. We were once greeted with the message to kindly plug in while not in use, but did not see our driving modes restricted or any other known ill effects of the heat. The highest I saw on the temperature sensor was 116° in Southwest Utah. We were plugged into an EA charger at the time on a session which eventually ended in a charger fault, which may or may not be related. Some brief highway driving and plugging into a charger near our hotel got the car back down to a cool 108° (ambient air temp, at the time). There were a few occasions in which I initiated a remote start while we were parked in direct sun and not plugged in to initiate active cooling and help keep the cabin temperature down, but I wasn't exactly scientific about applying this measure, so I'm not sure how effective it was.

Unpaved Roads:

Petroglyphs in Californa after many miles on sand and gravel roads

For what it's worth, I think the Infinite Blue MME wears a dusty coat remarkably well. I'll let you reach your own conclusions from the picture though. We had a couple of prolonged spells on unpaved roads, probably totaling near 100 miles traveled. We all know the suspension is tight on the MME, even after removing the transport locks, so the washboards will toss you around a bit. That said, with the absence of major potholes and significant clearance issues, we were comfortably keeping up the Subaru Outback ahead of us on the way to Buttermilk Boulders near Bishop, CA. The rear washer is invaluable for restoring visibility when entering back into civilization, particularly with an extended wiper blade. On rough and unpredictable roads, I like to bump up to a higher driving position for more front visibility and to turn off One Pedal Driving for smoother acceleration. I never felt that I had lost traction, even when braking hard for wildlife at night on the 30 miles of gravel leading up to City of Rocks, ID. On that topic, I was very impressed with the illumination provided by the headlights and high beams.

Mountain Passes:

Atop Tioga Pass: 15% battery spent climbing ~3000ft in 11 miles.

At least qualitatively, elevation change seemed to be a much stronger factor in range reduction than speed, heat and wind. Even with the regen on downhills, the net loss was higher than I expected. Ford's built in navigation doesn't do a great job of accounting for this either, and started adding chargers when the GOM briefly went upside-down as we crested Steven's Pass in Washington (despite the 4000 foot descent and long, flat road ahead). I guess I can see where Ford is coming from here, erring on the side of not leaving you stranded, but ABRP's estimates were much more reliable, if a bit pessimistic, in terms of Mountain Pass performance.

Despite our efforts (reduced speed on straightaways and whisper mode for less aggressive regen), we encountered the dreaded One Pedal Drive Fault on the steep, winding descent into Death Valley. This was accompanied by a lurching feeling and the kind of clunk/rattle described in @Mach-E VLOG 's video. We were perhaps more cautious coming down Tioga pass without the pressure of Death Valley heat bearing down on us as the sun crept over the mountains, but a few minutes rest on a pullout gave the car a chance to cool off, reset and return to normal. It's worth noting that we had many other notable descents on the trip with no issues- notably right after this bombing down the endless straight that marks the final descent to Death Valley. EDIT 2024: not going to dig up the threads, but this issue was resolved OTA and/or by TSB in I think 2022. No problems since.

First descent is an occasionally rather steep and consistently winding road down a canyon wall- problem. Second descent is steeper on average, but a long, straight shot down- no problem.

Staring down the red dot on the highlighted route above. The second descent into Death Valley looks a lot like this, but with less up at the end. The constant speed on these straights likely eased pressure on the regen system, probably benefited from some air braking as well.

Who wants to try General's Highway at Sequoia NP or Going-to-the-Sun Road at Glacier NP for me in the glorious name of science?

Wildfire Smoke:

Cows outside the passenger window as the red sun rises in Eastern Oregon.

Smoke was a permanent fixture during this trip. Sometimes materializing as little more than atmospheric haze, other times manifesting as falling ash or as a thick, odorous fog. We began the trip with the stock cabin air filter, and planned to swap for the Pureflow Cabin Air Filter (PC99542X) we had picked up in anticipation for heavier smoke and highway odors. Anecdotally, the stock air filter did not block the smell of smoke nearly as well as the Pureflow filter did as we drove down and later back up the eastern edge of Oregon. On our last night, faced with the poor air quality in this region, we opted to sleep in the car (more on this subject later) rather than in our tent. I'll be curious to see how Ford's recently unveiled Refresh95 air filter will measure up, but we were generally quite happy with the Pureflow.