Are other EVs this bad?

[GreaseMonkey]

I posted it very annoyed. But I've got such great info from forum people that I'm actually now enjoying the trouble-shooting aspect of it.

You came in guns blazing. Modulate your approach a little and you will see even more value. You don’t want a general discussion thread, you want THIS one. A lot of us are auto engineers or experts in specific domains and love to help.

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[LudlowLawyer]

Great advice

 

[4wheeldog]

I’m trying to figure out how typical my experience is, and if anyone has any suggestions as to how to get Ford to stand behind their cars. They’re all over me about extending Blue Cruise, but want nothing to do with warranty issues.

My experience has been the opposite of yours. Picked the MME up on Halloween. Spent a couple weeks getting a solid handle on the tech. Put 7000 trouble free miles so far.
The broken travel charger……..Did you ham fist it? These things are pretty rugged, though I don’t think it is advisable to use the travel charger for everyday charging. Mine lives below the floor of the trunk. Haven’t used it yet.
I cannot imagine what you were doing at the airport. Were you going to leave it on a charger the entire time you were gone? Likely not a very courteous thing to do. And you really should verify that the car is charging before you leave it, even if you are coming back in a few minutes.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

Hopefully you stick around @LudlowLawyer.

But your 12v is dead and you will need a jump. Look up what all that involves before you get back so you know what to expect. This could have been due to the recall someone linked or the charger not being fully seated or just a random fluke.

As for the charge cord, try a different dealer or reach out to the Ford account on here and see how that goes. They say they are new and improved so let's put them to the test

 

[HuntingPudel]

Thanks to the help of some knowledgable people here, it seems my 12v battery was drained by a faulty charge. I researched this, and it can be jumped like a normal ICE battery jump, which the parking garage people will be able to help me with.

It's an L2 charger at my airport's garage - they have 150 of them there.

2 hours after parking, I received the message:
"There is an electrical drain, possibly caused by after-market device(s)"

5 hours later, I got:
Alarm Triggered. System has detected door opened and triggered alarm.
I called the garage, and a maintenance guy swapped out the cable twice to see if it would start charging. It didn't. But I suspect that's due to the 12V battery being drained? I'm learning as I go...

The charging system (and virtually everything else) relies on power from the 12V battery. If the 12V battery is flat, nothing works. As was said before, you will need to perform the frunk opening procedure for cars with no power, then jump start the car. ??

 

[Tampamike]

Hey, @LudlowLawyer , one more thing or possible glitch to be aware of. If the 12v battery is totally dead, you can do the frunk pop procedure and jump the 12v. However, there is a possible condition where the 12v is not totally dead but ALMOST totally dead. In that case, the frunk pop won’t work and If the car is locked , like I’m sure it is, you can’t get into it, unless you want to break a window. You’ll need to get it towed to the dealer and that’s another whole can of worms.
Good luck!

 

[dbsb3233]

Also just a note on the Ford mobile charger... While Ford should replace it if the car is under warranty, it's also only intended to be a mobile charger (lightweight and infrequent usage). If you're charging at home frequently, most people buy a more durable and heavier duty wall charger. There's lots of threads with recommendations (like the Grizzl-E that I and many others got).

 

[bbulkow]

My airport has dozens of free chargers in their garage. I used one a few weeks ago and it worked great. But the next time I did, it ended up draining the battery, leaving me stuck. Ford responded: never charge the car unattended, so I guess that was my fault. I have no idea if this is a normal Mach E thing, or a normal EV thing. I wish the app would have warned me asap that the charger was draining my battery - I didn’t get an alert until 2 hours later just before the battery was drained empty. I was boarding the plane by then.

Range, you might be going by the range number on the dashboard? That is is much of a lie as it is in an ice car, just that you don't notice.

Charging draining the car? First time i have heard of it. Ford's statement that you have to be attended for an l2 charge which takes potentially 10 hours is not plausible (not plausible that you have to hang out). There is simply no reason your car should discharge period, not while plugged in, not to 0 percent.

That has never been reported on this forum, so "more information".

 

[bbulkow]

Yes - like dozens of other people there, I plugged my EV in and jumped on a plane. It’s why the airport provides all those chargers.

There is nothing wrong with leaving your car on a charger when you are getting on a plane, assuming it is an l2 charger not a fast charger.

The hign voltage, big battery, discharging while you are plugged in really isn't a thing.

Having 12v problems.... Especially if the dealer installed some aftermarket battery draining crud.... Happens with ice cars too

 

[bbulkow]

I’m going by what the app tells me. I’m expecting to show up to a dead car.

one more thing: as the battery nearly drained, I received a message that the alarm went off and the door was opened - something I attributed to the dying battery.

I noticed the battery draining on my app as I was boarding my flight - about 2 hours after parking.

Sounds like you are making quite a few assumptions.

What, exactly, is the app saying, since that's all you are going by?

I think it's more likely your car got stolen. The car saying the alarm is going off and the door is open "because of a dying battery" isn't a thing either.

Now, if you left your car on and you didn't properly plug in the car and left the door open...
I don't know what happens in that case.

But if you did that and blame Ford for selling bad cars....?

 

[Snakebitten]

Welcome to the EV world.
And welcome to the EV forum world.

The prior has a learning curve and it looks like you are learning fast!
The latter? It can be a lot harder to come to terms with vs the EV itself. ? Or put another way, I'm a member of multiple automotive forums and have been for years. EV forums are a crowd of their own. Kinder/Gentler isn't exactly the culture. ?

As for the Mach-E vs the others you mentioned........ I think that it's highly likely that you'll come to the conclusion that your uneducated guess (no offense intended) at picking the Mach-E was a fortunate one. It's actually a great EV. Has a few warts here and there, but overall an excellent car.

 

[mccdeuce]

As for the Mach-E vs the others you mentioned........ I think that it's highly likely that you'll come to the conclusion that your uneducated guess (no offense intended) at picking the Mach-E was a fortunate one. It's actually a great EV. Has a few warts here and there, but overall an excellent car.

Seeing as OP likes Toyota he can also go with their BEV and the wheels falling off….

https://www.motortrend.com/news/toyota-issues-voluntary-safety-recall-bz4x-ev/

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Not that I don’t doubt it happened to you.

I do. That doesn’t happen.

 

[Teslaeata]

#ironic

Maybe ironic, could be luck but more likely down to practical experience and expertise which is likely to account more for my good experience than irony or luck.

There are a lot of experienced EV & MMe users here and some experts we all learn from.

Apologies for initial response.

Sounded initially like the jaundiced, prejudiced anti-EV propaganda we hear all the time.

You might find keeping things in your own control is best in this EV world which you’re just beginning to experience.

When I know I’ll need a charged car I tend to make sure it’s charged before I leave it rather than leave it to chance that a piece of IT controlled electrical kit will perform as it should as soon as my back’s turned.

I have left Stangy at airport, and hotels overnight, but with a battery sufficiently charged to get me about when return to the car which may just mean a coffee at a DCFC before arriving where you’re going to leave the car for a time if the journey there’s a lengthy one because it will mean YOU know you WILL be OK when you get back.

One other thing, which may explain your 12V battery issue especially on such a new car which just should not be presenting such faults, is that the 12V will charge whether the car’s parked turned off, is on or off charge, is being driven etc so long as the HVB (high voltage battery) is over a certain %age SoC (state of charge), I think it’s 15% though a recent software update may have upped that.

Might, just might, provide an explanation for your unique experience of a battery drain when car’s supposed to be charging its HVB and for some reason is might not have been.

I sincerely hope your EV, and especially your Stang experience improves as I just know it will.

Welcome to our world ?

 

[Shepherd]

I'm actually still on my trip and haven't returned yet. I called the parking garage, and the guy there swapped out the charging cable twice to try to fix it, but it's not charging.

I think you're spot-on regarding the 12v battery. I found the directions to get into a car w/ a dead 12v - it's a bit much, but seems doable. Should be fun at 10:00pm on Sunday night with all my luggage as I try to figure it out.

Thanks for the advice and the links!!!!!!

I'm sorry you're having a rough start with your new EV. Thankfully, I haven't experienced any problems yet after a year. There are a lot of moving parts, so to speak, with the rhythms of EV ownership.

Do yourself a favor when you get back to the airport. Don't try to figure it out yourself or let the airport crew touch it. Initiate Roadside Assistance under Service tab via the Ford app to Jump-start the battery/unlock the vehicle/EV charge. They will have a better idea on the ground to say if it's the car or the charger's fault.

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