BlueCruise Trip Chicago -> St. Louis

ricksta6

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I took my Mach-E on its first roadtrip from Chicago to St. Louis today. Approximately 325 miles total. My 2021 is a Select AWD with standard range and dealer-installed BlueCruise built in 08/21 (I think).

My key takeaways:
  1. Really wishing I would get the OTA that updates the charging curve. I think it would have changed my trip plans if I could have gotten to 90%+, but it wasn't worth it to stay charging at 11kw after hitting 80.
  2. Every time I disconnected a DC fast charger I received the error message: "Charger Station Fault Please See Manual." Charging was fine so not sure why I got this message after each charge. There was no error on the station either.
  3. A bit nervous about making the same trip in November for Thanksgiving when it's colder out. It'll likely take more/longer stops. Definitely going to get the extended range battery next time.
  4. Really curious why I didn't pull 150kw. I tried both a 150kw and 350kw station just to see if it would make a difference and didn't seem to. A Porsche Taycan next to me was pulling 250kw too.
  5. BlueCruise was fantastic. My only gripe is it auto-changes the speed to match the speed limit. I get why it does it but when you have it set to 75 and the speed limit suddenly changes it can be a bit jarring.
    1. I did notice it seemed to prefer the right side of the lane more, but it generally stayed center. On some fairly large left curves along the highway I had to take over, but it wasn't a problem.
    2. There were several times where it wanted my hands on the wheel. Not sure what triggered it but it wasn't a problem either.

Chicago -> Bloomington
Started this leg of the trip at 100% and drove around ~75 mph. Trip info showed me getting 3.1 miles/kwh. When I pulled off to fast charge at the Electrify America at the Bloomington Walmart, I had 18%. Plug and Charge worked well, though I was a bit disappointed I only got speeds up to 99kw. Going from 18% to 80% took 35 minutes.


Bloomington -> Springfield
This was the most inefficient part of the trip. I decided to go up to 80mph and got around 2.2 miles/kwh. Springfield is ~70 miles from Bloomington and I pulled into the next EA charger at 41%. It took 21 minutes to get back to 80%.

I was originally going to skip Springfield and try to make it to Collinsville, but I wasn't confident I'd make it.


Springfield -> Collinsville
This stop wasn't necessary, but I'm staying with my parents who don't have a level 2 charger, so didn't want to arrive with a fully drained battery. I pulled in at 35% and it took 25 minutes to charge to 80%.


STL
Pulled in at around 68% (~30 miles from Collinsville).
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Logal727

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I took my Mach-E on its first roadtrip from Chicago to St. Louis today. Approximately 325 miles total. My 2021 is a Select AWD with standard range and dealer-installed BlueCruise built in 08/21 (I think).

My key takeaways:
  1. Really wishing I would get the OTA that updates the charging curve. I think it would have changed my trip plans if I could have gotten to 90%+, but it wasn't worth it to stay charging at 11kw after hitting 80.
  2. Every time I disconnected a DC fast charger I received the error message: "Charger Station Fault Please See Manual." Charging was fine so not sure why I got this message after each charge. There was no error on the station either.
  3. A bit nervous about making the same trip in November for Thanksgiving when it's colder out. It'll likely take more/longer stops. Definitely going to get the extended range battery next time.
  4. Really curious why I didn't pull 150kw. I tried both a 150kw and 350kw station just to see if it would make a difference and didn't seem to. A Porsche Taycan next to me was pulling 250kw too.
  5. BlueCruise was fantastic. My only gripe is it auto-changes the speed to match the speed limit. I get why it does it but when you have it set to 75 and the speed limit suddenly changes it can be a bit jarring.

Chicago -> Bloomington
Started this leg of the trip at 100% and drove around ~75 mph. Trip info showed me getting 3.1 miles/kwh. When I pulled off to fast charge at the Electrify America at the Bloomington Walmart, I had 18%. Plug and Charge worked well, though I was a bit disappointed I only got speeds up to 99kw. Going from 18% to 80% took 35 minutes.


Bloomington -> Springfield
This was the most inefficient part of the trip. I decided to go up to 80mph and got around 2.2 miles/kwh. Springfield is ~70 miles from Bloomington and I pulled into the next EA charger at 41%. It took 21 minutes to get back to 80%.

I was originally going to skip Springfield and try to make it to Collinsville, but I wasn't confident I'd make it.


Springfield -> Collinsville
This stop wasn't necessary, but I'm staying with my parents who don't have a level 2 charger, so didn't want to arrive with a fully drained battery. I pulled in at 35% and it took 25 minutes to charge to 80%.


STL
Pulled in at around 68% (~30 miles from Collinsville).
The charge fault is normal if you stop using the button on the EA station. If you press the button next to the charge port on the car to stop charging, you won’t get that message.
The car just thinks the station stopped and doesn’t know why.
 
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ricksta6

ricksta6

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The charge fault is normal if you stop using the button on the EA station. If you press the button next to the charge port on the car to stop charging, you won’t get that message.
The car just thinks the station stopped and doesn’t know why.
Good to know. I'll give that a try, thanks!
 

MachKet

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Doesn't the standard pack only get 115KW max speed charge?
 


Brian707

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I am doing the same trip later this summer in August. I am in NW suburbs with Premium AWD extended battery. I might be able to skip Bloomington and make it all the way to Springfield on a 100% charge level when I leave if I average 3.0 KW. I want to have the dealer install the 21P22 before I go so I can get the updated charging curve like you mentioned as the OTA is probably not going to come anytime soon.
 

@kWhpony

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I drove from Springfield to Lake Zurich area leaving with 90% and arriving in the garage with 23 miles remaining on the GOM the 2nd week of May.

On our trip from IL to AZ in March, I left at 100%, charged in Bloomington, and made it to Collinsville as well driving in rain and wind.

When I head back to AZ next week, I'm planning to skip Bloomington but will check Navigation to make sure that Springfield is still inside the bubble and current mi/kwh will support driving that distance. We'll leave early morning to miss whatever traffic exists given the hybrid work environment and corresponding reduction in the volume of cars on the road.

My lessons learned from almost 4000 miles of long distance driving is that as long as you factor in all the variables which affect efficiency, you can easily drive 2-3 hours before recharging in spring/summer/fall. Winter's effect on batteries and range are a different animal.
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