Charging challenge

[EdwardB]

On a road trip (and we have done several in one of our two Mach E's) we ran into a unique challenge. Charged at E A at a Walmart in Cordel, GA. We had stopped there on our way up 75, so all good. Navigation had us going all the way to Lake City, FL - and we would have less than 20 miles range. No sweat - we trust the car! Got to Lake City, went to plug in to an FPL charger (also one we used on the way up) and the charger would NOT plug in to the car. Tried multiple cords. Thought it may be an issue there - so went to an E A 5 miles away, now at 15 miles range. And no luck! Panic sets in. I have been driving electric since 2018 - first big issue on the road. Called Ford Assist - the woman was nice enough but clearly had no clue about the car. Said we had to be towed to closest Ford Dealer - we had just passed one, so we drove there. Nice people (Roundtree Ford) , but they are NOT certified for electric. Big panic, down to about 10 miles. Closest was in Gainesville - meant towing, etc. I called Gainesville to make sure - they said they could not get to it today, but yes, they are certified. We were sweating more than one usually does in FL. Called the sales manager I dealt with - have only had this GT for 5 weeks. He was great, grabbed his service manager, and they FaceTimed to look at the plug on the car. Said to see if there was a close by slow charger, only using the top part. Whew -that worked. Found a hotel with s slow charger and by morning we were at 100%. Went to the dealer in Maitland Fl, - Peacock Ford. They are great! Found a piece of plastic that had broken off of something (maybe the plug covers, maybe the charging cord in Cordel.) Either way, they removed it and we should be all fixed. I will test a few fast chargers in Central Florida before our next road trip.
Has anyone else had this issue?

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[Mach1E]

On a road trip (and we have done several in one of our two Mach E's) we ran into a unique challenge. Charged at E A at a Walmart in Cordel, GA. We had stopped there on our way up 75, so all good. Navigation had us going all the way to Lake City, FL - and we would have less than 20 miles range. No sweat - we trust the car! Got to Lake City, went to plug in to an FPL charger (also one we used on the way up) and the charger would NOT plug in to the car. Tried multiple cords. Thought it may be an issue there - so went to an E A 5 miles away, now at 15 miles range. And no luck! Panic sets in. I have been driving electric since 2018 - first big issue on the road. Called Ford Assist - the woman was nice enough but clearly had no clue about the car. Said we had to be towed to closest Ford Dealer - we had just passed one, so we drove there. Nice people (Roundtree Ford) , but they are NOT certified for electric. Big panic, down to about 10 miles. Closest was in Gainesville - meant towing, etc. I called Gainesville to make sure - they said they could not get to it today, but yes, they are certified. We were sweating more than one usually does in FL. Called the sales manager I dealt with - have only had this GT for 5 weeks. He was great, grabbed his service manager, and they FaceTimed to look at the plug on the car. Said to see if there was a close by slow charger, only using the top part. Whew -that worked. Found a hotel with s slow charger and by morning we were at 100%. Went to the dealer in Maitland Fl, - Peacock Ford. They are great! Found a piece of plastic that had broken off of something (maybe the plug covers, maybe the charging cord in Cordel.) Either way, they removed it and we should be all fixed. I will test a few fast chargers in Central Florida before our next road trip.
Has anyone else had this issue?

Luckily no, but I’ve never DC charged. Stories like this make me never want to. Remember the last time you drove to 3 gas stations and had to be worried about having to be towed because your car wouldn’t take gas??

Was the piece of plastic something you could have removed yourself had you known it was there?

 

[Ghost Ryder]

Yikes, no we have to worry about plug conditions too. There were reports of the plug fusing to the car because of debris, but I don't recall any reports of plugs just breaking off.

 

[Reign of Ravens]

Sounds stressful, indeed. One of the arguments in favor of dumping the CCS-1 charge port for NACS was reliability of the charger handles, and specifically, lower likelihood of parts of the handle (presumably that securing clip) breaking off, leading to an unusable handle. I've heard of unusable handles from the clip being broken, but I hadn't heard about the fallout for the person whose car the piece remained stuck in - unfortunately, you get the distinction of being the first!

 

[DYohn]

I had a similar issue at an EA charger in Kingman AZ but the "piece of plastic" or rubber or whatever it was was lodged in the charge cord plug not in my car's socket. I used a pencil and got it out then charged without issue.

 

[kltye]

1) Not DCFC'ing because someone had a bad experience is like saying never to fill up with gas because of "bad gas" or bad filters at a gas pump.
2) The "bad" part about CCS-1 (which is way, way overblown to begin with) is the charging clip. This sounds like it was the DC pins that were affected, which is literally the farthest part away from the clip.
3) Multiple plugs didn't fit the DC part of the port... isn't the first thought that something might be blocking it? I understand removing said debris might not be easy, but that's another question altogether.

I guess I'm just a bit crochety about people complaining about DCFC/CCS.

 

[Mach1E]

1) Not DCFC'ing because someone had a bad experience is like saying never to fill up with gas because of "bad gas" or bad filters at a gas pump.
2) The "bad" part about CCS-1 (which is way, way overblown to begin with) is the charging clip. This sounds like it was the DC pins that were affected, which is literally the farthest part away from the clip.
3) Multiple plugs didn't fit the DC part of the port... isn't the first thought that something might be blocking it? I understand removing said debris might not be easy, but that's another question altogether.

I guess I'm just a bit crochety about people complaining about DCFC/CCS.

Lol. To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting I don’t DCFC because “one person had a bad experience.” Many people have bad experiences, but that isn’t it either.

It’s too slow and too expensive. I don’t DCFC because I don’t have to and we have my wife’s Aviator for road trips. It’s a much better road trip vehicle anyways.

But stories like this just remind me of another reason to never do it (other than the previously mentioned time and money reasons).

FWIW, I’ve spent over 20 years on car forums. Can’t remember any “I got bad gas and had to be towed” stories.

Plenty of DC didn’t work stories around here though.

 

[thekat03]

Lol. To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting I don’t DCFC because “one person had a bad experience.” Many people have bad experiences, but that isn’t it either.

It’s too slow and too expensive. I don’t DCFC because I don’t have to and we have my wife’s Aviator for road trips. It’s a much better road trip vehicle anyways.

But stories like this just remind me of another reason to never do it (other than the previously mentioned time and money reasons).

FWIW, I’ve spent over 20 years on car forums. Can’t remember any “I got bad gas and had to be towed” stories.

Plenty of DC didn’t work stories around here though.

I am fairly sure that the early days of gas cars and gas stations were well before internet forums. Where we are in the development and adoption of BEVs is more comparable to early days of gas stations than driving ICE CARS 20 years ago.

 

[21st Century Pony]

I just got off a 7,200+ cross-country trip. We did find one mechanically broken ChargePoint DC station (out of four on location)... in Kanab, Utah, the last town and the last DC charger on the way to the Grand Canyon's North Rim.

However, "mechanically broken" did not mean "unable to charge"... the securing thumblatch tooth was indeed broken off and lost to history, and I only realized it by just pulling the handle out after the charging session completed.

I called ChargePoint and they were very appreciative as the mechanical security tooth would not have otherwise come to their attention.

Now, we did find more than one charging station electrically unable to charge during this trip... especially the one single charging station for many miles around in Munro, South Dakota. Our 12-year old standby 240V RV lot portable EvseUpgrade EVSE got us out of that jam, and it was late evening anyway, and we had a tent, so things worked out.

 

[Mach1E]

I am fairly sure that the early days of gas cars and gas stations were well before internet forums. Where we are in the development and adoption of BEVs is more comparable to early days of gas stations than driving ICE CARS 20 years ago.

An interesting comparison, but completely inapplicable today.

No one here has to choose between gas stations decades ago and DC charging today.

It’s gas stations today vs DC charging today. And yeah, we have something to complain about (or in my case avoid completely).

 

[cjljr41]

Very similar situation happened to me on a trip from CT to VA last week. Stopped in NJ for a fast charge and my vehicle wouldn't accept L3 charging. I haven't used L3 charging since last Summer, but didn't think to check if before leaving the house. Tried an EVGo and an EA charger, but nothing worked. Called Ford, they suggested I tow it to a dealer. Ended up sitting at a L2 public charger for 9 hours to get enough charge to drive back home to CT. I have a service appointment next week.

 

[johnmark]

Our 12-year old standby 240V RV lot portable EvseUpgrade EVSE got us out of that jam

Tell me more - this sounds like something good to have on hand just in case. Is this a gas powered generator?

 

[thekat03]

An interesting comparison, but completely inapplicable today.

No one here has to choose between gas stations decades ago and DC charging today.

It’s gas stations today vs DC charging today. And yeah, we have something to complain about (or in my case avoid completely).

We are still in early days for EVs. In early days of gas stations, and honestly even in not so early days, gas stations sometimes ran out of gas. I get why some people want to avoid taking EVs on longer drives right now, but the ability to road trip an EV has changed so much in the past decade, and will be so different in the next 5-10 years. Fast charging EVs will become easier, faster, and more pleasant over time. Charging locations will be as widespread as gas stations today. It seems awfully silly to compare what is still a relatively new and evolving technology to one a century old, without acknowledging the fact that fast charging and the ability to road trip EVs is improving year after year. These forums exist to discuss the newest tech in cars, especially the parts that are still works in progress. Gas stations aren't a work in progress, and haven't been in decades, because they have had a century to get to where they are today, so of course ICE car forums aren't focused on them so much as they focus on more rapidly evolving tech in ICE cars.

 

[RickMachE]

Tell me more - this sounds like something good to have on hand just in case. Is this a gas powered generator?

No, it is an old charging cord that plugs into a 240v outlet, which he did at an RV park. Could have used the included Ford Mobile Charger also.

 

[21st Century Pony]

Tell me more - this sounds like something good to have on hand just in case. Is this a gas powered generator?

It is a portable Panasonic EVSE originally sold for the Nissan Leaf, then modified by an aftermarket outfit named EVSEUpgrade to push up to 20 amps at 240V and up to 12 amps at 120V. The aftermarket outfit faded away some years ago... their upgraded units are still around and are very reliable, unlike the Ford Mach E portable EVSE. I use it because of its utter reliability and because it is long paid-for.

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