Charging FAIL & GREAT Surprise When We Compare The Model Y & Mach-E On The World’s Toughest EV Test!

[SolarAB]

Their comment that Ford needs its own charging network is crazy. Imagine if every make of car needed their own chain of gas stations. What we need is charging system standardization.

Sponsored

 

[malba2366]

Of all the comments, the end suggestion by Roman seems spot on. Moving forward, Ford, perhaps their best play, would be to buy out the majority stake of Electrify America and fix their issues, thus having an entire network at their disposal. Ford could then lower their Ford charging prices for their own vehicles, prioritize stations, while - perhaps - charging slightly more for other vehicles using their stations (if regs don't get in the way, etc...).

VW already owns EA, Ford is partnered with VW so I am sure they will work out the network reliability as VW will soon have more of a vested interest in that as well. The more concerning problem is the DC charging speeds, which EA has nothing to do with.

 

[Shayne]

Couterpoint: No

Ford's experience has been with not owning everything: Think ICE cars with gas stations everywhere. There is no reason why they would move away from that model.

Sure there are issues right now with some of the systems. That will get worked out because the different systems are competing with each other (well kind of: yes there are many locations where there is only a DCFC from a single vendor). Over time it will fix itself as more and more EVs get on the road and demand (and competition) go up.

Auto companies will be most likely like Microsoft and if you want to get into the charging business you will need to comply to there standards in the future not the other way around. Things will work there way out and the more different charging solutions we have the better and cheaper charging solution will become due to competition. Against single tier monopolies.

 

[eltonlin]

Couterpoint: No

Ford's experience has been with not owning everything: Think ICE cars with gas stations everywhere. There is no reason why they would move away from that model.

Sure there are issues right now with some of the systems. That will get worked out because the different systems are competing with each other (well kind of: yes there are many locations where there is only a DCFC from a single vendor). Over time it will fix itself as more and more EVs get on the road and demand (and competition) go up.

I agree - owning the full stack may not be one of Ford's core competencies. It would make more sense - at least to me - is for Ford to make some strategic investment in EA, so that they could influence/control more of their EV destiny, but not necessarily need to own it all.

 

[mr_raider]

This was my thinking too. Unless someone makes regular use of the extra miles on the ER (or at least comes close to so they at least get the peace of mind), $5,000 is a lot of cash to put down in order to save 20-30 minutes in having potentially one less fast charging stop or two on a road trip each year.

The AWD ER does accelerate faster than the AWD SR, but I suspect the AWD SR may have slightly better figures for grip, braking, and the like. Actually it would be great if you guys did do a comparison of an AWD ER and AWD SR if you ever get the chance down the line, would be interesting to see how small or not so small these differences can really be.

Well the SR is lighter. Also there seems to be curb weight variation between trims. The Selects are lighter than the premiums. Maybe due to the glass roof?

 

[OttawaGuy]

I’m new to electric vehicles and charging. Putting aside the Mach E vs Y competition, should I be worried about the Mach E charging ability (since that is what I bought and not the Tesla) or is this more about the charging stations?

Sub question to that, would the "issues" with charging stations be something that could potential also happen with the "home" charging on 120 or 240V?

 

[Garbone]

I will say after a week of driving it I would strongly encourage that you consider a Standard range car. When I drive I try and keep a little book where I record the distance driven every day. I personally average 30 to 40 miles in a day. If you have a place to charge at home, the range even on the SR AWD is more than enough. I'd personally save the change and go for a Standard range for every day driving as 200 miles + on a charge seems realistic from my experience. For road trips where the ER would have the advantage, well, um, let's just say I'm not sure the charging network is quite flushed out for the majority of folks. So save the dough!!!

??
Works for me. I just ordered a SR 2wd yesterday.

 

[OttawaGuy]

I will say after a week of driving it I would strongly encourage that you consider a Standard range car. When I drive I try and keep a little book where I record the distance driven every day. I personally average 30 to 40 miles in a day. If you have a place to charge at home, the range even on the SR AWD is more than enough. I'd personally save the change and go for a Standard range for every day driving as 200 miles + on a charge seems realistic from my experience. For road trips where the ER would have the advantage, well, um, let's just say I'm not sure the charging network is quite flushed out for the majority of folks. So save the dough!!!

Comforts me in being a cheap bas?%$"%$ and ordering only the SR!

Plus unlike tesla, Ford's estimated range seems to be way better at advising the driver ofhow much more range he/she has!

 

[generaltso]

Sub question to that, would the "issues" with charging stations be something that could potential also happen with the "home" charging on 120 or 240V?

Very unlikely. A home charging station is really just a power supply. The charger is built into the car. At a DCFC station, the in-car charger is bypassed.

 

[RonTCat]

VW already owns EA, Ford is partnered with VW so I am sure they will work out the network reliability as VW will soon have more of a vested interest in that as well. The more concerning problem is the DC charging speeds, which EA has nothing to do with.

A couple things:
1) Tesla and Apple don't own much of a "stack". I guess you could say Foxconn owns the "stack", and Apple buys from them. Tesla doesn't know what the "stack" is, and further, they don't want any part of it. I guess Ford came closest to owning the "stack" with the Rouge Plant, dirt and trees in, cars out, get your own fuel.
2) EA exists because VW cheated with diesel emissions. That was part of their penalty, to create and build out EA. Ford is just an interested user, as noted.
3) Home chargers are fine. Assuming home chargers will have problems because of EA problems is like saying your home toilet will have problems because public toilets are terrible ?.

 

[malba2366]

A couple things:
EA exists because VW cheated with diesel emissions. That was part of their penalty, to create and build out EA. Ford is just an interested user, as noted.

Ford has a partnership with VW to codevelop products, they could certainly chose to work with VW to ensure the EA network works correctly with their products. Also, with the release of the ID4, VW will have a strong incentive to make sure the network is more reliable than in the past. So, Ford does not need to create their own charging network.

 

[Jim Glass]

Their comment that Ford needs its own charging network is crazy. Imagine if every make of car needed their own chain of gas stations. What we need is charging system standardization.

But I think Ford an VW (mostly) are invested in the EV network. Read that somewhere when looking at ID.4

 

[OttawaGuy]

My takeaway from the test was how much more accurate the MME's "GOM" was in comparison to the MY's. I would rather see an accurate (lower) range figure than a wishfully inaccurate (higher) one.

Totally agree!!!

 

[NoMoShocks]

Thanks for watching, that means a lot! It will take more than a snickers haha! To his credit, I know the guys and gals at EA and EVgo customer support better than most of my extended family hahaha!

I really really wanted to plug the EA station into the Ford's nav, but it didn't know it existed! Tried voice command, tried finding it on the map but for some reason it is invisible to the Ford. Didn't want to plug in the supercharger into the nav on the Tesla and give it an unfair advantage with pre-conditioning.

I had the same thought, couldn't you have plugged in the address of the EA station into the nav system even though it was not mapped in Ford's software? Then I think the car would have taken the downhill portion of the route into account and given a more accurate prediction. Sorry, if you still have the car you'll need to repeat the test tomorrow. And I like your profile photo of the dog who makes the yellow snow cones on the top of the mountain.

 

[NoMoShocks]

There is two talking the charger and the car. Just like it maybe a game patch and a graphics card driver that will fix an issue the same is true for the charger and the car. I am not sure who will patch it but I assume they are both talking to each other.

Yeah, it just takes some time for them to both stop saying it is your part until one finally eats crow and say you're right, it is my part. When there used to be Microsoft and Intel Help, Microsoft would tell me it was a hardware issue and Intel would tell me it was a software issue. Finally I learned to turn if off and then turn it on again.

Sponsored