cknasaboy
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Mach E Stats: 2022 Mustang Mach E - California Route 1, RWD, Extended Range battery with a 91 kWh capacity.
This trip was to see both of my parents in College Station, TX for Christmas, then a drive up to Edmond, OK to see my wife’s extended family during the week after Christmas.
This write up will cover the road tripping portions and not the intra-city driving we did while staying in both College Station and Edmond.
Our first leg on Christmas Eve (12/24/23) was from Houston, TX to College Station TX, which is a drive I do fairly often, since my parents are both located there. We left Houston with a 100% SoC and arrived in College Station with 64% remaining. You may wonder why I charged up so high before leaving Houston - my mom has a Level 2 charger (Grizzl-E) that I installed in her garage for her Rav 4 Prime, but I didn’t want to draw more electricity from her than I really needed to, and I wanted to leave College Station with a 100% charge.
We charged back up to 100% over the next couple days spent in College Station, and then departed for our AirBnB in Edmond, OK on 12/26/23. Our first stop was at an Electrify America in Denton TX, just north of Fort Worth. We arrived with a 27% SoC, and the idea was to just plug in and get as much charge as we could while we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. All stalls were marked as available in the EA app, but when we arrived, the only open 150 kW charger screen was stuck on a command-line looking screen. There was a 350 kW stall right next to it, so we plugged in there, (even though the Mach E can’t take full advantage of all that power, I know, I know, but it was the only working open stall available). While eating, I see in the FordPass app that charging had paused at 54%. After lunch, we walk back over to the station and find that someone had unplugged us - I can only imagine the reasons as to why (they had a car that can handle the full 350, they were in a hurry and the broken 150 stall was open, and our cable could reach, etc). Regardless, we decided to just press on, and charge further along in our route.
Next up was a Francis Energy just north of the Oklahoma/Texas border, at the Chickasaw Travel Stop there. We arrived with 43% SoC. I don’t have an account with Francis Energy, and rather than trying to use the built in credit card readers, I tried out the Mach E’s Charge Assist app for the first time - with great success! Was able to remotely activate the charger, then get out and plug in, with zero issues. This would be the case at all the other FE stations I hit along the trip. Big fan of Charge Assist!!! We charged up to 66%, and then unplugged and continued on to our AirBnB, where we arrived at 10% SoC.
While in Edmond, we took advantage of a Francis Energy 50 kW charger at a nearby grocery store while we were shopping - to me this feels like the sweet spot for fast charging in and around a city for residents of the city itself - in our 30 min shopping session, we gained about 24%.
The rest of the charging done while in Edmond was at the AirBnB via good old Level 1 slow charging. There was an accessible NEMA 14-50 socket in the garage for the dryer, but I wasn’t really sure how that circuit was wired up, and didn’t want to risk using it, so I just stuck with the regular wall outlet. I think a lot of people sleep on Level 1 charging, but in this scenario it was great - over the 4 days we spent in Edmond, I drew about a total of 87%, which more than covered the driving in and around town we did, and put us in a good spot for the drive back home.
Speaking of the drive home, the return trip was from Edmond, OK all the way back to Houston, TX, with a quick pit stop in College Station to pick up our dog, who we had left with my mom for a couple of days. We left Edmond on 12/30/23 with 69% SoC and hit a Francis Energy station near a Phillips 66, arriving at 32%. We charged up to 50% and continued on.
We returned to the Denton EA station, this time with the previously broken 150 stall working! That’s where we plugged in, taking a similar approach as before - go get lunch (Which-Wich this time) and see how much charge the car would get. We ended up not getting unplugged this time, and ended up with 84%.
Our next stop was at an EA station in Waco, TX (about mid way between DFW and College Station), and this is where the classic EA issues hit us - 2 of the 6 stalls were down when we arrived, and there was a line of cars about 5 deep. We had to wait a bit, but once we plugged into a working 350, the car charged with no issues. We arrived with 42%, and charged up to 80%, because we wanted to stretch it from there all the way back to Houston. Waco felt very underserved for fast charging - this EA station was basically the only option. The folks waiting at the EA station were all super chill and nice to talk to, so that made the wait a little better.
We arrived back at my mom’s house to pick up the dog with 46%, and while re-packing the car I charged on her L2, gaining another 2%. We left with 48% SoC. ABRP wanted us to stop in Katy, TX to do a very quick charge, but Apple Maps thought we could stretch it to make it all the way back home without having to stop. We took the second option, driving a little more slowly than we normally would, and ended back at home with 12% remaining!
Some summary stats:
This was my first road trip in the Mach E, and overall I was very happy with the experience! I think it will only get better with time, as more stations are deployed, and we all gain access to the Supercharger network. Happy new year all!
This trip was to see both of my parents in College Station, TX for Christmas, then a drive up to Edmond, OK to see my wife’s extended family during the week after Christmas.
This write up will cover the road tripping portions and not the intra-city driving we did while staying in both College Station and Edmond.
Our first leg on Christmas Eve (12/24/23) was from Houston, TX to College Station TX, which is a drive I do fairly often, since my parents are both located there. We left Houston with a 100% SoC and arrived in College Station with 64% remaining. You may wonder why I charged up so high before leaving Houston - my mom has a Level 2 charger (Grizzl-E) that I installed in her garage for her Rav 4 Prime, but I didn’t want to draw more electricity from her than I really needed to, and I wanted to leave College Station with a 100% charge.
We charged back up to 100% over the next couple days spent in College Station, and then departed for our AirBnB in Edmond, OK on 12/26/23. Our first stop was at an Electrify America in Denton TX, just north of Fort Worth. We arrived with a 27% SoC, and the idea was to just plug in and get as much charge as we could while we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. All stalls were marked as available in the EA app, but when we arrived, the only open 150 kW charger screen was stuck on a command-line looking screen. There was a 350 kW stall right next to it, so we plugged in there, (even though the Mach E can’t take full advantage of all that power, I know, I know, but it was the only working open stall available). While eating, I see in the FordPass app that charging had paused at 54%. After lunch, we walk back over to the station and find that someone had unplugged us - I can only imagine the reasons as to why (they had a car that can handle the full 350, they were in a hurry and the broken 150 stall was open, and our cable could reach, etc). Regardless, we decided to just press on, and charge further along in our route.
Next up was a Francis Energy just north of the Oklahoma/Texas border, at the Chickasaw Travel Stop there. We arrived with 43% SoC. I don’t have an account with Francis Energy, and rather than trying to use the built in credit card readers, I tried out the Mach E’s Charge Assist app for the first time - with great success! Was able to remotely activate the charger, then get out and plug in, with zero issues. This would be the case at all the other FE stations I hit along the trip. Big fan of Charge Assist!!! We charged up to 66%, and then unplugged and continued on to our AirBnB, where we arrived at 10% SoC.
While in Edmond, we took advantage of a Francis Energy 50 kW charger at a nearby grocery store while we were shopping - to me this feels like the sweet spot for fast charging in and around a city for residents of the city itself - in our 30 min shopping session, we gained about 24%.
The rest of the charging done while in Edmond was at the AirBnB via good old Level 1 slow charging. There was an accessible NEMA 14-50 socket in the garage for the dryer, but I wasn’t really sure how that circuit was wired up, and didn’t want to risk using it, so I just stuck with the regular wall outlet. I think a lot of people sleep on Level 1 charging, but in this scenario it was great - over the 4 days we spent in Edmond, I drew about a total of 87%, which more than covered the driving in and around town we did, and put us in a good spot for the drive back home.
Speaking of the drive home, the return trip was from Edmond, OK all the way back to Houston, TX, with a quick pit stop in College Station to pick up our dog, who we had left with my mom for a couple of days. We left Edmond on 12/30/23 with 69% SoC and hit a Francis Energy station near a Phillips 66, arriving at 32%. We charged up to 50% and continued on.
We returned to the Denton EA station, this time with the previously broken 150 stall working! That’s where we plugged in, taking a similar approach as before - go get lunch (Which-Wich this time) and see how much charge the car would get. We ended up not getting unplugged this time, and ended up with 84%.
Our next stop was at an EA station in Waco, TX (about mid way between DFW and College Station), and this is where the classic EA issues hit us - 2 of the 6 stalls were down when we arrived, and there was a line of cars about 5 deep. We had to wait a bit, but once we plugged into a working 350, the car charged with no issues. We arrived with 42%, and charged up to 80%, because we wanted to stretch it from there all the way back to Houston. Waco felt very underserved for fast charging - this EA station was basically the only option. The folks waiting at the EA station were all super chill and nice to talk to, so that made the wait a little better.
We arrived back at my mom’s house to pick up the dog with 46%, and while re-packing the car I charged on her L2, gaining another 2%. We left with 48% SoC. ABRP wanted us to stop in Katy, TX to do a very quick charge, but Apple Maps thought we could stretch it to make it all the way back home without having to stop. We took the second option, driving a little more slowly than we normally would, and ended back at home with 12% remaining!
Some summary stats:
- Total roadtripping distance covered was 876 miles.
- We spent $29.57 on charging (I still hadn’t used any of my free 250 kWh from EA)
- Charging stops added about 1.5 hours to our trip (this total does not include the two Denton EA stops where we went and got lunch - would have done that in an ICE car anyways!)
- The Ford route planner seemed to really prefer fewer, deeper charges that would take longer compared to multiple shorter charges that would have actually been faster.
- Neither ABRP nor the Ford planner accurately predicted arrival SoC - we were consistently arriving with 2-5 percent higher SoC than predicted.
- Level 1 charging is awesome for long stays in a city like at an AirBnB
- Charge Assist is great - you really don’t need the app for all the networks in the Blue Oval charging network if you use it to activate charges. However, then you’re stuck with Ford’s rates with those networks, instead of any plans/rates you could get directly with EA, EvGo, etc…
- I did not really use CarPlay/Apple Maps integrated EV routing - I’ll give it a go on the next trip and see how it does.
This was my first road trip in the Mach E, and overall I was very happy with the experience! I think it will only get better with time, as more stations are deployed, and we all gain access to the Supercharger network. Happy new year all!
Which mapping app did you use on your center screen?
