DCFC. How important to current EV owners?

[Ciero]

It isn't important frequently, but when I'm in an area far away from my home without DCFC around, it can be frustrating. They really need to start adding them sooner rather than later or there will be lots of lines waiting to use the few in under-served areas when all the new EVs arrive.

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[TRP]

For us they are important. The MME has become our road dog, very comfortable and capable with the use of the EA network (only network I've used, so far). We make frequent trips to the east coast and I'm currently deciding if I want to attend an upcoming high school reunion in Oklahoma and planning out that potential trip.

We own an F150 ICE and while it's a nice truck the MME is just so much cheaper to operate even on road trips.

 

[dbsb3233]

For us they are important. The MME has become our road dog, very comfortable and capable with the use of the EA network (only network I've used, so far). We make frequent trips to the east coast and I'm currently deciding if I want to attend an upcoming high school reunion in Oklahoma and planning out that potential trip.

We own an F150 ICE and while it's a nice truck the MME is just so much cheaper to operate even on road trips.

Similar here. I wasn't sure whether we'd use it for road-tripping before we got it (we also have an Escape), but I knew I wanted to at least try it once as a test. Despite some quirks with EA at times, it's been a great road-tripper. The car itself is a dream on the road. And the charging is good enough, IF you pick a good route. It's very route-dependent. We've done 3 Denver-Vegas trips in it (good charger route). But had to leave it home and drive the Escape Denver-Rapid City (bad charger route).

 

[theo1000]

Very important to the way I drive. I have found myself using the DCFC stations more and more as they become available. Used to be 2-3 times a year DCFC driver in 2014. Then 4-5 times a year in 2019. This year I have already DCFC the MachE about 15 times. Couple more longish road trips coming up. I usually hit every EA station rather than running the car down. So 50% to 80% type charges. Usually DCFC 3-4 times on each trip. Would not surprise me if I hit 30 times just on the MachE this year. Add another 20 or so from my Etron & I3 I might hit 50 DCFC sessions this year!!! This is very surprising to me.

 

[AZBill]

What is the point of spending >$50K on a car if you are not going to road trip it?

 

[JoeDimwit]

I have a single vehicle. I don’t generally need fast charging for day to day driving, but if I have a day where I need to drive 200+ miles, I can’t have my car out of service for 10 hours. so far, it’s only been an issue once, and I have a 50KW charging station and a 150KW charging station near me that are free to use.
I look at it like air bags in cars… you don’t need them most of the time, but when you need them, you REALLY need them. I do intend to make day trips and road trips in my Mach-E, and when I do, I refuse to stop driving for 8 hours every 3 hours of driving.


As for “What is the point of spending >$50K on a car if you are not going to road trip it?” Some people have different use cases than others.

 

[ARK]

What is the point of spending >$50K on a car if you are not going to road trip it?

I personally am not much of a roadtripper. In fact, I haven’t had the need to L3 charge once in my seven months of ownership.

 

[dbsb3233]

Very important to the way I drive. I have found myself using the DCFC stations more and more as they become available. Used to be 2-3 times a year DCFC driver in 2014. Then 4-5 times a year in 2019. This year I have already DCFC the MachE about 15 times. Couple more longish road trips coming up. I usually hit every EA station rather than running the car down. So 50% to 80% type charges. Usually DCFC 3-4 times on each trip. Would not surprise me if I hit 30 times just on the MachE this year. Add another 20 or so from my Etron & I3 I might hit 50 DCFC sessions this year!!! This is very surprising to me.

I'm up to ~40 DCFC road-trip charges now on our 3 trips. All EA except for 3. We do nearly the same - charge up to 80% at almost every DCFC stop. Top-down instead of the bottom-up game that may EV drivers play to arrive with barely enough at the next charger so as to minimize charging time. In the Mach-E, the charge curve is flat enough that it saves only a minute or two doing that. Just not worth it. Far better just to charge up to 80% for the safety, security, and peace of mind of having more left in the tank in case anything goes wrong.

We do skip over some EA stations though, depending on how close they are. EA has been occasionally quirky, but we've always gotten a charge. So we don't mind running it down to 30%, or even 20%, as long as it's EA. But even then we're usually leaving enough to reach one backup charger just in case.

I scope out every planned route ahead of time for charger options (EA and Plugshare). I want to know what my options are and feel comfortable with the route. If not, I'll just drive the Escape instead.

 

[theo1000]

We do skip over some EA stations though, depending on how close they are. EA has been occasionally quirky, but we've always gotten a charge. So we don't mind running it down to 30%, or even 20%, as long as it's EA. But even then we're usually leaving enough to reach one backup charger just in case.

Agree the flat MachE charge curve makes it easy to charge anywhere from 10% to 80%. Takes another variable out. My Etron has a flat charge curve as well and makes it easy to charge. I think all EV's should have as flat a charge curve as possible, at least to 80%-90%.

I skip stations if they are too close to home. I do ponder what would happen if a DCFC station opened down the street. Would I skip it or if there is convenience store attached would I plug in for the 15 minute top up if it is cheaper than home. Not entirely sure right now...

 

[RockwallRick]

I have only done one road trip so far, but our first charging stop was a total bust! Fortunately things got better after that and we completed the 900 mile trip without another incident! I would like to do a road trip out west to Arizona some day but not with the current infrastructure!! We are planning another Florida road trip but this one should not require any EA charging stops.

 

[SnBGC]

I am not a frequent road tripper either. I usually prefer to fly to my destination and get a rental. However, I did make a road trip to San Diego recently and it was great and really no issues with charging speeds at all.

Then a few days later I took a business trip to Tucson with a colleague. He is in training to PM our EV installation projects so I figured ot would be a good learning experience to show him how DCFC works.

It couldn't have been any worse of an experience. I tried multiple EA machines. 2 didn't work, 1 maxed put st 31 kW and the other maxed out at 13 kW. Jumping from machine to machine in 110 degree heat with no shade is very frustrating. I ended up unplugging and driving 45 miles to the next EA facility to have more of the same treatment.

I was actually embarrassed because earlier that day I had spent some time explaining to my co-worker how well EA charging performed on the free charge weekend.

All that crap added about an hour to an already long day just to get back to the office. Then I had to sit at the office for another hour on L2 just to make it home.

I am not sure I will ever road trip this car again. Maybe on the free charge weekends because charge speeds are reasonable but other times it is practically worthless.

 

[phil]

What is the point of spending >$50K on a car if you are not going to road trip it?

They let me use the carpool lane every day on the 45-mile (round trip) commute.

I plan to never use DCFC. Road trips are why God made gasoline!

 

[SnBGC]

What is the point of spending >$50K on a car if you are not going to road trip it?

Luckily I didn't buy this car to make road trips. My use case is driving around the valley and day trips to Tucson from time to time. Luckily I can make it to Tucson and back on a single charge assuming only one stop in T-town. If I have multiple appointments in Tucson then I will need DCFC to get home.

Sedona and and Flagstaff are easy trips if staying overnight (which is usually the case for me).

I had hopes that DCFC would perform well enough for the occasional road trip but it turned out to be a major disappointment. Such a shame because the car drives so nice on the highway.

 

[dbsb3233]

Agree the flat MachE charge curve makes it easy to charge anywhere from 10% to 80%. Takes another variable out. My Etron has a flat charge curve as well and makes it easy to charge. I think all EV's should have as flat a charge curve as possible, at least to 80%-90%.

I skip stations if they are too close to home. I do ponder what would happen if a DCFC station opened down the street. Would I skip it or if there is convenience store attached would I plug in for the 15 minute top up if it is cheaper than home. Not entirely sure right now...

That's my exception to 80% too. If it's the last DCFC of the day (hotel or home destination), that's the time I'll short it (below 80%) and just target arriving at 10-20% (to save a few bucks). Hotel charging is usually free, and home charging is way cheaper than EA.

Although even that depends on whether there's an alternate charger at the night's destination. Hotel chargers can easily be full, or broken. I don't wanna get to the hotel for the night at just 10% with no backup option.

 

[dbsb3233]

I am not a frequent road tripper either. I usually prefer to fly to my destination and get a rental. However, I did make a road trip to San Diego recently and it was great and really no issues with charging speeds at all.

Then a few days later I took a business trip to Tucson with a colleague. He is in training to PM our EV installation projects so I figured ot would be a good learning experience to show him how DCFC works.

It couldn't have been any worse of an experience. I tried multiple EA machines. 2 didn't work, 1 maxed put st 31 kW and the other maxed out at 13 kW. Jumping from machine to machine in 110 degree heat with no shade is very frustrating. I ended up unplugging and driving 45 miles to the next EA facility to have more of the same treatment.

I was actually embarrassed because earlier that day I had spent some time explaining to my co-worker how well EA charging performed on the free charge weekend.

All that crap added about an hour to an already long day just to get back to the office. Then I had to sit at the office for another hour on L2 just to make it home.

I am not sure I will ever road trip this car again. Maybe on the free charge weekends because charge speeds are reasonable but other times it is practically worthless.

Wow, that sucks. Especially 2 EA stations in a row (scary for backup purposes). I do find bad chargers at EA semi-frequently, where I have to move to another. They're usually all empty so it's easy to move over, but still annoying. I've gotten used to parking between two if a 2nd attempt is needed.

Twice I've been able to only get 41kW. Seems to be some failsafe point when things aren't quite fully capable. But I've always gotten a charge. Sometimes I can to call EA customer service for a remote start.

My most recent trip was actually worse than the first 2. Same chargers between Denver-Vegas, but many were more troublesome this time (as was the EA app). But I eventually got every station to work.

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