Deciding between a standard or extended range battery

[macchiaz-o]

Ah, I figured out the product you were linking. Amazon's ASIN is B00UB9R4KO: JuiceBox Pro 40 Smart Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station with WiFi - 40 amp Level 2 EVSE, 24-foot cable, NEMA 14-50 plug, UL and Energy Star Certified, Indoor / Outdoor Use

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[macchiaz-o]

At the moment, that JuiceBox charger is $539.

I'm strongly considering getting Ford's optional wall charger unit, assuming the price is less (hopefully), if I can use my FordPass Rewards credit towards it. U.S. customers buying a new Ford vehicle get a FordPass Rewards credit of $210 towards purchase of future maintenance, accessories, and service (though the credit could expire). So I'll use the bundled charger for a while, and maybe get the extra one to install permanently in the garage and leave the bundled charger in the trunk.

 

[Mopey]

Great Info. Thanks. Fortunately, I have a heated garage at home and work is only 6 miles away. Virtually every store/office has 110v outlets to plug in gasoline engines so preheating shouldn't be an issue. Ford tested the Mach E to -40. It was minus 40 on Friday.

 

[macchiaz-o]

I've been to Fairbanks once and remember seeing the engine block heater outlets. I guess the thing to find out is what are operating temperature ratings on Ford's mobile charger? If it's safe to leave outside and plugged in, at -40F, then you'd benefit by preconditioning the car before leaving work. Also you'd have a full charge all the time.

 

[Mopey]

Even with a gasoline car plugged in before hand, it is usually necessary to remote start a car to preheat the interior below -30, which means 5-8 minutes warming the engine before making the 5-8 minute drive home. It should be interesting figuring out whether battery or ICE is truly more economic at such temps. Ford says they've have tested the Mach E in Alaska and down to -40, but really strange things happen mechanically at super low temps.

I hope Ford makes the charging cord out of the correct material. I've used the wrong type of cord at -40 and had it freeze solid. Very hard to put back into the trunk

 

[phila]

Great info @macchiaz-o from the FAQs, that also answers that Ford plans on launching an App in parallel with the MachE.
Regarding chargers if you can get the one which Ford will sell at a discount or via some sort of a loyalty scheme then go for it, however I have found that dealers generally sell these things at a much higher price then if you buy a 3rd party product like the one i mentioned above. The above one is the #1 selling on Amazon and I have only read great things about it as its one where you can also control when to charge and when to pause the charge to avoid high rates. Getting an electrician to install it will also need to be accounted unless you are one yourself.
Not sure how things are now a days in North America with EVs into 110V wall outlets but here in Europe with 220V that is a big no no and many fires have been triggered by EV users simply charging directly from a wall socket which isnt scaled to handle the load of an EV over long periods of time. Electricity is not something I am willing to take a chance on, hence I have never plugged in my IPace in any of my homes wall sockets.

 

[macchiaz-o]

The other EVSEs that are extremely popular here are made by Clipper Creek. Both for homes and at businesses or public places. They don't have the Wi-Fi integration and timers, AFAIK, but on a car like the Mach-E it shouldn't be necessary. The vehicle's on board charger can be configured to charge during off-peak hours, and also remotely controlled via Ford's mobile app.

Good points about electrical safety, but it's not uncommon here to plug in an EVSE to an outlet, instead of hard wiring it. The outlet shapes (defined by NEMA) are supposed to be selected to limit the maximum current that is safe according to the in wall or conduit wiring that's been installed for that electrical circuit. NEMA compliant plugs and receptacles are available all the way up to 50A at 240V single phase, anything above that is supposed to be hard wired, I think.

The unsafe part, I think, is how some of the EVSEs (including Ford's) have some way of configuring their amperage and voltage limits, but they don't necessarily include the corresponding plugs for those limits. (I'm not sure yet how Ford will handle this specifically.) So let's say they include a NEMA 14-50 plug but my wiring limits me to 30A. I can buy an adapter from Amazon, but it just doesn't feel very safe to me. Of course the circuit breaker will trip if I don't set it up correctly, so perhaps that's all that's needed.

 

[phila]

The other EVSEs that are extremely popular here are made by Clipper Creek. Both for homes and at businesses or public places. They don't have the Wi-Fi integration and timers, AFAIK, but on a car like the Mach-E it shouldn't be necessary. The vehicle's on board charger can be configured to charge during off-peak hours, and also remotely controlled via Ford's mobile app.

Good points about electrical safety, but it's not uncommon here to plug in an EVSE to an outlet, instead of hard wiring it. The outlet shapes (defined by NEMA) are supposed to be selected to limit the maximum current that is safe according to the in wall or conduit wiring that's been installed for that electrical circuit. NEMA compliant plugs and receptacles are available all the way up to 50A at 240V single phase, anything above that is supposed to be hard wired, I think.

The unsafe part, I think, is how some of the EVSEs (including Ford's) have some way of configuring their amperage and voltage limits, but they don't necessarily include the corresponding plugs for those limits. (I'm not sure yet how Ford will handle this specifically.) So let's say they include a NEMA 14-50 plug but my wiring limits me to 30A. I can buy an adapter from Amazon, but it just doesn't feel very safe to me. Of course the circuit breaker will trip if I don't set it up correctly, so perhaps that's all that's needed.

I have heard of Clipper Creek as well and also ChargePoint is a familiar name. None of those are available locally here. You should of course have the Ford App being able to pause and resume charging with as well so that should work, that is if the software is properly working. On my IPace that feature never worked when I wanted it to and I simply gave up some time ago and havent bothered since as my charger does it directly now as its WiFi connected.
Definitely a good point how the cars themselves can manipulate the amps being pulled, Tesla has this option, my IPace doesn't however. Im sure many have caused some damage by playing with this setting when they dont really understand what they are doing expecting to get a faster charge.

 

[silverelan]

I have heard of Clipper Creek as well and also ChargePoint is a familiar name. None of those are available locally here. You should of course have the Ford App being able to pause and resume charging with as well so that should work, that is if the software is properly working. On my IPace that feature never worked when I wanted it to and I simply gave up some time ago and havent bothered since as my charger does it directly now as its WiFi connected.
Definitely a good point how the cars themselves can manipulate the amps being pulled, Tesla has this option, my IPace doesn't however. Im sure many have caused some damage by playing with this setting when they dont really understand what they are doing expecting to get a faster charge.

Do you use a Tesla-J1772 adapter for your I-PACE? I'm thinking if I had an 80A rated Jdapter for Tesla -> J1772, I'd be able to plug into any L2 charger that's available and not worry about amperage.

 

[phila]

Do you use a Tesla-J1772 adapter for your I-PACE? I'm thinking if I had an 80A rated Jdapter for Tesla -> J1772, I'd be able to plug into any L2 charger that's available and not worry about amperage.

No i received a JuiceBooster2 along with the Ipace which has a 220V schuko, blue industrial and red industrial adapter included. Plus the amperage can be setup directly on the JuiceBooster2. I do not have any adapters to connect into any Level2 chargers however, this thing is mainly used to be able to charge at RV camp sites, etc at higher speeds then what 110/220V has.

 

[JamieGeek]

Note that the car ALWAYS sets the current draw. When you first plug in an EVSE it reports to the car how much current it can supply and the car adjusts its intake accordingly.

Some EVSE's (like the Juicebox'es) will let you set what is reported to the car (up to its max) and some cars will let you limit what it takes from the EVSE (again up to the max reported by the EVSE).

Bolts, for instance, can be set to draw either 8 amps or 12 amps from a 120V EVSE.

 

[macchiaz-o]

I looked up the Juice Booster 2 and found this entertaining review from Bjørn Nyland. He followed up with a second review, where he follows up with some Norwegian 3-phase power differences and other stuff he learned. Looks like a really nice setup!

 

[phila]

Yep decent piece of hardware, although pricey as well but it is basically a mobile charging station. I was lucky enough to get this from my dealership together with my IPace hence no complaints at all. With the red industrial port i was getting up to 10%/hour charge on my IPace at a full 32amp.

 

[JamieGeek]

A comment about cold (and/or hot) weather: Both my old Focus Electric and C-Max Energi had "preconditioning" settings. If you have a regular commute you can program in a daily time you leave and a temperature (say 72F). The car will automatically "start" and run the HVAC to get the car to that temp by that time (it also warms the battery if necessary). This feature worked much better on the Focus Electric than it did on the C-Max (we could get a couple of inches of snow overnight and it would all be melted off the windows in the morning on the Focus).

The Bolt doesn't have this feature but you can remote start it (but you have to remember to do so).

Hopefully Ford includes preconditioning in the Mach-E. In one of the videos they do show setting up overnight charging (see below) thus maybe they will also include preconditioning. (Note that it says "Charge times for work"--on the Focus you could setup the times by locations; looks like they are bringing that along too.)

 

[macchiaz-o]

Yes, in Ford's FAQ they've mentioned that departure time preconditioning is a built in feature that you can use if the car's plugged in. Preconditions the powertrain as well as cabin.

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