Electrify America Mach-E Charging Issues

[Tampamike]

I tried the phone tap a couple times on a recent road trip with my EA card out on my Apple phone wallet. It didn’t work. i just use the app. Select the charger and swipe to start then plug in. Anything else defaults to P&C which then goes through the Ford account at the higher rate.

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[back_at_it_19]

I tried the phone tap a couple times on a recent road trip with my EA card out on my Apple phone wallet. It didn’t work. i just use the app. Select the charger and swipe to start then plug in. Anything else defaults to P&C which then goes through the Ford account at the higher rate.

Weird. Phone tap has been flawless. (The phone tap area is different than the credit card tap area if that matters.)

 

[dbsb3233]

I've gotten phone tap to work on the type of charger in the 1st pic, but not the 2nd...

 

[back_at_it_19]

I've gotten phone tap to work on the type of charger in the 1st pic, but not the 2nd...

Both work on my end. Definitely aim clearly for the gray tap area at the bottom. Sometimes it “beeps” as I’m near the credit card reader but that won’t work.

 

[Tampamike]

Seems like I heard a beep when tapping but P&C through Ford account engaged in the higher rate mode - not my lower Pass+ rate.

 

[dbsb3233]

Seems like I heard a beep when tapping but P&C through Ford account engaged in the higher rate mode - not my lower Pass+ rate.

Yes, if P&C is turned on in the FordPass app, that will take precedence over the EA app and you'll get debited through your FP account (no discount available in that one yet). Surprised it even beeped from tapping, but maybe it just does that everytime you tap even if it's already engaged with another payment method?

If you want the EA app to control the charge so that it does the billing and can use the EA Pass+ discount, you need to go into FP and uncheck P&C first.

 

[Debangor]

Mine worked the first time I tried at the second machine. The next time I had to call EA and get help. We tried three machines and all of them would only give paid options. I was finally give a free charging session which did work.

One of the Ford EV engineers is supposed to call me Monday about the charging issues. I'll update then.

I used a couple of these off the NYS Thruway at Waterloo outlets and in Buffalo. I don't think either of them showed I was getting a free charge, but after charging I was told how much my balance had dropped.

 

[Tampamike]

Yes, if P&C is turned on in the FordPass app, that will take precedence over the EA app and you'll get debited through your FP account (no discount available in that one yet). Surprised it even beeped from tapping, but maybe it just does that everytime you tap even if it's already engaged with another payment method?

If you want the EA app to control the charge so that it does the billing and can use the EA Pass+ discount, you need to go into FP and uncheck P&C first.

I was just testing the tap to pay to see if it would work. My normal approach is to go through the app and swipe to activate the charger before plugging in. That does work and gives me the pass+ lower rate without going through P&C.

 

[dbsb3233]

I was just testing the tap to pay to see if it would work. My normal approach is to go through the app and swipe to activate the charger before plugging in. That does work and gives me the pass+ lower rate without going through P&C.

That's what I did for half the year, before switching over to P&C. But on one trip the EA app started causing me problems (may have been my phone & cell signal as much as the app), so I decided just to turn P&C on for the rest of that trip and start using my free kWh. Worked perfectly, so I left it on for the next trip too.

The EA app works well most of the time, but when a session didn't start right it was messy to start over. It often hung on the session start screen and I had to reboot the phone to try again, and that took minutes. Sometimes I even had to switch phones. That got old fast. Plus not every EA station is in a dependable cell signal area. P&C doesn't need the phone so it avoids that potential pitfall. I'm not sure on phone tap. I assume that's just internal to the phone hardware and works even with no cell signal, but I'm not sure.

When I run out of my free kWh, I may turn P&C off and try EA Pass+ with phone tap again. Not sure yet. Hoping Ford gets that $50/yr discount rate plan implemented that was teased months ago. Haven't seen a word on it since.

 

[RickMachE]

We turned off P&C after our free hours were used up. When we use EA chargers, we found that the phone tap often resulted in Google Pay coming up, despite us not using it. As others have noted, cellular transmission by the chargers is often spotty, so there are times you can't get them to work at all. We have had issues with plugging in, then swiping the charger in the app too. Several times I've given up and used my charge card. Each time I got a $50 charge going through (not a pre-authorization that drops off), and then a $50 credit going through days later, yet the actual charging cost never comes through, so it's been free.

Sometimes a different phone works. All times when it doesn't "just work" is frustrating at the amount of time wasted - a 40 minute charging session ends up being much longer. Calling EA is often a 10+ minute wait, and they can't do anything anyway.

I wish they had a RFID tag like ChargePoint that I could use and be done with it.

 

[dbsb3233]

We turned off P&C after our free hours were used up. When we use EA chargers, we found that the phone tap often resulted in Google Pay coming up, despite us not using it. As others have noted, cellular transmission by the chargers is often spotty, so there are times you can't get them to work at all. We have had issues with plugging in, then swiping the charger in the app too. Several times I've given up and used my charge card. Each time I got a $50 charge going through (not a pre-authorization that drops off), and then a $50 credit going through days later, yet the actual charging cost never comes through, so it's been free.

Sometimes a different phone works. All times when it doesn't "just work" is frustrating at the amount of time wasted - a 40 minute charging session ends up being much longer. Calling EA is often a 10+ minute wait, and they can't do anything anyway.

I wish they had a RFID tag like ChargePoint that I could use and be done with it.

That's why I may just bite the bullet and use P&C at the higher 43c rate for a while even after my freebies run out. If the EA app swipe and phone tap continue to be messy, it's worth paying some more for the ease of P&C... up to a point. I was surprised how perfectly P&C worked on my last 10 EA charges.

Ford needs to get that discount rate plan implemented.

 

[RickMachE]

That's why I may just bite the bullet and use P&C at the higher 43c rate for a while even after my freebies run out. If the EA app swipe and phone tap continue to be messy, it's worth paying some more for the ease of P&C... up to a point. I was surprised how perfectly P&C worked on my last 10 EA charges.

Ford needs to get that discount rate plan implemented.

I hear you, but EA charges a big surcharge when you don't use Pass+. I'd rather not pay that.

 

[Tampamike]

That's what I did for half the year, before switching over to P&C. But on one trip the EA app started causing me problems (may have been my phone & cell signal as much as the app), so I decided just to turn P&C on for the rest of that trip and start using my free kWh. Worked perfectly, so I left it on for the next trip too.

The EA app works well most of the time, but when a session didn't start right it was messy to start over. It often hung on the session start screen and I had to reboot the phone to try again, and that took minutes. Sometimes I even had to switch phones. That got old fast. Plus not every EA station is in a dependable cell signal area. P&C doesn't need the phone so it avoids that potential pitfall. I'm not sure on phone tap. I assume that's just internal to the phone hardware and works even with no cell signal, but I'm not sure.

When I run out of my free kWh, I may turn P&C off and try EA Pass+ with phone tap again. Not sure yet. Hoping Ford gets that $50/yr discount rate plan implemented that was teased months ago. Haven't seen a word on it since.

I used up my free KW’S long ago. P&C was working pretty good by the end. I never turned it off so I can use it if I need to. I use it every once in a while just to exercise it and see if it still works - so far it does.
I’ve only had maybe one connectivity event with EA and it eventually worked. I haven’t had any real problems using the app. The good thing is, that if the app has some issues connecting, the car just logs in with P&C and charges anyway. I activate the pass+ plan when I hit the road and turn it off when I get home. That part has worked easily and flawlessly.

 

[dbsb3233]

I hear you, but EA charges a big surcharge when you don't use Pass+. I'd rather not pay that.

The Pass+ discount off the regular rate is nice (28% off), although it's not prohibitive. And it does cost $4/mo more. But yeah, I wouldn't pay the higher rate for more than a few charges just for the easier convenience of P&C. The extra 12c/kWh would add up over many charges. I had Pass+ for 6 months before ending it when I switched to P&C. Hopefully Ford implements their P&C discount plan before long.

If you want to see a big gap between regular and discount rates, look at what Tesla is doing in Europe. They just added their first Supercharger CCS service to some chargers in The Netherlands. They have a subscription discount plan like EA's, but it's $15/mo, and the regular rate is more than double the discount rate. That would be a much bigger quandary. Hopefully the gap isn't that big when Tesla eventually implements it in the US.

 

[evlar77]

Well plug and play works great for me, but as others have mentioned it does not recognize my Pass + account for EA and charges me the guest price per KW.

Ford! Any way you can link this?

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