First multi-state trip in my MME FE

[horsiedad]

Took my first long-distance trip in my MME FE from Georgia to North Carolina. I used Ford navigation. A few thoughts/comments/observations/questions:

• I planned the trip using the Ford nav system. It automatically added DC chargers along the route. It was a viable route and seemed to space out the chargers appropriately.
• The first charger Ford directed me to was a ChargePoint 50 kW unit installed by Georgia Power at a kind of sleazy motel in Thomson, GA. The rate was $.25 per minute. I already had the ChargePoint app on my phone (since I use their home charger). I had to add a credit card, after which things worked fine. What I didn’t know at the time was that there was an Electrify America (EA) station just 15 miles down the road that would have been free (due to the 250kWh Ford provides) and faster. The car got lots of attention from the motel maintenance guy who had many questions. I think he was a second cousin to Larry the Cable Guy.
• The next charge was in Florence, SC at an Electrify America station located at a Walmart just off of the I-95. Worked perfectly! Just plugged in the charger, waited for it to do its background check, and a minute later it was charging at 153kW. Slowed down (as expected) at 80% charge.
• Topped off at another EA station at a Walmart in Lumberton, NC. Worked well there too.
• To the extent I can calculate, I got about 295 miles on 100% charge on the first day of the trip. Better than the Ford specs.
• Issue: Stopped at three EA locations on the way back to Georgia. At one station the charge rate dropped quickly from 150 kW to 40 kW. I started the charge over and it worked fine from then on.
• Observation: Most of the time I was the only EV at the charging stations.
• Bug?: A couple of times during the trip, after completing a charge, the car displayed the message “Charge station fault. See manual” on the driver display. Turning the car off and on cleared the message. Since the charge was already complete, this would seem to be a bug.
• Bug/question?: While using the Ford nav system, occasionally/randomly (about once per minute) a vertical blue bar pops up on the driver display just to the right of the next-turn instructions. It usually only shows for less than a second. Is this supposed to mean something, or just some strange quirk?
• Bug?: Intermittently, I get brief flashes of a message on the top of my main screen that says “Data Disaster. Data disaster. No traffic data”. It goes away too quickly to ever get a picture. Very disturbing, but I’ve gotten used to ignoring it.
• Question: I plan to use just EA charging stations in the future, but I can’t find a way in the Ford nav system to filter on just the EA charging network. Has anybody figured this out?
• Interesting coincidence: I had never seen a VW ID.4 in the wild, but saw two at EA charging stations on the same day. I think one guy was beginning to have second thoughts on his purchase. ?
• Lastly: I’m still waiting on Ford to fix the bug where the number of preset rows on the radio screen keeps resetting to the default three rows. This is a PITA to change every time I start the car. Yes, I have the latest updates.

 

[macchiaz-o]

Bug?: Intermittently, I get brief flashes of a message on the top of my main screen that says “Data Disaster. Data disaster. No traffic data”. It goes away too quickly to ever get a picture. Very disturbing, but I’ve gotten used to ignoring it.

Danger Will Robinson. I haven't seen that error... Interesting message though!

For the EA locations, use PlugShare or EA's app to find them and tell the vehicle nav to add them to the route. For brand new EA locations you might need to add their address or neighboring business (e.g. Walmart).

 

[PrimeFuture]

Bug/question?: While using the Ford nav system, occasionally/randomly (about once per minute) a vertical blue bar pops up on the driver display just to the right of the next-turn instructions. It usually only shows for less than a second. Is this supposed to mean something, or just some strange quirk?

I did a 500 mile round trip tip this weekend, and noticed this too when using Ford's navigation. I'm assuming it's a bug.

 

[methorian]

Just a heads up - you can generally "clear" these errors by pressing the "OK" button on the right of the steering wheel (press down on the volume rocker). No need to power-cycle the car.

 

[horsiedad]

Just a heads up - you can generally "clear" these errors by pressing the "OK" button on the right of the steering wheel (press down on the volume rocker). No need to power-cycle the car.

Thanks! I didn't know that.

 

[timbop]

Other than the "danger will robinson" error, the rest have all been reported here. As for the NAV system not optimizing on faster DCFC chargers, yes that is also a known shortcoming of the NAV. Eventually Ford will get it right and optimize the charging stops, but for now I recommend using A better route planner to plan your route ahead of time. That does optimize for faster DCFC chargers.

 

[timbop]

Thanks! I didn't know that.

When he said "push down" he meant pushing it straight in, not the motion to lower the volume

 

[horsiedad]

Other than the "danger will robinson" error, the rest have all been reported here. As for the NAV system not optimizing on faster DCFC chargers, yes that is also a known shortcoming of the NAV. Eventually Ford will get it right and optimize the charging stops, but for now I recommend using A better route planner to plan your route ahead of time. That does optimize for faster DCFC chargers.

Thanks for the info. Glad to know these issues have already been surfaced. Frankly, I gave up trying to keep up with this forum with so many posts. I'm going to use the EA app for the time being.

 

[timbop]

Thanks for the info. Glad to know these issues have already been surfaced. Frankly, I gave up trying to keep up with this forum with so many posts. I'm going to use the EA app for the time being.

ABRP will plot the fastest time for all available chargers, so if EA is nearby it will use that. If not, it will use a non-EA fast charger instead. If you use just the EA app it might compel you to charge above 80% in order to make it between chargers, which could be slower than if you just top off somewhere on a 50kw charger

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