First Road Trip Charging Nightmare

[RedStallion]

This is why Ford has an agreement with Tesla to use their Supercharging network, that's how bad it's gotten to DCFC. Reports like this is having a negative impact. With the amount of $$ Ford and GM is investing in their EV product lines, they need to get this right the second time.

Why would you expect a totally "foreign" charging stations having fewer problems than a "native" EA? If anything one can expect more problems at Tesla superchargers.

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[stealthytolkien]

This is literally screaming - get the Tesla if you plan for frequent road trips.

 

[RKinWA]

This is literally screaming - get the Tesla if you plan for frequent road trips.

Reminds me of this video I watched last month. At one point he actually had to resort to using an EA charger ? After I watched this, I almost decided to just move to a PHEV but my friend talked me off the ledge with logic "This doesn't affect you, you don't go on road trips!" "Oh yeah, OK, I'll keep the MME" ?

 

[Mach-Lee]

I did completely shut down the vehicle between attempts at the first EA station in Barstow, CA. It was between attempting to use the second and third chargers at that station. Although not shut down for 15 minutes or more, the car was off for around 10 minutes while my wife took the girls into Walmart to use the bathroom and I began my initial search of the owners manual and forum threads via my phone.

At the dealership in Victorville, CA when I was charging on the very slow L1 charger for around 35 minutes, the car was off and locked for about 15 minutes or so while I talked to the people at the dealership prior to persuading them to let me use their charger, and then I moved the car over to the charger and it was off for the entirety of the 35 minutes or so it was charging. Maybe one of those stints was enough to let car clear the code itself.

I appreciate the advice and will certainly look into grabbing an OBDII dongle and the CarScanner app.

Sticky in the issues section: https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...ng-service-vehicle-soon-while-charging.26983/

Always do that high voltage reset procedure if you have some kind of issue.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

Thanks for sharing man! I have a 2022 Mach E and am planning a 850km road trip from Toronto to Chicago and am a bit nervous about having charging hang ups!

You should be okay going through southeast Michigan and the I-94 corridor. Plenty of EA and EVGo chargers along that path.

 

[Guss-E 2021]

Why would you expect a totally "foreign" charging stations having fewer problems than a "native" EA? If anything one can expect more problems at Tesla superchargers.

Maybe because almost all of the videos showing non-Tesla BEVs charging with a Magic Dock at a Tesla SC illustrate how instantly the charging sessions initiate. Plenty of info in this forum on the experience.

To @VegasWeezy: Mach-E Forum to the rescue! Don't leave home without it. ?

 

[alexgorod]

You should be okay going through southeast Michigan and the I-94 corridor. Plenty of EA and EVGo chargers along that path.

A very good EA in the Sam's club parking near Kalamazoo, and a good Italian grill restaurant nearby.
Not sure if anything else exists until Chicago, so definitely a good stop.

 

[Brian1399]

Is EVGO safe to use or should I stick with EA for reliability?

You should be okay going through southeast Michigan and the I-94 corridor. Plenty of EA and EVGo chargers along that path.

 

[Brian1399]

A very good EA in the Sam's club parking near Kalamazoo, and a good Italian grill restaurant nearby.
Not sure if anything else exists until Chicago, so definitely a good stop.

My last stop before Chicago it actually has me planned to stop at this EA so I am looking forward to this, sort of a related topic but are you aloud to leave your EV plugged in and run into Sams Club? Just curious on the etiquette of leaving vehicle while it is plugged in.

 

[RickMachE]

Is EVGO safe to use or should I stick with EA for reliability?

There is no reason to use EVGo if you have working EA chargers. EA is cheaper, and faster.

 

[Logal727]

There is no reason to use EVGo if you have working EA chargers. EA is cheaper, and faster.

Maybe in Michigan they are faster, but I get the fastest peak speeds on EVGo around here or they are the same

 

[alexgorod]

Is EVGO safe to use or should I stick with EA for reliability?

Check PlugShare for each place. One of my recent experiences with EA was really bad - only one plug out of four was working and the top speed was about 30 kWh, but it was exactly what PlugShare shows. And I had to wait 20 minutes for it while a Lightning was charging (and the guy in the Lightning unplugged a Mach-E that was at 95% when he arrived, which somewhat answers your next question):

My last stop before Chicago it actually has me planned to stop at this EA so I am looking forward to this, sort of a related topic but are you aloud to leave your EV plugged in and run into Sams Club? Just curious on the etiquette of leaving vehicle while it is plugged in.

Yes, it's OK and pretty normal to leave your car while it's charging. I would come back when it reached the desired charge level, definitely will be upset to see a car sitting at a charger with 100% (or slow charging after 90%) when I need the charger, so won't do it for others.

While visiting this charger I had lunch and came maybe 10 minutes after the charging was done, nobody killed me

 

[GreaseMonkey]

Is EVGO safe to use or should I stick with EA for reliability?

EVGo has heavy presence in urban areas while EA focuses on highways. Given the path you are driving, having access to both is highly recommended. I would try to maximize charging in Chicago at EVGo. I’d be indifferent in Michigan.

But here are some additional points:

1. EVGo is more reliable than EA and tends to maintain their chargers better.

2. Both charging networks have similar speeds. EVGo has 100 and 350 kW chargers, while EA has 150 and 350 kW. Of course a 100 is slower than 150 kW charger (actual average charging speeds between 10-75% are 71 vs 81-83 kW). But the 100 is not slow by any means.

3. If you are using the FordPass app and don’t want to bother with downloading apps, creating accounts and funding them, EA and EVGo have similar costs in Michigan. But EVGo is cheaper by a huge margin in Illinois ($0.48 vs $0.26 / kWh).

4. Lastly, EVGo tends to be located at better stores than EA. So if you intend to leave the car for a bit, you’ll have a more pleasant time charging with EVGo.

Note that stores like Whole Foods would validate parking simply for charging, you don’t have to buy anything from them. You do need to get parking validated, otherwise it can be as high as $50/ hr.

All of the above is my personal opinion having charged with both and is heavily dependent on location. Neither is a complete replacement of the other. We are not at a stage where we can be picky about which brand we do business with. Not at a point where we can summarize the world on a bumper sticker.

 

[RedStallion]

Maybe because almost all of the videos showing non-Tesla BEVs charging with a Magic Dock at a Tesla SC illustrate how instantly the charging sessions initiate. Plenty of info in this forum on the experience.

A few posts hardly have any statistical significance. It remains to be seen how good/bad the experience will be, but logic says there will be more problems at superchargers, not less, and unlike EA, Tesla has zero incentive resolving them.

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