Mark II

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I drove my GT from Orange County, CA to Las Vegas over the weekend, and as many have done I wanted to give a few impressions from my trip.


Charged up to 100% at home, and headed off to Baker, CA to charge, keeping speeds at or below 75 mph. One other passenger, two suitcases and golf clubs in tow. Once I got to Baker that is when things got interesting. I knew that there were only two 150 kw chargers there, so I wanted to make sure I grabbed one of those. Plugged into the first charger and…. nothing. Turns out the screen on that charger was blank and wasn’t working at all, but having never fast charged a car before I didn’t know this. No problem, I went to another 150 kw charger to try my 2nd attempt. Plugged in and plug and charge failed. Tried another charger, failed again. At this point I assume plug and charge is not going to work so I tried the EA app. Also didn’t work. I then just tried to pay with my credit card, and it got declined. So this is now 5 separate failures and I’m thinking it’s very likely that I’m going to have to find another charging spot in Baker. Wanting to make this stop work though, I tried a 50 kw charger further down, plugged in, and success! Plug in charge worked fine and the car slowly but surely started pulling down power at 42 kw. I pulled in at 33%, and even though I only had about 85 miles left to get to Vegas, I wanted to be sure I made it fine so we spent an hour there to charge up to 80%.

Leaving Baker things got interesting again. Despite driving at 75 mph or less, there were extremely strong headwinds, and for the first 40 miles we only got 1.1 miles per kwh. I knew we had enough juice to make it to Vegas, but seeing our state of charge drop from 80% to almost ~44% in 40 miles was not fun, and seeing the range drop along with it. This was probably my biggest revelation of the trip. I was using Ford’s built in navigation system, and I figured that since the GOM knew where I was going that the range in the car would be somewhat based on my route. You all can correct me if I’m wrong, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I noticed the GOM would drop significantly on uphill climbs, and then I would get most of the range back on the way down the hill. I assumed it would stay somewhat consistent, as the car should know what goes up must come down based on my inputted destination.

We made it to Vegas at 33% charge. The hotel I was staying at had 2 free EV chargers, and when I pulled in there was once space left, and a Tesla that had finished charging, so I was able to charge back up to 100% overnight.

After two nights in Vegas and a drive out to play golf I started my return trip home at 92% charge. I used Ford’s navigation again, and knew that I could comfortably make it to Barstow, CA for a charge that would get me the rest of the way home. Wanting to save range still, I only used the heated seats and steering wheel. It got as low as 23 degrees fahrenheit on the drive, and being a Southern California boy I was not prepared for just how cold that is without using the car’s heater. In hindsight I probably should have put a jacket on before I started the drive. I indured the cold though, and rolled into Barstow at 26% charge.

The EA chargers in Barstow are at a Walmart, plugged into the nearest 150 kw charger I saw, plug and charge worked just fine and I started pulling down power at 124 kw. Finally, this is what I was hoping for on the first leg of the trip! Living in Orange County, Mach Es are fairly common, I see a few of them everyday, so I had yet to have a single person comment on my car while I have owned it. Not so in Barstow though. Plenty of people came by to chat while I sat there charging, most asking how far the car could go and how long it would take me to charge. It was fun getting to chat with everyone and talk up the car. Remembering the 1.1 miles per kwh that I got at times on the way to Vegas, even though I only needed to charge to probably 60% or so to get me home, I decided to charge to 80% just to be extremely safe. That took 35 minutes.

Made it back to Orange County with 44% charge left, with the car being much more efficient for that last leg of the trip.

Overall the GT is an amazing road trip car. The seats were absolutely some of the most comfortable I have ever sat in on a long trip, and using Blue Cruise for significant stretches made the drive seem effortless. The GOM not being very reliable though even with my destination inputted, and the issues I had getting the car to charge in Baker were really the only downsides. I know Ford has talked about that for the Lightning, the GOM will eventually take into account temperature, elevation, trailer weight, and so on when calculating a route. It seems like the Mach E is far from that at the moment though.

I love this car, and it was fun getting to experience the highs and lows of EV ownership over a long weekend.


Ford Mustang Mach-E First Road Trip in Mach-E GT -- Orange County To Vegas tempImageKUjONU

Ford Mustang Mach-E First Road Trip in Mach-E GT -- Orange County To Vegas IMG_7642
Ford Mustang Mach-E First Road Trip in Mach-E GT -- Orange County To Vegas IMG_7623
Ford Mustang Mach-E First Road Trip in Mach-E GT -- Orange County To Vegas IMG_7632
 

mdolan92869

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Out of curiosity, which hotel were you at that had the chargers?
 
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Mark II

Mark II

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Out of curiosity, which hotel were you at that had the chargers?
Flamingo. They have 4 chargers, but only 2 of them work. You need a ChargePoint account, but it is free. I may have gotten lucky getting a spot Friday afternoon. I never saw the EV charging area have a free space after that.
 

Neil4Real

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I believe the GOM just takes direct m/kwh that you're getting and does the math. The nav should hopefully be more accurate on what your end range/percentage will be for the destination since that is supposed to take elevation, exterior temp, etc. into account, but probably uses the speed limit and who knows what regarding A/C or heater use.

Did you try calling the support number when you were in Baker? I've pulled up to chargers here in Orange County and they won't work through app, plug n play and my card ALWAYS declines on any charge station, no matter how many times I call my bank. Every card just declines. The banks don't even see it as attempted, lol, not sure what the heck is going on with them. But, every time I've called, they can get it working and can even take my card over the phone if I don't have the app for that particular charger.
 
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Mark II

Mark II

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Did you try calling the support number when you were in Baker? I've pulled up to chargers here in Orange County and they won't work through app, plug n play and my card ALWAYS declines on any charge station, no matter how many times I call my bank. Every card just declines. The banks don't even see it as attempted, lol, not sure what the heck is going on with them. But, every time I've called, they can get it working and can even take my card over the phone if I don't have the app for that particular charger.
That is good to know about these chargers. I never tried calling though. I did get one to work eventually. If I had not there are some EVgo chargers up the road and I would have tried my luck with those.
 


Tim H

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I took the exact same trip in my GT shortly after getting it back in mid-September except I left from my home in San Diego. Had a problem with the Electrify America charger at the Walmart in Barstow - called the number on the charger and got thru to their help desk. Ended up going to another EA charger there at the Barstow Walmart parking lot that worked. Fortunately I decided to charge up to 80% because as it turned out the EA charging station in Baker was fenced off and closed for maintenance. So I had to make it all the way to Vegas. I didn't experience any of the problems you mention with the mileage estimates but the day I drove the temps were in the high 80s and there was a tail wind. Anyway, I experienced the same reaction from people when I stopped to charge or in the parking lot of the hotel where I was staying (and still do here in San Diego to some degree). People want to know more about it and at times I almost feel like a Ford salesman showing the features and answering questions.
 

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Nice write up. I've never been to Barstow but for some reason every time I see it mentioned I think of the opening lines from Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.”
 

Shinichi

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Meanwhile my Mini EV from Hunington Beach to Las Vegas took me 5 stops! Only did 4 on the way back. And that's at 50kw charging. o_O
 

DevSecOps

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Is that a charging station with a roof, … and window washers, ……. And a trash can? Be still my beating heart.
We've got a few of those on this side of the world.
 

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I drove my GT from Orange County, CA to Las Vegas over the weekend, and as many have done I wanted to give a few impressions from my trip.


Charged up to 100% at home, and headed off to Baker, CA to charge, keeping speeds at or below 75 mph. One other passenger, two suitcases and golf clubs in tow. Once I got to Baker that is when things got interesting. I knew that there were only two 150 kw chargers there, so I wanted to make sure I grabbed one of those. Plugged into the first charger and…. nothing. Turns out the screen on that charger was blank and wasn’t working at all, but having never fast charged a car before I didn’t know this. No problem, I went to another 150 kw charger to try my 2nd attempt. Plugged in and plug and charge failed. Tried another charger, failed again. At this point I assume plug and charge is not going to work so I tried the EA app. Also didn’t work. I then just tried to pay with my credit card, and it got declined. So this is now 5 separate failures and I’m thinking it’s very likely that I’m going to have to find another charging spot in Baker. Wanting to make this stop work though, I tried a 50 kw charger further down, plugged in, and success! Plug in charge worked fine and the car slowly but surely started pulling down power at 42 kw. I pulled in at 33%, and even though I only had about 85 miles left to get to Vegas, I wanted to be sure I made it fine so we spent an hour there to charge up to 80%.

Leaving Baker things got interesting again. Despite driving at 75 mph or less, there were extremely strong headwinds, and for the first 40 miles we only got 1.1 miles per kwh. I knew we had enough juice to make it to Vegas, but seeing our state of charge drop from 80% to almost ~44% in 40 miles was not fun, and seeing the range drop along with it. This was probably my biggest revelation of the trip. I was using Ford’s built in navigation system, and I figured that since the GOM knew where I was going that the range in the car would be somewhat based on my route. You all can correct me if I’m wrong, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I noticed the GOM would drop significantly on uphill climbs, and then I would get most of the range back on the way down the hill. I assumed it would stay somewhat consistent, as the car should know what goes up must come down based on my inputted destination.

We made it to Vegas at 33% charge. The hotel I was staying at had 2 free EV chargers, and when I pulled in there was once space left, and a Tesla that had finished charging, so I was able to charge back up to 100% overnight.

After two nights in Vegas and a drive out to play golf I started my return trip home at 92% charge. I used Ford’s navigation again, and knew that I could comfortably make it to Barstow, CA for a charge that would get me the rest of the way home. Wanting to save range still, I only used the heated seats and steering wheel. It got as low as 23 degrees fahrenheit on the drive, and being a Southern California boy I was not prepared for just how cold that is without using the car’s heater. In hindsight I probably should have put a jacket on before I started the drive. I indured the cold though, and rolled into Barstow at 26% charge.

The EA chargers in Barstow are at a Walmart, plugged into the nearest 150 kw charger I saw, plug and charge worked just fine and I started pulling down power at 124 kw. Finally, this is what I was hoping for on the first leg of the trip! Living in Orange County, Mach Es are fairly common, I see a few of them everyday, so I had yet to have a single person comment on my car while I have owned it. Not so in Barstow though. Plenty of people came by to chat while I sat there charging, most asking how far the car could go and how long it would take me to charge. It was fun getting to chat with everyone and talk up the car. Remembering the 1.1 miles per kwh that I got at times on the way to Vegas, even though I only needed to charge to probably 60% or so to get me home, I decided to charge to 80% just to be extremely safe. That took 35 minutes.

Made it back to Orange County with 44% charge left, with the car being much more efficient for that last leg of the trip.

Overall the GT is an amazing road trip car. The seats were absolutely some of the most comfortable I have ever sat in on a long trip, and using Blue Cruise for significant stretches made the drive seem effortless. The GOM not being very reliable though even with my destination inputted, and the issues I had getting the car to charge in Baker were really the only downsides. I know Ford has talked about that for the Lightning, the GOM will eventually take into account temperature, elevation, trailer weight, and so on when calculating a route. It seems like the Mach E is far from that at the moment though.

I love this car, and it was fun getting to experience the highs and lows of EV ownership over a long weekend.


Ford Mustang Mach-E First Road Trip in Mach-E GT -- Orange County To Vegas IMG_7632

Ford Mustang Mach-E First Road Trip in Mach-E GT -- Orange County To Vegas IMG_7632
Ford Mustang Mach-E First Road Trip in Mach-E GT -- Orange County To Vegas IMG_7632
Ford Mustang Mach-E First Road Trip in Mach-E GT -- Orange County To Vegas IMG_7632
Nice write up! We get so few of these GT road trip reports so it's really nice to read them.

The Baker EA station is supposed to be upgraded from mostly 50kW. Ideally they'll swap out to 150kW chargers and include 350kW units after the upgrade is complete. Make sure you comment in Plugshare that the 150kWs weren't working.

Did you consider going to the 350kW EVgo station in Baker?
 
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Mark II

Mark II

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Did you consider going to the 350kW EVgo station in Baker?
Definitely. If I was still unable to get the EA chargers to work that was where I was headed next. I’ll admit I don’t know if they use plug and charge though or if I can use my Ford charging credits with it so that is why I tried to stick with EA despite the slow charging speeds.
 

RobFitzgerald167

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Is that a charging station with a roof, … and window washers, ……. And a trash can? Be still my beating heart.
The Baker EA station doesn't have window washers or trash cans, but it is right next to a Supercharger facility and I'm not sure how often the trash is collected from their bins, but they've been overflowing every time I've stopped there.

As for the EVGO station by the thermometer, I've never had luck getting more than 50KWh at the 150 and 250kwh chargers, I've only used them twice, it's only a last resort for me when the EA station was closed.
 

heisnuts

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I think you just convinced me when we take long road trips it will be in an ICE. Between the hiccups in charging stations, range estimates all over the place (especially if you want the cabin warm) AND the almost certainty of my wife saying I told you so over and over again, I think it is just not worth it right now....
 

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Great write up. I am very disappointed in the GOM
pn mach-e. The trlsa model y is so much better when I put in a destination saying how much battery I will have left. For the Mach-e I use better route planner, as it does good job at estimating battery usage. Definitely an area Ford will need to improve and hopefully can fix with an update
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