First road trip questions - planning charging stops

Lenni

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Hi! I'm new and happy to be here. This Mach-E is my first electric car.

I'm planning a road trip and I want to take advantage of the FordPass recommendations (in Trip Planner) of when to stop to charge, but as I look at its route with charging recommendations, it takes me down to 10% before stopping. That is just too close for comfort for my first trip. Is there a way I can tell it I want to stop sooner, maybe at 15-20%? I've been on chat and phone with Ford trying to get their help but they keep sending me to different people who don't know.

Also, does Trip Planner stay integrated to what's actually happening in the car? For example, if the battery went down more than expected would it recommend a sooner stop to charge?

Thanks in advance!
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Hi! I'm new and happy to be here. This Mach-E is my first electric car.

I'm planning a road trip and I want to take advantage of the FordPass recommendations (in Trip Planner) of when to stop to charge, but as I look at its route with charging recommendations, it takes me down to 10% before stopping. That is just too close for comfort for my first trip. Is there a way I can tell it I want to stop sooner, maybe at 15-20%? I've been on chat and phone with Ford trying to get their help but they keep sending me to different people who don't know.

Also, does Trip Planner stay integrated to what's actually happening in the car? For example, if the battery went down more than expected would it recommend a sooner stop to charge?

Thanks in advance!
There is an option to, at ANY time, ask the MMe to locate the nearest charging stations. You can do this mid-trip as you approach 20% if youā€™re worried.

I also recommend using another app on your phone as a backup. I personally use plugshare as well. I derive solace from having 2 apps locating stations for me at the same time.

Iā€˜ve owned EVs for 7 years now. I used to get worried at 10%, but if Iā€™m on my way to a KNOWN location/charging station, it doesnā€™t bother me to go below 5 %.
 

Njia

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The FordPass app is also extremely conservative on recharging times. I tried planning a route from Michigan to Tennessee, and it had me stopping every 85-100 miles. Each stop was estimated (on a CCS charger!) to take 1.5 hrs. Ridiculous.
 

MTNestr

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This MME is my first ever EV so Iā€™ve never charged at a charging station before.

I need suggestions on which Apps (IOS) that I should download on my iPhone. I would like to be able to see locations and how many charging stations currently available and the cost to use.

When charging an EV at a charging station - do I need to stay with my EV or can I walk to a resturant or store?

Any other Tips or Suggestions?
 


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Lenni

Lenni

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This MME is my first ever EV so Iā€™ve never charged at a charging station before.

I need suggestions on which Apps (IOS) that I should download on my iPhone. I would like to be able to see locations and how many charging stations currently available and the cost to use.

When charging an EV at a charging station - do I need to stay with my EV or can I walk to a resturant or store?

Any other Tips or Suggestions?
I'm on my road trip now and I *definitely* have learned a lot.

#1 AVOID FORD PASS. I couldn't get it connected. I was getting the dreaded connection errors both in the app and on the car. I spent hours attempting to connect it and was on the phone with several people from Ford. No luck. As I left for my trip, some parts of Ford Pass were working (lock/unlock, check charging status) but nothing related to Plug & Charge was working. It kept saying it wasn't connected.

#2 AVOID FORD PASS. The first time I tried to charge, I stopped at an Electrify America fast charger. My credit cards were declined. When I called the credit card company, they weren't even seeing that the charges were reaching them. Guess what? Ford Pass was preventing the Electrify America chargers from sending in my CC payment info. At this point I decided to...

#3a INSTALL THE ELECTRIFY AMERICA APP. With a membership to EA you will get cheaper charging and the app works great. (I realize we're supposed to get a bunch of free EA charging with Plug & Charge... but that means you need Ford Pass to work.)

#3b When at EA charging stations, the steps are: (1) Drive up and park (2) Plug in a 150 kWh charger to your car - more on that next (3) Open the app, find the list of chargers at the station, click the charger # you just plugged in (the number will be at the top of the charging machine), and swipe to pay. You don't need to touch or click anything on the EA charger screen.

#4 ONLY GO TO FAST CHARGERS. A fast charger will say 150 kWh. The ones that say 50 are so slow they're not worth the stop. The chargers that are 350 do not work with the Mach E.

#4 AVOID FORD PASS. Once I had started charging, it would stop after 1-3 minutes. This happened at least 10 times. I finally called the Electrify America toll free number and got a very helpful person. He said that on his end it appeared that the Ford Pass / Plug & Charge system was interrupting the charging. At this point I logged on to ford.com and deleted the Mach E off my account. I verified in the app that the car was gone (may have had to refresh or click around, I don't remember) and logged off the app. Charging resumed with no problems.

#5 AVOID FORD PASS. Next time I stopped to charge at EA, it again stopped after 3 minutes. Guess what? The app had mysteriously logged me on (by itself !) and again was interrupting the charging process. At this point I logged off again and deleted the app entirely. So far, this has enabled me to charge without problems.

#6 PLUGSHARE is also a good app to have. I set it to only show me Electrify America stops. This is very helpful for route planning. In California there are a fair number of EA chargers, but you definitely want to plan ahead.

Other random things I have learned:
- the little button next to where the charger goes into the car unlocks the charger.
- maybe someone can confirm this, but the EA guy said the chargers work more reliably when the car is off.
- I had some random CarPlay issues (CarPlay wouldn't load if I switched to Nav during a phone call) but that went away once I got rid of FordPass.
- The car Nav is awesome at finding charging stations (several of them weren't on PlugShare) but it doesn't tell you whether they are fast or slow chargers
- My phone battery was being drained rapidly even when it was plugged in or charging wirelessly. Guess what, when I deleted Ford Pass it went back to normal battery drain.
- Stop charging at EA when the battery hits 80%. It goes so slowly after that it's not worth the wait. It was taking about 35 min to go from 25% to 80%.
- Yes, you can lock your car and walk around while charging. The EA app will tell you when it's reached 80% or if there's a problem. All the EA stops I made were in locations where there were coffee shops, etc, right nearby.

I do realize that FordPass and Plug & Charge are probably working for some folks, but if anyone is in that limbo of some things working and some things not working, I would delete every last bit of it including your car's existence on your ford account.
 

DBC

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Just use PlugShare. It will show you a map and you can set the filters so that the combination of charging stations show up. My guess is there are some DC chargers along the way that aren't showing up in whatever map you are using. Plus you get to read the check-in reviews which will tell you how reliable the charger is and so forth.

It's just as easy to use and you're not tied to what a program think you can do. If you like, once you've seen the PlugShare map try one of the route programs. Most times they match what you were thinking. If they don't then figure out why (might just be you are less risk averse) and decide which route you want to take.

Also note that you can move 10% SOC to 20% SOC by slowing down. And you can move 10% to 0% by going faster. To some extent range is in your control.
 

eltonlin

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This MME is my first ever EV so Iā€™ve never charged at a charging station before.

I need suggestions on which Apps (IOS) that I should download on my iPhone. I would like to be able to see locations and how many charging stations currently available and the cost to use.

When charging an EV at a charging station - do I need to stay with my EV or can I walk to a resturant or store?

Any other Tips or Suggestions?
ABRP (A Better Route Planner) and Plugshare. Both recently added CarPlay support.

I also downloaded Chargepoint (since I have the home charger) and the EA app.
 

mixduptransistor

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ABRP (A Better Route Planner) and Plugshare. Both recently added CarPlay support.

I also downloaded Chargepoint (since I have the home charger) and the EA app.
Just be cautious relying very heavily on ABRP. Their model of the Mach E's consumption is very much in alpha, not even beta, testing at this point
 

benk016

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Just be cautious relying very heavily on ABRP. Their model of the Mach E's consumption is very much in alpha, not even beta, testing at this point
I have been going into the options, and putting in the average kw/m i've been getting. That is the main thing that ABRP uses. I also would tell it the outside temp when It was super cold. Just changing those two settings before letting it calculate has worked great for me so far.
 

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I suggest you acquaint yourself with abetterrouteplanner.com; it is a free and allows you to tailor many parameters, including the minimum charge level left when getting to a charger.
 

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I am currently on a road trip. I left Bakersfield,Ca to Houston and now goi g back.
My suggestion is to NOT use your free ford $77.50 charge of 250 KWH. I HAD ALL kinds of issues. I ONLY use EA as they are completely easy to use. With the suggestion of EA I turn off the plug and charge. I bought the PLUS plan for $4 a month. I paid for the year in savings on this trip.
Use the ford pass app as it will direct you to the nearest EA Charger. FYI EA is EXTREMELY helpful. Both EVGO and ChargePoint SUCK.

We are on the way back. We did 850 miles here and now doing the same home. Each fill up was in the $7-9 range. It is roughly 15 mi utes per charge. When you are getting ready to pull up to EA open the app. On the app it will list all of the charges based on capacity. Find the 350 chargers. BEFORE YOU STOP click on the charger that you are going to use. At the bottom of the new app is a green arrow. Slide it across. NOW that you have pulled up and stopped connect the charger. The charger will communicate with the car and then start charging since you preset everything before you stopped. When it hits 80 on your phone click stop. Unplug and go. Like I said 15 mi utes and done.
 

MTNestr

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Thanks Everyone for your Great Detailed Explanations! I appreciate all your effort in answering my questions. Now I need to try your solutions as I learn my new Mach-E.. Iā€™m sure Iā€™ll have more questions down the road.
 
 




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