First road trip questions - planning charging stops

dbsb3233

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I agree. Chargepoint which I have for my home charge is great. Chargepoint on the road is crap. EA even though I have Apple issues with it is still by far the only one that I trust. This is why before picking a route I check ALL of the chargers on the Ford Pass app to make sure that they are all EA.
Some Chargepoint DCFC is fine (high power, reasonably priced, etc). But that's the problem -- it's just some rather than all because it's not a uniform charging network. The chargers are owned by the location/sponsor, and the price and choice of power level is set by them. Thus why each one has to be researched ahead of time to see if it's worth attempting to count on it or not.

I liken it to filing a flight plan before embarking on the journey.
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eastern refugee

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Some Chargepoint DCFC is fine (high power, reasonably priced, etc). But that's the problem -- it's just some rather than all because it's not a uniform charging network. The chargers are owned by the location/sponsor, and the price and choice of power level is set by them. Thus why each one has to be researched ahead of time to see if it's worth attempting to count on it or not.

I liken it to filing a flight plan before embarking on the journey.
The other issue is when I stopped at one I had to know my exact address as the chargepoint operator said to me that "I have to look it up on my map to see where you are". MAP???? Who uses a map any more??? EA has the ID number right on top along with the phone number to call extremely visible. MAP???? They then said which of the two are you at?? I said how do I know??? One is on the left and the other is on the right and both are identical. Seriously???? NEVER AGAIN
 

mixduptransistor

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I find the FordPass/Sync 4A navigation to be more accurate for the Mach E than ABRP at this point.
Well, of course, ABRP doesn't have the advantage of your real time power usage
 

ChasingCoral

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eastern refugee

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I do not even bother looking at it. The Ford Nav is awesome.
 


Dan G

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I agree the Ford Pass app is the best. I was able to limit the chargers to EA which I find the best when issues occur.
How do you do this? My FordPass app isn't the most reliable thing. (I don't think in the one month of using it the map ever loaded.)

Is there a way to do this in the actual car?
 

eastern refugee

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How do you do this? My FordPass app isn't the most reliable thing. (I don't think in the one month of using it the map ever loaded.)

Is there a way to do this in the actual car?
that is how I did it. I used navigation and settings. You can also set the number of miles that you want to be directed to a charger. It is set at 50 so I left it there.
 

khorton

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Thank you for the heads up. I noticed that ABRP has changed a route that I've been planning for quite some time that's around 525 miles. It used to have three stops, now there are four, with most of them charging from 10 to 50% ish. Guessing it's related to your mention of ABRP being alpha for the Mach E (they likely don't have enough data to have confidence in their numbers yet). Still thinking through why not charge up closer to 80% and drop back down to 3 stops.
I'm not familiar with the Mach-E, as we don't have one yet (we have a Tesla Model 3, but my wife has the hots for a MME as her next vehicle).

ABRP tries to provide recommended charging stops and charging amounts to minimize total trip time (time driving + time charging). With our Tesla, the charging rate varies significantly with battery state of charge. It is much quicker to charge from 10% to 60% than it is from 30% to 80%. So, for the shortest trip time it is best to only take on enough charge to make it to the next planned charging stop with 10% remaining or so. That way it the charge rate is as high as possible during the next charging stop, for a quick stop.

Of course, Tesla has the advantage of a very reliable charging network, so you don't have to worry too much about the case where none of the chargers at a stop are working.

Maybe the charging curve on the MME is flatter than on our Tesla. If so, I'd be tempted to charge high enough so you had options if the next charging stop proves a dud, at least until Ford and/or EA sort out why charging is not as reliable as it should be.
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