First road trip was a resounding success!!!

[bbhaag]

I am happy to report that our first road trip in our Mach-E was a wonderful experience. We have owned it for about 7 months now but have only been driving it around town and charging at home. Well that all changed today when we took our son to Lacrosse camp today in Lake Forrest IL.

From Peoria IL to Lake Forrest IL was 336 miles round trip so I knew at some point we would need to stop and charge. We stopped once on the way there just to try it out and once on the way back becasue we needed to. Both stops were at the same location in Joliet IL.

We used the built in Ford navigation and it work flawlessly adding the stop to the EA charger seamlessly. The hand shake between the charger and vehicle went very well with no interaction needed on my part besides just plugging it in. EA deduct around 40kwh from the 250kwh we received when purchasing the vehicle.

All in all this was a GREAT first time experience and am looking forward to the next one! Now onto the pics!

Car is plugged in and charging. The was my first time ever using a charger that was not the one in my garage. It was VERY exciting!

The sun was not cooperating for this pic so the glare is awful but hopefully you get the idea. The car topped out at 126kw and stayed consistently between 124-126 the whole time. Can't believe how fast it charged compared to at home in my garage!!

These last few pics are from the FP app just showing some data.

FP notice popped up almost immediately after charging letting me know how much was deducted.

Current balance left on EA network.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I am happy to report that our first road trip in our Mach-E was a wonderful experience. We have owned it for about 7 months now but have only been driving it around town and charging at home. Well that all changed today when we took our son to Lacrosse camp today in Lake Forrest IL.

From Peoria IL to Lake Forrest IL was 336 miles round trip so I knew at some point we would need to stop and charge. We stopped once on the way there just to try it out and once on the way back becasue we needed to. Both stops were at the same location in Joliet IL.

We used the built in Ford navigation and it work flawlessly adding the stop to the EA charger seamlessly. The hand shake between the charger and vehicle went very well with no interaction needed on my part besides just plugging it in. EA deduct around 40kwh from the 250kwh we received when purchasing the vehicle.

All in all this was a GREAT first time experience and am looking forward to the next one! Now onto the pics!

Car is plugged in and charging. The was my first time ever using a charger that was not the one in my garage. It was VERY exciting!

The sun was not cooperating for this pic so the glare is awful but hopefully you get the idea. The car topped out at 126kw and stayed consistently between 124-126 the whole time. Can't believe how fast it charged compared to at home in my garage!!

These last few pics are from the FP app just showing some data.

FP notice popped up almost immediately after charging letting me know how much was deducted.

Current balance left on EA network.

We are so glad you had such a great first experience with taking your Mach-E on the road! We hope there are more adventures to come for you and your Mach-E in the future!

 

[bbhaag]

Thanks @Ford Motor Company it was great! I didn't even mention the BlueCruise in my OP. This was the first time I really got to use it and it was awesome! Once we hopped on Interstate 55 up to Chicago it took right over and handled the Chicagoland traffic without breaking a sweat.

Even when I got off on Interstate 294 it handled it really well considering the HEAVY construction the Interstate is undergoing.

IMO BC 1.2 is amazing and I can't wait to see what BC1.3 has to offer!

 

[wise612]

Not sure why @Ford Motor Company do not publicize Blue Cruise more, it’s awesome. Have not done a road trip in the MME yet (charging network is hit and miss right now) but using Blue Cruise on the highways near me has been great

 

[OON7]

Glad to see you had a good first trip! Knock on wood I've had several successful road trips now as well. My longest trip to date was about 1,300 miles total over a few days last month.

I personally enjoy the charging stops as planned breaks and all have been somewhere to stop, use restrooms, eat and/or shop, and walk around. It takes the desire to rush out of the drive as well.

 

[RedStallion]

I am happy to report that our first road trip in our Mach-E was a wonderful experience. We have owned it for about 7 months now but have only been driving it around town and charging at home. Well that all changed today when we took our son to Lacrosse camp today in Lake Forrest IL.

From Peoria IL to Lake Forrest IL was 336 miles round trip so I knew at some point we would need to stop and charge. We stopped once on the way there just to try it out and once on the way back becasue we needed to. Both stops were at the same location in Joliet IL.

We used the built in Ford navigation and it work flawlessly adding the stop to the EA charger seamlessly. The hand shake between the charger and vehicle went very well with no interaction needed on my part besides just plugging it in. EA deduct around 40kwh from the 250kwh we received when purchasing the vehicle.

All in all this was a GREAT first time experience and am looking forward to the next one! Now onto the pics!

Car is plugged in and charging. The was my first time ever using a charger that was not the one in my garage. It was VERY exciting!

The sun was not cooperating for this pic so the glare is awful but hopefully you get the idea. The car topped out at 126kw and stayed consistently between 124-126 the whole time. Can't believe how fast it charged compared to at home in my garage!!

These last few pics are from the FP app just showing some data.

FP notice popped up almost immediately after charging letting me know how much was deducted.

Current balance left on EA network.

That's a head-scratcher, you are not supposed to have fun using EA chargers, you are expected to complain, and curse, and threaten to join Tesla cult.

 

[geftsnowball]

Just a head's up. The real test is going to be when you run out of your free 250 kWh. If you choose to take advantage of better rates, for example, with EA chargers or try out other branded DCFC stations.

On my recent trip the first leg was with plug and charge and it was without issue for the most part. End of the first leg was pretty much the entire 250 kWh and then I signed up for the $4 monthly fee with EA (only to use for the trip) because it would save significantly on costs over the full cost rate. Long story short, you have to use the EA app to initiate charges to get the better rate and EA has issues with stations updating correctly ("in use" or "unavailable" when the chargers are empty). With plug and charge it doesn't matter because you just... plug and charge and the charge is initiated regardless of what the app claims. With the app the only recourse is to either hop to a different charger that claims it is available or to call customer support (e.g., if ALL chargers are in one of these states preventing the app from initiating a charge).

Not to try and downplay your success... but my experience was the same - no issues until I wanted to save some money (how dare I, right?). A 25% discounted rate really adds up when you've got a number of stops!

If I didn't mind tossing an extra $5-10 on each charge stop (at least), I would have continued to use plug and charge because it just works (most of the time).

A couple other things I noticed with EA... there's a $4 "setup fee" for EACH credit card you add. Not sure if I skimmed over some documentation or what (likely) but didn't notice until I added 1 and then later added a second to use because it had a 4% EV charging cash back bonus. In the end, I'm down $8 in "setup fees" and $4 for one month of the EA premium plan. That $12 was made up in 2 charging stops though and the remaining in my trip were cheaper (minus the headache of having to call EA support a few times).

Soooo... I suppose from a Ford standpoint, success! But the reality is that another good part of the experience is going to be non-Ford chargers (i.e., all of them ) and it seems like it's still a gamble for now. With all of that said, did not end up stranded (and neither did you) so there's that!

Sponsored