First Trip Charging Tips?

[Isle1183]

Newbie. Be gentle, I'm sure there are 500 threads like this already. Picking up a 2022 MME Premium AWD this week. Driving it back home from MD->NC (~500 miles). Have already downloaded, prepped, planned route via PlugShare, EVGo, EA, ABRP so I'm pretty confident in where I'm headed there.

Looking for feedback on how to treat battery on trips like this. Is the most reliable advice to charge to 80% then recharge at 20%, even though it results in more stops? Or for these long road trips is the general guidance to just charge to 100% before you go, drain it to 10%, and just get as much range as possible to speed up trip time?

Not super worried about battery degradation as I plan to drive most of my miles locally and charge with a level 2 at home.

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[RickMachE]

You should plan your trip using EA chargers, unless there aren't other options, they are the fastest in general.

Plan on using your 250kWh of free charging via the FordPass app or Plug and Charge, which you have to setup in your Ford account.

Look up every location in PlugShare before the trip. Then, on the day of, look up each location before you head to it.

Leave with 100%, go down to 10-20% (depending on your confidence level), and charge to 80% at fast chargers unless you need more to get to the next one.

ABRP has settings, so you can alter things like temperature, etc. Put in the car, and it puts in default settings. I use the website to plan, and then save it and retrieve on my phone. Under "Reference Consumption", alter that to the miles per kWh at 65 and set it lower than you will achieve. For your trip, I'd pick 2.5 to be safe. Keep speed to low 70s.

When charging at a fast charger, if ABRP says to go to 57%, you decide if you'd rather charge there longer, to 80%, and less at the next stop - knowing all chargers don't work great, and sometimes there is a wait to charge.

 

[TGIF]

I found my bladder gave out before the car battery. I was stopping at 30-40%. I always would charge to 80-ish. I plan the route on ABRP, check the results against PlugShare, then would navigate on Google maps to the next planned stop. I think you’ll be surprised that even if it takes more time to get to your destination you’ll be more relaxed and refreshed when you arrive versus driving road warrior-style in an ICE. Enjoy your car.

I agree with RickMachE about using Plug and Charge at EA. I’ve found them very reliable and not crowded in the Midwest.

 

[emichnov]

It's good advice to charge to 80% then recharge at 20%, but you'll see you charging percentages vary up or down as your trip progresses and that is no big deal. I have to stop to pee often enough I try to find a charger to stop at, plug in, pee, grab another coffee, and charge for say 20 minutes or something, depending on how far I need to go the next time. The coffee guarantees I'll need to stop before the battery is drained that far down. So, I never get all the way to below 20%. Sometimes, I'll hang a bit longer and charge to 85% or 90% if I need it to get where I can going, but then I skip the coffee!

Or think of it think way - 60% or 70% of battery capacity is roughly 3 hours of highway driving - how often do you drive longer than that without stopping? I am not much of a long range driver, so for me, the answer is "never". But, if you can "just charge to 100% before you go, drain it to 10%" (4 hours of driving, say), then go for it !(as long as there is a reliable charging station at the point where you will hit 10%, which is a big issue).

 

[Isle1183]

You should plan your trip using EA chargers, unless there aren't other options, they are the fastest in general.

Plan on using your 250kWh of free charging via the FordPass app or Plug and Charge, which you have to setup in your Ford account.

Look up every location in PlugShare before the trip. Then, on the day of, look up each location before you head to it.

Leave with 100%, go down to 10-20% (depending on your confidence level), and charge to 80% at fast chargers unless you need more to get to the next one.

ABRP has settings, so you can alter things like temperature, etc. Put in the car, and it puts in default settings. I use the website to plan, and then save it and retrieve on my phone. Under "Reference Consumption", alter that to the miles per kWh at 65 and set it lower than you will achieve. For your trip, I'd pick 2.5 to be safe. Keep speed to low 70s.

When charging at a fast charger, if ABRP says to go to 57%, you decide if you'd rather charge there longer, to 80%, and less at the next stop - knowing all chargers don't work great, and sometimes there is a wait to charge.

Good to know on "reference consumption". You normally just update your route in ABRP app after each stop so you always have the latest optimized route?

 

[Isle1183]

I found my bladder gave out before the car battery. I was stopping at 30-40%. I always would charge to 80-ish. I plan the route on ABRP, check the results against PlugShare, then would navigate on Google maps to the next planned stop. I think you’ll be surprised that even if it takes more time to get to your destination you’ll be more relaxed and refreshed when you arrive versus driving road warrior-style in an ICE. Enjoy your car.

I agree with RickMachE about using Plug and Charge at EA. I’ve found them very reliable and not crowded in the Midwest.

Thanks. EA seems to be the highest rated/most reliable along my route so was planning on prioritizing stops there. Suspect based on the first few replies that I'll be stopped for a restroom break long before I can max out range.

 

[RickMachE]

Good to know on "reference consumption". You normally just update your route in ABRP app after each stop so you always have the latest optimized route?

I find that as I go, things get cumbersome. I can't say I have a perfect methodology, but...

I plan the trip on the website, and save it. I export it to Google Sheets, and store in the cloud. I add in a link to each charging location in PlugShare for easy reference. I make comments.

As I drive, ABRP is "off". When I notice it's off, I use the slider to adjust the battery state of charge to current. Sometimes, it's irrelevant. Other times, not so much.

With update 3.6.2, you'll want to put in the charger location as a destination in the Ford nav, this will cause battery warming about 18.6 miles before you get there.

I am currently planning a trip, and based off last March history (20 degrees) I'm going to plan at 2.3. When I beat that, I'll adjust.

I also will delete the prior locations, and have it recalculate, at each stop.

 

[eleven24]

As a current Tesla Model Y driver who has 30k miles in 15 months of driving (and is now waiting to replace the Tesla with a MME GT), I have some experience in long drives. Granted, I'm using the Tesla Supercharger network, but there are still tips that apply to EV in general.

* Don't sit longer than necessary at the DC fast charger. I can't tell you how many hours I added to my total trip because I felt like I needed to charge to 80-85% before leaving. In my Tesla it will charge from 10-60% in maybe 15 minutes, but it will take 30 more minutes to go from 60 to 85%. If your nav predicts you'll have 10-15% charge upon arrival at your next stop, then get moving.

* If it's under 40 degrees give yourself 15-20% to arrive at next destination.

* 70mph seems to be the magic number on the highway. If I drive above 70 I see a dramatic drop in battery.

* If I start to get worried about battery I'll drop the speed by 5mph and "tuck in" behind a truck or something on the highway so I can draft off it. In the Tesla there's a live graph showing actual vs predicted range estimate to destination & any time I was well below the predicted, doing this brought me back up. Perhaps this wouldn't have been so fasciating had I paid more attention in physics class though.

 

[Mirak]

Newbie. Be gentle, I'm sure there are 500 threads like this already. Picking up a 2022 MME Premium AWD this week. Driving it back home from MD->NC (~500 miles). Have already downloaded, prepped, planned route via PlugShare, EVGo, EA, ABRP so I'm pretty confident in where I'm headed there.

Looking for feedback on how to treat battery on trips like this. Is the most reliable advice to charge to 80% then recharge at 20%, even though it results in more stops? Or for these long road trips is the general guidance to just charge to 100% before you go, drain it to 10%, and just get as much range as possible to speed up trip time?

Not super worried about battery degradation as I plan to drive most of my miles locally and charge with a level 2 at home.

It’s cute that you’re worried about battery degradation and not about getting stranded due to inoperable chargers. Oh to be young again.

Seriously, plan on shorter, more frequent stops so you have fallback positions just in case. For example - “I can hit this stop with about 30% remaining, and if it doesn’t work, I can still get here with 10%.”

You also need to calculate realistic ranges! Traveling at highway speeds, your best case scenario is about 2.5mi/kWh. If the weather is below 50 degrees and you’re driving into a stiff headwind, that range could easily drop to 1.8mi/kWh. That’s a big difference in range. Yes, road tripping with a Mach E is a bit like being an old sea captain. FUN!!

Check PlugShare for latest status on the chargers.

Always start at 100%.

Know the difference between DCFC “Level 3” charging and L2 charging.

Get your Plug & Charge set up before leaving the dealership. Not sure if this is still the correct branding. Others can chime in here.

 

[TGIF]

I don’t have a paid subscription to ABRP so found it less useful on the road. I agree to change settings to reflect actual SOC when leaving and rough kWh consumption. With a new car this could be tricky as you have no history. In my MME Premium 4X I get 2-2.3 around freezing at 77 mph. Around town at 68 degrees I get 4 kWh or more so quite the variation. I do need to use the Ford nav on the road for preconditioning. I’ve read good things about it.

 

[Mirak]

As a current Tesla Model Y driver who has 30k miles in 15 months of driving (and is now waiting to replace the Tesla with a MME GT), I have some experience in long drives. Granted, I'm using the Tesla Supercharger network, but there are still tips that apply to EV in general.

* Don't sit longer than necessary at the DC fast charger. I can't tell you how many hours I added to my total trip because I felt like I needed to charge to 80-85% before leaving. In my Tesla it will charge from 10-60% in maybe 15 minutes, but it will take 30 more minutes to go from 60 to 85%. If your nav predicts you'll have 10-15% charge upon arrival at your next stop, then get moving.

Sounds like the MY has a significantly different charging curve. The MME charging speed should be pretty steady up to 80%. Then it starts to slow significantly between 80 and 90, and drops to a crawl above 90. I would charge to 80% unless you plan on making a lot of short stops (some routes may call for that).

 

[Isle1183]

I find that as I go, things get cumbersome. I can't say I have a perfect methodology, but...

I plan the trip on the website, and save it. I export it to Google Sheets, and store in the cloud. I add in a link to each charging location in PlugShare for easy reference. I make comments.

As I drive, ABRP is "off". When I notice it's off, I use the slider to adjust the battery state of charge to current. Sometimes, it's irrelevant. Other times, not so much.

With update 3.6.2, you'll want to put in the charger location as a destination in the Ford nav, this will cause battery warming about 18.6 miles before you get there.

I am currently planning a trip, and based off last March history (20 degrees) I'm going to plan at 2.3. When I beat that, I'll adjust.

I also will delete the prior locations, and have it recalculate, at each stop.

For preconditioning you just need to use Ford nav to get to charger and it'll take care of itself? No other settings to play with?

 

[RickMachE]

For preconditioning you just need to use Ford nav to get to charger and it'll take care of itself? No other settings to play with?

Yes, based on update 3.6.2. Have not done this myself yet.

 

[silverelan]

Try to align any unplanned stops with chargers. That is, if you planned to stop at 10% but your bladder has something else in mind, then try to stop somewhere that has both a charger and a bathroom. Even a 50kW charger is nice to have. Stops don’t always match up but it’s nice when it works out.

On road trips, people wildly underestimate just how long they are stopped for. If you ask someone in a gas car, they’ll swear they’re taking no more than 5 minutes at every gas station or rest stop. The truth is more like 10-15 minutes on average. This is pretty well studied by retailer associations and state DOTs.

We timed it out on the MME GT vs ICE on a 500mi road trip and discovered the MME averages 8 minutes more per stop than the ICE (15 vs 23). Weirdly coincidental, both ICE and MME required 5 stops over 500 miles.

 

[MachEMaster]

Go easy on the throttle. Use BlueCruise when you can. The first trip I took I was having too much fun and layed waste to my route planning and charger destinations.

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