Free charging @ EA

[chrisGT]

oh no, people leave their cars plugged for hours when it is free to get 100%. Last time another Mach-e and a Bolt were plugged for at least two hours outside a Safeway. The third charger was broken as usual, so two cars made a whole location unusable for two hours. It is bad for us who plan roadtrips and cannot find an available spot.

EA should add a time limit to their free session. Otherwise their good intention becomes a hustle for some customers.

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[JamieGeek]

I just stopped at a local DCFC. Have P&C enabled. Right on the DCFC it says "free" even before you plug in.

More on my experience here:
https://spareelectrons.wordpress.com/2021/12/23/who-knew-charging-could-be-such-a-social-thing/

 

[PrimeFuture]

oh no, people leave their cars plugged for hours when it is free to get 100%. Last time another Mach-e and a Bolt were plugged for at least two hours outside a Safeway. The third charger was broken as usual, so two cars made a whole location unusable for two hours. It is bad for us who plan roadtrips and cannot find an available spot.

EA should add a time limit to their free session. Otherwise their good intention becomes a hustle for some customers.

I'd call EA about that while at the station. I'm curious if they have any relationships with a towing company for a situation where a car is blocking a station.

 

[chrisGT]

I'd call EA about that while at the station. I'm curious if they have any relationships with a towing company for a situation where a car is blocking a station.

But these cars are actively charging, so technically they don't break the rules. The Mach-e would take almost 2hours to charge from 80 to 100% even on a DC charger.

Btw, on a different occasion I called EA for another non-EV car parked on their spot and they were not very helpful.

 

[Wk217]

This changes things a lot. We have a 3200mi road trip planned for 12/24 - 1/1, San Francisco, CA to Palm Springs, CA to Phoenix, AZ to Albuquerque, NM, to St George, UT back to San Francisco. Two vehicle caravan, was going to take the SUV since there were sections between Albuquerque and St George that would be sketchy especially since my brother in law wanted to do sight seeing along the way. My wife said for the $650 savings on gas, we're definitely taking the Mach-E, even if it's going to complicate things.

Electrify America, don't make a liar out of me, keep the charging free until we make it back.

 

[timbop]

This changes things a lot. We have a 3200mi road trip planned for 12/24 - 1/1, San Francisco, CA to Palm Springs, CA to Phoenix, AZ to Albuquerque, NM, to St George, UT back to San Francisco. Two vehicle caravan, was going to take the SUV since there were sections between Albuquerque and St George that would be sketchy especially since my brother in law wanted to do sight seeing along the way. My wife said for the $650 savings on gas, we're definitely taking the Mach-E, even if it's going to complicate things.

Electrify America, don't make a liar out of me, keep the charging free until we make it back.

Make sure you preplan your trip! Don't try to rely on FP directing you to the fastest chargers, because it treats all power levels the same and certainly won't take into account that the EA chargers are free.

I recommend using ABRP

 

[RickMachE]

Christmas Day will be my first road trip with the family in the MME that will require charging on-the-road. Was planning to stop at an EA charger. I'll temporarily disable plug-and-charge. Hopefully I'll get lucky!

Unnecessary. Just plug in.

 

[RickMachE]

EA doesn't communicate free charging to their base (account holders), which limits how many use it.

 

[KevinS]

EA doesn't communicate free charging to their base (account holders), which limits how many use it.

My recollection is that some people who had Plug and Charge enabled over Thanksgiving weekend when they were doing 'free charging' had credits removed from their complimentary 250KWh from Ford.

 

[Maquis]

My recollection is that some people who had Plug and Charge enabled over Thanksgiving weekend when they were doing 'free charging' had credits removed from their complimentary 250KWh from Ford.

I used P&C on July 4 weekend and Thanksgiving. Worked flawlessly and no deduct from my Ford credits.

 

[Luke]

Nice, I expect I might use DCFC for the first time next week on a small roadtrip.

Those of you who have used EA before on these free weekends, have you noticed the chargers as being more crowded than usual?

To avoid accidentally using the charging balance on our accounts, is it still wiser to disable Plug and Charge within the FordPass app before plugging in?

Congrats.
Yes.
Yes.

just being direct here ?

 

[RSM]

Mach-e domination at a Vista, CA EA station. Representin'!

 

[BadgerGreg]

I used my free EA session to verify that my dealer-installed update gave me increased charging speed past 80%. Yep.

 

[The Electric Duo]

FYI...
It looks like the same as before when EA offered free charging for a holiday weekend. But EA is saying it is free with select chargers as they are doing upgrades. That doesn't make much sense with what we're seeing, but that's what they are saying.

 

[Wk217]

Make sure you preplan your trip! Don't try to rely on FP directing you to the fastest chargers, because it treats all power levels the same and certainly won't take into account that the EA chargers are free.

I recommend using ABRP

Yup, that's how I know it's going to be a bit sketchy getting from Albuquerque to St George. Looking forward to try out the new feature with the OBD2 dongle integration with ABRP.

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