manicsubmersion
Active Member
- First Name
- Kevin
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2022
- Threads
- 5
- Messages
- 44
- Reaction score
- 72
- Location
- New Mexico
- Vehicles
- 2022 F150 hybrid Lariat, 2022 MachE AWD EX Premium
- Thread starter
- #1
Just picked up my MachE in Granger , Iowa. I live in New Mexico. We (Dana my wife/partner) Left Albuquerque on Tuesday morning December 13th. We flew to Des Moines, IA via Denver. Denver Airport was very snowy and our flight to Des Moines was delayed an hour or so. Granger Motors arranged for their driver to pick us up in Des Moines and that went well.
Just a few words about Granger Motors. This is the second vehicle I have purchased from Granger during this year. The entire ordering/purchasing process was extremely transparent from start to finish. I ordered the MachE AWD ER Premium IBSM in February 2022. The initial price was 3 percent under invoice with invoice on the MachE being almost the same as MSRP. I signed a purchase agreement and gave them a $1000 non refundable deposit last February. Ten months later, that is exactly what I paid, the original agreed upon price minus the $1000 deposit. I did add a Ford extended warranty plan to the vehicle at a heavily discounted price (very similar to the other online discount dealers for Ford extended warrant plans).
This is my first EV although I am well read on the topic and have been a member of this forum for 9 or 10 months. When we picked up the car, Granger Motors had charged it to 100% at my request. I had previously downloaded all of the required apps for route planning and EV charging and set up several accounts including EA, Francis Energy, Chargepoint etc. I also added Plugshare and ABRP (upgraded to the paid version) to my apps arsenal.
DC fast charging between Granger, IA and Kansas City, KS (out first overnight stop) is fairly sparse. ABRP showed a Chargepoint DC fast charger in Bethany, MO. The Plugshare reports were mixed but it was our only option. Only one unit was working but we successfully completed our first DC fast charging session (maybe not so fast!).
In Kansas City, we charged overnight while visiting friends. They own a Tesla and we used our Mini Teslatap (purchased through a forum group buy) to charge the vehicle. Our next overnight destination was Oklahoma City. We charged in Topeka at an EA station at Walmart's, probably not necessary but it was cold and I am paranoid! This was a "by the book" EA charge session using the EA app to tap and pay. That was almost the last time that worked. Nearly every EA charging session after that I had to pay with a credit card and could not use the touch to pay or slide to initiate the charging session feature.
We stopped and charged two more times on the way to Oklahoma City, including Wichita and some other EA station on the road. Although I was sucessful at charging, nearly every EA station had some issues. I checked Plugshare each time and noted which chargers were working and plugged into those first, not always successfully. It was very cold, windy and sometimes rainy during this portion of the trip, definately impacting range.
After spending the night in Oklahoma City (no level 2 charger at the hotel), we charged at a Walmart EA station in Moore, OK which was an 18 mile round trip from I40. At Moore, I could not get any of the available stations to connect to the vehicle. There happened to be an EA technician (driving a KIA EV6) working on the stations and he finally did something to the station and it worked.
We were headed to Tucumcari, NM for our next overnight, deciding to add one more day to the trip so we did not have to do too much night driving in well below freezing weather. Our next scheduled charging stop was at a Francis Energy station in Elk, OK. I had not heard too many positives about Francis Energy DC stations so I included the out of the way charge at Moore, OK in case we had to limp into Erick, OK for an EA charge at a truck stop. The Francis Energy session was fine, no issues other than extremely expensive, our most expensive session on the trip.
We charged again at the EA station in Erick, OK just before the border with Texas. Finally we hit an EA station at Walmart in Amarillo, TX. This was the only location where we had to wait. Two stations were out of service and there was an iD4 charging to 100% and an EV6 doing an 80% charge. I called EA to try and reboot the non working stations but after 30 minutes of trying I gave up and just waited until one of the working stations was free.
We reached Tucumcari, NM after dark. The EA station is at a Loves truck stop and conveniently located across from a Fairfield Inn, our home for the night. We charged that evening but when we woke up it was 19 degrees (morning of Dec 16th). We had driven a few miles around town in the evening and due to the cold trip ahead, we decided to top up to 85% at Tucumcari. Again this was probably not necessary but it was friggin cold and I expeced some additional range impact.
Our final charging stop was at Santa Rosa, NM, again at an EA station at a Loves Truck Stop. Other that still not being able to use touch to pay or slide to activate, this session went smoothly. We arrived home in Albuquerque about 10:30 AM with 26% SoC. I had previously purchased a home EVSE (Autel) and had a dedicated 50 amp circuit installed. The new MachE is currently being refilled to 80%.
So, the MachE is my first EV. My first trip in the MachE was 1265 miles through some cold, windy, wet and freezing weather! Glad to be back home in sunny but cold New Mexico.
I would like to thank all of the members of this forum who have provided me with the knowledge and confidence to undertake this trip. I would also like to thank Liv and Patrick of the MachE VLOG for sharing their MachE tripping experiences. Also the other Youtubers who produce and share road tripping in EV videos. Without of this collective knowledge and experience, this trip could hav been very unpleasant!
Just a few words about Granger Motors. This is the second vehicle I have purchased from Granger during this year. The entire ordering/purchasing process was extremely transparent from start to finish. I ordered the MachE AWD ER Premium IBSM in February 2022. The initial price was 3 percent under invoice with invoice on the MachE being almost the same as MSRP. I signed a purchase agreement and gave them a $1000 non refundable deposit last February. Ten months later, that is exactly what I paid, the original agreed upon price minus the $1000 deposit. I did add a Ford extended warranty plan to the vehicle at a heavily discounted price (very similar to the other online discount dealers for Ford extended warrant plans).
This is my first EV although I am well read on the topic and have been a member of this forum for 9 or 10 months. When we picked up the car, Granger Motors had charged it to 100% at my request. I had previously downloaded all of the required apps for route planning and EV charging and set up several accounts including EA, Francis Energy, Chargepoint etc. I also added Plugshare and ABRP (upgraded to the paid version) to my apps arsenal.
DC fast charging between Granger, IA and Kansas City, KS (out first overnight stop) is fairly sparse. ABRP showed a Chargepoint DC fast charger in Bethany, MO. The Plugshare reports were mixed but it was our only option. Only one unit was working but we successfully completed our first DC fast charging session (maybe not so fast!).
In Kansas City, we charged overnight while visiting friends. They own a Tesla and we used our Mini Teslatap (purchased through a forum group buy) to charge the vehicle. Our next overnight destination was Oklahoma City. We charged in Topeka at an EA station at Walmart's, probably not necessary but it was cold and I am paranoid! This was a "by the book" EA charge session using the EA app to tap and pay. That was almost the last time that worked. Nearly every EA charging session after that I had to pay with a credit card and could not use the touch to pay or slide to initiate the charging session feature.
We stopped and charged two more times on the way to Oklahoma City, including Wichita and some other EA station on the road. Although I was sucessful at charging, nearly every EA station had some issues. I checked Plugshare each time and noted which chargers were working and plugged into those first, not always successfully. It was very cold, windy and sometimes rainy during this portion of the trip, definately impacting range.
After spending the night in Oklahoma City (no level 2 charger at the hotel), we charged at a Walmart EA station in Moore, OK which was an 18 mile round trip from I40. At Moore, I could not get any of the available stations to connect to the vehicle. There happened to be an EA technician (driving a KIA EV6) working on the stations and he finally did something to the station and it worked.
We were headed to Tucumcari, NM for our next overnight, deciding to add one more day to the trip so we did not have to do too much night driving in well below freezing weather. Our next scheduled charging stop was at a Francis Energy station in Elk, OK. I had not heard too many positives about Francis Energy DC stations so I included the out of the way charge at Moore, OK in case we had to limp into Erick, OK for an EA charge at a truck stop. The Francis Energy session was fine, no issues other than extremely expensive, our most expensive session on the trip.
We charged again at the EA station in Erick, OK just before the border with Texas. Finally we hit an EA station at Walmart in Amarillo, TX. This was the only location where we had to wait. Two stations were out of service and there was an iD4 charging to 100% and an EV6 doing an 80% charge. I called EA to try and reboot the non working stations but after 30 minutes of trying I gave up and just waited until one of the working stations was free.
We reached Tucumcari, NM after dark. The EA station is at a Loves truck stop and conveniently located across from a Fairfield Inn, our home for the night. We charged that evening but when we woke up it was 19 degrees (morning of Dec 16th). We had driven a few miles around town in the evening and due to the cold trip ahead, we decided to top up to 85% at Tucumcari. Again this was probably not necessary but it was friggin cold and I expeced some additional range impact.
Our final charging stop was at Santa Rosa, NM, again at an EA station at a Loves Truck Stop. Other that still not being able to use touch to pay or slide to activate, this session went smoothly. We arrived home in Albuquerque about 10:30 AM with 26% SoC. I had previously purchased a home EVSE (Autel) and had a dedicated 50 amp circuit installed. The new MachE is currently being refilled to 80%.
So, the MachE is my first EV. My first trip in the MachE was 1265 miles through some cold, windy, wet and freezing weather! Glad to be back home in sunny but cold New Mexico.
I would like to thank all of the members of this forum who have provided me with the knowledge and confidence to undertake this trip. I would also like to thank Liv and Patrick of the MachE VLOG for sharing their MachE tripping experiences. Also the other Youtubers who produce and share road tripping in EV videos. Without of this collective knowledge and experience, this trip could hav been very unpleasant!
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