How to use trip planner?

[Tilly]

I’m taking my first long distance trip in 2022 machE and find the trip planner on the ford app difficult to use. It has me planned to stop 7 times to charge for a 440mile trip! Some of the planned charges are 35% to 50%, then driving another 80 miles and charging again. Is this really necessary? How do you all plan trips? I really don’t want to stop that many times but I’m having anxiety about not following the apps recommendation. Help!

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[AZBill]

It may not be necessary, but the concept of keeping the battery in the fast charging part of the curve is exactly what I do. On road trips I almost never charge past 60% to get to the next charger, unless it is a really long leg.

Do you have a standard range battery? 7 stops seems excessive to me, but my ER RWD gets 300 miles on the highway, which is very different than an AWD SR. My guess is with an SR battery you could get 120 miles at 50%, so you would have 40 miles margin at the next stop.

On my last trip in my Rivian, on a 750 mile return, it told me to charge to 58% at one stop, then 51% at another. I had one leg of 211 miles where I charged to 85% to get there with 14% left.

 

[hybrid2bev]

I’m taking my first long distance trip in 2022 machE and find the trip planner on the ford app difficult to use. It has me planned to stop 7 times to charge for a 440mile trip! Some of the planned charges are 35% to 50%, then driving another 80 miles and charging again. Is this really necessary? How do you all plan trips? I really don’t want to stop that many times but I’m having anxiety about not following the apps recommendation. Help!

Use these instead!
ABRP before you go plan out your stops. Use PlugShare before and during your trip to validate the chargers are working.

A Better Route Planner
PlugShare

Here's an example of what I do a couple days before leaving on a road trip. Go to the onboard navigation in your car.

1. Click on Where To
2. Click on the symbol at the far right end of the search bar (symbol looks like an arrow within a circle). This is the 'search near' menu.
3. Click on Another Location
4. Type in the city name and state code (example: Rapid City SD, see your ABRP plans)
5. Click on the desired city
6. Click the green Select button to confirm the city
7. Click on Chargers in the menu list
8. Click on the lightning bolt with 3 dashes for fast chargers
9. Pick the desired charging Electrify America location from the list displayed
10. Click on the Star icon (to the left of the Go button) to save the location
11. Re-name the location as EA (city name). Save.

OR starting at step 7
7. Type in "Electrify" in the the search bar
Go to Steps 9-11

While on your trip:
Click the Where To button and type in EA. Your list of saved chargers will be displayed.

 

[Tilly]

Thank you! I’ll check that out tonight!

 

[Tilly]

It may not be necessary, but the concept of keeping the battery in the fast charging part of the curve is exactly what I do. On road trips I almost never charge past 60% to get to the next charger, unless it is a really long leg.

Do you have a standard range battery? 7 stops seems excessive to me, but my ER RWD gets 300 miles on the highway, which is very different than an AWD SR. My guess is with an SR battery you could get 120 miles at 50%, so you would have 40 miles margin at the next stop.

On my last trip in my Rivian, on a 750 mile return, it told me to charge to 58% at one stop, then 51% at another. I had one leg of 211 miles where I charged to 85% to get there with 14% left.

I have the SR AWD. It makes sense to keep it fast charging as you mentioned. When I take out the extra stops I spend just as much time max charging with less stops as I would have if I followed the trip planner.

 

[lwilliams0514]

On a related note.... I think the car wants you to charge 10-15 min at a time because it seems like it is simulating a stop for Gas. That is how long you would stop to use the bathroom if you had a ICE car.

Don't know if it is true but that is an observation I had.

I am driving from LA to SF tomorrow and I usually will drive down to about 15-20% before stopping to charge back up to 80%. I prefer longer stops with more time between stops.

 

[RickMachE]

On a related note.... I think the car wants you to charge 10-15 min at a time because it seems like it is simulating a stop for Gas. That is how long you would stop to use the bathroom if you had a ICE car.

Don't know if it is true but that is an observation I had.

I am driving from LA to SF tomorrow and I usually will drive down to about 15-20% before stopping to charge back up to 80%. I prefer longer stops with more time between stops.

Actually, I've had stops of 6 minutes recommended.

 

[lwilliams0514]

Actually, I've had stops of 6 minutes recommended.

Yeah..... if there are more chargers ahead I would NEVER stop for just 6 min lol

 

[devyces]

Use these instead!
ABRP before you go plan out your stops. Use PlugShare before and during your trip to validate the chargers are working.

A Better Route Planner
PlugShare

Here's an example of what I do a couple days before leaving on a road trip. Go to the onboard navigation in your car.

1. Click on Where To
2. Click on the symbol at the far right end of the search bar (symbol looks like an arrow within a circle). This is the 'search near' menu.
3. Click on Another Location
4. Type in the city name and state code (example: Rapid City SD, see your ABRP plans)
5. Click on the desired city
6. Click the green Select button to confirm the city
7. Click on Chargers in the menu list
8. Click on the lightning bolt with 3 dashes for fast chargers
9. Pick the desired charging Electrify America location from the list displayed
10. Click on the Star icon (to the left of the Go button) to save the location
11. Re-name the location as EA (city name). Save.

OR starting at step 7
7. Type in "Electrify" in the the search bar
Go to Steps 9-11

While on your trip:
Click the Where To button and type in EA. Your list of saved chargers will be displayed.

I'm trying to figure out how to do this on Android. YouTube says the Fordpass App has a map button, but I can't find it yet...

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I'm trying to figure out how to do this on Android. YouTube says the Fordpass App has a map button, but I can't find it yet...

Sadly, the feature was removed from the app sometime ago.

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