If not a Mach-E (or other EVs), what to buy today

[dbsb3233]

I love my Mach-E, but the past week I have tossed this question around, and part of the decision has to do with charging speed and range, which led me to this video, which I found to be pretty interesting. I also watched a Out of Spec race from Denver to Vegas with 5 EVs (Mach-E included) and the Mach-E arrived about an hour after everyone else, because of charging speed.

Really depends on how important that hour is to you, and how often you do it. Everyone has different priorities, needs, and situations. Personally, the Mach-E charging speed is just fine for our tastes. And we do a LOT of road trips. 30k miles of them since getting the car over 2 years ago. We just finished a 4000 mile trip last week.

Faster charging and more range is always nicer, of course, but it would be a pretty minor benefit for us. And that's coming from someone who road trips monthly. Most people might only do long road trips once or twice a year.

Once we get off the interstate to plug in, the ~30 minutes (typical charge stop) flies by pretty fast. We're rarely sitting there twiddling our thumbs feeling like we're wasting time. Hit the bathroom, check-in on Plugshare and/or @RateYourCharge, look up a few things on the phone, and it's nearly done. Get to talking with another EV owner there and there goes the whole 30 minutes. I often stretch my legs doing a walk when fiddling on the phone too.

We're in our 60's and prefer driving during daytime, so I don't plan for doing more than about 500 miles a day. That's only 3 charging stops. And one of those is lunch where we'd kill 30+ minutes no matter what we're driving. So it comes down to a difference of just two extra 30-minute stops. Which we've gotten used to doing now and actually kinda prefer. If we road-trip the ICE vehicle again, I think we'd actually take the extra breaks now even though we wouldn't have to.

But that's not everyone. For some, that extra hour in the drive day could be a deal-breaker. Although in the grand scheme of things, I think it's pretty minor. We're not in a race.

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[RKinWA]

Really depends on how important that hour is to you, and how often you do it. Everyone has different priorities, needs, and situations. Personally, the Mach-E charging speed is just fine for our tastes. And we do a LOT of road trips. 30k miles of them since getting the car over 2 years ago. We just finished a 4000 mile trip last week.

Faster charging and more range is always nicer, of course, but it would be a pretty minor benefit for us. And that's coming from someone who road trips monthly. Most people might only do long road trips once or twice a year.

Once we get off the interstate to plug in, the ~30 minutes (typical charge stop) flies by pretty fast. We're rarely sitting there twiddling our thumbs feeling like we're wasting time. Hit the bathroom, check-in on Plugshare and/or @RateYourCharge, look up a few things on the phone, and it's nearly done. Get to talking with another EV owner there and there goes the whole 30 minutes. I often stretch my legs doing a walk when fiddling on the phone too.

We're in our 60's and prefer driving during daytime, so I don't plan for doing more than about 500 miles a day. That's only 3 charging stops. And one of those is lunch where we'd kill 30+ minutes no matter what we're driving. So it comes down to a difference of just two extra 30-minute stops. Which we've gotten used to doing now and actually kinda prefer. If we road-trip the ICE vehicle again, I think we'd actually take the extra breaks now even though we wouldn't have to.

But that's not everyone. For some, that extra hour in the drive day could be a deal-breaker. Although in the grand scheme of things, I think it's pretty minor. We're not in a race.

The video pretty much equalized the different vehicles, showing more range didn't really matter all that much. The faster charging did make a difference, but you're right, unless you're in a rush, 20 minutes vs 40 minutes isn't that big of a deal. I have done about four 500 mile trips myself and each charging stop was faster than the FordPass app predicted, and we were back on the road before we knew it.

 

[dbsb3233]

The video pretty much equalized the different vehicles, showing more range didn't really matter all that much. The faster charging did make a difference, but you're right, unless you're in a rush, 20 minutes vs 40 minutes isn't that big of a deal. I have done about four 500 mile trips myself and each charging stop was faster than the FordPass app predicted, and we were back on the road before we knew it.

Longer range can be a bigger benefit as more DCFC stations fill in through the coming years. Longer range EVs can skip more stations (like say, every 150 miles instead of every 100). But right now, we're pretty much a slave to EA spacing. Often times there's no choice. But there are some routes that are better covered, like I-15 that we frequent between Denver-Vegas. We can skip some stations and do about every-other station there. But there's also many routes where they're every 100 miles or so and we have to stop at every one, whether we had an extra 50 miles of range or not. Just depends.

I tend to play it pretty safe, and drive it mostly in the 30-80% area where I leave enough in the 'tank' to be able to reach a backup DCFC just in case.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Really depends on how important that hour is to you, and how often you do it. Everyone has different priorities, needs, and situations. Personally, the Mach-E charging speed is just fine for our tastes. And we do a LOT of road trips. 30k miles of them since getting the car over 2 years ago. We just finished a 4000 mile trip last week.

Faster charging and more range is always nicer, of course, but it would be a pretty minor benefit for us. And that's coming from someone who road trips monthly. Most people might only do long road trips once or twice a year.

Once we get off the interstate to plug in, the ~30 minutes (typical charge stop) flies by pretty fast. We're rarely sitting there twiddling our thumbs feeling like we're wasting time. Hit the bathroom, check-in on Plugshare and/or @RateYourCharge, look up a few things on the phone, and it's nearly done. Get to talking with another EV owner there and there goes the whole 30 minutes. I often stretch my legs doing a walk when fiddling on the phone too.

We're in our 60's and prefer driving during daytime, so I don't plan for doing more than about 500 miles a day. That's only 3 charging stops. And one of those is lunch where we'd kill 30+ minutes no matter what we're driving. So it comes down to a difference of just two extra 30-minute stops. Which we've gotten used to doing now and actually kinda prefer. If we road-trip the ICE vehicle again, I think we'd actually take the extra breaks now even though we wouldn't have to.

But that's not everyone. For some, that extra hour in the drive day could be a deal-breaker. Although in the grand scheme of things, I think it's pretty minor. We're not in a race.

This is our experience too.

We do a road trip about once a month (work and/or family visit) and the average distance on the monthly trip is about 1,100 (round trip) miles.

Some of our road trips have been much longer. We're at 19,000 miles and just over a year of ownership; most of the miles have been road trip miles.

Our usual trip involves a lunch stop no matter what vehicle we drive, so that's always a ~30-45 minute stop (we very rarely eat in any car). We almost always stop for dinner too, so another ~30 minute stop. That's our two of 2 or 3 charging stops for the ~450 miles freeway distance. On this trip, if the winds aren't punishing, it's no slower to drive the Mustang than the Tacoma because our meal stops are also our charging stops. If we drove the gas vehicle, we'd also have to make a stop at a gas station before or after our meals. If it's really windy, we might have to make a third stop halfway between or two regular stops, but that's also true when we drive the Tacoma.

On longer trips, we might go up to 700 miles (that's the longest I've driven the Mustang in a single day so far), but on those trips, I would need to stop and walk around whether I was driving the Mustang or the Tacoma, so the charging stops are timed for when we need to move.

My experience is that because we stopped doing marathon drives a few years before we bought the Mustang, the length of the road trip is not much different whether we drive the Mustang or the Tacoma.

The Tacoma has a 700 kWh gas tank (21 gallons), but only gets 0.5 miles/kWh (17 mpg) on a good day and 0.36 miles/kWh (12 mpg) on a windy or hilly day, so it doesn't have a significantly better range.

 

[thekat03]

I love my Mach-E, but the past week I have tossed this question around, and part of the decision has to do with charging speed and range, which led me to this video, which I found to be pretty interesting. I also watched a Out of Spec race from Denver to Vegas with 5 EVs (Mach-E included) and the Mach-E arrived about an hour after everyone else, because of charging speed.

Honestly, I think it might have been closer, but Patrick and Liv from the Mach-E Vlog tend to like more relaxed, chatty stops. Not all of us want or need to race long distances.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Honestly, I think it might have been closer, but Patrick and Liv from the Mach-E Vlog tend to like more relaxed, chatty stops. Not all of us want or need to race long distances.

Also, Kyle was trying to win the "race," not compare vehicles.

 

[RKinWA]

Honestly, I think it might have been closer, but Patrick and Liv from the Mach-E Vlog tend to like more relaxed, chatty stops. Not all of us want or need to race long distances.

Patrick and Liv are awesome. One of the things I am enjoying most about the EV/Charging experience is the social aspect of it. In all my years of driving ICE vehicles, I don't remember more than a handful of times I even spoke to someone at a gas station, but now I am spending the charging time chatting with other drivers about their vehicles and experiences.

 

[RKinWA]

Also, Kyle was trying to win the "race," not compare vehicles.

Well he was in a Porsche, how could you not want to win in a Porsche?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Well he was in a Porsche, how could you not want to win in a Porsche?

I had gone into that thinking it was going to be a normal drivers compare EVs, not a mini cannonball run.

 

[dbsb3233]

Patrick and Liv are awesome. One of the things I am enjoying most about the EV/Charging experience is the social aspect of it. In all my years of driving ICE vehicles, I don't remember more than a handful of times I even spoke to someone at a gas station, but now I am spending the charging time chatting with other drivers about their vehicles and experiences.

One of the byproducts of a 30 minute refuel instead of 3 minutes.

Some of it too is that it's often more complicated to get a charge, so we end up helping each other with info. That's never needed at a gas station.

 

[Old Guy]

I already made that decision and traded in my 2021 Mach e for a 2023 Lexus RX 350 hybrid premium +. I miss the torque, the walk away locking, and the second fob (which will not arrive for months, deja vu). Otherwise, Im not worried about some disaster befalling the car, and it’s larger and better put together than the Mach e.

 

[voxel]

I love my Mach-E, but the past week I have tossed this question around, and part of the decision has to do with charging speed and range, which led me to this video, which I found to be pretty interesting. I also watched a Out of Spec race from Denver to Vegas with 5 EVs (Mach-E included) and the Mach-E arrived about an hour after everyone else, because of charging speed.

If you look at Bjorn’s 1000km results it’s usually sedans or faster charging EVs at the top. You simply charge less (sedans are more efficient and have more range) and when you charge you spend less time at a charger.

As a former BMW i4 owner I can attest to the insane efficiency/range and above average charging speeds of that car. The day I traded it in I was driving 85mph (mid day with no traffic) for 125 miles and burnt 40-ish% SoC. My Mach-E GT PE would have limped to the FPL charger at my destination at that speed. And I saw 130-150kW i4 charging speeds for 10-15% before slow dropping. The Mach-E spikes to those rates very briefly before usually falling below 100 kW. The 2021 Mach-E had the worst charging speeds(9kW at 80%) but Ford has since made it respectable.

EV road tripping is great for the retired. There are multiple times I barely made it to an event with my Mach-E or i4 because charging added a detour and then an extra 20-30minutes to charge. I know just add an hour to every EV trip or just take an ICE SUV.

 

[RKinWA]

If you look at Bjorn’s 1000km results it’s usually sedans or faster charging EVs at the top. You simply charge less (sedans are more efficient and have more range) and when you charge you spend less time at a charger.

As a former BMW i4 owner I can attest to the insane efficiency/range and above average charging speeds of that car. The day I traded it in I was driving 85mph (mid day with no traffic) for 125 miles and burnt 40-ish% SoC. My Mach-E GT PE would have limped to the FPL charger at my destination at that speed. And I saw 130-150kW i4 charging speeds for 10-15% before slow dropping. The Mach-E spikes to those rates very briefly before usually falling below 100 kW. The 2021 Mach-E had the worst charging speeds(9kW at 80%) but Ford has since made it respectable.

EV road tripping is great for the retired. There are multiple times I barely made it to an event with my Mach-E or i4 because charging added a detour and then an extra 20-30minutes to charge. I know just add an hour to every EV trip or just take an ICE SUV.

Great post. Why did you get rid of the BMW just out of curiousity?

 

[voxel]

Great post. Why did you get rid of the BMW just out of curiousity?

I mentioned this elsewhere - the lack of cargo space and passenger space were the biggest issues even though it was the best EV I’ve owned. I used the Mach-E to haul around family and visiting co workers instead of the i4. The i4 was a weekend toy for auto crossing and track use. It was expensive to insure and barely driven in the last two months I had it.

 

[RKinWA]

I mentioned this elsewhere - the lack of cargo space and passenger space were the biggest issues even though it was the best EV I’ve owned. I used the Mach-E to haul around family and visiting co workers instead of the i4. The i4 was a weekend toy for auto crossing and track use. It was expensive to insure and barely driven in the last two months I had it.

Ah OK, makes sense.

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