Longer drive feedback

[jdunc87]

(warning this may sound like a rant) This weekend my wife and I took our MME GTPE for a longer trip for the first time since owning it. Our trip was 145 miles each way. I tried my best the night before to plan via ABRP, Ford, and PlugShare. The night before planning seemed to be ok. It wanted me to stop about halfway and top off. I was cool with that, we decided to leave on 100 percent battery as we hadnt drove that far yet.

1. ABRP.... it needs a TON of work. I dont know if its a carplay issue, an iOS issue, or an app issue but it likes to force close, it likes to randomly show me in europe when it comes back up, it liked to show our trip in KM sometimes, the GPS portion of it was wonky as all get out especially during times when you NEEDED it like turns, merges, etc. It made my phone SLOW as hell when using the app. Really really not a fan of it, but its route planning was FAR more accurate than FordPass. Sadly at one point on our way home it said it couldnt come up with a route home.. wtf? HOW?

2. Fordpass... it ALSO liked to force close while trying to plan a route via the app, it was super conservative, BUT it did try to keep us on highways instead of ABRP which kept us on mostly rural roads (I was guessing to mitigate speed to keep battery) The GPS route it wanted to take us home was WAY off.. for example it wanted to take me 25 min west of where I lived to come back home. It made ZERO sense.

3. Blue cruise... it RARELY came on. TONS of open road without stops, major freeways and it was rarely on. Drove me insane. Paid extra for something that worked MAYBE 25 percent of the time.

4. The warnings in the are ANNOYING. The one about holding the steering wheel is FAR too sensitive especially with a car that has the lane keeping it does. I was driving comfortably at a 5 o'clock position, but it was NOT happy about that, I damn near had to squeeze the wheel for it to make it go away.

5. Battery... its life was ok. at best. It was 40ish degrees here in Ohio, and still at 56mph (rural roads) and 66mph(highways) it struggled to stay around 2.4-2.6mi/kw We were running the heated seats on the lowest setting and NO heat on in the car.

6. Chargers.. dear lord Ohio is lacking in this department. Columbus is ok, but Toledo/Oregon are is limited. The one ford dealer we stopped at only had a level 2 charger that was blocked by an ICE vehicle. We had to get on the turnpike to find a level 3 charger (we were traveling north/south, NOT east/west). The only bonus to this was we were able to charge it to 80 percent and make it with only that stop. We honestly realized we couldve done the whole thing done with 1 charge.

7. People at EV Chargers.... People at chargers are WAYYYYY nicer than people at EV Chargers than they are at Fuel Pumps LOL.. this dude with a porsche when we rolled up to the charger was totally interested in our Mach E and asked us about it. (They also have the battery issue we have LOL.. 300 normal range and 200 in the cold)

Lessons learned I suppose..

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[Sleevesmcd]

This is a great write up. Took a long road trip from NJ to Burlington, VT (and back) to get my daughter from college. I'm surprised you only got 2.4-2.6 miles. My trip back it was 20s-30s and I was going ~70 on highway and still getting 2.8-3.0. Had seat heaters on low and occasionally turned heat on when windows got foggy.

Agree that there's a fraternity of EV folks at chargers! That's definitely a little perk to have interesting conversations with folks. Often get good tips/tricks as well.

Agree that there's a long way to go for chargers. On my way up, I tried a free fast charger on NY State Thruway (Adirondack welcome center) that wouldn't talk to the Mach E. Made a next stop in Rutland to use EV Go fast charger. One fast charger was broken, and the other one I couldn't get to talk to the car. Used app, used credit card, tried multiple times but kept getting an error. Thankfully, I got free level 2 charging at Killington while skiing for 5 hours...but if I hadn't been planning to take a 5 hour pit stop, that would've been a real headache. The way home had a great experience at Electrify America charger in Albany. 30 minutes and during that time browsed a TJ Maxx so my daughter could presents for her sisters and went to Panera for coffee and bathroom break. Went from 20% to 80% and had enough juice to get all the way back to central NJ. Was thinking I'd be cutting it REALLY close but wound up pulling in driveway with 9% charge.

Probably won't default to Mach E for long road trips but it was an adventure and I learned a lot. Plus, driving it is FUN. My blue cruise was on most of the trip, so no complaints from me there.

 

[breeves002]

1. ABRP.... it needs a TON of work. I dont know if its a carplay issue, an iOS issue, or an app issue but it likes to force close, it likes to randomly show me in europe when it comes back up, it liked to show our trip in KM sometimes, the GPS portion of it was wonky as all get out especially during times when you NEEDED it like turns, merges, etc. It made my phone SLOW as hell when using the app. Really really not a fan of it, but its route planning was FAR more accurate than FordPass. Sadly at one point on our way home it said it couldnt come up with a route home.. wtf? HOW?

2. Fordpass... it ALSO liked to force close while trying to plan a route via the app, it was super conservative, BUT it did try to keep us on highways instead of ABRP which kept us on mostly rural roads (I was guessing to mitigate speed to keep battery) The GPS route it wanted to take us home was WAY off.. for example it wanted to take me 25 min west of where I lived to come back home. It made ZERO sense.

3. Blue cruise... it RARELY came on. TONS of open road without stops, major freeways and it was rarely on. Drove me insane. Paid extra for something that worked MAYBE 25 percent of the time.

4. The warnings in the are ANNOYING. The one about holding the steering wheel is FAR too sensitive especially with a car that has the lane keeping it does. I was driving comfortably at a 5 o'clock position, but it was NOT happy about that, I damn near had to squeeze the wheel for it to make it go away.

5. Battery... its life was ok. at best. It was 40ish degrees here in Ohio, and still at 56mph (rural roads) and 66mph(highways) it struggled to stay around 2.4-2.6mi/kw We were running the heated seats on the lowest setting and NO heat on in the car.

6. Chargers.. dear lord Ohio is lacking in this department. Columbus is ok, but Toledo/Oregon are is limited. The one ford dealer we stopped at only had a level 2 charger that was blocked by an ICE vehicle. We had to get on the turnpike to find a level 3 charger (we were traveling north/south, NOT east/west). The only bonus to this was we were able to charge it to 80 percent and make it with only that stop. We honestly realized we couldve done the whole thing done with 1 charge.

7. People at EV Chargers.... People at chargers are WAYYYYY nicer than people at EV Chargers than they are at Fuel Pumps LOL.. this dude with a porsche when we rolled up to the charger was totally interested in our Mach E and asked us about it. (They also have the battery issue we have LOL.. 300 normal range and 200 in the cold)

Lessons learned I suppose..

1. I use ABRP planning purposes then just put each individual destination into Sync NAV when I start driving. I don't use it to actively guide me.

2. App is trash I don't use it for route planning.

3. This is weird. I drove my GTPE 1100 miles home including completely through Ohio and it worked 99% of the time on the interstate without issues.

4. I have no issues with this just rest your arm so gravity pulls it down and it will not have an issue knowing its there while still steering.

5. You didn't go above 66mph and only got 2.6mi/kWh with no heat in the car - probably had a good headwind then. Was it a noticeably windy day? 10-15mph headwind is hard to notice and can make a huge difference on range. At 40ºF I managed 2.2mi/kWh or lower at 75mph with a 10-15mph headwind. Heat was on for me though as I do not like to suffer

6. This is true for the midwest in general. Missouri is the same way and even St. Louis barely has anything worthwhile.

7. Also very true. I've noticed that people are generally cool and like to talk.

 

[jdunc87]

1. I use ABRP planning purposes then just put each individual destination into Sync NAV when I start driving. I don't use it to actively guide me.

2. App is trash I don't use it for route planning.

3. This is weird. I drove my GTPE 1100 miles home including completely through Ohio and it worked 99% of the time on the interstate without issues.

4. I have no issues with this just rest your arm so gravity pulls it down and it will not have an issue knowing its there while still steering.

5. You didn't go above 66mph and only got 2.6mi/kWh with no heat in the car - probably had a good headwind then. Was it a noticeably windy day? 10-15mph headwind is hard to notice and can make a huge difference on range. At 40ºF I managed 2.2mi/kWh or lower at 75mph with a 10-15mph headwind. Heat was on for me though as I do not like to suffer

6. This is true for the midwest in general. Missouri is the same way and even St. Louis barely has anything worthwhile.

7. Also very true. I've noticed that people are generally cool and like to talk.

Weather wise, i dont believe it was that awful. The drive home it stuggled to stay at 2.3-2.4. The drive there during the day was much better, more along the 2.8 range (which i will accept, except for how slow I had to drive to get that mileage)

 

[breeves002]

Weather wise, i dont believe it was that awful. The drive home it stuggled to stay at 2.3-2.4. The drive there during the day was much better, more along the 2.8 range (which i will accept, except for how slow I had to drive to get that mileage)

On the highway is just worse in general. Fast speeds kill it. I bet you had a tailwind on the way there and headwind on the drive home. It's something people don't really think about in ICE vehicles but in an EV it is a drastic difference. 15mph headwind takes that 65mph up to 80mph equivalent in wind resistance.

 

[jdunc87]

On the highway is just worse in general. Fast speeds kill it. I bet you had a tailwind on the way there and headwind on the drive home. It's something people don't really think about in ICE vehicles but in an EV it is a drastic difference. 15mph headwind takes that 65mph up to 80mph equivalent in wind resistance.

I did consider it as typically my ICE vehicles are roughly the same way actually. I usually get decent mileage going up there (Toledo area) and worse headed home (CBus), it just sucks how much more it effects this thing. I know for sure in the warmer months my ICE mustang will be the one making those trips (way more fun imo)

 

[imstriker]

Good writeup...

1. Like others mentioned, I don't use the ABRP app on the screen. I pre-plan and put in destinations to Google Maps.

2. Yes, FordPass and the car navigation are terrible for charging planning. Just say no!

4. This is a torque sensor, not a squeeze. I very rarely have it nag me, but if it does a quick nudge will straighten it out. I've used it for hours straight (in Indiana/Ohio in fact) and never been concerned.

6. Yes, there are some huge blank areas. For the most part if there is no Electrify America around, I just take the gas truck. I've had good luck in Cincinnati and on my to Cleveland and back. Have not had to venture up to Toledo area, but I have avoided Fort Wayne trips now twice for the same reason.

 

[Neil4Real]

I don't think the Porsche EV had battery issues like "us," as if there is something specifically wrong with MME and Porsche batteries. All EVs suffer heavily in the cold, even Tesla.

I rest my hand on the middle bars of my steering wheel, whatever they're called, and that applies enough downward pressure for it to sense my hand is on the wheel but not enough to actually mess up the lane keeping.

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