Mach-E flawlessly circles Lake Michigan w/ 2 tweens & a puppy

[TheVirtualTim]

Thanks for that report!

I like PlugShare to locate chargers and especially to read comments to find out if the charger is working/reliable. I don't like PlugShare for trip planning because I find it rather tedious.

I do like ABRP to get an idea of route planning ... but it doesn't have real-time access to the car state of charge (there is an option to upgrade to their premium tier and if you have a compatible BlueTooth ODB port adapter it can read that -- but I found the software wasn't very reliable and drained my phone battery very quickly and it also crashed a lot -- so I stopped using that feature and cancelled my premium tier. It's been probably about 1.5 years since I did that so possibly they've improved it by now.)

When I'm in the car ... Apple Maps _does_ have access to state-of-charge. For short-ish trips (not long road-trips) I sometimes use it.

But my all-time favorite is the built-in trip planning in Ford nav. It not only chooses good charging locations, AND it will dynamically update them if needed, AND if you open the trip details, you can tap on any charging stop and there's an option to let you select a different charging stop. I've had it suggest an EVgo charger, but I could update it to switch to an Electrify America location which was only slightly farther (and still easily in range) because I had charging credit available that (at the time) I hadn't expended. I had to play with the user interface a bit to get the feel for how to do it, but once I learned the trick, it's not too difficult. You can also do the route planning on the phone and then push the saved trip to the car.

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[GreaseMonkey]

Thanks for that report!

I like PlugShare to locate chargers and especially to read comments to find out if the charger is working/reliable. I don't like PlugShare for trip planning because I find it rather tedious.

I do like ABRP to get an idea of route planning ... but it doesn't have real-time access to the car state of charge (there is an option to upgrade to their premium tier and if you have a compatible BlueTooth ODB port adapter it can read that -- but I found the software wasn't very reliable and drained my phone battery very quickly and it also crashed a lot -- so I stopped using that feature and cancelled my premium tier. It's been probably about 1.5 years since I did that so possibly they've improved it by now.)

When I'm in the car ... Apple Maps _does_ have access to state-of-charge. For short-ish trips (not long road-trips) I sometimes use it.

But my all-time favorite is the built-in trip planning in Ford nav. It not only chooses good charging locations, AND it will dynamically update them if needed, AND if you open the trip details, you can tap on any charging stop and there's an option to let you select a different charging stop. I've had it suggest an EVgo charger, but I could update it to switch to an Electrify America location which was only slightly farther (and still easily in range) because I had charging credit available that (at the time) I hadn't expended. I had to play with the user interface a bit to get the feel for how to do it, but once I learned the trick, it's not too difficult. You can also do the route planning on the phone and then push the saved trip to the car.

Thank you, Tim. I might have given up on the Ford Nav too quickly. Need to give it a try especially with complex routes. I wish the graphics were better though.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Thank you, Tim. I might have given up on the Ford Nav too quickly. Need to give it a try especially with complex routes. I wish the graphics were better though.

After you set a destination and it finds a route and automatically adds chargers, you can tap the wrench icon in the lower-left corner of the map to open a menu and pick "trip details" (it might say "trip summary" but you can switch to a detailed view or summary view on that screen).

It will list each stop ... including the charging stops. If you tap a charging stop there's an option to change it ... and it will show a map with all other chargers in that area ... you can tap a different charger and it will update the route with your new choice.

There are TWO MORE reasons to use Ford Navigation.

#1 - it takes terrain into account and you'll get the message "your range has been updated to reflect your driving conditions" or something along those lines. If is basically taking into account road speeds, hills, etc. and trying to give you a more realistic range estimate for your specific trip -- rather than generic range estimate when it has no idea what sort of roads or speeds will be involved.

#2 - When the car knows it is going to a charger (because Ford Nav shows it that the next stop is a charger) it will AUTOMATICALLY start pre-conditioning your battery by either warming it in the winter ... or cooling it in hot weather, to allow for much faster charging speeds.

If you use any other nav system, the car doesn't know you are headed to a charger and it wont precondition the battery.

 

[MnSparty38]

I like taking the route through the UP rather than through Chicago even though it takes more time. Such a scenic drive!

However haven’t taken that route in the MachE yet. We normally stop in escanaba as our one overnight stop. Your experience with the full reliance on only a couple of chargers unfortunately hasn’t made me comfy enough to take that route, yet. A few more fast chargers between Green Bay and mackinaw city would help.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

I like taking the route through the UP rather than through Chicago even though it takes more time. Such a scenic drive!

However haven’t taken that route in the MachE yet. We normally stop in escanaba as our one overnight stop. Your experience with the full reliance on only a couple of chargers unfortunately hasn’t made me comfy enough to take that route, yet. A few more fast chargers between Green Bay and mackinaw city would help.

I certainly understand. Our journey was much more adventurous than leisurely. It wouldn’t have been possible in temps below 65 degrees.

 

[njb]

We go to Appleton often and even though the MachE could make it, lack of fast charging for it there keeps us with the Tesla. The Meijer in Appleton just off the interstate has new Level3 Tesla Superchargers so hopefully that will change once that adapter becomes available for me. Not even a year ago the only Tesla superchargers in that area were OshKosh or Greenbay. So it gets better all the time.

Great trip write up! Loved the detail, the humor and the pictures!

 

[ThomF]

What a great trip report; thanks for posting it!

I live in Wisconsin and fully understand your frustrating with available EV charging. I took a recent trip to Door County and decided to leave my Mache home and take my wife's ICE because of the lack of DC chargers in the Green Bay area.

I've taken the circle trip with my family; we've referred to it as the GREAT PICKLE TOUR, given that the lake looks pretty much like most Gherkins! I have always meant to design a t-shirt to that effect; need to place it on my to-do list!

 

[GreaseMonkey]

What a great trip report; thanks for posting it!

I live in Wisconsin and fully understand your frustrating with available EV charging. I took a recent trip to Door County and decided to leave my Mache home and take my wife's ICE because of the lack of DC chargers in the Green Bay area.

I've taken the circle trip with my family; we've referred to it as the GREAT PICKLE TOUR, given that the lake looks pretty much like most Gherkins! I have always meant to design a t-shirt to that effect; need to place it on my to-do list!

Unless you want to incorporate a pickle in the design, I’d say you might find a bunch of t-shirts with the official logo that look quite nice. We went the sticker route, sort of a badge of honor that the car qualified for (although I did most of the work, to be honest

 

[BadgerGreg]

Nice writeup! As someone who has driven an EV through the UP several times (with great trepidation), I can identify with this. I'm glad the BP charger in Escanaba worked for you; I've tried it 3-4 times and it's never been functional, even with the app. The most frustrating thing is that there have been 3-4 "coming soon" DCFC locations shown in PlugShare for the last 2 years, and they're still not in operation.

Non-Tesla EV trips through the UP are possible, but only with careful management (and probably also only possible in the summer months). Hopefully the Tesla SC stalls in the UP will be among those open to Ford in early 2024.

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