Mach-E GT 2,200 Mile Road Trip

Kitch MME GT

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We recently completed our first long-distance road trip in our 2021 Mach E GT (non-PE). Our Mach E was built in mid-November 2021 and was delivered to us in mid-January 2022. The combined EPA range is quoted at 270 miles – 247 miles at highway speeds. The vehicle has BlueCruise functionality and recently updated charge curve software which allows more reasonable charging rates above 80% battery state of charge (SOC).

In summary, we had a great trip and learned a lot about road tripping in our Mach E GT. We have definitely gained confidence that will help us tackle future trips. Details are below. If you have any questions, please comment or message me directly.

Trip Details

The purpose of our trip was to visit family and friends in California. The trip consisted of three primary segments for a combined total of over 2,200 miles in 10 days, stopping in two locations for several days. The three segments included:

  • Boise, ID to Livermore, CA (653 miles) using I-84, ID 55, US 95, I-80, I-5, and I-580.
  • Livermore, CA to Camarillo, CA (360 miles) using I-680 and US 101.
  • Camarillo, CA to Boise, ID (895 miles) using US 101, CA 14, US 395, I-80, US 95, ID 55, I-84.
In addition to the miles between these locations, we drove approximately 300 miles in and around the Bay Area and Los Angeles area.

It is important to note that this trip included traversing several steep grades, major mountain passes (7,200 ft, 8,000 ft, 8,150 ft), varied and inclement weather, and severe traffic congestion. The Mach E handled it all without any drama.

Charging and Costs

We DC fast charged 16 times for a total of 732 kWh (230 kWh was free from Ford as part of the purchase). Additionally, we charged twice at a home 40 kW charger for another roughly 55 kWh total (also free to us). Of the 16 DC fast charging sessions, 14 were Electrify America (EA) sites and the other two chargers were provided by GreenLots (50 kW max).

DC fast charging was easy. Plug and Charge worked perfectly (during the free charging sessions). I used the EA App to activate the paid sessions, and only once did I have a brief difficulty getting the charger to initiate the session. Obviously, EA has made significant improvements in their systems and my pre-trip concerns were unfounded. The GreenLots charger also worked perfectly using their App.

An interesting side note: Our Mach E GT has the upgraded charging curve. I witnessed on a few occasions a charging rate of 45 kW between 80% and 90% SOC (very good compared to the 12-14 kW rate before the upgrade). This came in handy on our trip as sometimes we had to charge above 80% SOC to make it to our next destination. One time I had to charge above 90% SOC and the charge rate fell to 26 kW at 95% SOC (still much better than before the upgrade).

I spent a total of $143.20 (including the $4 EA membership fee for “fuel” during the entire 2,200-mile trip. For comparison purposes I need to add an additional $71.30 (230 kWh X $0.31/kWh) and $12.65 (55 kWh X $0.23/kWh to represent the trip without the free charging from Ford – for a theoretical total of $227.15. If we had taken our other car (2016 Audi Q3), it would have cost about $500 for gasoline (gas was very expensive in California). My conclusion is, even paying the higher prices for electricity at public fast chargers, driving an EV on this trip costs less than half to “fuel” compared to driving an internal combustion engine car.

Efficiency

The vast majority of the miles were at highway speeds. The overall efficiency (measured in miles per kWh) very closely matched the EPA rating. We averaged 2.8 miles/kWh for the entire 2,200 miles. That equates to approximately 250 miles per full battery charge. Considering the weather challenges and traversing several mountain passes, I think that is excellent and more than met my expectations.

The lowest miles/kWh reading between charges was 2.35 (strong head winds) and the highest was 3.90 (long downhill stretch) – most legs were between 2.6 and 2.7. Our average cruising speed was 70 mph, with some sections at 75-80 mph (we adhered to the speed limits).

Driving Impressions

We were very happy with how the Mach E drove and handled all conditions. It is comfortable, smooth, and quiet on the highway. Of course, it is the GT so the stiff suspension was a bit rough in places where the road surface left a lot to be desired, but for us that was not a deal breaker. The operation of the climate control, navigation, and music control systems were learned quickly and very effective. However, improvements could be made to ease those activities. Overall, the systems performed well, but still a little slow at times.

On average for the entire trip, we stopped every 2 hours for a 30-minute charge. This is very acceptable to us for the benefits of driving an EV. Of course, some legs were longer (longest – 3 hours) and some shorter (shortest – 30 minutes) and some charging time was longer (longest – 51 minutes) and some shorter (shortest - 11 minutes). The variations were due mostly to location of the charging facilities (some very far apart) and not wanting to charge more than needed to get to our next destination. As the EV charging infrastructure continues to expand, travelers will be able to optimize their time driving versus time charging to meet their needs better, with less planning required.

Another note: I used to be the guy that prided myself on getting to a destination in the shortest time even if that meant eating in the car and using minimal amount of time for gas fill-ups and bathroom breaks. Under these conditions I was exhausted and strung-out once I got to where I was going. I find that driving an EV long distances is so much more relaxing. With more frequent breaks and taking the time to walk around and have proper meals, I am much less stressed and tired at the end of the trip even though it may take more total time. I’m never going back to my old ways of driving long trips.

Impacts of Weather

This trip was not accomplished during perfect weather conditions for ideal EV efficiency (sunny, 75 degrees, and no wind or precipitation). It is springtime, so we experienced unstable weather conditions such as strong winds, extreme temperatures, and periods of rain and even snow. The two conditions that affected our efficiency the most were strong winds (mostly headwinds) and extreme temperatures. Temperatures ranged from 30 to 104 degrees F. Approximately 1,000 miles were driven at temperatures under 50 degrees. And probably 1,500 miles had strong winds (20 mph or higher) – either cross or head winds. Hardly ever did we benefit from a tailwind (why does that seem to always be the case?). My conservative estimate would be that the weather conditions combined throughout the trip impacted efficiency by 0.2 to 0.3 miles per kWh.

Range Anxiety?

There was only one segment (both directions) that I had a concern about our ability to reach our next destination – between home and McDermitt, NV (187 miles). This was our first and last segment. From home with a 100% charge we should have had plenty to make it to McDermitt, but it was cold and windy. We pre-conditioned the cabin, didn’t use E-Heat, and drove very conservatively. We also had to climb 1,750 feet, and traverse two 5,100 ft mountain passes. We made it with 23% battery SOC and 52 miles estimated on the GOM. In retrospect, I didn’t really have to worry, but this was our first trip in the Mach E and was not sure how it would perform under these conditions.

Getting home was more of a concern. It was colder, windier, and snow was forecast in the mountain passes. The only benefit was we got back the 1,750 ft elevation change. Because of this I planned to charge to 90% in McDermitt, NV at a 50 kW charger (this took a while). My wife was more concerned, so we charged to 95% (there are NO other means of charging along this segment and it is very rural 2-lane highway). We did hit snow, temperature dropped to 30 degrees, we activated E-heat for some of the trip. We made it with 22% battery SOC and 50 miles estimated on the GOM. Phew!!

BlueCruise

Our Mach E came with BlueCruise (BC) activated. We had tested it a little bit before the trip, but only on a short segment of highway close to home. Overall, I would say it is good, but not great and could use some improvement. On rural Interstates, its excellent. We traveled for almost 2 hours without touching the steering wheel, except for needed lane changes. However, on an urban Interstate with more traffic and interchanges, it struggles to stay engaged and is more stressful than helpful. In both applications, many times it would disengage near interchanges when it lost the right-hand lane marking.

I used the lane keeping function (technically not BC) on rural two-lane highways and it was pretty effective, and I would use again in those conditions. The need for a slight tug of the wheel every 10-15 seconds was not a bother for me.

In the future, I would definitely use it on rural Interstates (very helpful and relaxing). But in other applications I probably would not (unless there are significant improvements made).

FORD: Needed Improvements

We learned a lot about the capabilities of the Mach E GT during this long-distance trip. This knowledge and corresponding confidence in the vehicle will make for lower stress trips in the future. Overall, our Mach E GT performed well, however, there is still room for improvements. If Ford is listening, here are my thoughts:

  • Infotainment system operation is still too slow – transitioning between applications such as the radio, trip computer, and navigation could benefit from faster processing.
  • Navigation system is glitchy – This is the first integrated navigation system I wanted to use (so kudos). I love the step-by-step instructions on the center screen, the elevation reading on the map, and miles to destination next to the range estimate on the center screen. However, changing map views was difficult and we found it very hard to get back to the “main” map screen. Several times we had to cancel our trip and start over. You can not interact with the screen while moving, so that became problematic. Not all charge stations are in the list – this needs updating. And the routing sometimes was just weird and made no sense - did not match the effectiveness I am used to with Google Maps.
  • Range estimator needs to account for weather and elevation changes – I have read that most evaluations of the range estimator had good results (most of the time gave a conservative values). I did not find this to be the case at all – in almost every case it estimated we could go farther than we were able to. I attribute this to the fact that we had inclement weather for much of the trip and we needed to traverse numerous mountain passes (some extreme) with steep grades. I believe now that Ford’s algorithms do not account for these conditions and therefore we cannot rely on the range estimator. In the western part of the US, these factors must be accounted for to ensure accurate estimates. I recommend Ford update the range estimator to adjust the results for weather and elevation changes. I believe other manufactures (such as Audi) do this now quite effectively.
  • BlueCruise needs a lot of improvements – In terms of lane keeping the Ford BC has a long way to go to match the capabilities of the Tesla system. However, I would not be willing to pay $12k for Tesla’s FSD system to get hands-free driving. So, Ford’s BC system is very cost-effective, but really needs refinement to behave properly in more complicated situations. Would I buy the BC system at the end of the 3-year trial? Probably only if improvements are made so I could use it in more driving conditions and on more roadways.
  • One more. I still believe a gauge to indicate instantaneous battery charging/discharging is important and needed on the instrument cluster – both when driving as well as when charging. The relative green/blue gauge is a start, but we also need the actual values measured in kilowatts. Thank you.
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SWO

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Your observations mirror mine with respect to the guessometer overestimating range with increasing altitude and decreasing temperature. I've also had instances where the car told me I could make it to my destination without charging when I ended up having to stop.
 

Skoolbus

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Great write up! Thank you so much for taking the time to pass along your observations and thoughts. The community appreciates it!
 

VegStang

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Nice writeup, but I'd have to say it isn't just the GT that has a stiff ride over rough pavement, questionable if the magneride system improves that enough. Your take on relaxing during a road trip with stops instead of eating and trying to rush through it is spot on.
 

silverelan

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Nice write up! That little store in McDermitt is nice to visit and I’m glad to see that it was working for you because that stretch between there and Boise is truly no-man’s-land.

The lack of info on the kW when charging is mildly infuriating. Whoever decided that owners don’t need that information deserves to eat a ghost pepper.
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