moparguy

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The more reviews I read like this, the more I realize how dumb I am for not going the Tesla route, my God, you are probably averaging 40 minutes per charge, since you are charging mostly 60% only then for instance I have a GT with 270miles, more likely will be 240-250 real time, so 60% for every 40 minutes is more like 160-165 miles, so you stop every two hours to charge for 40 minutes, I hope that my math is wrong, otherwise to arrive Phoenix from San Diego will be damn long!
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agoldman

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Two things stick out to me on this thread. The Voice Commands function is pretty useless. (agreed), and planning and traveling between charge stations is a lot of work. Big difference between stopping at Gas Stations for gas, is that you don't really ever wonder whether the pump is working or available, or what to do while you are filling up. But that goes with the territory right? I sure hope this situation improves somehow.
 

andyg53

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Taking my Mach-E to Florida was something Iā€™ve been waiting to do ever since I got the car. But despite reading about successful trips in this forum, I was a little worried, since itā€™s my first time with an EV and chargers arenā€™t nearly as plentiful in the coastal South as they are in the Northeast. Turned out, at least for the trip down, there was nothing to worry about. You have to plan a little bit, and be sure you have backup options, but road tripping the I-95 corridor very is doable if you donā€™t need to do it Cannonball-run style.

Part 1: The first day, almost according to plan

TL;DR and numbers:
  • Leg 1: Home to EA Rocky Mount NC, 252 mi, 3.3 mi/kWh (!)
  • Charge 1: 16%ā†’80% in 39 min
  • Leg 2: Rocky Mount to EA Florence SC, 179 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh. GPS goes wild!
  • Charge 2a: 11% ā†’ 49% in 25 min (interrupted by newbie who used the wrong plug)
  • Charge 2b: 49% ā†’ 80% in 19 min
  • Leg 3: Florence to Fairfield Inn Port Wentworth GA, 163 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh
  • Charge 3a (Enmarket ChargePoint): 15% ā†’ 80% in 64 min (hotel charger ICEā€™d!)
  • Charge 3b (Hotel Level 2): 80% ā†’ 100% in 4.5 hrs (charger not ICEā€™d when I got back!)
I have studied PlugShare and know where all the chargers along I-95 are. And Iā€™ve have plugged various trip plans into ABRP and the FordPass app many, many times over the last few months. So I was ready for this. Iā€™d decided that weā€™d stop for dinner in Florence, where I knew of a vegetarian-friendly option for my two vegetarians within walking distance of the EA charger there. Weā€™d stop for the night near Savannah, at a hotel with a level 2 charger, and a nearby DC charger in case the L2 was not available. I was pretty confident of getting from Florence to Savannah with 80% charge, so I let the car pick the other charge stops, just to see if it could be relied upon.

Hereā€™s how the trip started:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Pizza Mio in Florence, SC
Car: Please select from these pizza places near you in Maryland
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Walmart in Florence, SC
Car: Please select from these Walmart locations near you in Maryland
Me: (Sigh) Hey Ford, navigate to Florence, South Carolina
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc. etc.

The Ford nav search leaves much to be desired.

It chose 1 charging stop at Rocky Mount NC, which was about 250 miles away. I thought that would be somewhat of a stretch, especially because it wanted me to go around Richmond on I-295 (longer + faster), and the temperature wasnā€™t going to get above 60 degrees for the entire trip. But the GOM said it was doable with a decent size buffer (I forget the exact number), and I could always bail out at the Emporia EA or two other newer-model ChargePoint options between there and Rocky Mount. So off we went.

Almost 5 hours later, after some horrendous traffic near Fredericksburg VA and a long lunch stop outside Richmond, we pull in to the Sheetz near Rocky Mount with 16% and 40ish miles on the GOM, and the car reporting 3.3 mi/kWh efficiency. Pretty impressive for not-that-warm weather, although there was no more than 100 ft of elevation change in either direction, and I kept the ACC/BlueCruise set to under 75.

1650066587886.png


The car thought we only needed to charge to 66% or so for the 180 miles to Florence, but I did not want to cut it that close. Thanks to indecision on snack choices, nobody noticed the 40ish minute wait to charge up to 80%. So far so good. We left with an 80ish mile GOM buffer. And even through a on-off cycle, the Ford nav remembered where we were going, which pleasantly surprised me.

On the 2nd leg, efficiency was noticeably lower (2.7/2.8), which meant that 80 mile buffer kept getting smaller and smaller as time went on. That was probably due to lack of slowdowns on this leg, and possibly some crosswind, and possibly lower temperatures as the sun got lower in the sky. But since 2.7 translates to about a 190 mile range with 80% battery, I thought weā€™d be fine.

About 60 miles from Florence, I tried to set a precise destination again:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Walmart in Florence South Carolina
Car: Please choose from these Walmart locations that are definitely not in Florence
Me: (Sigh) Honey, could you look up the address for the Walmart in Florence on your phone?
Wife: There are two of them, one on North Beltline Drive and one on Irby Street
Me: North Beltline Drive, I think thatā€™s the one with the charger.
Wife: It is, I see the charger on the map
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to 230 North Beltline Drive in Florence South Carolina
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc, etc
Me: Oh thank goodness.

After a quick bathroom stop about 30 miles from Florence, the GPS went haywire. It had us about 1000 feet to the east of where we actually were, and got worse as we went along. That had happened to me once before, and it went back to normal the next time I turned on the car, so I decided to wing it to the Florence EA. (I knew how to get there thanks to all that prior planning!) We made it with 11% and 28 GOM miles (and the efficiency since that bathroom stop went all the way down to 2.3), leading to my first-ever low battery warning:
1650066640245.png


Pulling into Florence, we saw another Mach-E:

1650066684575.png


And then we went to get pizza!

1650066715596.png


Halfway through dinner, I decided to check the FordPass app, just to see how things were going. And wouldnā€™t you know it, there was a notification that charging has stopped. So I went over to the charger to check things out. There was a Bolt parked next to me, whose driver sheepishly told me that he might have accidentally disconnected me. He had taken the 2nd cable from the station I was using, and plugged it in to his car. He thought the station he was parked in front of was broken, since he plugged it in and nothing happened (it does say ā€œPlug in firstā€ after all ...). After I plugged my car back in and made sure it was charging again, I walked him through the EA app and got him started (his station was working just fine). He had just gotten his Bolt (it was a used ā€˜17 with a new battery pack), and I think it was his first time at a fast charger. Itā€™s a little sad to think about where he would have ended up if I werenā€™t there to help him ā€“ and it looks like EA has a little bit of work to do in the UX department.

But, since itā€™s an easy mistake to make, hereā€™s a PSA: the 2nd cable on an EA station is there so that you can reach a charging port on either side of your vehicle; itā€™s not a 2nd ā€œpumpā€ like at a gas station!

Based on my prior misadventures with voice navigation, I told the car nav the exact location of the hotel in Savannah, and it plotted a course with no drama, and no additional charge stops. It also had our position correct. And despite the significantly lower efficiency from the last leg, it still optimistically predicted a 100 mile buffer. As youā€™d expect, that started evaporating pretty quickly. The efficiency stayed pretty constant at 2.8, so between that and the mostly flat terrain of the SC Pee Dee and Low Country, there wasnā€™t much to worry about range wise.

Our hotel had two ClipperCreek chargers; when we arrived, one was occupied by a Model X, and the other by ā€¦ an ICE Mustang. Oh the irony! I suppose I could have complained to the front desk, but after 12 hours on the road, I wasnā€™t in the mood for drama when I had a perfectly acceptable Plan B. So we unloaded the car, and I set off by myself for the Enmarket gas/convenience next door.

1650067175704.png

This charger was a slower ChargePoint, so I was stuck for a while. I occupied my time by combing through the car looking for my wifeā€™s missing key fob, which was possibly misplaced by a child who used it to get into the car back in Florence. She was convinced it was still in the car, since she was able to open the liftgate while I was checking in to the hotel. But looking in between the seats, under the seats, all the door pockets turned up nothing. I eventually got a text saying ā€œI found it, it fell into a backpackā€. (Whew, no need to try PaaK ...)

And then I noticed an ICE Mustang peel out onto the main road. Hmm ā€¦ I wondered.

The rest of the time I spent fielding questions about the car from a nice couple in an F-150 who were filling up. The woman was interested in buying one, and I might have sold her on it but for the near impossibility of getting one right now. After they went on their merry way, the car got to 80% and I was ready to go. I went back to the hotel and found that the ICE Mustang had vacated the charger spot! I plugged in and went to bed, a successful day in the books.

More to come in this thread as I write it up ...
I apologize in advance as I did not read the entire post, but I just drove from the Florida Keys up to the Baltimore area. I have a red Mach-E and charged in Florence on Saturday, 4/16. If you're on I-95 and looking for a good place to stop, I highly recommend EA in Pooler, GA. It charges by the minute, but it cost me $6.01 for 39 kWh, which works out to 15.4 cents/kWh. Even better, there's Costco and Publix nearby.

What I would like are suggestions for avoiding the whole DC/Northern VA area. I've tried different days of the weekand different times of day but nothing seems to help. Traffic is always abominable. At least the adaptive cruise control made it easier.
 

jammic

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I apologize in advance as I did not read the entire post, but I just drove from the Florida Keys up to the Baltimore area. I have a red Mach-E and charged in Florence on Saturday, 4/16. If you're on I-95 and looking for a good place to stop, I highly recommend EA in Pooler, GA. It charges by the minute, but it cost me $6.01 for 39 kWh, which works out to 15.4 cents/kWh. Even better, there's Costco and Publix nearby.

What I would like are suggestions for avoiding the whole DC/Northern VA area. I've tried different days of the weekand different times of day but nothing seems to help. Traffic is always abominable. At least the adaptive cruise control made it easier.
Northern Virginia traffic cannot be avoided, you must become one with the traffic and let BlueCruise do the stop and go.

Source: I live in Alexandria and crawled through Fredericksburg yesterday afternoon. At least the express lanes go northbound on Sundays all day so you're guaranteed a good trip from Garrisonville to the DC line.
 

TheQ42

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I'll be driving from the Cleveland area to Destin, FL, then to Orlando, then back home to Cleveland this summer. Now I'm thinking I'll post a log like you did. More people need to see what's possible in an EV, and know how to work out the kinks too. :)

I've already pre-planned my route using Plugshare (I played with ABRP too . . . the routes were very similar, but I found Plugshare to be easier to find alternate charging stations). It seems very doable. The only sketchy bit will be driving through West Virginia because there just aren't many options there.
 


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rfrommd

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My suggestion would have been just hit the EA station at Florida Mall (Orlando) before getting to the land of the Rat. 80% should get you around the Kingdom for a week and up to the Ormond Beach EA station no problem assuming that is your exit route. Takes about 40% to 45% in out SR to go from Ormond down to Disney.
Our exit route plan was up 301 from Ocala to Jacksonville, so going back to Ormond wasn't an option. Unless I wanted to detour to Gainesville (more to come on that), the first DCFC was about 120 miles away.

Funny, I re-read my post and the backup EVGo option wasn't hours away like I originally posted, but minutes:

https://www.plugshare.com/location/75867

I considered The Florida Mall EA, but I wasn't keen on driving all the way up there. Fortunately the L2 worked out.

Funny the only real times we use Lvl2 away from home is when we go to Pei Wei and a lot of the times one of them is clogged up by a Pacifica, they seem to be a thing.
So no hotel charging? They're not as plentiful along my route as I was hoping, but they sure do come handy, and often free. Plus you usually get to start the day at 100%, which for me means an extra 60/70 miles before needing to charge, which usually gets me to the next EA charger down the road.
 
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rfrommd

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I've already pre-planned my route using Plugshare (I played with ABRP too . . . the routes were very similar, but I found Plugshare to be easier to find alternate charging stations). It seems very doable. The only sketchy bit will be driving through West Virginia because there just aren't many options there.
I'd love to hear about how to get through WV. Most stories I've read say "use I-81 through Virginia", which is way out of the way for that route.
 
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rfrommd

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Part 3: Disney for Retirees (i.e. The Villages)

This will be short.
  • Disney to The Villages via Scenic Downtown Leesburg, 62 miles, 3.5 mi/kWh
  • Charging: 66%ā†’100% in several sessions over 40 hours
After spending our third day at Disney at Universal and a few other side trips for off-property meals, we departed with about 86%. The hour drive on the Florida Turnpike and some local roads brought things down to about 66%. While that probably could have gotten me to the Jacksonville area, even after a few local trips, I wanted to start at 100% or the drive home and see if I could get to the EA charger in Brunswick GA, or perhaps all the way to Pooler/Savannah. So it was time to get out the Ford Mobile Charger and remember the ABCā€™s of Level 1 charging ā€“ Always Be Charging. When you arenā€™t driving, youā€™re charging.

Somewhat surprisingly, since most Villagers are not shy about striking up conversations with visitors, I was only asked about the car once during my flurry of errands. A man who used to work for GM asked the usual (range, is it fast?, how do you charge?), and remarked that he would probably go electric when it was time to trade in his Equinox. (Good news, there will be an electric version of that soon!)

Happily, I had enough time to charge all the way to 100% on L1 before leaving on Saturday morning.

Next up: the Long Ride Home. Will I get back without the dreaded ā€œStop Safely Nowā€ message? Can I continue to trust the nav when it suggests a charger that seems like a stretch to me? Will it ever find a destination by voice command on the first try? Will the hotel charger be ICEā€™d again? Now that my EA free charge bundle is gone, will I pick the convenience of Plug-N-Charge over saving some sweet, sweet coin and fussing with the EA app? Stay tuned!
 
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rfrommd

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Part 4: Living Between 40% and 80%
  • Leg 1: The Villages to EA Brunswick GA, 201 mi, 3.1 mi/kWh
  • Charge 1: 38% ā†’ 80% in 24 min
  • Leg 2: Brunswick to EA Walterboro SC, 132.7 mi, 3.5 mi/kWh
  • Charge 2: 38% ā†’ 80% in 24 min
  • Leg 3: Walterboro to EA Florence SC, 103.9 mi, 3.0 mi/kWh
  • Charge 3: 44% ā†’ 85% in 45 min
  • Leg 4: Florence to Hampton Inn Smithfield NC, 133.1 mi, 3.1 mi/kWh
  • Charge 4: 39%ā†’100% in 8 hours
As we left in the morning:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Hampton Inn in Smithfield NC
Car: No destinations found
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to 160 Towne Centre Place in Smithfield, NC
Car: No destinations found
Me: Seriously?
Me: <Furiously checks Google Maps for some other place nearby, finds Sheetz near hotel>
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to 1700 East Market Street in Smithfield, NC
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc ā€¦

And we were off, battery stuffed full of electrons and the GOM showing 305. The car wanted us to stop in Brunswick GA, Walterboro SC, and Lumberton NC, getting us to the hotel around 9 PM. But I wanted to stop on Florence again, since that pizza joint next door was so convenient. But I chose to worry about that later.

The car stayed at 100% for a good 20 or 30 miles, which I though was very odd. But the battery percentage eventually started going down, so I didnā€™t think too much of it. Instead of my usual route of I-75 to Ocala, and then over to US 301 to Baldwin, on the outskirts of Jacksonville, the nav wanted me to go up to Gainesville, go around the east side of town, and then get on 301 at Waldo. I thought it odd, but just rolled with it.

Much like the initial leg of the trip, efficiency was very good, although that had a lot to do with non-Freeway driving from Gainesville to Baldwin. Having the first stop be Pooler rather than Brunswick was a real possibility.

When I got to Brunswick, the GOM was still showing more than 100 miles of range left, meaning I could have easily made it another 70 miles or so to Pooler.

But it was getting to be lunchtime, and everyone was hungry. And if we were going to stop to eat, why not charge? So we stopped at a drive through for food and headed over to Ye Olde Walmart for charging.

While waiting at the drive through, I fiddled some with the nav, trying to see if explicitly adding the EA in Florence as a waypoint would add it as a charging stop. It rejiggered the charging stops, having us stop at Pooler and Florence; about 600 miles with two stops, just like our first day, and pretty impressive range-wise. But we were already committed to stopping, so ...

The trip down finished off my remaining FordPass charging bundle, so starting with this stop Iā€™d have to pay for EA. I did the math on the Pass+, and it was going to save me something like $20 for this trip (and probably closer to $30 given Iā€™ve got a weekend trip to NJ coming up later this month). So I gave up the brainless convenience of Plug and Charge for $aving$. Skipping Plug and Charge wasnā€™t bad ā€“ all I needed to do was open up the app, plug in, then tap on the NFC reader (NOT the credit card reader), and I was all set. Easier than my experience with ChargePoint via FordPass! And since Georgia is a per-minute state, I only had to pay $6 for 40 kWh of juice. (Although I did need to unplug and park elsewhere before we were finished with bathroom breaks, since the 80% cliff means itā€™s not worth sticking around after 80% ā€¦)

There was an ID.4 at the charger after we left ā€¦
Ford Mustang Mach-E Maryland to Florida, 1600 miles in an ER RWD Premium: A Series 1650506849515


After charging, it had us stopping at Walterboro again, which made sense; while we would have gotten there with plenty of charge, thereā€™s a long DCFC gap (105 miles or so) up to Florence, and covering that would have been dicey.

A little bit south of Savannah, I got an opportunity to try Blue/Adaptive Cruise in stop and go traffic for an extended period. Like many others have reported, it starts slowing down a lot later than I would in that situation, but it isnā€™t nerve-wracking, at least after the first time. Once it gets to a stop, itā€™s pretty good about not getting too close.

Once traffic (finally) broke up in South Carolina, I began noticing signs with mileage to Florence, which was consistently 1 mile less than the current GOM reading. Maybe? Nah, better safe than sorry. Besides, it was getting to be about 2 hours since the last stop, and people needed to use the bathroom, and perhaps in need of some snacks.

We arrived at Walterboro to find another Mach-E:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Maryland to Florida, 1600 miles in an ER RWD Premium: A Series 1650506817628

SC is a newly-minted per-kWh state, so charging was a little more expensive ā€“ $13 for the same 40 kWh.

Since we charged to 80% again, we didnā€™t necessarily need to stop in Florence; we had plenty of charge to make the 55 miles to the next EA charger at Lumberton NC. But we liked the pizza joint, and weā€™d be able to eat outside and not in the car, so it was worth charging at suboptimal SOC.

There was another Mach-E when we got there:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Maryland to Florida, 1600 miles in an ER RWD Premium: A Series 1650506788070


And not one, but two white ID.4ā€™s when we left:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Maryland to Florida, 1600 miles in an ER RWD Premium: A Series 1650506749522


We had over 40% when we got there, so we got to 80% pretty quickly. We didnā€™t rush dinner, though, and by the time we got back to the car we were at 85%, which was far more than we needed to get to the hotel in Smithfield.

The last leg to Smithfield was uneventful (and dark). And when we got there, the charger wasnā€™t ICEā€™d, so no need to dash over to the EA at the nearby outlet mall.
Ford Mustang Mach-E Maryland to Florida, 1600 miles in an ER RWD Premium: A Series 1650506720449


Next up: the finale, featuring my first-ever bout of range anxiety!
 

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I apologize in advance as I did not read the entire post, but I just drove from the Florida Keys up to the Baltimore area. I have a red Mach-E and charged in Florence on Saturday, 4/16. If you're on I-95 and looking for a good place to stop, I highly recommend EA in Pooler, GA. It charges by the minute, but it cost me $6.01 for 39 kWh, which works out to 15.4 cents/kWh. Even better, there's Costco and Publix nearby.

What I would like are suggestions for avoiding the whole DC/Northern VA area. I've tried different days of the weekand different times of day but nothing seems to help. Traffic is always abominable. At least the adaptive cruise control made it easier.
Best way to go thru DC area is at 5 am on a Saturday going south and 10pm at night going north.
 
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rfrommd

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Part 5: Home!

Leg 1: Smithfield to EA Spotsylvania (VA) Towne Centre: 227 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh
Charge 1: 14%ā†’54% in 21 mins
Leg 2: Spotsylvania to Home: 71 mi, 3.3 mi/kWh

I intentionally front-loaded the first day of the trip back because we absolutely needed to be back home before 9 PM in order to collect our dogs from boarding, and I needed the second dayā€™s drive to be shorter. Dealing with Northern Virginia traffic when youā€™ve been on the road for 8 hours already and when you have a hard deadline to get to your destination is something you want to avoid at all costs. So this would be a fairly easy ride, about 5/6 hours, and only one charge stop.

As we got out to the car, one of the kids remarked about how windy it was. Well, I think to myself, range is going to be lousy today. But with 100% in the tank, I was still pretty confident that a single quick top-up would be all we needed. To the nav to find out where that stop would be!

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to $HOME_ADDRESS
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc.

It found the destination on the first try! Miracles do happen! Anyway, the car wanted to stop at Spotsylvania Towne Centre outside Fredricksburg VA, about 230 miles away, and predicted 25% battery on arrival. So it was expecting some good efficiency.

Unlike yesterday, the car didnā€™t hold 100% (reported) SOC for very long. As we continued northward through North Carolina, the efficiency stayed well below 3 due to the crosswinds (there was a lot more wind noise than usual, even if I couldnā€™t see the trees swaying very much). My GOM buffer started dropping as well, and continued to drop. When it came time to decide to go through or around Richmond, the car predicted I would arrive in Fredericksburg with around 17%, and my GOM buffer had shrunk to around 50 miles. It still wanted me to go around Richmond on I-295, which was longer and with higher speeds. I was a little wary, but I put my faith in the nav.

But the GOM and predicted charge kept dropping. I thought for a few brief moments, as I got closer to the I-95 merge north of Richmond, of bailing out to the Richmond EA, or an EVGo at a Wawa in the same general area. But even though the predicted arrival charge had dropped to 12% after just driving around Richmond on I-295, and my GOM buffer was getting close to only 30 miles, and there were exactly 0 DCFC chargers in the 50 miles or so between Richmond and Fredericksburg, I decided to continue on. After all, I still had 12% of buffer, and my efficiency, now down to 2.5, wouldnā€™t get much worse considering terrain and temperature. And if I was in real danger of running out, the car would have warned me by now, right? Right?

I merged back on to I-95 to discover that Northern Virginia-style traffic had made it all the way down to Richmond! Somewhat annoying, but that also meant opportunities for regen ā€¦ and more predicted range, and less anxiety. After about 5 miles of stop-and-go the GOM buffer started to creep up again, as did the trip computerā€™s stated efficiency, and as I got closer to Fredericksburg my confidence was restored. I got to the charger with 14%, not even a low battery warning!

The chargers were older than Iā€™d seen at my other stops, and when I plugged in, I didnā€™t get the ā€œtap your phoneā€ screen, but this:

Ford Mustang Mach-E Maryland to Florida, 1600 miles in an ER RWD Premium: A Series 1650594812480


But I disabled Plug and Charge! You shouldnā€™t have been trying that, charger! I briefly considered swapping to a different charger, but the next closest one (which could have reached my charge port) said it was unavailable. So before moving the car, I decided to do what the error message told me and unplug and replug to try again. Somewhat irrationally, I used the other cable to do it. But the other cable worked, and I was able to tap-and-charge with no other issue.

After we left, I switched over to Google Maps for better traffic info (and easy switching to alternate routes if needed). When it came time to switch over to the express lanes, it got very confused and kept updating the route and telling me do odd things (like make a U-Turn) to get into the regular lanes. Since Android Auto tries to use the car GPS when itā€™s available (which I read somewhere on this forum), I suspected the GPS was going haywire again, so I rebooted Sync. It didnā€™t fix the problem ā€“ things cleared up only when I exited the express lanes and onto the Beltway. Any NoVa folks ever notice oddities like this while using GPS in the 95 express lanes?

Besides that, the last leg, on familiar turf and with plenty of charge, was pretty uneventful. Thanks to the express lanes (which were free with 4 people in the car), there wasnā€™t much by way of traffic to deal with. So here the story ends, a successful multiday road trip in the Mach-E.
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