Mini rant on DC charging.

[Shepherd]

Steven, I share your rant on the state of CCS chargers in some locations. In Virginia Beach the CCS charging options are a disaster: not enough, don't work, don't initiate charging. I was forced to use Tesla, which i don't like to patronize for obvious reasons but it worked flawlessly. In contrast, I had no CCS charger problems on a 2000 mile round trip road trip to Florida. All of those were off I-95, whereas Virginia Beach is at the dead end of I-64.

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[gman76]

I am not sure I understand your question about Qmerit. Is that the cost of installing the outlet and they provide all the materials, or is that just the permit cost?

If that is the cost of installation including materials, it's a good deal assuming they use a good outlet. Get a BEV rated outlet. Search the forum and you will find information here about the right outlet to get.

I'm not purchasing any hardware, I have no say in the matter. The contractor will install whatever they typically have, I'm assuming it will be a quality 14-50 receptacle, GFI breaker, and wire.

The quote shows 2 items:
- a permit fee (Qmerit) as required by local building code enforcement (AHJ), site engineering and mapping schematics (eyes rolling), inspection fees and contractor time for onsite inspection $252
- furnish and install new 50A GFI breaker and receptacle, charger will be programmed to max current of 24A as required by NEC load calculation $253

When I talked to the contractor, he said there are other items that are not shown on the list that Ford pays him for. He said it's over $1000 of parts/labor.

According to the NEC code, a 50A breaker (or lower current) needs to have a GFI in it. I talked to the contractor and he thinks I'll get nuisance GFI tripping since the mobile charger has a GFI built in. Two GFIs in the same circuit tend to trip more often. He'd rather install the Ford hardwired charger to avoid the occasional circuit tripping but Ford can't provide me w/ the 48A charger.

I already have the mobile charger that came w/ the vehicle. I feel like doing it myself. I estimated $100-120 in parts (Hubbell/Leviton outlet, 4 ft wire, pvc box, metal cover plate, 50A 2-pole breaker). Although GFI breakers are more like $150. Local permit is estimated at $52. My point is that I could do everything for less than the Qmerit permit fee.

 

[rhougey]

I'm not purchasing any hardware, I have no say in the matter. The contractor will install whatever they typically have, I'm assuming it will be a quality 14-50 receptacle, GFI breaker, and wire.

The quote shows 2 items:
- a permit fee (Qmerit) as required by local building code enforcement (AHJ), site engineering and mapping schematics (eyes rolling), inspection fees and contractor time for onsite inspection $252
- furnish and install new 50A GFI breaker and receptacle, charger will be programmed to max current of 24A as required by NEC load calculation $253

When I talked to the contractor, he said there are other items that are not shown on the list that Ford pays him for. He said it's over $1000 of parts/labor.

According to the NEC code, a 50A breaker (or lower current) needs to have a GFI in it. I talked to the contractor and he thinks I'll get nuisance GFI tripping since the mobile charger has a GFI built in. Two GFIs in the same circuit tend to trip more often. He'd rather install the Ford hardwired charger to avoid the occasional circuit tripping but Ford can't provide me w/ the 48A charger.

I already have the mobile charger that came w/ the vehicle. I feel like doing it myself. I estimated $100-120 in parts (Hubbell/Leviton outlet, 4 ft wire, pvc box, metal cover plate, 50A 2-pole breaker). Although GFI breakers are more like $150. Local permit is estimated at $52. My point is that I could do everything for less than the Qmerit permit fee.

If you can do it cheaper, do it yourself. You apparently know how. You are very smart.

 

[MonkeyNutz]

CCS charging is still a bit flakey sometimes. We drove our Mach-E from DesMoines to Denver this weekend, I-80 to I-76. First charge stop was at an EVGO, a couple EA stops and one Tesla stop that all worked flawlessly. And one weird stop that had a couple "glitches" at the same travel center location. For our second stop we got routed to a Tesla charger in Wood River, NE (I think it was). Both the Apple Navigation and ABRP reported it as being CCS compatible -- It was not. I was instantly suspicious of that as we pulled up to it, looked to be V2, but I plugged in anyway and nope. Pulling up the location in the Tesla app showed it was V2 and not compliant, just as it appeared to be. In the same travel center there was a 250kW CCS fast charger in another area of the large parking lot, actually drove by it on the way in to approach the Tesla chargers. It was a Konnect, which I was not familiar with. First unit we plugged into would not initiate charging. Moved over to the next unit and it seemed to be working well and charged us to about 60% SOC, then just abruptly stopped and reported an error. But we felt we had enough so we went on our way.

I looked again that night and the Tesla chargers at that location were no longer showing up as compatible, so that was kinda weird.

Ended up with an additional charge stop on the trip due to the glitchy location crapping out to 60%, I should've went to 80% but oh well. Lots of chargers along this route now that were not there just two years ago.

 

[AhardFSU]

CCS charging is still a bit flakey sometimes. We drove our Mach-E from DesMoines to Denver this weekend, I-80 to I-76. First charge stop was at an EVGO, a couple EA stops and one Tesla stop that all worked flawlessly. And one weird stop that had a couple "glitches" at the same travel center location. For our second stop we got routed to a Tesla charger in Wood River, NE (I think it was). Both the Apple Navigation and ABRP reported it as being CCS compatible -- It was not. I was instantly suspicious of that as we pulled up to it, looked to be V2, but I plugged in anyway and nope. Pulling up the location in the Tesla app showed it was V2 and not compliant, just as it appeared to be. In the same travel center there was a 250kW CCS fast charger in another area of the large parking lot, actually drove by it on the way in to approach the Tesla chargers. It was a Konnect, which I was not familiar with. First unit we plugged into would not initiate charging. Moved over to the next unit and it seemed to be working well and charged us to about 60% SOC, then just abruptly stopped and reported an error. But we felt we had enough so we went on our way.

I looked again that night and the Tesla chargers at that location were no longer showing up as compatible, so that was kinda weird.

Ended up with an additional charge stop on the trip due to the glitchy location crapping out to 60%, I should've went to 80% but oh well. Lots of chargers along this route now that were not there just two years ago.

For anyone that maybe new to the Mach E or simply not know, for the most accurate list of compatible Tesla superchargers you should always look in the Tesla app, Tesla website under charging and 3rd, check the Ford Pass app under the ‘Energy’ option. Either one of those options will provide you with a list that is more up to date and accurate than Apple Maps, ABRP, Plug Share, or Google Maps.

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