New to EV and ford charging network

[CaptainET]

I'm new to EV and I've been very concerned that because most new owners were having problems activating ford charging network that I would not be able to charge at public chargers. To let others know that are new to EV, this is not a problem. I have had my car for 4 days and have not been able to activate my ford charging network. I've used two chargepoint chargers and one electrify america with no problem. With EA, it's kind of like a gas station-you put in credit card and charge at $0.43/ kwh. AT chargepont, you have to go to their website and join, then swipe member card or phone and charge car, when done it charges the cc you set up on individual account. Chargepoint was $1.50 / hour and charged at a rate of about 6kw. It seems to me all the ford charging network does is consolidate other chargers under one account with one cc to make it easier, but if ford charging network is not activated, you can still charge. I have limited experience, so If I'm wrong about any of this , please let me know how it really works.

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[CaptainET]

Guess I was the only one that didn't understand how EV charging works

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

I'm new to EV and I've been very concerned that because most new owners were having problems activating ford charging network that I would not be able to charge at public chargers. To let others know that are new to EV, this is not a problem. I have had my car for 4 days and have not been able to activate my ford charging network. I've used two chargepoint chargers and one electrify america with no problem. With EA, it's kind of like a gas station-you put in credit card and charge at $0.43/ kwh. AT chargepont, you have to go to their website and join, then swipe member card or phone and charge car, when done it charges the cc you set up on individual account. Chargepoint was $1.50 / hour and charged at a rate of about 6kw. It seems to me all the ford charging network does is consolidate other chargers under one account with one cc to make it easier, but if ford charging network is not activated, you can still charge. I have limited experience, so If I'm wrong about any of this , please let me know how it really works.

I believe everything you state is correct as far as you say it.

I'll add some things for clarity around ChargePoint:

• they offer RFID keytags and the like that some locations (e.g. Easton Mall in Columbus, OH) have available for free if you don't want to deal with your phone and don't want to have to pay to order a card. (They charge $4.95 to order one.)
  
  
• Not all locations are the same for ChargePoint - a lot of retail locations will give you free charging for a time (e.g. 2 hours), then start charging after that.

And two about EA:

• There is a discounted membership rate where you pay for the membership then pay at a lower rate.
• Where it's legal to do so, they are moving to a per kWh rate instead of a time-based rate, which is ultimately better. (There are places where "reselling electricity" in this way isn't legal and other such legal stuff.)

 

[JayDoc]

I'm new to EV and I've been very concerned that because most new owners were having problems activating ford charging network that I would not be able to charge at public chargers. To let others know that are new to EV, this is not a problem. I have had my car for 4 days and have not been able to activate my ford charging network. I've used two chargepoint chargers and one electrify america with no problem. With EA, it's kind of like a gas station-you put in credit card and charge at $0.43/ kwh. AT chargepont, you have to go to their website and join, then swipe member card or phone and charge car, when done it charges the cc you set up on individual account. Chargepoint was $1.50 / hour and charged at a rate of about 6kw. It seems to me all the ford charging network does is consolidate other chargers under one account with one cc to make it easier, but if ford charging network is not activated, you can still charge. I have limited experience, so If I'm wrong about any of this , please let me know how it really works.

Strange that a lot of the problems on the forum have been random.....Love my new MME but still no PaaK and , testing before a long trip I have planned soon, I failed to connect to Electrify America and a ChargePoint station. Help line at EA was very nice and told me to turn off FordPass "plug and charge" because the software was "fighting " with each other. I'll try again in a few days.

 

[Diamondjr]

I was able to charge at EA on Saturday with no challenge at all. Pulled up plugged in. The screen said welcome Mach E owner and started the charging session. Went from 7% to 80% in 40 minutes. Reduced it from my 250kWh credit from Ford.

Worked amazing!

 

[KAustin]

I was able to charge at EA on Saturday with no challenge at all. Pulled up plugged in. The screen said welcome Mach E owner and started the charging session. Went from 7% to 80% in 40 minutes. Reduced it from my 250kWh credit from Ford.

Worked amazing!

I had an issue yesterday while I was in a hurry. Tried two different machines and all four connections several time. Either gave me a connection error or went to the "pay" screen. Even when I tried to pay it would then give me an error message. Called EA's help desk. Tried to figure out the issue at both machines. She reset the second one, but still no luck. I asked her about getting a comp session which is what I had to do the last time it was an issue. She only gave me 10 minutes which I only noticed because I was going to disconnect at 10 min anyway because, again, I was in a hurry. The good thing is that I was able to add 71 miles in that time frame.

 

[mixduptransistor]

I'm new to EV and I've been very concerned that because most new owners were having problems activating ford charging network that I would not be able to charge at public chargers. To let others know that are new to EV, this is not a problem. I have had my car for 4 days and have not been able to activate my ford charging network. I've used two chargepoint chargers and one electrify america with no problem. With EA, it's kind of like a gas station-you put in credit card and charge at $0.43/ kwh. AT chargepont, you have to go to their website and join, then swipe member card or phone and charge car, when done it charges the cc you set up on individual account. Chargepoint was $1.50 / hour and charged at a rate of about 6kw. It seems to me all the ford charging network does is consolidate other chargers under one account with one cc to make it easier, but if ford charging network is not activated, you can still charge. I have limited experience, so If I'm wrong about any of this , please let me know how it really works.

Honestly, in the grand scheme of things if EV chargers would just accept credit cards and touchless NFC payment like NFC credit cards and Apple/Google Pay, it would be so much better

They're trying to replicate the Tesla integrated billing model, and that is great--I had a Tesla, and plug & charge is definitely handy, but as buggy as it is (and as buggy as it is destined to remain--it will be hard to ever get it perfect with so many different parties involved)

I suspect another reason behind these accounts is so that they can do bulk credit card transactions to save on fees (IE: just charge your card when you fund your account, not every time you hit a charger)

But, if you could just tap or swipe your card it would be just as convenient and easy to use as a gas station. Wish more networks would at least have both options, if anything

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