Newbie Road Trip 101?

[CameraCarl]

My wife and I are thinking of leasing a Mach-E Premium to replace our Escape Hybrid (non-plug-in). I started another thread to ask about the wisdom of doing this and have some good, interesting and educational responses. Some of these responses got me thinking about another aspect of EVs that I have not fully considered. Although we will use the MME mostly around home, we will likely do some road trips in it. We live in Minnesota. It seems from reading this forum that taking a road trip requires more planning with an EV. Is there some place I can learn about what I need to know, and what apps I need to use (because apparently the Ford navigation system is not up to the task) in order to find the right kind of chargers, and hotels and restaurants along the route with chargers?

I'm a bit of a boy racer so the idea of the MME is exciting, but we are in our mid-70s and not that into apps and smart phones and that sort of thing, so maybe we ought to stay in the hydrocarbon age....? So maybe an EV is not for us. We would appreciate some guidance about that, too.

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[generaltso]

we are in our mid-70s and not that into apps and smart phones and that sort of thing, so maybe we ought to stay in the hydrocarbon age....? So maybe an EV is not for us. We would appreciate some guidance about that, too.

If you’re not into apps/phones and like to road trip, I’d avoid an EV for a while.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

EV road trips without apps and plenty of planning/knowledge, is just asking for a disaster. I am a planner, and a bit of a tech guy, so I enjoy it. Once the planning is over, and I’m on the road trip, I thoroughly enjoy the slightly more frequent, slightly longer breaks from driving. so I think the Mach-E is a perfect road trip vehicle, but it does require the phone and the planning.

and I am from the Rand McNally age, where you needed to cross reference how far between cities and make sure you’re had enough gas. With EV it’s more about ABRP to measure mileage and efficiency, then PlugShare, to confirm the chargers are reliable and sufficient speed. Plus checking, which hotel you want to rent and whether they have an EV charger available, and if it is reliable or not.

 

[timbop]

I put this tutorial together a couple of years ago and the ABRP software has changed some, but you'll get the basic idea of planning a road trip. Keep in mind I am very much a planner (my wife would say I'm nuts), but if you think of it as a game like doing a crossword or sudoku it's kind of fun.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...brp-abetterrouteplanner-com.12504/post-305239

 

[21st Century Pony]

I rely solely on the built-in Ford Nav to locate DC Fast charging stations.

I do have nine (!!) separate charging apps but this is solely to pay for charging, at often cheaper rates than thru the Ford Blue Oval Charging Network. With the addition of the very good Tesla DC Fast network, IMHO all a driver needs is the built-in Ford Nav for trips of any length.

I did sign up for ABRP over 18 months ago and frankly, never used it... found no real need, in 63,900 miles of driving thru most states, coast to coast and generally all over the country.

Final comment: the DC Fast charging point density is increasing, visibly although unevenly. It is observably better than it was in May 2022 when I bought my Mach E. This trend will continue.

Good Luck and have fun!

 

[thekat03]

I use Ford nav, but often double check chargers in PlugShare. Be warned, sometimes Ford has chargers that are not accessible listed. Some are easy to identify (all the Rivian Adventure Network is Rivian only right now), but some car dealerships or other stores only have chargers behind a gated area, reserved for their own vehicles only, or with restricted hours. I also started route planning with ABRP, because I had a different EV before the Mach-E, and sometimes use that, especially if I am not as happy with the suggested route from Ford.

 

[johnmark]

My wife and I are thinking of leasing a Mach-E Premium to replace our Escape Hybrid (non-plug-in). I started another thread to ask about the wisdom of doing this and have some good, interesting and educational responses. Some of these responses got me thinking about another aspect of EVs that I have not fully considered. Although we will use the MME mostly around home, we will likely do some road trips in it. We live in Minnesota. It seems from reading this forum that taking a road trip requires more planning with an EV. Is there some place I can learn about what I need to know, and what apps I need to use (because apparently the Ford navigation system is not up to the task) in order to find the right kind of chargers, and hotels and restaurants along the route with chargers?

I'm a bit of a boy racer so the idea of the MME is exciting, but we are in our mid-70s and not that into apps and smart phones and that sort of thing, so maybe we ought to stay in the hydrocarbon age....? So maybe an EV is not for us. We would appreciate some guidance about that, too.

There are 2 types of people in the world: those who are appalled at the amount of planning required for an EV road trip and those who find it thrilling. I'm in the latter category, and my wife is in the former. It makes me feel like I'm one of the old sea navigators and have to monitor my navigation tools with the modern version of a sextant, along with the occasional unplanned emergency stop because I miscalculated. It adds a nice sense of (low risk) adventure to the travels. My wife, otoh, just wants the fastest path between A and B and doesn't like the uncertainty of EV charging.

But in no circumstance would I consider an EV road trip without proficiency in the requisite tools, eg. the apps that make it possible. If that's not your bag, i think you'll find the experience to be painful. JMHO.

 

[timbop]

There are 2 types of people in the world: those who are appalled at the amount of planning required for an EV road trip and those who find it thrilling. I'm in the latter category, and my wife is in the former. It makes me feel like I'm one of the old sea navigators and have to monitor my navigation tools with the modern version of a sextant, along with the occasional unplanned emergency stop because I miscalculated. It adds a nice sense of (low risk) adventure to the travels. My wife, otoh, just wants the fastest path between A and B and doesn't like the uncertainty of EV charging.

But in no circumstance would I consider an EV road trip without proficiency in the requisite tools, eg. the apps that make it possible. If that's not your bag, i think you'll find the experience to be painful. JMHO.

Nicely stated

 

[generaltso]

There are 2 types of people in the world:

I thought there were 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.

 

[johnmark]

I thought there were 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.

That too

I wonder what it would look like if you overlaid the plots of both graphs

 

[New2EV]

I mostly use my car for work and back. Occasionally I'll take it on trips over a few hundred miles if it's just me or if I'm not in a hurry. But if I'm taking the whole family, we take our explorer. EV charging with my wife and kids giving me the "stare" just isn't worth it. There's a few things that worry me about your post. 1) cold weather (MN) 2) don't like apps 3) speed (boy racer). All cars use more energy the faster you go, but in an EV that means you'll have to be better at planning your trips and know your cars performance at the speed you drive. The car mileage meter is refered to on this forum as a "guess o meter"....it's far from perfect and relying on it can leave you in a bad situation. Cold weather reduces your range even more. If you want to jump in a car and road trip without thinking about it, I wouldn't recommend an EV for you. If you want to obsess over range and plan routes for charging and for backups if those chargers are full/broken, then maybe you'll like an EV. My dad is in his mid 70's and there is absolutely no way I'd recommend an EV for him.

For me, plugshare is the best app for finding places along the way to charge...but it lists everything...even ones that are not open to the public, without telling you that.

 

[timbop]

For me, plugshare is the best app for finding places along the way to charge...but it lists everything...even ones that are not open to the public, without telling you that.

I would expect that will be corrected by the time adapters start shipping

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I rely solely on the built-in Ford Nav to locate DC Fast charging stations.

I do have nine (!!) separate charging apps but this is solely to pay for charging, at often cheaper rates than thru the Ford Blue Oval Charging Network. With the addition of the very good Tesla DC Fast network, IMHO all a driver needs is the built-in Ford Nav for trips of any length.

I did sign up for ABRP over 18 months ago and frankly, never used it... found no real need, in 63,900 miles of driving thru most states, coast to coast and generally all over the country.

Final comment: the DC Fast charging point density is increasing, visibly although unevenly. It is observably better than it was in May 2022 when I bought my Mach E. This trend will continue.

Good Luck and have fun!

This is similar to how I road trip too. I have about 34,000 miles on my Mustang, most from road tripping.

Note that I'm talking about road trips over several days, not just a drive that requires several DC charge stops. For those I'll just tell the car I'm going soon, pack it, and go. But I also know, after two years of driving, that there are enough DCFCs around me that I can drive 12 hours or so in almost any direction without any issues. I'm located in northern Arizona.

With any (long) trip, whether it's in the Mustang, an ICE vehicle, or on a bicycle or on foot, I map out the route in Google maps (and/or a paper atlas or some hiking/biking tool), look for interesting side trips, etc. This usually takes me a few passes, over several months running up to the trip.

With the EV, I'll then run this set of stops through the excessively conservative A Better Route Planner just to see how ridiculous it thinks I'm being. I rarely use it for anything other than that one basic reference. I never use it while on the trip.

Once I have my basic route planned, I'll look at where I'm staying the night. Again, I do this with any vehicle (ICE motorcycle, ICE truck, ICE van, EV, bicycle, whatever). Once I find the general overnight stop locations, I start looking for accommodations. With an EV, I use PlugShare to look for places that have or are near Level 2 charging locations. If I'm camping, I also look at 50A electrical service and lack of hostility toward EVs.

Once the road trip starts, with the Mustang, I use Google Maps until I decide it's time to think about a stop and then ask the Ford Navigation to bring me to a fast charger. Sometimes, if I'm feeling untrusting of the charging, and I have a passenger, I ask them to look at the charger in the PlugShare app to see reviews of it. But often I don't bother or I don't have a passenger. While I'm charging, I look up my next 2-3 hour route and decide if I want a 2-hour drive or a 3-hour drive. I'll check if there are chargers on that route (always yes so far).

When I get to a charger, I plug and charge or use the charger company's app to pay for the charging, but mostly because I'm cheap and don't want to just pay with a credit card, which often also just works.

There are a lot of horror stories and I was super concerned about it when I got the Mustang. The first 1100 mile (round-trip) trip we took, I spent way too much time planning alternates, hours and hours of obsessing about ABRP, read every PlugShare review and worried about every charger. When we took the trip, we left in a snow storm, hit a massive head wind (gusting up to something like 50-60 mph), stressed about one particular stop, and arrived at that stop with 20%. Since that, I've dropped so much of the fear I had and learned to enjoy the trips.

I'm going on an up to 3,000 mile round trip road trip in a week or so but haven't started planning other than I looked at Google maps a week or two ago to see which route I wanted to try out. I think I'm going to camp in the Mustang, so I'll be looking for RV sites that have 50A service. Other than that, I am not worried about where I'll find the DCFCs. The absolute worst case scenario for that is that I'll need to call for a tow. I've ridden in a lot of tow trucks in my life, and all of them were related to ICEs breaking down.

Overall, there's a bit more planning involved in EV road tripping, but I don't think I do a whole lot more than I do with an ICE. That might be because I plan my ICE trips in similar detail.

 

[Opa]

My wife and I are thinking of leasing a Mach-E Premium to replace our Escape Hybrid (non-plug-in). I started another thread to ask about the wisdom of doing this and have some good, interesting and educational responses. Some of these responses got me thinking about another aspect of EVs that I have not fully considered. Although we will use the MME mostly around home, we will likely do some road trips in it. We live in Minnesota. It seems from reading this forum that taking a road trip requires more planning with an EV. Is there some place I can learn about what I need to know, and what apps I need to use (because apparently the Ford navigation system is not up to the task) in order to find the right kind of chargers, and hotels and restaurants along the route with chargers?

I'm a bit of a boy racer so the idea of the MME is exciting, but we are in our mid-70s and not that into apps and smart phones and that sort of thing, so maybe we ought to stay in the hydrocarbon age....? So maybe an EV is not for us. We would appreciate some guidance about that, too.

my wife is 67 and I am 70, we bought our MME because we are environmentalists. As I have posted on other threads, we have no problem with road trips here in Huntsville, Alabama to Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Michigan and other points

Your mileage be very because you’re in Minnesota, but with the Tesla charging network coming online, I can’t believe that you’re not going to be close to a DCFC within the next 3 to 5 months, if not now with Electrify America.

 

[Opa]

Edit: I feel agree with your decision to lease: we did the sand for three years and 1200 miles month so far so good!

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