No more road trips with our Mach-E. A 2 hour drive to Joshua Tree turns into a 3 hour drive.

[Blue highway]

You've seen Supercharger prices right? They're far from the going rate per kW. Why not add a 'third party access tax' on top of each charge or charge a little more per kW for third party access. Those pennies add up. Like Visa transaction fees. Little here and there becomes a source of income once everyone is hooked. So much so Tesla could probably bring back free charging for Tesla cars on the backs of the persons accessing the chargers via third parties.

the fees add up yes... to an amount that doesn't pay for the equipment, maintenance, fees, taxes, etc.

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[BilLongua]

Just for clarity, I do not think opening up their charging network is an economic benefit.... it looks like an economic loser.

Here is why... Their biggest selling advantage is their charge network. They erase that if it is open to competitors. AND, the profit from one car is much > than the profit from a bunch of chargers. It's hard to know for sure, but it looks like the Supercharger network runs at breakeven at best and may actually lose a little money...

They are already doing it in other countries and have stated they will do it in the US. It’s totally a profit move, and they can still offer it to Tesla owners for free or deeply discounted as a competitive advantage. Musk already gave away his IP on the electric cars, because he has stated many times that he wants to promote the technology & clean energy, not just make money. But opening his network to sell electrons for profit would only make more money for the company.

 

[eleven24]

Bought my 2022 MME GT 10 months ago. We are retired. Love the car, not one thing has gone wrong...but...like I said we are retired so our trips are less than 200 miles round trip at most. There are no superchargers other than Tesla ones within 60 miles of my location in NH. The state has a plan to build a few superchargers in 2025.

The only good infrasture around here is Tesla but there are few EV's so they are usually sitting empty. Tesla is slashing prices so they are having trouble selling cars. The one thing that Musk has mastered is the charging infrastructure. He knows how to build it out. Why does he not capitalize on that, charging all non-Tesla's a surcharge for usage? Then using this extra income to build more. He has a valuable commodity that no one else has.

A year ago I told all my friends EV is the way to go. Now I am not sure. The general public is not going to deal with all this crap in charging. It seems a mess and getting worse as more EV's come out. Sorry for the rant but the charging nightmare has to change or the masses are going to reject EV's. Sorry for the rant

Interestingly enough, Tesla's charging network is built on the money Musk generated from the likes of Ford, GM, etc. Being an all electric car company, Tesla didn't need the regulatory credits so they sold them to companies like Ford - who did need them - and used that revenue to build out their Supercharger network.

In essence, Ford helped build Tesla's lead in their charging infrastructure.

 

[Johnny572]

Apart from Tesla, other ev cars are not recommended for long road trips. It's just not reliable.

FWIW,
Major Ford dealers have at least 2 charge points. And they mostly offer it for free. They only do 32-50 amps. Try that

I road trip just fine with my MachE and now with preconditioning it gets better! Thanks for the input but no one cares!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I road trip just fine with my MachE and now with preconditioning it gets better!

Me too. Most of the 12k miles on our Mustang are from a regular 1100 mile trip we take every month or so between northern AZ and Los Angeles.

It's funny to me that I keep hearing I can't do long road trips in the Mustang. Please nobody tell the car... We're going again in a week or so.

 

[Subdude]

I'm wandering across the US at the moment. Started in North Carolina - am now in San Diego, headed up the coast. I have learned a lot. While I obviously disprove the notion you can't take a standard range Mach-e on long trips, I'd also say you can't be in a hurry to get somewhere.

Some charging stations are listed as rapid chargers and they're not. A dealership in Wichita Falls which is the only charging game in town there charges 2x normal rates. A woman near San Diego hit the stop button on the charger thinking she could knock me off so she could charge her car on the other cable. A Ford dealership in Dallas refuse to let me use their charging cable because I did not buy my car from them, even though my brother is a customer of theirs with multiple Fords.

Every day is an adventure!

Be prepared to spend an hour or more per day plotting out your charging plan.
I had the flexibility to sit thru the ice storm in Tx last week - waited 3 days for warmer weather as operating at 1/2 normal range due to the bitter cold would not have been a safe bet.

Still not sure what route I'm taking through the Rockies coming back as I can find no reliable information on how to estimate the impact of crossing them. Climbing the 4000 ft over the hills into San diego, I should have had 80 miles left at the end. of that leg. At one point on the way up it looked like I might end up with 40 miles or less, but made up enough on the way down that I actually had 67 mi left at the end. And, of course, the Rockies represent a much deeper climb.

To get from the Reno area to the Grand Canyon, I may need to circle back to California as the charging stations are fairly far apart north of Las Vegas.

I'm retired and just wandering, so I can afford the time and risk.

 

[Logal727]

I'm wandering across the US at the moment. Started in North Carolina - am now in San Diego, headed up the coast. I have learned a lot. While I obviously disprove the notion you can't take a standard range Mach-e on long trips, I'd also say you can't be in a hurry to get somewhere.

Some charging stations are listed as rapid chargers and they're not. A dealership in Wichita Falls which is the only charging game in town there charges 2x normal rates. A woman near San Diego hit the stop button on the charger thinking she could knock me off so she could charge her car on the other cable. A Ford dealership in Dallas refuse to let me use their charging cable because I did not buy my car from them, even though my brother is a customer of theirs with multiple Fords.

Every day is an adventure!

Be prepared to spend an hour or more per day plotting out your charging plan.
I had the flexibility to sit thru the ice storm in Tx last week - waited 3 days for warmer weather as operating at 1/2 normal range due to the bitter cold would not have been a safe bet.

Still not sure what route I'm taking through the Rockies coming back as I can find no reliable information on how to estimate the impact of crossing them. Climbing the 4000 ft over the hills into San diego, I should have had 80 miles left at the end. of that leg. At one point on the way up it looked like I might end up with 40 miles or less, but made up enough on the way down that I actually had 67 mi left at the end. And, of course, the Rockies represent a much deeper climb.

To get from the Reno area to the Grand Canyon, I may need to circle back to California as the charging stations are fairly far apart north of Las Vegas.

I'm retired and just wandering, so I can afford the time and risk.

Using the ABRP app should give you an accurate representation of going through the rockies

 

[mkhuffman]

I'm wandering across the US at the moment. Started in North Carolina - am now in San Diego, headed up the coast. I have learned a lot. While I obviously disprove the notion you can't take a standard range Mach-e on long trips, I'd also say you can't be in a hurry to get somewhere.

Some charging stations are listed as rapid chargers and they're not. A dealership in Wichita Falls which is the only charging game in town there charges 2x normal rates. A woman near San Diego hit the stop button on the charger thinking she could knock me off so she could charge her car on the other cable. A Ford dealership in Dallas refuse to let me use their charging cable because I did not buy my car from them, even though my brother is a customer of theirs with multiple Fords.

Every day is an adventure!

Be prepared to spend an hour or more per day plotting out your charging plan.
I had the flexibility to sit thru the ice storm in Tx last week - waited 3 days for warmer weather as operating at 1/2 normal range due to the bitter cold would not have been a safe bet.

Still not sure what route I'm taking through the Rockies coming back as I can find no reliable information on how to estimate the impact of crossing them. Climbing the 4000 ft over the hills into San diego, I should have had 80 miles left at the end. of that leg. At one point on the way up it looked like I might end up with 40 miles or less, but made up enough on the way down that I actually had 67 mi left at the end. And, of course, the Rockies represent a much deeper climb.

To get from the Reno area to the Grand Canyon, I may need to circle back to California as the charging stations are fairly far apart north of Las Vegas.

I'm retired and just wandering, so I can afford the time and risk.

Repeating again: BEVs are not ready for normal people and we are all early adopters. If you are not ready for an adventure, you should not take a BEV on a trip. I like adventures, but 1+ hour charging stops get old very fast.

 

[Subdude]

Using the ABRP app should give you an accurate representation of going through the rockies

Thanks for that advice. I have been having a lot of challenges with ABRP - it spins, then stops before coming back with a route. I'll try posting on their forum to see why that happens. They also sometimes return routes with far greater distances between charges than are possible with any Ford vehicle.

 

[astronut325]

Repeating again: BEVs are not ready for normal people and we are all early adopters. If you are not ready for an adventure, you should not take a BEV on a trip. I like adventures, but 1+ hour charging stops get old very fast.

I think this stance is valid, however, it only applies to non-Tesla EVs for the most part.

 

[ToddH]

I'm wandering across the US at the moment. Started in North Carolina - am now in San Diego, headed up the coast. I have learned a lot. While I obviously disprove the notion you can't take a standard range Mach-e on long trips, I'd also say you can't be in a hurry to get somewhere.

Some charging stations are listed as rapid chargers and they're not. A dealership in Wichita Falls which is the only charging game in town there charges 2x normal rates. A woman near San Diego hit the stop button on the charger thinking she could knock me off so she could charge her car on the other cable. A Ford dealership in Dallas refuse to let me use their charging cable because I did not buy my car from them, even though my brother is a customer of theirs with multiple Fords.

Every day is an adventure!

Be prepared to spend an hour or more per day plotting out your charging plan.
I had the flexibility to sit thru the ice storm in Tx last week - waited 3 days for warmer weather as operating at 1/2 normal range due to the bitter cold would not have been a safe bet.

Still not sure what route I'm taking through the Rockies coming back as I can find no reliable information on how to estimate the impact of crossing them. Climbing the 4000 ft over the hills into San diego, I should have had 80 miles left at the end. of that leg. At one point on the way up it looked like I might end up with 40 miles or less, but made up enough on the way down that I actually had 67 mi left at the end. And, of course, the Rockies represent a much deeper climb.

To get from the Reno area to the Grand Canyon, I may need to circle back to California as the charging stations are fairly far apart north of Las Vegas.

I'm retired and just wandering, so I can afford the time and risk.

In September of 2021, I drove my MME RWD Prem LR from San Jose, CA to San Diego. Left early afternoon and ran into traffic so stayed in a hotel overnight. We were there for a wedding reception. The morning after the reception, Labor Day, we started the trip to Manchester, TN where I was registered to start running a race on Thursday at 1 PM. We arrived Wednesday in the late afternoon giving me plenty of time to get rested before my run on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and the finish on Sunday at noon. Left Monday AM for San Jose and arrived on Thursday in the early afternoon. Had minor problems with charging in Oklahoma and with an EA station that closed when we entered California. The California EA station was the bigger problem as I had run the battery down to where it only had about 30 miles of range and the next DCFC was about 50 miles away. Used a Lvl 2 charger in a local shopping center and slept there while my wife stayed in our hotel. I considered the prolems minor in part because we were never in any danger of being stranded. Inconvenient? Very. But just part of the adventure of making a cross country trip. I can think of worse things that could have happened but they didn't.

My recommendation though goes beyond what I've seen so far from Ford and others that use the CCS charging networks although it borrows from what I believe is the best parts of what others are doing. I like the idea of Ford having dedicated customer DCFC in dealer lots. If Ford is going to use a direct to customer model for their EVs, there should be additional space in the dealer lots. Put in not only chargers but a convenience store/rest stop for people stopping to refill the battery on their trip. Whether it's vending machines or a minimart kind of experience with restrooms and AC/heated lounge area, it would be a welcome sight for customers on long road trips. And, make it available to anyone for a one time fee and a discounted fee (potentially free) for subscribers/customers using the Ford Pass app. The access fee and profits from the minimart could be arranged so the dealer has a new, regular revenue stream and Ford should be able to get some or all of the Ford Pass app or access fee.

This would be far better than setting up in gas stations like "Pilot" or "TA". It would have made my many long distance trips (I've a few from San Jose to Gilbert, AZ) much easier. And the customer lounge/charging experience is being tried by Tesla and for CCS in Europe. Not entirely new but would definitely sell non-Tesla EVs better.

 

[mkhuffman]

In September of 2021, I drove my MME RWD Prem LR from San Jose, CA to San Diego. Left early afternoon and ran into traffic so stayed in a hotel overnight. We were there for a wedding reception. The morning after the reception, Labor Day, we started the trip to Manchester, TN where I was registered to start running a race on Thursday at 1 PM. We arrived Wednesday in the late afternoon giving me plenty of time to get rested before my run on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and the finish on Sunday at noon. Left Monday AM for San Jose and arrived on Thursday in the early afternoon. Had minor problems with charging in Oklahoma and with an EA station that closed when we entered California. The California EA station was the bigger problem as I had run the battery down to where it only had about 30 miles of range and the next DCFC was about 50 miles away. Used a Lvl 2 charger in a local shopping center and slept there while my wife stayed in our hotel. I considered the prolems minor in part because we were never in any danger of being stranded. Inconvenient? Very. But just part of the adventure of making a cross country trip. I can think of worse things that could have happened but they didn't.

My recommendation though goes beyond what I've seen so far from Ford and others that use the CCS charging networks although it borrows from what I believe is the best parts of what others are doing. I like the idea of Ford having dedicated customer DCFC in dealer lots. If Ford is going to use a direct to customer model for their EVs, there should be additional space in the dealer lots. Put in not only chargers but a convenience store/rest stop for people stopping to refill the battery on their trip. Whether it's vending machines or a minimart kind of experience with restrooms and AC/heated lounge area, it would be a welcome sight for customers on long road trips. And, make it available to anyone for a one time fee and a discounted fee (potentially free) for subscribers/customers using the Ford Pass app. The access fee and profits from the minimart could be arranged so the dealer has a new, regular revenue stream and Ford should be able to get some or all of the Ford Pass app or access fee.

This would be far better than setting up in gas stations like "Pilot" or "TA". It would have made my many long distance trips (I've a few from San Jose to Gilbert, AZ) much easier. And the customer lounge/charging experience is being tried by Tesla and for CCS in Europe. Not entirely new but would definitely sell non-Tesla EVs better.

I have run a few marathons and triathlons but never an ultra. I stopped marathons for a while and told my wife I will run another one after I retire. I am so inspired by you and people who keep me motivated to try something even harder after I retire. Keep doing it man!

 

[nvabill]

Went to Joshua Tree from eastern Los Angeles. It’s about 110 miles each way. Going there I decided to stop at the Cabazon Electrify America station because I didn’t want to stop at the station at night on the way back home.

Got to the station. Completely full. There is an EV GO station immediately next to the EA station. I park in the EV GO spot, get out in the pouring rain, and spend the next 5 or so minutes plugging and unplugging because the charger just wouldn’t communicate with the Mach-E. Then it finally worked! Yay! But it capped out at 9KW. I charged for a little over 20 minutes and got a whopping 2% charge. Then someone cleared out of one EA spot. In the 20 minutes I charged with EV GO, a few EVs came, waited and then decided to keep moving. In an effort to secure the EA spot I asked my wife to block the spot for our Mach-E. That pissed off a few people waiting.

But that’s not all. I had to plug and unplug the EA connector many times and it would fail every single time. I’m already late to get to my destination and this was really boiling my blood. I eventually call the EA number, they do something and it finally works. About 15 minutes elapsed from the time I parked in the EA spot and the time I got my first charge. Got 15 minutes of charge and then emptied the EA spot as there was a line.


My frustrations with my Mach-E grow day by day. And with each 100+ mile trip I feel my hatred for the vehicle ascend to heights I never felt before. I do concede this isn’t necessarily on the Mach-E. This was on EV Go and Electrify America. However, I passed a Tesla Supercharger with plenty of spots and seamless charging. And last week I went on a trip with a buddy in his Tesla. Never a single issue at any Supercharger. Just put the address in and go. The software figures out what and where and how much you need to charge. And every charger just worked. Why can’t it be like that in the Mach-E?

I’m thinking of calling around to get trade in values for the Mach-E.

Best of luck to you, better do it sooner than later because used Mach E prices are rapidly tanking!

 

[ToddH]

I have run a few marathons and triathlons but never an ultra. I stopped marathons for a while and told my wife I will run another one after I retire. I am so inspired by you and people who keep me motivated to try something even harder after I retire. Keep doing it man!

Call the motivation mutual. I get motivated by others whether they run a mile or a hundred. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the race. It's called "A Race For The Ages" (ARFTA). One mile course as many times as you can. Start times are based on age. One hour for each year starting at age 40. Go as much as you can until it's over. Buckles for 100 and 200 miles. Male and Female runners with the most miles is declared the winner. The race director is usually Gary Cantrell AKA Lazarus Lake. He's probably best known for the Barkley Marathon. Hope to see you at ARFTA!!!

 

[mkhuffman]

Call the motivation mutual. I get motivated by others whether they run a mile or a hundred. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the race. It's called "A Race For The Ages" (ARFTA). One mile course as many times as you can. Start times are based on age. One hour for each year starting at age 40. Go as much as you can until it's over. Buckles for 100 and 200 miles. Male and Female runners with the most miles is declared the winner. The race director is usually Gary Cantrell AKA Lazarus Lake. He's probably best known for the Barkley Marathon. Hope to see you at ARFTA!!!

I had to look it up to confirm because I thought that was the race you were referring to. One day - maybe. The thing I don't like about marathons is the training. I can imagine how arduous ultra marathon training is.

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