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

[alexgorod]

I have an extended range Premium. Full charge showed 270ish miles.

Another mistake - trusting the GOM.

I think one of the recent updates changed the GOM algorithm to show summer distance at full charge to calm people saying that they got a wrong battery in their cars... It's getting more realistic with less charge - yesterday I started with 180 miles at 90% (barely achievable even in summer) and finished with a very reasonable 32 at 20%.

Sponsored

 

[joebruin77]

I have a lot of empathy for the OP. While it is true there are some things the OP could have done on his end, overall his frustrating experience speaks to some very real issues and problems with road tripping in a non Tesla EV.

I speak from a unique experience in that we have both a 2022 MME GTPE and a 2018 Tesla. I recently shared a post about a road trip we took from LA to San Diego this past holiday break. At first, we were excited to take the MME on our first road trip. But as I did my homework the night before, I became concerned. The local EA closest to our Airbnb had a total of 4 charges. It turns out one was a level 2 charger, leaving 3 DC fast chargers, 2 of which were down. There was a local EvGo station with 6 DC fast chargers, but plugshare said two were down. And the EvGo app was glitching on me over and over again. So to plan my MME road trip, I had to check on the status of two fast charging stations, run by two different companies. I had to check at least 3 different apps (EA, EvGo, and Plugshare) and I still wasn't confident that the info I had was accurate.

I then went to my Tesla. I typed in the address of my Airbnb. I could see two superchargers within a 5 milie radius. The first had 10 stalls, the second had 46 stalls. I could tell both on my car's screen and on the Tesla app on my phone how many stalls were available at each supercharger in real time. AND with confidence that the info was up to date and accurate.

My point is not to simply point out how much better the Tesla road tripping experience is. My point is to highlight the nearly seemless integration of the car, the fast charging station, and the app. Because Tesla designs the software in the car, owns and operates the superchargers, and designs and sells the app, it really does work beautifully. Because Ford does NOT own and operate the fast charging stations and because the number of charging stalls is significantly less at each station, I believe more and more people will have experiences similar to the OP.

 

[Blue highway]

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

a few things to consider -

Most people take road trips beyond 100 miles really infrequently... EVs are less convenient on road trips and will be for a decade or more but it is mostly a pain a few times a year. Charging at home is much less of a pain than pumping gas.

Rural places are going to be in the worst shape for DCFC for a long time, just as they are/were for internet. That didn't stop internet adoption.

Almost all EV buyers have multiple cars, so an ICE car is usually an option

Take it with a grain of salt, but the Tesla price cuts are intentional to drive market share at the cost of margin. https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-explains-tesla-lower-prices/ we will see

The Tesla Model Y is on track to be the worlds best selling model in 2023. We will see. (America is a bit of an EV laggard... I attribute this to vast distances Europeans can not imagine)

 

[shadowsjc]

Surprised at most of the replies to this post. Honestly they come off as mach-e Stans rather than users of a mach-e discussion (both positive and negative) forums.

I've had very similar experiences in my last 1.5 years of ownership. The fast charging is simply unreliable, and when it works it's usually laughably slow. The fact is that the current generation of mach-es (and really most other EVs) are not really suited for long drives.

 

[minders]

You may want to google lines at Tesla super chargers... they happen there too.

EA really does need to do better with station maintenance, but I haven't had a lot of charge station drama... more stress than actual impact. The MME does require you to plan.

Personal experience chiming in here to back this up... Before we got my MME, we took hubby's M3 on a road trip from south of Atlanta up to Knoxville, TN. We needed to charge and went to the supercharger there and it was a nightmare. Ten stalls and 4 were down. Crazy long line. We waited over an hour (pretty low amount of charge left or we wouldn't have waited) and watched people almost get into a fist fight because they thought someone was jumping the line. Car only showed 2 of the stalls were dead. We went in and reported the other 2. While Tesla can be awesome for charging, it's not always a grass is greener situation.

 

[joebruin77]

Personal experience chiming in here to back this up... Before we got my MME, we took hubby's M3 on a road trip from south of Atlanta up to Knoxville, TN. We needed to charge and went to the supercharger there and it was a nightmare. Ten stalls and 4 were down. Crazy long line. We waited over an hour (pretty low amount of charge left or we wouldn't have waited) and watched people almost get into a fist fight because they thought someone was jumping the line. Car only showed 2 of the stalls were dead. We went in and reported the other 2. While Tesla can be awesome for charging, it's not always a grass is greener situation.

I appreciate your experience and perspective. It shows that a Tesla supercharger is not immune to these problems. But the example you shared is just one sample. You would draw very minimal conclusions if a research study had a sample size of one subject.

In other words, how often does the situation you describe happen at superchargers and how often does it happen at EA stations? I don't have any actual data, but I suspect it is rather rare at Superchargers and more frequent at EA stations.

Personally, I have taken my Tesla on multiple road trips in California and Nevada and I have never had any problems at all. I think one time I plugged into a supercharger stall and it did not charge. So I laid the plug on the ground and moved to the next stall over.

I think Tesla does a good job of monitoring places and periods of heavy use and relatively quickly adds more stalls. For example, in Kettleman City, CA, there is a Supercharger along the 5 freeway that is heavily used. Tesla expanded that supercharger from 50 stalls to 96 stalls.

I wonder if there is any data out there on how quickly Supercharger stations and stalls are added and how this compares to the rate at which EA and EvGo stations and stalls are added. That would be informative and interesting to look at.

 

[KevinS]

We're still very much in an early adopter nation for EVs. I don't care how many Teslas get sold or how many tax breaks the US government gives. It's not for everyone, nor will it ever be for some.

The last 2 years have been the equivalent of the dot-com era in the 90's for the Internet. Lots of speculation and there will be some spectacular flame-outs. You can bank on that.

 

[DYohn]

We just returned home to the Phoenix area from a week-long trip up to Santa Fe to visit family. Were all the EA charging stations at 100%? No. Did we have to plan our trip to take best advantage of the infrastructure along the way? Yes. Did we find the experience exasperating to the point where we want to abandon the MME? No. Does Ford own any responsibility for the state of the non-Ford charging network? No. Is Tesla ahead when it comes to charging infrastructure? Yes, they created it as part of their business model. Ford is selling a car, not a support system. Tesla is selling a system. Different philosophy. Choose the one that suits you.

 

[mwtechy]

while big oil might not have a place in the future EV world...maybe gas station attendants do. These things fail constantly it looks like and need constant babysitting. I think the issue with CCS is that it needs to support so many other cars, not just tesla. I've seen one cross section of a tesla vs CCS chargers while not anything specific it did show the drastically reduced # of circuit boards/wires in tesla. I don't know a ton about them but one thing I think they make a mistake on is trying to shove an entire PC into them. Saving on cost by not designing new hardware tends to have the user finding more problems than they need to deal with. Things will change a lot in the next few years with GM and ford investing in charging networks not to mention others. It might be frustrating now but it's only likely to improve. That being said, today I would not want to mess with DCFC every single day as there are just way too many things that can go wrong. But hey be glad you didn't buy a hydrogen car then.

 

[voxel]

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.

Because the income is pennies and doesn’t even cover the cost to retrofit the chargers (could be hundreds of thousand per location) and software development. Government needs to print more of that fiat money and dump it at the feet of Tesla via NEVI for it to happen.

Instead of getting angry at another random carmaker(that you don’t even own a car from) how about directing towards Ford? Mercedes and Rivian are building out a network. Same with GM.

What is Ford doing? Press releases about Charging Karens (I mean Angels).

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Surprised at most of the replies to this post. Honestly they come off as mach-e Stans

The fact is that the current generation of mach-es (and really most other EVs) are not really suited for long drives.

wasn’t trying to be a Stan. In fact I was agreeing that if you’re in a hurry, perhaps EVs aren’t the way to go. But it can be great for long trips, if your goal is to the trip versus getting to a destination as fast as possible.

I’ll also add that i council a lot of folks not to get EVs. The kind of folks who aren’t great at planning ahead, researching chargers on PlugShare, and planning for different temperatures versus speed curve; shouldn’t be trying to string this all together.

 

[Phil Martin]

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.

I have a friend who was interested in our plugin hybrid. Yesterday we were on our way pickup a few things in it and he asked me why I didn't buy a full BEV like the Mache that I was considering a while ago. I stopped at a newly installed EA station. Out of the four, one was already busted. I told him, I love driving on electric, but only around town. I don't want to be held hostage at charging stations due to busted chargers or slow chargers. I'm not sure if I could handle waiting 45-60 minutes getting a charge even when things go smoothly, and that's not even considering being out in the rain, cold, heat. And I'm not going to spend 60+ on a car only to be able to drive it around town.

I understand your grief. I'm not sure if driving full electric is worth it. I'll stick to plugin hybrids or just hybrids for now. Zero stress.

Ironically, we also passed by Tesla's supercharger station. All appeared to be working.

 

[AKgrampy]

Ford has power over their suppliers and they used it to solve a problem. I understand your position. You don’t think it’s courageous to do so. But remember that Ford has a pretty weak balance sheet and shouldn’t use their own capital to finance infrastructure, at a time when they need it to redesign and retool. Also, Ford was public about their opinion of their dealers being too high cost relative to Tesla. Why not gamble and squeeze them for a bit more value? Compare that to GM that’s been busy buying them out.

I am a bit jaded as my local dealer is opting out and after Dec there will be no service within 350 miles. There are only about 10 or 12 Ford EV’S in town so no need for DCFC. I am not 100% sure the Ford dealer in Anchorage is opting in either and if not the nearest service is 1500 miles.

 

[Phil Martin]

I’m having a really hard time understanding this plan. The need for fast chargers is along major highways and freeways. Especially in between major metro areas. I don’t see Ford dealers when I’m on the way out of town alongside the freeways.

I think some are trying to be optimistic.

But reality is there is no magic that happens in a few years that makes road tripping in a BEV more tolerable. Road trips will always be an issue. Gasoline is just way more convenient, faster, reliable and plentiful. Electric charging doesn't get even half way there in ten years. It's just an ugly truth about EV ownership.

 

[gpgrim]

I think anyone buying a non Tesla, and planning road trips need to do their homework. If what Tesla offers is that important or that's what you absolutely need then buy a Tesla. I bought mach e as I don't want to be another white model y and my trips are usually less than 100 miles

The video below, reposted in another thread over a year ago, illustrates the long haul grass ain't any greener, just another shade of grey.

The solution isn't simply more taps, which, of course, is necessary, but a different approach to long haul traveling in the age of 65-75 kWh legs. Seems like there's huge opportunity here, but I don't see any significant investment in this future, even in Cali., though the Kettleman City station is a step in the right direction.

Long line of cars waiting for a charge.

Sponsored