Doug&Julie
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Douglas
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2021
- Threads
- 13
- Messages
- 215
- Reaction score
- 398
- Location
- Beaverton, OR
- Vehicles
- 2021 Mach-E Premium LR-RWD
- Occupation
- Designer
- Thread starter
- #1
tl:dr - 1622 miles over six days. Great trip with lots of beautiful scenery. Efficiency all over the place (up and down mountains and hills). Plug-and-Charge worked great. Over 100 degree temps in NorCal, but no overheating issues. Trip home (on a Monday) saw surprisingly busy EA stations. Would definitely do it again...can't wait for more trips! Also, we shot a lot of video, so we'll be putting a couple of videos together soon...er, maybe by Summer's end...
So Julie and I finally got our first road trip in or Mach-E over the last weekend in June. We've had a couple of day trips - out and back without needing to charge - but this would be our first really long trip where we needed to plan, etc. So of course we first turned to ABRP to plot out our legs, and would go from there. Our first leg was from Beaverton (PDX suburb) to Bend, OR, where we would stay for a couple of days. Keep in mind ABRP has us programmed as starting with 80% battery and desiring to arrive with at least 15% battery, but I found it funny that it had us stopping for a charge on our first leg, despite the mileage being way under...
But we started with 100% battery, so we didn't have any problems making it to Bend without needing to charge. We actually did make two stops...the first one was at Mt. Hood as Julie had an idea for our 2022 Holiday card, but we needed snow. Timberline Lodge is on the way, so we made a stop there...
Then we did actually stop in Madras to check out the chargers. They were slower ChargePoint (62.5kw) chargers and only 2 of 4 were available. We just made a note and moved on...
Not sure what our efficiency was. We planned to keep track with the trip meters, but we were also taking notes in a logbook and frankly forgot to reset each drive. Suffice to say we were all over the board depending on which mountain we were going up or down. I'll just say we saw a lot in the 3-3.5 range through Oregon (slower speed limits) and high 2s-low 3s in California (higher speeds and wind).
We got to Bend without issues and had enough charge to tool around the city a bit. We stopped at the last Blockbuster in the world (holy time warp Batman!) and went for an evening hike up Pilot Butte. End of day one we were exhausted...but in a good way.
The plan for day two was a day trip to the Painted Hills in Mitchell, OR...about 87 miles from Bend. ABRP said no stops needed (good thing, no fast chargers on the route!) and they were right. We charged up in the early AM at the only EA station around...at a Walmart. It was a very positive experience, plug-and-charge worked perfectly, we had a nice chat with an ID.4 owner, and we helped a woman fast charge her Kia Soul EV for the first time (she always charges at home). I didn't get any shots of the Mach-E there, but here are our shiny mugs...
The drive out (through hills and forests) was as beautiful as they get and the Painted Hills are amazing...highly recommend if you get a chance. If there's a downside its that the roads around the Painted Hills aren't paved, so after a couple of hours of driving around them, the Mach-E was a dirty, dirty girl...
On the way back, we stopped at a "you-spray-it" car wash to get rid of the dust. We had planned to leave pretty early the next day, so we decided to grab some Olive Garden and eat dinner in the car while we charged up again for the next day's travel. Walmart was much busier, and we had our only "failure" when I tried to charge at a station with a broken plug. But we were able to maneuver into another spot before another ID.4 arrived to take it. Plug-and-charge worked perfectly at that one and before long all three working stations were full at around 4:30 PM. After 27 minutes of charging we headed back to the hotel and capped our evening with a walk down to the Deschutes River.
The plan for day three was to drive from Bend, OR to my brother and sister-in-law's house in Copperopolis, CA. So of course we had that leg plotted out on ABRP...
For sure we knew we'd need to stop in Klamath Falls, OR...but from there we thought we might be able to stretch some of the other stops. ABRP wanted us to only charge so much in Klamath Falls because a) the chargers are slow (more 62.5kw ChargePoint chargers) and b) they charge ($) by the minute instead of the kWh. But since we got up early and left without breakfast, by the time we got to Klamath Falls we were ready to eat. So we took our time and found a neat cafe downtown and brought it back to the car to eat. We decided to just relax and let the car charge to 80%...a 47 minute session! ..made worse by the fact that when we got there I couldn't get the ChargePoint app to work, so after a few minutes of fumbling around with that, I just used my credit card to pay. But really, since we weren't in a hurry, the time flew by and, surprisingly it was the cheapest session of the trip! ..well, besides the free ones, as we still had some of our free kWh from Ford.
Since we charged there to 80%, we didn't have to stop at the ChargePoint suggested by ABRP north of Shasta, and instead made it all the way to Anderson, CA...south of Redding. And holy hell was it hot there! But the stations were empty, so we pulled in and got plugged in. Plug-and-charge worked perfectly. While doing that a woman in a Kona EV pulled up and was trying to make a charger work. We didn't think much of it, so we made our way into the store for refreshments, etc. But while Julie was in a Starbucks line, I checked the Ford app for an update, and it said something to the effect of "charge connection failure", so I headed back out to the car. It turns out this woman couldn't figure out any of the chargers...and she tried them all, including the other plug from ours! Well of course this stopped our charge session...very frustrating, but all I had to do was unplug and plug in again and plug-and-charge worked perfectly. Again. I didn't get a picture of this woman, but she will be in the video...stay tuned for that.
So once again ABRP suggested we stop just before Sacramento, but after doing our own math we thought we could make it to Stockton...and we did...with 14% of battery left! It's a lot easier to run it down that low when you're in an area highly populated by DC fast chargers. But also the Stockton Walmart had 8 EA stations, where most other stops had only 4, so we felt confident this one wouldn't be a failure. But once again it was super hot (over 100 degrees) and our flaps were open and the car's fans were blowing like crazy trying to keep it cool. Because of this we decided not to charge to 80% like everywhere else and instead give us just enough charge (with a little comfort buffer) to make it to my brother's house. By this point in the trip, we were feeling pretty confident on the Mach-E's capabilities and trusting the range. And once again we were not disappointed as we got there no problem. My brother has solar panels and two Tesla Power Walls...so plenty of electricity and we were able to charge up while there...
My brother and his wife are Tesla M3 owners, but they really liked the MME. I chauffeured everyone around the next day (Saturday), while we took the Tesla up to Bear Valley for a hike around Alpine Lake on Sunday and the MME charged up for the trip home Monday. A couple of beautiful days with family, despite the heat!
Monday arrived and we got up very early to get a start on what would be along day of driving...about twelve hours in all. This is a bit longer than I like to travel in a day, but we had to do it. So once again we turned to ABRP for suggested stops...
...but once again ABRP has us leaving with 80%, and we charged to 95% at my brother's, so we planned to stop in Willows, CA first...quite a bit further than ABRP suggested. As it turns out, we were able to make it even further, all the way up to Anderson, CA where we stopped on the way down. We felt we knew this station, so even thought we had to run the battery down to 13% this time, we felt confident we'd be okay. When we pulled up, there was another Rapid Red MME charging, and a third Rapid Red MME parked just a few spots away! So we pulled in and plugged in, and as expected plug-and-charge worked perfectly again. We said hello to the other MME owners, and as we were chatting a Leaf pulled up for the Chademo station, then shortly after a Rivian R1T pulled up. It was then that I realized I was parked at one of the 350kw stations...oops! Oh well, I'll be more conscious of that next time. But suddenly all the stations were full. Then five minutes before leaving an Ioniq 5 showed up and had to wait for a charge. Oy! ..is this our future?!?
The rest of the trip home we did actually follow ABRP's suggestions, stopping in Yreka, CA and Southerlin, OR before making it home. But we were able to eliminate that one early stop, so we had that going for us. Interestingly, the family in the Rivian R1T were also going the same way, and we saw them at the next two stations. At Yreka, I left the 350kw station open, but they didn't charge any faster than we did...not sure if the station was bad or if they just don't have a great charge curve? Either way, we arrived almost the same time, but Julie and I left a few minutes before them...
Our last stop was another EA station, but not at a Walmart! Can you believe there's an EA station at a Dairy Queen?!? Once again, we arrived a few minutes before the Rivian family, but left them a 350kw station (even though we took one ourselves...not on purpose, it's just those are the ones that are easiest for us to pull into). Despite the heat we were not craving ice cream, but instead wanted something more substantial...burgers and dogs...
After 27 minutes of charging we took off for our last leg of the journey...and it felt like the longest. The MME is a very comfortable cruiser, but as I mentioned above I'm just not good for a journey that long. We did use BlueCruise a bit, which helped, and for sure the adaptive cruise was a big help all week. But 670 miles in one day is just over my limit of "comfortable".
But the MME was terrific all the time. I won't say it was a stress free trip...I was a little concerned with the heat and the potential for this "stop safely now" thing that's happening with some folks. But with every mile we got more confident and were able to just relax and enjoy the drive. We certainly learned a lot and look forward to our next trips!
FWIW we shot a lot of video and I'll be making some videos over the coming weeks. If you're interested just search "The Mach-E Files" on YouTube...I've got four "episodes" up already.
And I'm sure I've forgotten things I wanted to include in this write-up, so if you have any questions just fire away!
Cheers!
So Julie and I finally got our first road trip in or Mach-E over the last weekend in June. We've had a couple of day trips - out and back without needing to charge - but this would be our first really long trip where we needed to plan, etc. So of course we first turned to ABRP to plot out our legs, and would go from there. Our first leg was from Beaverton (PDX suburb) to Bend, OR, where we would stay for a couple of days. Keep in mind ABRP has us programmed as starting with 80% battery and desiring to arrive with at least 15% battery, but I found it funny that it had us stopping for a charge on our first leg, despite the mileage being way under...
But we started with 100% battery, so we didn't have any problems making it to Bend without needing to charge. We actually did make two stops...the first one was at Mt. Hood as Julie had an idea for our 2022 Holiday card, but we needed snow. Timberline Lodge is on the way, so we made a stop there...
Then we did actually stop in Madras to check out the chargers. They were slower ChargePoint (62.5kw) chargers and only 2 of 4 were available. We just made a note and moved on...
Not sure what our efficiency was. We planned to keep track with the trip meters, but we were also taking notes in a logbook and frankly forgot to reset each drive. Suffice to say we were all over the board depending on which mountain we were going up or down. I'll just say we saw a lot in the 3-3.5 range through Oregon (slower speed limits) and high 2s-low 3s in California (higher speeds and wind).
We got to Bend without issues and had enough charge to tool around the city a bit. We stopped at the last Blockbuster in the world (holy time warp Batman!) and went for an evening hike up Pilot Butte. End of day one we were exhausted...but in a good way.
The plan for day two was a day trip to the Painted Hills in Mitchell, OR...about 87 miles from Bend. ABRP said no stops needed (good thing, no fast chargers on the route!) and they were right. We charged up in the early AM at the only EA station around...at a Walmart. It was a very positive experience, plug-and-charge worked perfectly, we had a nice chat with an ID.4 owner, and we helped a woman fast charge her Kia Soul EV for the first time (she always charges at home). I didn't get any shots of the Mach-E there, but here are our shiny mugs...
The drive out (through hills and forests) was as beautiful as they get and the Painted Hills are amazing...highly recommend if you get a chance. If there's a downside its that the roads around the Painted Hills aren't paved, so after a couple of hours of driving around them, the Mach-E was a dirty, dirty girl...
On the way back, we stopped at a "you-spray-it" car wash to get rid of the dust. We had planned to leave pretty early the next day, so we decided to grab some Olive Garden and eat dinner in the car while we charged up again for the next day's travel. Walmart was much busier, and we had our only "failure" when I tried to charge at a station with a broken plug. But we were able to maneuver into another spot before another ID.4 arrived to take it. Plug-and-charge worked perfectly at that one and before long all three working stations were full at around 4:30 PM. After 27 minutes of charging we headed back to the hotel and capped our evening with a walk down to the Deschutes River.
The plan for day three was to drive from Bend, OR to my brother and sister-in-law's house in Copperopolis, CA. So of course we had that leg plotted out on ABRP...
For sure we knew we'd need to stop in Klamath Falls, OR...but from there we thought we might be able to stretch some of the other stops. ABRP wanted us to only charge so much in Klamath Falls because a) the chargers are slow (more 62.5kw ChargePoint chargers) and b) they charge ($) by the minute instead of the kWh. But since we got up early and left without breakfast, by the time we got to Klamath Falls we were ready to eat. So we took our time and found a neat cafe downtown and brought it back to the car to eat. We decided to just relax and let the car charge to 80%...a 47 minute session! ..made worse by the fact that when we got there I couldn't get the ChargePoint app to work, so after a few minutes of fumbling around with that, I just used my credit card to pay. But really, since we weren't in a hurry, the time flew by and, surprisingly it was the cheapest session of the trip! ..well, besides the free ones, as we still had some of our free kWh from Ford.
Since we charged there to 80%, we didn't have to stop at the ChargePoint suggested by ABRP north of Shasta, and instead made it all the way to Anderson, CA...south of Redding. And holy hell was it hot there! But the stations were empty, so we pulled in and got plugged in. Plug-and-charge worked perfectly. While doing that a woman in a Kona EV pulled up and was trying to make a charger work. We didn't think much of it, so we made our way into the store for refreshments, etc. But while Julie was in a Starbucks line, I checked the Ford app for an update, and it said something to the effect of "charge connection failure", so I headed back out to the car. It turns out this woman couldn't figure out any of the chargers...and she tried them all, including the other plug from ours! Well of course this stopped our charge session...very frustrating, but all I had to do was unplug and plug in again and plug-and-charge worked perfectly. Again. I didn't get a picture of this woman, but she will be in the video...stay tuned for that.
So once again ABRP suggested we stop just before Sacramento, but after doing our own math we thought we could make it to Stockton...and we did...with 14% of battery left! It's a lot easier to run it down that low when you're in an area highly populated by DC fast chargers. But also the Stockton Walmart had 8 EA stations, where most other stops had only 4, so we felt confident this one wouldn't be a failure. But once again it was super hot (over 100 degrees) and our flaps were open and the car's fans were blowing like crazy trying to keep it cool. Because of this we decided not to charge to 80% like everywhere else and instead give us just enough charge (with a little comfort buffer) to make it to my brother's house. By this point in the trip, we were feeling pretty confident on the Mach-E's capabilities and trusting the range. And once again we were not disappointed as we got there no problem. My brother has solar panels and two Tesla Power Walls...so plenty of electricity and we were able to charge up while there...
My brother and his wife are Tesla M3 owners, but they really liked the MME. I chauffeured everyone around the next day (Saturday), while we took the Tesla up to Bear Valley for a hike around Alpine Lake on Sunday and the MME charged up for the trip home Monday. A couple of beautiful days with family, despite the heat!
Monday arrived and we got up very early to get a start on what would be along day of driving...about twelve hours in all. This is a bit longer than I like to travel in a day, but we had to do it. So once again we turned to ABRP for suggested stops...
...but once again ABRP has us leaving with 80%, and we charged to 95% at my brother's, so we planned to stop in Willows, CA first...quite a bit further than ABRP suggested. As it turns out, we were able to make it even further, all the way up to Anderson, CA where we stopped on the way down. We felt we knew this station, so even thought we had to run the battery down to 13% this time, we felt confident we'd be okay. When we pulled up, there was another Rapid Red MME charging, and a third Rapid Red MME parked just a few spots away! So we pulled in and plugged in, and as expected plug-and-charge worked perfectly again. We said hello to the other MME owners, and as we were chatting a Leaf pulled up for the Chademo station, then shortly after a Rivian R1T pulled up. It was then that I realized I was parked at one of the 350kw stations...oops! Oh well, I'll be more conscious of that next time. But suddenly all the stations were full. Then five minutes before leaving an Ioniq 5 showed up and had to wait for a charge. Oy! ..is this our future?!?
The rest of the trip home we did actually follow ABRP's suggestions, stopping in Yreka, CA and Southerlin, OR before making it home. But we were able to eliminate that one early stop, so we had that going for us. Interestingly, the family in the Rivian R1T were also going the same way, and we saw them at the next two stations. At Yreka, I left the 350kw station open, but they didn't charge any faster than we did...not sure if the station was bad or if they just don't have a great charge curve? Either way, we arrived almost the same time, but Julie and I left a few minutes before them...
Our last stop was another EA station, but not at a Walmart! Can you believe there's an EA station at a Dairy Queen?!? Once again, we arrived a few minutes before the Rivian family, but left them a 350kw station (even though we took one ourselves...not on purpose, it's just those are the ones that are easiest for us to pull into). Despite the heat we were not craving ice cream, but instead wanted something more substantial...burgers and dogs...
After 27 minutes of charging we took off for our last leg of the journey...and it felt like the longest. The MME is a very comfortable cruiser, but as I mentioned above I'm just not good for a journey that long. We did use BlueCruise a bit, which helped, and for sure the adaptive cruise was a big help all week. But 670 miles in one day is just over my limit of "comfortable".
But the MME was terrific all the time. I won't say it was a stress free trip...I was a little concerned with the heat and the potential for this "stop safely now" thing that's happening with some folks. But with every mile we got more confident and were able to just relax and enjoy the drive. We certainly learned a lot and look forward to our next trips!
FWIW we shot a lot of video and I'll be making some videos over the coming weeks. If you're interested just search "The Mach-E Files" on YouTube...I've got four "episodes" up already.
And I'm sure I've forgotten things I wanted to include in this write-up, so if you have any questions just fire away!
Cheers!
