Plug and charge question

[Shaggyrn]

I have a question for the group. As we all know level 3 charging is not the best on the mach e when comparing to newer cars. With this said time to start a charge is how Ford is trying to help with plug and charge. More and more charging companies are joining plug and charge which makes charging easy and quick. However if you use plug and charge no membership discounts work. So it is either plug and charge or membership with reduced kw rates. So my question is would you pay for a plug and charge subscription like Tesla's or Ea if Ford would give you a discount at all the plug and charge partners? Ford could keep non subscription for people that didn't want to subscribe and charge a subscription for those that would want a discount? Thoughts

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[Maquis]

I have no confidence that Ford could make something like that work. A few years ago, they tried to pass EA’s membership pricing through P&C but couldn’t make it work and basically gave up on it.

 

[Space_Pony]

I have a question for the group. As we all know level 3 charging is not the best on the mach e when comparing to newer cars. With this said time to start a charge is how Ford is trying to help with plug and charge. More and more charging companies are joining plug and charge which makes charging easy and quick. However if you use plug and charge no membership discounts work. So it is either plug and charge or membership with reduced kw rates. So my question is would you pay for a plug and charge subscription like Tesla's or Ea if Ford would give you a discount at all the plug and charge partners? Ford could keep non subscription for people that didn't want to subscribe and charge a subscription for those that would want a discount? Thoughts

Never happen.

 

[tbrumleve]

Sounds great. The back end programming is probably difficult, which is why it hasn’t been tried yet. However, I use L3 charging maybe once or twice a year. I don’t really care too much since I charge at home for the cheapest rate.

 

[RickMachE]

They made it work fine and never rolled it out.

 

[AZBill]

I saw an EA interview where they indicated there are technical issues blocking it, related to the ISO standard.

FYI, EVGO uses Autocharge+ and it provides the discount with P&C. It also connects much faster than Tesla or EA. I have a GM discount (free) on EVGO, and I even get that with my Mach E, since the discount is tied to my EVGO account.

 

[RickMachE]

I can tell you that Plug and Charge worked fine, with the discount, in the trial. Multiple testers said so.

 

[Colorado MME GT]

While it would be nice to be able to use P&C with memberships, using the apps adds less than half a minute of extra time to charging. I'm on the road right now, going from Denver to Florida for the Artemis II launch, and have used Ionna, Tesla, and Electrify America chargers exclusively, activating the Tesla and EA memberships for the month to take advantage of the discount. I use Apple Wallet to tap my credit card on the Ionna charger and have my EA app in the wallet, so that it activates with a simple tap. Tesla is the only one that I have to open the app for, but that's just a couple of swipes. If Ford ever gets these to work in P&G, I'll use it again, but like everyone else, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Tampamike]

Ditto what Rick said. It worked fine for over a year with EA. Plug in, charging starts at discounted rate. For some reason, it died on the vine.

 

[RickMachE]

My belief, not supported by any knowledge, is that Ford evaluated the manpower cost involved in providing this service, specifically the turn on for a month "oops it didn't work so I will call and ask for a refund or explanation" as compared to the added loyalty it might create (little).

A huge percentage of owners are clueless as to the membership discounts even being available. Many that know can't be bothered, same people that filled up at the close gas station that costs 20 cents more than Costco. Nobody is avoiding a Ford EV or leaving the brand due to the lack of discount with Plug and Charge.

 

[Herbknowsit]

To the OP's question: I would really love it if P&C did offer an across the board discount and if reasonable, would pay the membership fee for it. The last thing I need is more "apps" on my darn phone. Which have to be updated when Apple does their incessant updates. But I see the issue with Ford getting the angry contacts from drivers who find a charger isn't working or fails to push a decent charge speed. It has been postulated on this forum that high speed juice costs the commercial charging station owners much more than what you pay into your home box. I'd like to see actual billing numbers smuggled out from some utility company to verify how much more.

 

[Herbknowsit]

According to AI (for what it's worth)
Commercial EV charging stations typically pay between $0.10 and $0.20 per kWh for electricity, depending on location, utility rate structures, and demand charges. While operators pay these industrial/commercial rates, they usually bill customers higher rates ($0.35–$0.60/kWh) to cover hardware, installation, and demand charges.

That is a very good ROI but as has been pointed out-at this time many EV stations sit idle for hours and the upfront cost of installation is steep. But coming down too. If/when EV usage increases, there are some smart people out there who will figure out how to make an inclusive discount package work.

 

[4sallypat]

I don't use P&C for my charging at DCFC.

Only use the Tesla app to start the charge and since I subscribe monthly ($12.99/month), I get the discounted "Tesla Driver rate".

Tesla Superchargers are the only network I use because I can't stand the other networks (CP, EA, EVGo, Shell, Flo, etc..)

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