Possible fix for Plug and Charge

[chuckles]

Quick charging at Electrify America (EA) stations in early 2021 worked splendidly for our Job 1 MME with plug and charge (P&C), but after an OTA, P&C would refuse to work, and the car and charger display would time out after plugging in. For the last many months, I just used the EA app to pay for charging.

This past weekend during a road trip I took another swing at fixing it (especially since I still had a free kWh balance in BlueOval). I verified that P&C was enabled in FordPass, and tried to “turn it off and on again” (a proud software/technical support tradition), but the slider button next to Plug&Charge in FordPass resulted in a “loading” page that then timed out with an unknown error message.

I called EA who verified that everything on their side looked OK. They transferred me to Ford support, who said everything looked good too.

I then realized that I could try to “turn it off and on again” via the website, using a mobile browser:

1. Go to ford.com > My Account > Vehicle Dashboard > Connected Services > BlueOval Network
2. Click the small "Cancel Service" link at the bottom of the page
3. Wait for the email (it took a minute or so) saying that BlueOval had indeed been deactivated.
4. The link in the cancellation email to re-activate didn't work for me--I just re-opened the BlueOval webpage, and filled out the "start trial" form
5. It took a couple minutes for my prior kWh balance to show up properly on the BlueOval page.

I then tried P&C and it indeed initiated charging…but it said there was a running total, which was unnerving, but when I stopped charging, it said the final charge was $0 and kW were correctly deducted from my free balance.

Hope this helps!

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[RLW]

Quick charging at Electrify America (EA) stations in early 2021 worked splendidly for our Job 1 MME with plug and charge (P&C), but after an OTA, P&C would refuse to work, and the car and charger display would time out after plugging in. For the last many months, I just used the EA app to pay for charging.

This past weekend during a road trip I took another swing at fixing it (especially since I still had a free kW balance in BlueOval). I verified that P&C was enabled in FordPass, and tried to “turn it off and on again” (a proud software/technical support tradition), but the slider button in FordPass resulted in a “loading” page that then timed out with an unknown error message.

I called EA who verified that everything on their side looked ok. They transferred me to Ford support, who said everything looked good too.

I then realized that I could try to “turn it off and on again” via the website, using a mobile browser, and although it also timed out, I got an email a minute later saying that it had indeed deactivated. I was then able to reactivate BlueOval via the website, and my prior free kW balance showed in my account a minute later. Note that the link from the Ford emails didn’t work—I had to manually return to the ford.com vehicle dashboard page, and then click “connected services.”

I then tried P&C and it indeed initiated charging…but it said there was a running total, which was unnerving, but when I stopped charging, it said the final charge was $0 and kW were correctly deducted from my free balance.

Hope this helps!

This post is very helpful. Unfortunately, it is about three months too late for me. I had the same headache with plug & charge after the Blue Cruise update. Between the dealer and the Ford marketing department, we finally got it working again using the technique you described.

 

[Maquis]

You don’t have to use P&C in order to consume your Ford gifted kWh. Just initiate the charge station from FordPass.

 

[daemonic3]

You don’t have to use P&C in order to consume your Ford gifted kWh. Just initiate the charge station from FordPass.

I have also tried enabling the toggle switch in Fordpass about once a week for Plug & Charge just in case I can get past that "Loading" screen, with no success. Next week will be our first road trip requiring DCFC and I was planning on doing the above and selecting the station in Fordpass and picking "Activate". It sounds like it will work so this is very reassuring!

Going to try the browser version for the P&C toggle now just for the hell of it...

 

[Billyk24]

If or when Tesla opens their charging stations to all, are we going to still have this mess of software headaches? Does any car company with ccs have seemless charging experiences?

 

[RickMachE]

If or when Tesla opens their charging stations to all, are we going to still have this mess of software headaches? Does any car company with ccs have seemless charging experiences?

I would not expect Tesla to ever be part of BlueOval. You will need their app.

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