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- First Name
- Dave
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2021
- Threads
- 7
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 81
- Location
- Arizona
- Vehicles
- '22 Prem RWD ER Iced Blue Silver Metallic
- Thread starter
- #1
Even though we've owned our Mach-e for 2 years, it wasn't until last month we made our first out-of-state road trip. The car had only 8,000 miles on the odometer. Our trip started in Phoenix area to San Diego via I-8 then north to Venice Beach and return via I-10.
Here's a quick summary of our impressions.
AirBnB-We had reservations in Mission Beach (San Diego) and Venice Beach - both with L2 charging capabilities. The Mission Beach site had an EVSE but not the Venice site. The Venice site did have a plug for my Ford charger however. What a luxury to plug in your car at night and have an 85% charge every morning while traveling around southern California. Both 'hosts' offered unlimited charging. Not easy to find these sites with EV charging capability - but worth the hunt to look for them.
Ride - One of the disappointments of owning a Mach-e is that we feel it's too bouncy. But loaded with luggage (front and back) - it was a smoother ride.
Charging-Yep, I am waiting for my Ford/Tesla adapter (August due date) and A2Z adapter. So I knew it would be an EA and Plug Share trip. I set Plug Share to only show me 8+ rated sites with restroom facilities. Dateland, AZ had 2 working chargers out of 4. While charging at Dateland I walked to the nearby Tesla station with 40 empty chargers. Broke my heart.
However, all other EA charging sites (Yuma, El Cajon, Indio and Quartzite) were great. They were fast-clean-and all had easy access with adequate facilities near by. And we lucked-out....no waiting.
We did not travel on the interstates during weekends-maybe that is why all our EA experience went smoothly.
Tire pressure-The first full day in San Diego, all 4 tires lost 2.5 psi from our drive from Phx. (San Diego never got above 65 degrees). I keep one of those battery tire inflators in my frunk. What a nice convenience and piece of mind to have one. Although I could have used the inflator (which came with the car) I find the battery inflators much more convenient.
Efficiency-Learned quickly the advantage of driving near the speed limit. Our efficiency was as low as 2.5 m/kwh and high as 3.8. Even though our altitude ranged from zero to 4,000 feet , the difference in efficiency seemed to be mostly due to speed.
Maps-I liked the Ford nav software. Worked great. Tried Waze thinking I could outsmart the LA traffic. Never made so many "turn left-turn right" in my life.
Reactions-I was surprised, after our trip, how many friends and relatives asked about our experiences with an EV. Even folks who argue with me that "it's to early" to own an EV (because of an inadequate charging infrastructure) asked about our travels . Although we still don't have our "Tesla" adapters, we can say that we were thrilled with the experience, with our car, and the EA network.
It was a great maiden voyage.
2022 Mach-e Premium-ER-RWD.
Here's a quick summary of our impressions.
AirBnB-We had reservations in Mission Beach (San Diego) and Venice Beach - both with L2 charging capabilities. The Mission Beach site had an EVSE but not the Venice site. The Venice site did have a plug for my Ford charger however. What a luxury to plug in your car at night and have an 85% charge every morning while traveling around southern California. Both 'hosts' offered unlimited charging. Not easy to find these sites with EV charging capability - but worth the hunt to look for them.
Ride - One of the disappointments of owning a Mach-e is that we feel it's too bouncy. But loaded with luggage (front and back) - it was a smoother ride.
Charging-Yep, I am waiting for my Ford/Tesla adapter (August due date) and A2Z adapter. So I knew it would be an EA and Plug Share trip. I set Plug Share to only show me 8+ rated sites with restroom facilities. Dateland, AZ had 2 working chargers out of 4. While charging at Dateland I walked to the nearby Tesla station with 40 empty chargers. Broke my heart.
However, all other EA charging sites (Yuma, El Cajon, Indio and Quartzite) were great. They were fast-clean-and all had easy access with adequate facilities near by. And we lucked-out....no waiting.
We did not travel on the interstates during weekends-maybe that is why all our EA experience went smoothly.
Tire pressure-The first full day in San Diego, all 4 tires lost 2.5 psi from our drive from Phx. (San Diego never got above 65 degrees). I keep one of those battery tire inflators in my frunk. What a nice convenience and piece of mind to have one. Although I could have used the inflator (which came with the car) I find the battery inflators much more convenient.
Efficiency-Learned quickly the advantage of driving near the speed limit. Our efficiency was as low as 2.5 m/kwh and high as 3.8. Even though our altitude ranged from zero to 4,000 feet , the difference in efficiency seemed to be mostly due to speed.
Maps-I liked the Ford nav software. Worked great. Tried Waze thinking I could outsmart the LA traffic. Never made so many "turn left-turn right" in my life.
Reactions-I was surprised, after our trip, how many friends and relatives asked about our experiences with an EV. Even folks who argue with me that "it's to early" to own an EV (because of an inadequate charging infrastructure) asked about our travels . Although we still don't have our "Tesla" adapters, we can say that we were thrilled with the experience, with our car, and the EA network.
It was a great maiden voyage.
2022 Mach-e Premium-ER-RWD.
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