Road Trip to Killington, VT!

[pr0t0c0l_dr01d]

Fair warning, this is a complaint story. I'll try keep it brief because it's really just another complaint story about the sorry state of vehicle charging.

Trip - Framingham MA to Rutland VT. Going Skiing at Killington - head up the night before to a hotel room in Rutland.

-Leave home at 100% charge - decided to use Apple Maps and let it choose for me (rather large mistake).
-Apple routes me to a Blink charger in Springfield VT. Connect - plug N charge doesn't work, Ford activation doesn't work. Guest logon to Blink app doesn't work. I get charge port faults, get worried that my charge port is fried. Several attempts - a Tesla model Y shows up and starts effortlessly (infuriatingly) charging at the other available supercharger. I wait for the Tesla to leave - try that supercharger. Same failures. Finally I sign up for the Blink app, give them my credit card, etc. I dick around a little longer and finally I get a charge, which is good because I had no choice. I was in the middle of nowhere VT in the dead of night. I think I was there for over an hour trying to get power. Charged for 22 minutes and never got much higher than 50kw charge rate because it was 0 degrees out and I didn't use Ford Nav to precondition the battery.
-I arrive in Rutland, head straight to the Tesla supercharger in Rutland. Totally deserted at 12:23 AM - stayed for ten minutes. Tesla adapter and plug-n-charge worked perfectly. But again, didnt get much higher than 50kw charge rate. Stayed for ten minutes.
-Got up next morning, headed back to Rutland Supercharger. One of the spaces is ICEd by one of those assholes in a giant pickup truck. Never actually witnessed that before. Prick. No matter, plenty of available chargers. I charge some more while I walk to McDonalds and have breakfast - somewhat reluctant because I didn't want anyone to steal my adapter. When I come back, to my enormous surprise there is a Cybertruck from NY charging at one of the stalls. Total charge time, 28 minutes, and I got from 31% to 54%. Again, terrible charge rate.
-Went Skiing for the day, left the mountain around 2PM for the trip from hell. I go to a Chargepoint supercharger on the Killington property. It's occupied. Apple promises me that I can reach an Electrify America charger in Lebanon NH. Okay, I bite. Big mistake.
-I arrive in Lebanon - it's a Wal-Mart - totally oversubscribed busy as hell four-charger setup. There is a LINE at the charger. I pull in behind a Ford lightning and wait - ICE drivers laughing at the stupid EV drivers. I have no choice - there are 16 Tesla superchargers 0.3 miles away but they are not compatible. I wait. I watch a lady with her ID4 try to leave, but totally UNABLE to remove the charge cord from her car. It is locked and wont release. This goes on for over 20 minutes. Lightning guy leaves - I pull in (several cars behind me), plug in, EA/Ford connection at first fails, then begins without issue. Thank Christ. I charge there from 20% to 70% - again, poor charge rate, maybe 65kw max - total time 32 mins. I wanted more but I felt bad making people wait.
-Apple routes me to a Ford Charge at Grappone Ford in Bow, NH. This one kills me - 6 lovely looking, well-lit superchargers in the middle of the dealership parking lot. Four are OFFLINE with network issues - cannot be activated. Two are occupied. I cannot charge. I begin searching for other chargers. Absolutely, totally, outrageously disappointing.
-I find another Blink charger at Grappone Hyundai right next door. One side is unoccupied - the other is taken up by a disabled Ioniq 5 with a handwritten note on the charger saying so. I use my credit card to activate the charger and thank the baby jesus, it works. I get the highest rate of charge of the whole trip here with >80kw. Go figure. I go from 36% to 70%, total charge time 21 minutes, not including the time wasted dicking around with the Ford chargers.

Arrived home after a 6 hour journey that was supposed to take 3.5 hours. Heater OFF most of the way - which makes a HUGE difference in range. But yes, I made it. Range anxiety the whole journey.

Non-Telsa friends, this shit is unsustainable. I have a standard range car - 68kwh battery, so granted, this trip was probably ill-advised. But it's the closest I've ever come to being stranded, and the first time I ever had to wait at a charging station, and the first time I ever tried to use Ford Charge. The CCS connectors ALL had to be manhandled - so goddamned clunky I can't believe anyone ever thought they were a good idea.

So why did I do it? Because I love my Mach E and on the highway it's the most comfortable, stable, fast and quiet thing I've ever driven. I decided to risk it for the driving experience rather than take my ICE Subaru.

But Christ in a Chicken Basket the rate of charge in my 2021 is terrible, and the charging infrastructure in the Northeast SUCKS. Not enough Tesla superchargers support us, and the ones at the Hookset welcome center in NH are also not compatible. This is a real heartbreaker. I won't road trip this car again unless I have a guaranteed destination charger available to me.

To reiterate everything everyone already knows
-All these providers need to retrofit to NACS like yesterday
-Stop making me download your stupid app. Let me pay with credit card only just like any gas station.
-Stop putting EV chargers in the dark back corner of truck stops
-Charging stations are still extremely buggy - Ford needs to work with these providers to fix this.
-Don't use apple nav when on a road trip. It won't precondition your battery and it just might try to route you to an incompatible charger
-Ford dealers don't seem interested in cooperating with @Ford Motor Company on EVs. Otherwise their Ford Chargers would be functioning at all times.
-Don't make stupid decisions - use A Better Route Planner, or go for ones that you know are working. I should have gone back to Rutland and supercharged to 95% and my life would have been fine.

That wasn't brief. Sorry.

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[Mocky]

I just traveled this route from Seacoast area (Portsmouth, NH) to Upstate NY last Sunday when temps were hovering around zero. While I completely agree that charging infrastructure for non-Teslas is abysmal, I think the bigger takeaway here is that EVs are still very much for early adopters only. No one else wants to deal with this shit.

The Tesla charger in Rutland in great BTW. It’s always worked for me and the Stewart’s is a great pit stop for me about 2.5 hours from home and before I get to NY.

The EA station in West Lebanon should be avoided at all costs. While the stations were all recently replaced, one always seems to be broken while the others are nearly always in use. It’s the only fast charger on 89 coming from Boston/southern NY. Either they need to build more stalls or another provider needs to come in and cash in. Tesla upgrading their stations there would be great. On plus side: Rivian is likely to open their network soon and there’s a station right down the road from this EA spot.

 

[pr0t0c0l_dr01d]

I just traveled this route from Seacoast area (Portsmouth, NH) to Upstate NY last Sunday when temps were hovering around zero. While I completely agree that charging infrastructure for non-Teslas is abysmal, I think the bigger takeaway here is that EVs are still very much for early adopters only. No one else wants to deal with this shit.

The Tesla charger in Rutland in great BTW. It’s always worked for me and the Stewart’s is a great pit stop for me about 2.5 hours from home and before I get to NY.

The EA station in West Lebanon should be avoided at all costs. While the stations were all recently replaced, one always seems to be broken while the others are nearly always in use. It’s the only fast charger on 89 coming from Boston/southern NY. Either they need to build more stalls or another provider needs to come in and cash in. Tesla upgrading their stations there would be great. On plus side: Rivian is likely to open their network soon and there’s a station right down the road from this EA spot.

The problem is that EVs are really taking off - they will STAY for early adopters and enthusiasts only and then die a slow death in the U.S. if Government and industry don't get with the program. We need faster charging, and more stalls, everywhere gas pumps can be found. Ford (and everyone else) needs to make their platforms 800V so they charge faster.

 

[Sikkun]

There are lots of things you could do to make your trip go smoothly. But as an fyi plug and charge only works at Electrify America and Tesla…so you kinda started your trip off on a rabbit hole of things not working as you expect them to.

 

[AhardFSU]

Rough; sounds frustrating.

Personally, I never use Apple Maps; sorry but it's not as good as Google Maps and I have an iPhone. Secondly, we know from being on this forum that you can only precondition via the in-car nav or Google Maps on Android Auto.

And yes the charge curve on the early Mach-Es is not great as we know and winter temps make it worse. There are evs with better charge curves, but charging cold temps in any ev is still an adventure.

 

[pr0t0c0l_dr01d]

There are lots of things you could do to make your trip go smoothly. But as an fyi plug and charge only works at Electrify America and Tesla…so you kinda started your trip off on a rabbit hole of things not working as you expect them to.

The plug and charge thing was a very minor problem which I am highlighting because it is annoying - the Ford activation also did not work via the app which was the bigger issue to me. I'd rather use Ford's payment system or my credit card directly than sign up for every stupid app to fuel my vehicle.

I would also say, every response that is some form of "well you should have known better" is part of a larger problem. I decided to perform an experiment to see how well Apple Maps would do for me and I paid the price for it. The average person has zero patience for this crap. You and I know that it's not all perfect, but the point of my post is that it's worse than I thought and not really improving. EVs in the U.S. will never get beyond critical mass if this keeps up.

 

[Sikkun]

The plug and charge thing was a very minor problem which I am highlighting because it is annoying - the Ford activation also did not work via the app which was the bigger issue to me. I'd rather use Ford's payment system or my credit card directly than sign up for every stupid app to fuel my vehicle.

I would also say, every response that is some form of "well you should have known better" is part of a larger problem. I decided to perform an experiment to see how well Apple Maps would do for me and I paid the price for it. The average person has zero patience for this crap. You and I know that it's not all perfect, but the point of my post is that it's worse than I thought and not really improving. EVs in the U.S. will never get beyond critical mass if this keeps up.

I would say the American road trip experience is not needed to replace a very large percentage of ICE cars. There are a large amount of cars that belong to people who own homes and never go more than 200 miles in a day.

To fully replace ICE? Then yes, a large portion of people are never going to consider anything they view as worse than what they have…so 400 miles in 5 min ish. Unless something else forces them to change their minds. (Like gas costing $15 a gallon).

Which it wasn’t that long ago you had to plan out a trip for an ICE vehicle also, it’ll get better for EVs also.

 

[pr0t0c0l_dr01d]

I just think the industry is being remarkably complacent about it. To me it is mystifying that I-89 or any major route has so few options for such a burgeoning market, and the ones that exist have such a poor user experience. This is perfect fodder for political opposition to EV development. EVs are hitting a critical mass - there are so many out there now and the infrastructure isn't close to ready. Even if a smallish percentage of that growing market embark on an occasional road trip, there will be long wait times and queuing fights and strandings. It'll stunt adoption.

 

[dabois89]

I live in rural Maine and understand your concerns. Most in-state destinations are within my car’s range, except for Baxter State Park, where the only fast charger is incompatible. Maine planned to add 52 fast chargers, but progress has been slow with limited communication. Only V4 Tesla superchargers have been added. If Maine DOT collaborated with Tesla, they could upgrade the superchargers off 95 leading to Baxter State Park to boost EV tourism.

 

[Tampamike]

It’s not much consolation for your crappy experience but IT IS getting better in other places besides the far Northeast. They’re are many more options than just 2 years ago (even more than 1 year ago.) Of course, there are the Tesla chargers all over the place and they are still building more. There are also new networks like Pilot/Flying J, Circle K and EvConnect. Most of the new ones work with credit card and they also work with either FordPass on your phone or the Public Charging app in the car. I’ve even, recently used two different Ford dealer chargers that worked great and were empty. The new ones aren’t all in the back of a dark parking lot either - for instance, Bucee’s or Pilot/Flying J. They have all the same amenities as ICE drivers get.

I’ve done two long trips recently and had almost no issues and used a wide variety of brands. I don’t plan as much as I used to because there are so many more choices and sometimes in the same locale, where I can price shop just like the ICE guys.

 

[pr0t0c0l_dr01d]

It’s not much consolation for your crappy experience but IT IS getting better in other places besides the far Northeast. They’re are many more options than just 2 years ago (even more than 1 year ago.) Of course, there are the Tesla chargers all over the place and they are still building more. There are also new networks like Pilot/Flying J, Circle K and EvConnect. Most of the new ones work with credit card and they also work with either FordPass on your phone or the Public Charging app in the car. I’ve even, recently used two different Ford dealer chargers that worked great and were empty. The new ones aren’t all in the back of a dark parking lot either - for instance, Bucee’s or Pilot/Flying J. They have all the same amenities as ICE drivers get.

I’ve done two long trips recently and had almost no issues and used a wide variety of brands. I don’t plan as much as I used to because there are so many more choices and sometimes in the same locale, where I can price shop just like the ICE guys.

That’s great to hear. I guess I’m spoiled, usually the Northeast is ahead of the curve on this kind of stuff and we’re really not this time!

 

[Hyperion]

I had the same issue with the EA station in Lebanon. However, there are two chargers close by, right across the river, one 50kw and the other one 100kw. Both were available at the time (and they seem to be available most of the time).

 

[fleeps]

Which it wasn’t that long ago you had to plan out a trip for an ICE vehicle also, it’ll get better for EVs also.

When I was a kid, too long ago, my family spent the night at a gas station because my father planned poorly, and needed to refill the tank late at night. All the gas stations were closed. He parked at a gas station and we spent the night in the car, waiting for the gas station to open. It was winter, but we had sleeping bags and were used to camping, so we were probably less uncomfortable than the average family, but we spent a lot longer waiting to refuel than I've ever spent charging on a road trip in an EV.

 

[phil]

So why did I do it? Because I love my Mach E and on the highway it's the most comfortable, stable, fast and quiet thing I've ever driven. I decided to risk it for the driving experience rather than take my ICE Subaru.

Me? I'd go with the Subaru. Call me crazy.

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