San Jose to LA trip -- not so good

phil

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The moral of this story, it's really stupid idea travel large distances in EV, only additional inconveniences and it costs more.
I might not put it that way exactly, but I have to agree. EV's are great for local driving, but they're not for long distances.

I very rarely need to drive more than a couple hundred miles. But when I do, I'm using gas!
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121gigawatts

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Did you post this as a joke?

Do you take any personal responsibility for PLANNING or not planning a trip in a vehicle that appears unfamiliar to you?

The GOM is just that a guess-o-meter.

Did you spend time getting to know your Mach-E before taking it on a road-trip?

My takeaway from your post is- Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Ford's not at fault here.

I hope that your next road-trip brings you more joy. The MME is a great car, fun to drive but the driver must do his/her part to realize energy efficiency and stress-free travels.
Coming up a bit harsh @IL_Vet.

Was there a lack of planning on OP's part? Sure.

Was OP trusting that the nav system built put in place by the manufacturer would do its job? Yeah, we all learn the hard way.

With that being said, OP has a point the Nav system in the MME is kind of trash for long trips. It works as a regular nav, get to the grocery store or get to work. Beyond that it's charge planning is piss poor. For one, when you turn off the MME it resets itself so any waypoints disappear. Second, if the charging system tells me to stop at some middle of nowhere charge at 110v outlet for 9 hrs one more time I'm uninstalling the nav myself.

I understand you wanted to use your MME like a regular ICE car. Unfortunately BEV's really aren't there yet. In this community you will see person after person recommend apps like A Better Route Planner and Plug Share because they aren't just a god send, they're almost a "must" for any longer trip.

The 2.1kW you're getting is more akin to 90mph. I have the Premium AWD ER and that's the efficiency I've gotten on multiple drives attempting that speed consistently.
 

BadgerGreg

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Fast? Are you kidding? That's an average of the traffic, even large trucks are driving 70 mph. Fast would be at least 90 mph.
I find that 75 mph is a better speed on the highway…the efficiency drops off so fast above 75, there is no reason to drive faster. At 75 mph, I get 2.7-2.8 m/kWh. Not great, but I spend considerably less time at the chargers. In Michigan, most of our highways have 70-75 mph limits; even though there are plenty of drivers at or above 80 mph, I never feel like the slow driver at 75.
 

Nklem

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A learning experience that you will remember forever as an EV Owner. It will shape how you manage EV life.

I had a similar experience after buying my Ioniq EV in 2019. Thought I had all this "range" and learned that at 70 mph and with 4 passengers and finally 48 degree ambient conditions, it depletes pretty fast. Had to slow to 50 MPH on an interstate with 20 miles left and made it to a change station (the only one) with 2% of battery remaining in Turtle mode. All of that and the charger had issues, but finally connected after several attempts.

My car had a 124 Mile Specified Range and we were seeing 130 or better for the entire month before, with no interstate highway travel, but that day, we eventually got 107 miles. It was 105 miles to the charger.

Today, I would take my Ioniq on a 500 mile trip as I have fully learned how to manage it. But still, no DCFC within 106 miles of my house. Disappointing to me that no infrastructure has occurred.

Saturday, I am taking the Mach E on a 150 mile trip. I have not decided if the highway is for me but I know that 50 miles of it will be highway with EA chargers at the end. I hope they work. At 70 MPH, my last 60 mile highway trip, the Mach E averaged 3 m/kWh.

Thanks for sharing this story. Folks need to be aware that there are limitations to driving a car with a 1.8-2.3 gallon gas tank (equivalent). Every factor that we take for granted with an ICE powered vehicle is almost exponential with it's impact to an EV.

Finally I agree that DCFC is too expensive. I paid $0.48/kWh this weekend at that same Fast Charger I tried with the Ioniq in 2019. I also had over 130 of range left when I got to the charger. The Mach E is a luxury with Range to me.

And you are in sunny CA. That is great EV Territory due to the climate. In Maine, we have to plan with at least a 33% range loss in the Winter months and up to a 10-20% loss Fall and Spring.
 
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BadgerGreg

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Don’t get too disgruntled with the per mile cost while road tripping. Your situation was extreme on the low efficiency end of the spectrum, due to high speeds and non-member EA pricing.

For most of us, road trips are a small fraction of our total mileage, so even though we’re paying more for electricity on those trips, it balances out with all the home charging we do the other 80%-90% of the time.

Next time you go on a road trip, take all the advice in this thread: buy the EA membership, which significantly reduces your charging costs, rely on free Level 2 destination charging whenever possible (try to arrive with a low SOC), plan your stops ahead of time, don’t rely (wholly) on Ford Navigation for charging decisions, and set your speed a *bit* lower on the highway.
 


Nklem

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You drive long distances, want to go 90 mph, blast your AC with 95 degree temps outside. Why are you driving an EV?

Sounds like this was a valuable learning lesson at least. I'm glad you made it back safely.
Quite Frankly, Ford and all other manufacturers EV marketing materials do not tell you about the "cons" or let's say "challenges" of EV ownership, which are all well highlighted here. Folks are on their own when it comes to that. It is just a different experience that you must adapt to. I can just imagine what original Leaf Owners in New England discovered when their 80 mile range became 53 or less miles in the Winter. And when degredation set in, 43, 33, 23 miles.
 

Valkyrja

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New stuff takes time to learn. When I bought my Camaro, it was the first car I had ever owned with a built-in nav, OnStar, etc. Running around town the nav was great. Then I took my first drive up and down the east coast. Everything went fine until I made my first stop for gas. Pulling out the nav decided that 95 no longer existed and re-plotted my full trip to last for 27 hours which was a bit more than the original 7 hours planned. It was the last time I used the nav in the car.

I expect I will just use ABRP in the Mach-e and, after reading some of the challenges folks have had, plan my first few trips in great detail until I am more comfy with the new tech.
 

jrstinkfish

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I took my MME on a 1000-mile round trip two days after I took it home :) My route was a little easier, as there are EA stations placed well within the estimated range along I-40 between Memphis and Dallas, so I thankfully never encountered any range anxiety (I stopped at every one and charged to 80%). It added about 4 hours to my normal round-trip driving time, and I am not doing it again unless I absolutely have to (if any one of those stations were offline, I'd be toast), but it was definitely a great way to get to know my new vehicle.

Due to the charging locations, I was able to drive it like a normal car (80 mph, AC, etc), so that was nice. When I had to transport my Bolt from the dealership in Nashville to Memphis a few years ago, that was another story entirely. There was no fast charger between the two cities back then (there is one now), so I had to stop at a Nissan dealership halfway and L2 charge for a bit to get enough juice to make it home with about 20 miles to spare on the GOM. The last leg was driving slow with no AC, which sucked.
 

dml105

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It wasn't a bad trip despite the setbacks and it was a learning curve for me. As to planning the trip, now I know that there are only two EA charging locations, no matter what MME trim you have they are essential. What I didn't expect was that the real life range on an interstate would be almost half of the EPA. And it was only 95F outside, an ordinary windy day, a rather light traffic. I remember driving from Texas to California a few years ago in my old gas guzzler and having no problems with AC blasting on full power and car going 100 mph on long stretches in the desert. I still like my Mach-E, but I think I won't be driving long distances in it.
You basically operated your EV in its worst regime: very high speed (80 mph is high, dude!) with no opportunity to regenerate.

Rule of thumb: You can only regen the energy used to get you to speed, so energy used in cruise is gone for good. If you want long range, you must cruise efficiently. Pick one: fast or range. Mach-e can do both, but not at the same time.
 

Scrannel

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Which is why the charging network is more "important" than the car. If the idea is to convince people to switch from ice: 1. There should be enough chargers that work. 2. There should be enough chargers. 3. The onboard nav should be able to handle getting you from one charger to the next. The Tesla nav is very, very good at this, plus not only will they list chargers but will alert you to chargers that are out of service. The Tesla app and the nav also tells you how many chargers are in use.
 
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theo1000

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It wasn't a bad trip despite the setbacks and it was a learning curve for me.
Glad you got home safe. Every learning curve you walk away from is a good one.:)

You also realize why there is a giant Federal battle ongoing to invest in chargers. Write your congressman and senator. Politicians can actually do something here.

Personally I think all this charger route planning is an anachronism. Like the old pioneers and watering holes. Its only needed because there is not a DCFC charger every 10-20 miles. After that only car navigation is needed. With long experience I never use the car charge planners. I always have a charge path with back ups A,B&C options. No ICE car driver even bothers to check gas stations on the way, ever. That is how DCFC will be one day.

And yes do slow down. Drive at 72 mph. It works just fine, I'm talking from the land of notional 75 mph speed limits. You will get better at this, I wouldn't abandon EV's for long distance travel as some are advocating. I do 500 mile + trips in my EV's all the time, it goes just fine.
 

deadduck

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Telling someone to slow down on some of these roads. There's a stretch of freeway here that I'll drive at 70+. A couple of years ago I took a business trip, someone else driving, and noticed that we were going kind of fast. I looked, we were doing 100 on that same stretch and we were getting passed. There are also times on that same stretch of road where you might not break 10 mph.

I'm not sure I'm willing to chew someone out about how fast they drive on California roads even if I am someone who puts it in ACC at 3 mph above the speed limit.

I think the real problem here is that the charging infrastructure blows.
 

Kamuelaflyer

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You drive long distances, want to go 90 mph, blast your AC with 95 degree temps outside. Why are you driving an EV?
Keep in mind that 1-5 is the primary link between the SFO Bay Area snd Los Angles. There are others, but I-5 is by far the fastest. Further it’s June in the great Central Valley of California. I was only half kidding when I said 95 F is sweater weather in June. We looked forward to days when the temperatures dropped below 100F. You want to avoid 100 F temps? Stay home don’t drive, temperatures will drop to below 100 sometime in mid October. Then the tule fog sets in.

Speeds? I-5 is a several hundred mile long straight as an arrow drag strip. Big rigs are doing 75. Car traffic is above that. Nothing the op describes is out of the ordinary from Tracy to the Grapevine.

His biggest mistake was relying upon Ford’s nav system to behave logically. And honestly, as has been pointed out, from Sacramento north to Portland on I-5, EA has stations roughly ever 75 miles. There’s little need to worry about a single station on that route. EA still has a long way to go.
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