should I or shouldn't I

[Jimrpa]

As much as I like my Mach-e, I have zero interest in dealing with the charging BS during a long term road trip. Fortunate to have ICE vehicles in the household for those kind of trips

Just curious - what “charging BS?”

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[new to mach-e]

Just curious - what “charging BS?”

All of it during an extended road trip. Have zero interest to carefully plan and revolve my trip dependent on charging locations, F that

 

[Garbone]

All of it during an extended road trip. Have zero interest to carefully plan and revolve my trip dependent on charging locations, F that.

A bit dramatic ?, last I checked this was a BEV forum. On the east coast charging is not that big a deal unless you frequent WV or Vermont.

 

[Logal727]

I would not even think twice. Did FL to Maine and back with no problem besides food poisoning from eating at Sheetz.

It's literally in the name!

 

[Logal727]

All of it during an extended road trip. Have zero interest to carefully plan and revolve my trip dependent on charging locations, F that

Lol, carefully plan, you just gotta look at an app for 10 minutes or just punch it into the nav screen. Just a tiny bit more planning than driving an ICE vehicle. God forbid!

 

[MoonRiver]

I'll be driving my 22 select to New Heaven, CT from Florida in Thanksgiving week. It'll be its first long trip. It's not on the HVBJB recall list fortunately. Have planned out with ABRP and booked a hotel with three chargers midway. The only thing is that I don't drive slowly on interstate and the cold weather in thanksgiving week up north both cut down the battery range. The cold already reduces the battery performance, plus heating the cabin consumes its juice too, that I don't know yet by how much.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I am considering going from NY to Florida
I have a 2022 GT (April 22 build}
What are my chances, I have only charged at home.
never tried the fast DC chargers yet,
should I attempt or what are my chances of getting stranded somewhere ?
should I go or should I stay ?

NY to FL is a piece of cake. I've done DC to Marco Island FL twice and DC to NY twice in my E4X (First Edition). The only concern would be the HVBJB issue and that's a low probability. There are plenty of chargers on the I-95 corridor.

 

[ChasingCoral]

All of it during an extended road trip. Have zero interest to carefully plan and revolve my trip dependent on charging locations, F that

No careful planning needed on NY to FL. Just plug in the address and go. Piece of cake.

 

[Tampamike]

thanks so much for the info, did you make the reservation on line and how far in advance

One I made on line and one via phone call. Availability can change just like airline flights. For instance, a couple of days ago there’s were no rooms available today but this morning there was one. Coach seats re available but the website shows the train is 90% full. This is peak southbound season. The one we got over the phone we just did on a whim after we already left Philly in the car.

 

[Tampamike]

All of it during an extended road trip. Have zero interest to carefully plan and revolve my trip dependent on charging locations, F that

Stop sugar coating it. Tell us how you really feel.

As a counterpoint ….. Well, Jane, you ignorant s___. (SNL reference, meant to be humorous). It’s not that dramatic. If you take a trip, you always plan something. Planning to charge an EV is not that onerous, IMHO. This car is like a new toy or a new hobby - it’s fun to play with. I’ve made, maybe 6 road trips and I’ve gone where I wanted to go and haven’t gotten stuck or spent an inordinate amount of time planning. But, to each his own. Just wanted to say that it ain’t that hard for some of us and we actually like it.

 

[RockwallRick]

I was just wondering if anyone has done a BEV road trip from Florida to the West Coast mainly via I-10. I have only gone as far as Panama City but I know of another member on here that bought his car in Tampa and then drove it back to Ft Worth, TX. My Wife and I are planning on doing this sometime next year with stops to visit relatives in San Antonio, Tx and Tucson, AZ.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

I have had one successful "long" trip (not really long but still required a couple of fast charges on the way), but still don't know if I am ready for another one, especially considering that it will be at the end of November and the limits of the standard battery AWD.

ABRP suggests that a big chunk of the trip needs to be driven at a max speed of 65, and it's not how I normally drive, and I'm afraid that this self-imposed limitation will overweight the enjoyment of driving Mach-E compared to a perfectly capable CR-V, not to mention at least one lost hour for the charge.

From my previous trip I remember that ABRP is quite pessimistic even with optimistic setting of 3 mi/kWh at 65 mph.

I guess I'm looking for some encoregement from the experienced travellers

We did a similar trip Chicago downtown to Royal Oak, MI in an Extended Range AWD with 5 passengers in the car and loaded trunk / frunk. Drove 75 mph with 100% SoC and had to stop one time by the Portage Electrify America charger. Charging went faster than expected and we averaged 2.7 miles / KW. The issue was finding convenient chargers in Detroit. We did okay, but had to do a lot of planning around where to charge while taking local trips around the city.

You are driving an extra distance on both ends, with Standard Range and in colder weather. May the force be with you!

 

[DadzBoyz]

Take it to a dcfc or two. It’s your car. It’s supposed to handle these things.
I guess what I’m saying is if it’s going to break, I’d want it to happen close to home before a trip. Get it fixed and then no worries.

 

[DadzBoyz]

what is HVBJB ??

There is a known issue with some MME’s built before May 25, 2022. There are devices called contactors in the battery area called the High Voltage Battery Junction Box (HVBJB). They are basically switches that route battery current where needed.
- To the motors
- From chargers to the batteries
- From the big battery to the 12 volt accessory battery
- etc.
Some of these will lock up either in the on position or in the off position and will not switch back. This causes the car to go into a service mode or cause a Service Now message. The car is either
a) Undrivable
b) Driveable at low power

When this happens, Ford repairs the car under warranty and replaces the HVBJB. It’s is a relatively big repair, but once repaired, the car should be fine. The new part has a design change to address the issue.

 

[mkhuffman]

No careful planning needed on NY to FL. Just plug in the address and go. Piece of cake.

It has been that easy in the past, but I don't think we can expect it to always be so easy. Many more people are driving BEVs and charger congestion should not be shrugged off IMO. Especially at hotels.

I don't ever plan to use a charger at a hotel without a backup plan because most hotels have a very small number of chargers for all their guests. If that a-hole fully charged Tesla sits there all night, you will need a DCFC nearby to keep the trip going.

It isn't as easy as driving a ICE, and most normal people don't want to deal with all the extra planning. Like my wife. Those of us who post frequently here are not normal, including me.

In a way I relish the challenge of taking my car on a trip. Except that one six hour drive that required a slow 1 hour charge at a crappy EA station just to make it there. If I had been alone, it would have been OK, but I was not.

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