Stupid questions from EV newbie

Mach-E VLOG

Well-Known Member
First Name
Patrick
Joined
Jul 25, 2020
Threads
117
Messages
1,567
Reaction score
6,293
Location
Oceanside, CA
Website
machevlog.com
Vehicles
Mach-E GT PE - Grabber Blue - Blucifer Twocifer
Country flag
One of the parking lots near DIA (Denver) has an option to choose covered parking and they have 12 Level 2 chargers. Their pricing is actually pretty good for covered parking and I don't think there is an extra fee for charging. unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to reserve a charger.

BUT... I doubt I will ever use it. For short trips, I wouldn't worry about losing that much charge. For longer trips, I find it is usually cheaper and more convenient to Lyft there.
 

dbsb3233

Well-Known Member
First Name
TimCO
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Threads
54
Messages
9,269
Reaction score
10,780
Location
Colorado, USA
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-E FE, 2023 Bronco Sport OB
Occupation
Retired
Country flag
One of the parking lots near DIA (Denver) has an option to choose covered parking and they have 12 Level 2 chargers. Their pricing is actually pretty good for covered parking and I don't think there is an extra fee for charging. unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to reserve a charger.

BUT... I doubt I will ever use it. For short trips, I wouldn't worry about losing that much charge. For longer trips, I find it is usually cheaper and more convenient to Lyft there.
Plus it just doesn't seem like a good use of limited resources to tie up a charger for a week. That really ought to only be allowed for short term parking (like 24 hours or less). Otherwise it's taking chargers away from others that might need them.

That's where the valet reference probably fits more. IF you're really going to need a charge in an airport lot (most shouldn't if they just plan right), then it should be just 8 hours or something. Which means someone needs to move the car, which means valet.

Personally, I think we'll just drive the Escape to DIA anyway. We usually just park in the Pikes Peak lot. We're too far out for Uber and Lyft to be cheaper. (Worry a tad about hail storms too.)
 
Last edited:


GoGoGadgetMachE

Well-Known Member
First Name
Michael
Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Threads
153
Messages
5,614
Reaction score
12,654
Location
Ohio
Vehicles
2021 Mach-E 1st Ed., 2022 Lightning Platinum
Occupation
Professional forum cheerleader and fanboy
Country flag
One of the parking lots near DIA (Denver) has an option to choose covered parking and they have 12 Level 2 chargers. Their pricing is actually pretty good for covered parking and I don't think there is an extra fee for charging. unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to reserve a charger.

BUT... I doubt I will ever use it. For short trips, I wouldn't worry about losing that much charge. For longer trips, I find it is usually cheaper and more convenient to Lyft there.
back when travel existed, one of the reasons I used the off-site airport parking lot I did was they had "EV spaces" (which was just a block of eight 120V outlets with dedicated spaces for them, really). That's where I first saw a Bolt, a Volt, and each model Tesla really up close, except the Y (came out too late)... saw the Outlander PHEV, Leaf, pretty much everything you can name except a Fisker Karma (*). The Fusion Energi battery was just big enough to do the trip in summer all-EV if you took the right route, but not quite enough for winter. For me, that meant the charging was a big deal, so I could get home on all-EV or mostly-EV. The spaces almost always had at least one, and if you knew about it, there was actually one weird "secret" area on a hill not with the main spaces you could use. (**)

For the Mach-E, I doubt I'd bother, unless I did something like deliberately run the battery sort of low, then charge it on their dime for like a week or something.

(*) there is another, covered parking lot nearby, that costs more, that also has EV spots, but like 3, so they almost never have an open spot. One of the very few times I went there, they had a Fisker Karma, which was a major surprise. So I've seen one, just not at the lot in question.

(**) "one weird secret spot" no I'm not in Internet advertising but maybe I could be? ?
 

CHeil402

Well-Known Member
First Name
Chris
Joined
Sep 21, 2020
Threads
8
Messages
723
Reaction score
1,314
Location
King of Prussia, PA
Vehicles
2017 Audi A4, 2021 MME
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
Country flag
Plus it just doesn't seem like a good use of limited resources to tie up a charger for a week. That really ought to only be allowed for short term parking (like 24 hours or less). Otherwise it's taking chargers away from others that might need them.

That's where the valet reference probably fits more. IF you're really going to need a charge in an airport lot (most shouldn't if they just plan right), then it should be just 8 hours or something. Which means someone needs to move the car, which means valet.

Personally, I think we'll just drive the Escape to DIA anyway. We usually just park in the Pikes Peak lot. We're too far out for Uber and Lyft to be cheaper. (Worry a tad about hail storms too.)
I think this is probably one of the best arguments for using the slow 120 V capability of the mobile charger. If the airport parking has a 120 V outlet near a spot, you can plug in and who cares if you're only charging at 3 mph if you'll be sitting there for a week?
 

dbsb3233

Well-Known Member
First Name
TimCO
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Threads
54
Messages
9,269
Reaction score
10,780
Location
Colorado, USA
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-E FE, 2023 Bronco Sport OB
Occupation
Retired
Country flag
back when travel existed, one of the reasons I used the off-site airport parking lot I did was they had "EV spaces" (which was just a block of eight 120V outlets with dedicated spaces for them, really).
That actually makes logical sense. For long term parking, just having 120V outlets available should be sufficient (and a helluva lot cheaper). Just enough to let the vehicle slow charge so it doesn't run too low long-term. Let people use their own chargers (they're usually secure lots). For the cost of 4 L2 chargers, they could probably put in 40 120V outlets instead.
 

dbsb3233

Well-Known Member
First Name
TimCO
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Threads
54
Messages
9,269
Reaction score
10,780
Location
Colorado, USA
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-E FE, 2023 Bronco Sport OB
Occupation
Retired
Country flag
I think this is probably one of the best arguments for using the slow 120 V capability of the mobile charger. If the airport parking has a 120 V outlet near a spot, you can plug in and who cares if you're only charging at 3 mph if you'll be sitting there for a week?
I was just posting the same thing as you posted that. ;)

Yes, perfect use for 120V. Cost is a huge part of all this. The more costly the solution, the fewer of them that will be installed. We need to be careful not to "over-ask". We'll get more of them if they're cheaper. One whole wall of the parking structure wired with standard (far cheaper) 120V outlets is all it should take for most people's needs.
 

s7davis

Well-Known Member
First Name
Scott
Joined
Nov 28, 2019
Threads
7
Messages
258
Reaction score
218
Location
California
Vehicles
2019 Alfa Romeo
Country flag
Parked for just one week??

That's contrary to most everything I've seen.
you need take into count that 1. If you don’t plug car in it looses say 2 -3% charge each day just sitting. Reason is even though car is just sitting the car still in running behind scenes in something like standby mode or auxiliary mode so it can still keep batteries at ideal temps. Then shuts off again.

now as I’ve only had experience with Tesla think it took 1 week to die but it was not fully charged either. So their are different scenarios that are in play. If car was fully charged it will probably still have juice left.

for example let say the car was at 50% SOC when it was parked for a week without being plugged in. Now if it is not dead I am going to guess you might have like 5% SOC left but is that enough to get to a charger?

this is why if leaving for extended amount of time if at airport you valet as they know they need to keep EVs charged up or at least keep an eye on them so they can charge them and let them know you would like to have x amount of charge when you pick car back up.
 

dbsb3233

Well-Known Member
First Name
TimCO
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Threads
54
Messages
9,269
Reaction score
10,780
Location
Colorado, USA
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-E FE, 2023 Bronco Sport OB
Occupation
Retired
Country flag
you need take into count that 1. If you don’t plug car in it looses say 2 -3% charge each day just sitting. Reason is even though car is just sitting the car still in running behind scenes in something like standby mode or auxiliary mode so it can still keep batteries at ideal temps. Then shuts off again.

now as I’ve only had experience with Tesla think it took 1 week to die but it was not fully charged either. So their are different scenarios that are in play. If car was fully charged it will probably still have juice left.

for example let say the car was at 50% SOC when it was parked for a week without being plugged in. Now if it is not dead I am going to guess you might have like 5% SOC left but is that enough to get to a charger?

this is why if leaving for extended amount of time if at airport you valet as they know they need to keep EVs charged up or at least keep an eye on them so they can charge them and let them know you would like to have x amount of charge when you pick car back up.
Did you have Sentry mode turned on? I've read that drains the battery a lot faster.

I was just going by the sheet posted above, which worked out to about 1% loss/day. 2-3% would certainly be worse than that. Even then though, as long as one plans smartly, that shouldn't be a problem for 1 week. That's 14%-21%. I would make sure I'm arriving at the airport with at least 70% to start. Coming from home, I'd probably just go ahead and charge up to 100% at home.

Obviously for some people, the airport may be a 120 mile drive or something just to get there. But I'm not counting that rare situation. Most should be able to arrive at the airport >70%, even if they have to stop at a DCFC along the way.
 

buffasnow

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jeff
Joined
Oct 20, 2020
Threads
2
Messages
431
Reaction score
780
Location
Buffalo, NY
Vehicles
Grabber Blue FE, 85 Mustang GT (pasturized)
Country flag
I was just posting the same thing as you posted that. ;)

Yes, perfect use for 120V. Cost is a huge part of all this. The more costly the solution, the fewer of them that will be installed. We need to be careful not to "over-ask". We'll get more of them if they're cheaper. One whole wall of the parking structure wired with standard (far cheaper) 120V outlets is all it should take for most people's needs.
Call me cynical, but even if the outlets are within sight of a manned booth in a "secured" lot, what are the chances that a minimum wage guard would observe/decide to act/actively stop some dirtbag from stealing my mobile charger from my unattended MME?
No idea what the copper in the cable is worth, but it's certainly nonzero. Also, people steal stuff they don't even want/need and cannot easily sell just because they can.
The only way I would consider this is if the cable & charger could be locked together and the cable locked to the car.
Even if the cable was not stolen, it could be unplugged (accidentally or on purpose) and then you come back to a near-empty battery.
Wondering if anal-retentive should be hyphenated (asking for a friend).
 

CHeil402

Well-Known Member
First Name
Chris
Joined
Sep 21, 2020
Threads
8
Messages
723
Reaction score
1,314
Location
King of Prussia, PA
Vehicles
2017 Audi A4, 2021 MME
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
Country flag
Call me cynical, but even if the outlets are within sight of a manned booth in a "secured" lot, what are the chances that a minimum wage guard would observe/decide to act/actively stop some dirtbag from stealing my mobile charger from my unattended MME?
No idea what the copper in the cable is worth, but it's certainly nonzero. Also, people steal stuff they don't even want/need and cannot easily sell just because they can.
The only way I would consider this is if the cable & charger could be locked together and the cable locked to the car.
Even if the cable was not stolen, it could be unplugged (accidentally or on purpose) and then you come back to a near-empty battery.
Wondering if anal-retentive should be hyphenated (asking for a friend).
The plug part locks into the car when the doors are locked. That wouldn't stop someone from unplugging it from the outlet, but at least at PHL the lots are big an nondescript. And most people are just shuffling to/from their cars. And you really have to be parking there you can't easily just walk by.
 

BlueMach

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2020
Threads
0
Messages
549
Reaction score
716
Location
USA
Vehicles
Mach-E First Edition
Country flag
The plug part locks into the car when the doors are locked. That wouldn't stop someone from unplugging it from the outlet, but at least at PHL the lots are big an nondescript. And most people are just shuffling to/from their cars. And you really have to be parking there you can't easily just walk by.
Have we seen that the AC plug locks to the car in any review? The owners manual only refers to the vehicle locking the plug during DC charging, making me think the locking pin is not used during AC charging.
 

CHeil402

Well-Known Member
First Name
Chris
Joined
Sep 21, 2020
Threads
8
Messages
723
Reaction score
1,314
Location
King of Prussia, PA
Vehicles
2017 Audi A4, 2021 MME
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
Country flag
Have we seen that the AC plug locks to the car in any review? The owners manual only refers to the vehicle locking the plug during DC charging, making me think the locking pin is not used during AC charging.
I don't know that for a fact with AC charging, so I guess it requires testing... If only I had my car to test on ?
Sponsored

 
 




Top