Eric_C_Boston
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Eric
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2021
- Threads
- 51
- Messages
- 554
- Reaction score
- 740
- Location
- North Shore, MA, USA
- Vehicles
- 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E RWD ER
- Occupation
- Retired Software Engineer
- Thread starter
- #1
I reached the first year anniversary of MME ownership this month and celebrated by going on a brief road trip to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec from the Boston area.
I've been feeling a little left out. There were some minor glitches early in ownership, but the car is performing better after various updates, both through OTA and my immersion into the world of FDRS. I got Bluecruise with once a day OTAs over four days.
The route to Quebec was the same as my last road trip to Montreal, so the same plan to charge at EA in Lebanon, NH. I noticed two new Chargepoint 125kW Chargers at the Homewood Suites in South Burlington, VT. No sign that the EA station in nearby Colchester is online.
There is no Level 2 EVSE outside where I stayed, so charging for the trip home would require more thought. Most of the Level 3 chargers around St Jean are 50kW, so I expected to spend over an hour to get to 80%.
There was no need for a negative PCR test, but I took a rapid test to make sure. I still needed to use the ArriveCan mobile app and I filled it out the day before I left. It was also Earth Day, so I used the EA in Saugus, MA to charge up to 90% for free. I topped up to 100% overnight at home.
I planned to leave around 10 AM and arrive at the AirBnB around 4 PM. Of course I left later than planned, but everything worked out. I made sure I had all the needed documentation. I got to EA Lebanon, NH with a SOC of 54%. There was one charger free, but it was unavailable. I parked nearby and checked out the Walmart. This one has food, but not much ready-to-eat like the Walmart in Saugus. I went back to the car and the VW that was charging was gone.
I plugged in and went over to Panera Bread for lunch. One nice thing about the charging update is I got to 91% SOC in the 33 minutes it took to have lunch. Before the trip, ABRP indicated I could reach the new charger in South Burlington, so I kept track of the SOC and found I could make it to either South Burlington or Colchester. I will consider using Colchester when it comes online, although Lebanon, NH is a good lunch stop halfway through the trip.
There was more of a line at the border compared to last time, but not as bad as peak summer months. I reached my destination in St Jean with 29% SOC after traveling 281 miles. The miles per kW dropped down to around 2.6 in the mountains of Vermont, but the trip odometer indicated 3.7 Miles/kW at the end. I wonder if it is broken because it always seems to indicate 3.7 Miles/kW.
In my travels around the St Jean area, I decided to charge at IGA Picard on Taschereau Blvd in Brossard. They have two ChargePoint 125 kW chargers. Both chargers were in use with one car being a White MME. I did a look around the area and plugged in after the other car left. The charge started out at 26kW, but increased to 70kW about four minutes later. It took 52 minutes to go from 18% to 80% SOC. I also noticed a set of two Circuit Electrique chargers in Carignan where one was 100kW, but both were marked as 50kW in Plugshare. The information was correct on the Circuit Electrique website. So next time I will also check the EV Charge provider websites for any upgrades. I know that Circuit Electrique has been upgrading stations around Montreal.
I can use both Flo and Circuit Electrique chargers with my Flo account. I though I had my card holder with all my EV charging cards in my glove compartmet. No problem, except I could not log into the Flo mobile app. Flo Customer Service was able to fix it after two attempts. Flo updated the mobile app since my last Quebec trip and I had to enter information again. I put in some incorrect information.
I had dinner with a friend the night before leaving for home, so I stopped to charge at a nearby Rona store. It was only a 50kW, but the car went from 40% to 100% SOC in 1 hour and 35 minutes. Dinner took 2 hours. The displayed SOC was 99% when I drove back to the AirBnB, but showed 100% the next morning.
It was about a half hour wait at the border and I had lunch at a place on Route 2 in South Burlington, VT. I did not bother to visit the new nearby Level 3 charger. I got to EA Lebanon with a 38% SOC. The same charger was still unavailable, but two others were free. I had to manually activate one of the chargers, but it did not seem to be working well. The second one activated and seemed to work better. I unplugged a half hour later at 80%.
I noticed when I was writing this that two Chargepoint 125kW chargers are across the river at a Mobil station in White River Junction, VT. It opened in mid-February. I am glad there are more charging options along I-89.
The car got rear ended when I got off of I-495 to go on Route 114, but it seems like minor damage. We exchanged information anyway. All the sensors work and I think I can easily fix it. Oh well.
The total mileage on the trip was 722 miles. I used Adaptive Cruise Control, but not BlueCruise. I did notice BlueCruise was available on A-35 and A-10 in Quebec.
I've been feeling a little left out. There were some minor glitches early in ownership, but the car is performing better after various updates, both through OTA and my immersion into the world of FDRS. I got Bluecruise with once a day OTAs over four days.
The route to Quebec was the same as my last road trip to Montreal, so the same plan to charge at EA in Lebanon, NH. I noticed two new Chargepoint 125kW Chargers at the Homewood Suites in South Burlington, VT. No sign that the EA station in nearby Colchester is online.
There is no Level 2 EVSE outside where I stayed, so charging for the trip home would require more thought. Most of the Level 3 chargers around St Jean are 50kW, so I expected to spend over an hour to get to 80%.
There was no need for a negative PCR test, but I took a rapid test to make sure. I still needed to use the ArriveCan mobile app and I filled it out the day before I left. It was also Earth Day, so I used the EA in Saugus, MA to charge up to 90% for free. I topped up to 100% overnight at home.
I planned to leave around 10 AM and arrive at the AirBnB around 4 PM. Of course I left later than planned, but everything worked out. I made sure I had all the needed documentation. I got to EA Lebanon, NH with a SOC of 54%. There was one charger free, but it was unavailable. I parked nearby and checked out the Walmart. This one has food, but not much ready-to-eat like the Walmart in Saugus. I went back to the car and the VW that was charging was gone.
I plugged in and went over to Panera Bread for lunch. One nice thing about the charging update is I got to 91% SOC in the 33 minutes it took to have lunch. Before the trip, ABRP indicated I could reach the new charger in South Burlington, so I kept track of the SOC and found I could make it to either South Burlington or Colchester. I will consider using Colchester when it comes online, although Lebanon, NH is a good lunch stop halfway through the trip.
There was more of a line at the border compared to last time, but not as bad as peak summer months. I reached my destination in St Jean with 29% SOC after traveling 281 miles. The miles per kW dropped down to around 2.6 in the mountains of Vermont, but the trip odometer indicated 3.7 Miles/kW at the end. I wonder if it is broken because it always seems to indicate 3.7 Miles/kW.
In my travels around the St Jean area, I decided to charge at IGA Picard on Taschereau Blvd in Brossard. They have two ChargePoint 125 kW chargers. Both chargers were in use with one car being a White MME. I did a look around the area and plugged in after the other car left. The charge started out at 26kW, but increased to 70kW about four minutes later. It took 52 minutes to go from 18% to 80% SOC. I also noticed a set of two Circuit Electrique chargers in Carignan where one was 100kW, but both were marked as 50kW in Plugshare. The information was correct on the Circuit Electrique website. So next time I will also check the EV Charge provider websites for any upgrades. I know that Circuit Electrique has been upgrading stations around Montreal.
I can use both Flo and Circuit Electrique chargers with my Flo account. I though I had my card holder with all my EV charging cards in my glove compartmet. No problem, except I could not log into the Flo mobile app. Flo Customer Service was able to fix it after two attempts. Flo updated the mobile app since my last Quebec trip and I had to enter information again. I put in some incorrect information.
I had dinner with a friend the night before leaving for home, so I stopped to charge at a nearby Rona store. It was only a 50kW, but the car went from 40% to 100% SOC in 1 hour and 35 minutes. Dinner took 2 hours. The displayed SOC was 99% when I drove back to the AirBnB, but showed 100% the next morning.
It was about a half hour wait at the border and I had lunch at a place on Route 2 in South Burlington, VT. I did not bother to visit the new nearby Level 3 charger. I got to EA Lebanon with a 38% SOC. The same charger was still unavailable, but two others were free. I had to manually activate one of the chargers, but it did not seem to be working well. The second one activated and seemed to work better. I unplugged a half hour later at 80%.
I noticed when I was writing this that two Chargepoint 125kW chargers are across the river at a Mobil station in White River Junction, VT. It opened in mid-February. I am glad there are more charging options along I-89.
The car got rear ended when I got off of I-495 to go on Route 114, but it seems like minor damage. We exchanged information anyway. All the sensors work and I think I can easily fix it. Oh well.
The total mileage on the trip was 722 miles. I used Adaptive Cruise Control, but not BlueCruise. I did notice BlueCruise was available on A-35 and A-10 in Quebec.
