There's no good way to spin what happened to this poor guy. I remember going on my first road trip with my early 2013 Tesla Model S. I had actually picked it up from the Fremont factory and drove it back to San Diego. At that time, Tesla had all of six supercharger locations in the world. Harris Ranch had a single 90 kW supercharger. And yet, the trip went flawlessly. There's really no excuse for Ford to be botching this like this.
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Mach-E road trip becomes a charging fiasco...
- Thread starter ScoobyDoo82
- Start date
El joe
Active Member
mk677
Member
is that what I posted? sheesh.
I posted that when on a long road trip it is foolish to spend the time to charge the car to 100%, which can take almost 90 minutes when a 20 minute charge will get you to the next charger up the road, it's called driving the bottom of the battery which is the most time efficient method of road tripping.
On my last road trip I charged to nearly 100% several times (in less than 60 minutes) because I was going on routes not covered by the Superchargers (other chargers, cities, villages, humans generally) for over 200 miles. If I travel in the Mach-E, I would spend a few more hours charging (and I would probably not take that trip in the Mach-E at all).
And note, I am traveling longer-than-50 miles round trip distance maybe 3-5 times a year only. Charging over 80% (to about 90%) is pretty common on my trips. I live in Oklahoma and the roads are long and chargers are rare.
Have you ever done a road trip outside of Florida? In the West, Plains states and Canadian provinces, sometimes the next Supercharger is 200 or even 250+ miles away when driving north/south. It's faster to spend 60 to 90 minutes charging close to 100% and drive direct than to spend several hours driving hundreds of miles out of the way just to stay on the interstate or TCH.
mk677
Member
maybe in the canadian provinces the chargers are spaced far apart but aside from the dakotas, montana the western US is fairly well covered
Driving west/east is fairly well covered. As I mentioned before, driving north/south is not. Bismarck, ND to Murdo, SD is 265 miles. The next Supercharger isn't "just up the road".
mk677
Member
well my friend, you've noted the one geographic outlier in the entire country so you win the point.
Try driving outside of Florida. I've driven 30,000 miles on road trips in Teslas in these states. You can find hundreds of 200+ mile trips between Superchargers if you look at a map.
tstolze
Member
All I can think of is my Brother fighting his Sync system for years in his Ford... He eventually traded the vehicle in after many frustrating years of the system not working right. Hopefully they can get these charging issues resolved.
To me, the worst part of Mach-E is the lack of elevation information is in energy calculation. Taking 60 seconds for handshake is annoying, but I am okay with that. Plugging and Unplugging several times during a charging session is super annoying, but I can live with that. Half way in between chargers on a up hill/down hill stretch, the car tells you that you don't have enough energy to reach the next charger would drive me crazy.
Yes, it is very nice indeed that Tesla did it right and takes into account elevation. Kinda obvious thing to do if you know anything about EVs (ahem).
Just try going Orlando to Everglades City the shortest route. No Superchargers, plenty of no-human land, over 200 miles.
mk677
Member
you can drive 200 miles in a taycan without the need for a charge, and secondly you're wrong, at 179 miles there is a place to charge. nice try though.
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UP of Michigan is sparse too. Fortunately more locations are being added. I just wish Tesla would get the one done in Escanaba. It’s been pending for a few years already.
Having done some minor road-tripping in a CCS vehicle (Hyundai), the 60 second handshakes are only "livable" if the success ratio is ~100%, and so you can spend that 1min walking to your errands.
Kyle doesn't even mention the current EA issue where you have to hit "continue" after charging starts, or it shuts right back off again. So you can't even "plug in, authorize, head to get food", you have to sit there for the full 1min just to hit "continue" afterwards. And that repeats each time the handshake fails, or charging fails. (Along with "fumbling with the app" issues he also ignored, because plug-and-charge is supposed to avoid all that).
The "charging starts w/in seconds of plugging in" bit of superchargers is the best part of them in my so-far-limited experience. The charge rate isn't that great any more in comparison as the alternatives get better charging curves, and the availability is actually WORSE in my most common routes (EA stations are generally completely empty, and pretty common on most of my routes). But the reliability and speed-of-plugging-in are WAY better on Tesla, and that matters.
Kyle doesn't even mention the current EA issue where you have to hit "continue" after charging starts, or it shuts right back off again. So you can't even "plug in, authorize, head to get food", you have to sit there for the full 1min just to hit "continue" afterwards. And that repeats each time the handshake fails, or charging fails. (Along with "fumbling with the app" issues he also ignored, because plug-and-charge is supposed to avoid all that).
The "charging starts w/in seconds of plugging in" bit of superchargers is the best part of them in my so-far-limited experience. The charge rate isn't that great any more in comparison as the alternatives get better charging curves, and the availability is actually WORSE in my most common routes (EA stations are generally completely empty, and pretty common on most of my routes). But the reliability and speed-of-plugging-in are WAY better on Tesla, and that matters.
These Manufacturers should just bend the knee and have Tesla work with them to share the SC network.
mk677
Member
I agree it’s not a “hot bed” of travel. But it is fairly busy since that is the best way to Wisconsin if far enough North in the lower peninsula due to Lake MI.
The route averages about 5k cars per day. Still enough to warrant superchargers. And Tesla must agree since they do have a few more locations allocated for there.
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