One of the biggest concerns people have with electric vehicles is charging. We’ve taken our Mach-E on two trips with different approaches to charging. Our experience is with a rear-wheel drive Mach-E with the extended range battery. Its EPA range is 303 miles.
The first was from Princeton to the Berkshires, then to Boston and then back to Princeton. The trips were made without any charging on the way. We used Level 2 chargers at our destinations. The Williams Inn, in Williamstown, had ChargePoint chargers, as did the Cambridge Marriott in Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA. At the Cambridge Marriott, there are ChargePoint chargers in the garage used by the valets. The valets are willing to plug your car in as long as you have a ChargePoint card.
The picture blow shows our current mileage.
The most recent trip was from Princeton to Pittsburgh. The one-way distance of 330 miles necessitated charging on the road. We used the Ford app, which showed two stops. We didn’t follow its plan. Instead, we broke the trip into two segments each way with one charging stop. Prior to the trip we tested the high power charging at a local EVGo station.
In both directions we stopped at the Electrify America charging station at 1098 Harrisburg Pike in Carlisle. It was only 2 miles from the highway at a location with the Sheetz convenience store. There were two 350 kW chargers and two 150 kW chargers. Here is the station on the way to Pittsburgh.
It took about 20 minutes to charge from 30% to 80%. We charged until Apple Maps said we had 20% battery margin at our destination. In both directions we ended up with about 15% margin. In Pittsburgh we did destination charging at the Forbes Tower garage. The garage was $22 for 24 hours and charging was free. It was a short walk from the Residence Inn.
On the way to Pittsburgh we were joined at the charging station by two Ford F-150 Lightning trucks. On the way back, we were joined by another Mach-E.
The Electrify America stations were seamless. We have 250 kWh of free charging from Ford. The station knew all about the free charging and we didn’t have to pay or do anything else to be reimbursed. It was simply plug and charge.
PlugShare was the most reliable way to find charging stations.
We drove a Tesla Model 3 as a Hertz rental In Chicago. We charged once at a SuperCharger. It worked very well! I’d say the Electrify America experience was its equal.
Thanks for this, I was going to ask you how your Mach-E experience was going. I stopped at an electrify america on my way home from what is a long trip for me and found out the old for focus ev is not compatible. (it would of filled it from empty in 6 min if my math was correct (and you can charge at that rate beyond 80%)
So I am considering trading up. My next step is to stop at the dealer with a tape measure and throw a tape measure across the rear cargo area to find out how wide between the wheel wells and how deep . Basically what is the largest box.
Any gotchas? The climate system and sync3 system in the focus are really bad.
Thanks Jeff! The Mach-E 2022 model does not have a heat pump so it loses more range when heating the cabin than some other models. A heat pump is definitely something to look for in an EV.
We have RWD and didn’t have any driving issues despite rain and snow on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It seems like the heavy batteries help, as does the computer control. Blue Cruise works well in nice weather but wasn’t too helpful in the rain and snow at night.
In terms of cargo area, we can fit 3 carry-on size suitcases and at least one backpack in the Mach-E trunk.
I particularly like the remote warm-up!
The phone as a key can be weird. It will work and then for no obvious reason not work. The solution is to cycle the Bluetooth on your phone.