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DrZoidberg

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I should take possession of my Lightning by my first road trip to Dallas. I'm trying to use EA, ABRP, etc. When looking at charging stations I guess what plug does the Lightning use? They say like CCS and ChaDeMo. Will that work on the Lightning or are those for Teslas?

Any other ways to look for them or is there not that much support yet. My 2nd trip would be to BFE, OK and there isn't squat out there.
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Tomwilli2025

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I suggest spending some time on YouTube watching videos on "EV Charging Basics". Sounds to me like you have lots of questions. But, you will need to look for stations that have CCS or J1772 plugs. It's a fun journey.
 

beatle

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In North America, this is a little cheat sheet for DCFC:

Tesla = Tesla
Nissan = CHAdeMO
Everyone else (including Ford) = CCS

If you come to a J1772 connector, it will not be nearly as fast (usually around 6-7kw).
 

Amps

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In Plugshare, use the filters. I use filters to show me (Filter #1) CCS Plug Type chargers with a minimum (Filter #2) of 50 kW chargers. If you are getting desperate, you can remove the 50kW filter and substitute it for a J1772 Plug Type filter. Be sure and read Plugshare comments before heading towards one. Be polite and 'check-in' and leave comments for others when you have trouble, or especially if you don't.

Unless you're desperate and realize you are in for many hours of charging or a motel stay or need a few miles for confidence to a DC Fast Charger, you're not going to want to show up with a Lightning at a Level 2 J1772 EVSE.
 

RickLightning

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Plugshare's filter should first be set to your vehicle. This will preselect the correct plugs. Then, if you want fast charging, select 50kW.

Of course your free charging hours only work at EA chargers.
 

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MacMike

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I should take possession of my Lightning by my first road trip to Dallas. I'm trying to use EA, ABRP, etc. When looking at charging stations I guess what plug does the Lightning use? They say like CCS and ChaDeMo. Will that work on the Lightning or are those for Teslas?

Any other ways to look for them or is there not that much support yet. My 2nd trip would be to BFE, OK and there isn't squat out there.
Watch this video. Tom is a member of this group and should be getting his Lightning soon.

 

adoublee

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Understand that the charger may not be able to deliver the advertised power based on the tech details of the vehicle. For example, a "125kW" Chargepoint setup might not be able to supply more than 200A through its cable, meaning it would only actually supply 125kW if the vehicle pack voltage is 125k/200A=625V or more. Lightning is 400V nominal and can be less.
 
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DrZoidberg

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Thanks for the video that helped a lot. I'm starting to learn a lot more.

I have a question. I lease right now and they didn't approve a Nema 14-50 install. They're weird. I found this on Amazon and our dryer is right next to the garage door, worse case I just plug it in and I charge. Are these things I found on amazon legit? It's like a splitter, I wouldn't keep the mobile charger plugged in all the time, just when I need extra power for charging. I feel like this would be safer than unplugging the dryer cord and plugging in the mobile each time I need to do it.

Ford F-150 Lightning ELI5 Fast Chargers 1655311209161
 

PV2EV

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Can you post the link?
 

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TheVirtualTim

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Use the in-vehicle nav system ... it's actually very good about auto-selecting the best chargers. Most of the time these will be Electrify America stations. When it creates a route, you can go into the turn-by-turn detail OR you can go to the "summary" screen. The summary only contains the start, end, and each of the charging stops along the way. If you don't like a stop that it chose, you can tap it on the screen and ask to show options ... it'll find other stations in the area -- and just pick the one you'd rather use.

A Better Route Planner (ABRP) does the same thing *except* it doesn't know the true state of charge or rate that you are going through power. It tries to estimate this. The in-car nav system DOES know the true state of charge and how quickly you are going through power. So it tends to do a better job than ABRP. ABRP has paid "Pro" tier. It can monitor the state of charging IF you have a compatible ODB dongle that supports Bluetooth. I paid for 1 month of Pro and it was not a good experience -- maybe they've fixed it by now. I don't know what they did with their code but it caused the app (and the entire phone) to get VERY sluggish, crashed frequently, and still didn't get accurate state of charge info. I cancelled the Pro and haven't tried it again since. But I'm not really motivated to try it considering how nice the built-in nav system handles charging stops.

If you are on a long enough trip that you need a hotel, the easiest way to find a hotel with a charger is to use PlugShare. They have a filter to find chargers with "lodging". Those will typically be slower AC chargers (J1772 plug).

ALL new vehicles sold in North America have finally standardized on the CCS1 connector for DC Fast Charging. Even Nissan (the only company left using CHAdeMO) finally moved to CCS1 (I think this year's Nissan Leaf *still* has CHAdeMO .. but I think that's it.) The CCS connector is for DC Fast Charging. When charging at home or a destination charger (e.g. hotels, shopping centers, etc.) those are J1772 connectors and those are AC charging -- not DC -- and at a MUCH slower rate.

Not all DC Fast Chargers are equal... some are as slow as 25kW ... the fastest are 350kW (but the truck will top out at just a little over 150kW (e.g. maybe 170kW). As the battery fills up ... the rate will gradually reduce -- this is normal. But if you visit a station that only supports say ... 50kW ... then that's all you'll get (and you'll be lucky to get all of it ... usually they top out at a little below their max rate.) SO... it pays to use the filters in PlugShare to find the faster DC Fast Chargers. The other nice thing about PlugShare is that you can make an account and leave comments on the charge experience. This is really nice because if the station is broken, you'll usually find someone left a comment. If a station is hard-to-find ... there's probably a comment telling you how to find it. It's worthwhile having that app downloaded to make sure the charging stop you are counting on using is actually working before you arrive with a low battery at a broken charging and no nearby alternatives.

CCS stands for "Combined Charging Standard. The "1" is because in Europe they use CCS2 -- a variant design. They call it the "combined" charging standard because if you look at the plug, it's really a J1772 plug with two extra beefy pins at the bottom. Those extra-beefy pins are the DC pins.

Tesla has their own proprietary connector that isn't compatible with anything besides a Tesla. There is no support for DC Fast Charging at a Tesla station (but Tesla plans to roll this out ... but it will require upgrading stations to also have a CCS1 connector ... and a much longer charging cord.)

Each Electrify America station will have a number of charing stalls. Their small stations are usually 4 stalls. Two of these will be rated at up to 350kW charging rate. Two will be rated up to 150kW rate. ONE of the 150kW stalls will also have a CHAdeMO plug (although I think they've announced that any new stations will no longer get CHAdeMO plugs.) Each stall has two cords ... but only one can be use at a time. There is no difference which of the two cords you use ... pick the one that has the easiest reach (with the exception of the special stall that has 1 CHAdeMO plug).

By etiquette we usually avoid the CHAdeMO stall if a different stall is available. This is because while we can use any of the stalls, someone with a Leaf can ONLY use that stall. So they'd be stuck waiting even if there were other open stalls.
 

MacMike

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Use the in-vehicle nav system ... it's actually very good about auto-selecting the best chargers. Most of the time these will be Electrify America stations. When it creates a route, you can go into the turn-by-turn detail OR you can go to the "summary" screen. The summary only contains the start, end, and each of the charging stops along the way. If you don't like a stop that it chose, you can tap it on the screen and ask to show options ... it'll find other stations in the area -- and just pick the one you'd rather use.

A Better Route Planner (ABRP) does the same thing *except* it doesn't know the true state of charge or rate that you are going through power. It tries to estimate this. The in-car nav system DOES know the true state of charge and how quickly you are going through power. So it tends to do a better job than ABRP. ABRP has paid "Pro" tier. It can monitor the state of charging IF you have a compatible ODB dongle that supports Bluetooth. I paid for 1 month of Pro and it was not a good experience -- maybe they've fixed it by now. I don't know what they did with their code but it caused the app (and the entire phone) to get VERY sluggish, crashed frequently, and still didn't get accurate state of charge info. I cancelled the Pro and haven't tried it again since. But I'm not really motivated to try it considering how nice the built-in nav system handles charging stops.

If you are on a long enough trip that you need a hotel, the easiest way to find a hotel with a charger is to use PlugShare. They have a filter to find chargers with "lodging". Those will typically be slower AC chargers (J1772 plug).

ALL new vehicles sold in North America have finally standardized on the CCS1 connector for DC Fast Charging. Even Nissan (the only company left using CHAdeMO) finally moved to CCS1 (I think this year's Nissan Leaf *still* has CHAdeMO .. but I think that's it.) The CCS connector is for DC Fast Charging. When charging at home or a destination charger (e.g. hotels, shopping centers, etc.) those are J1772 connectors and those are AC charging -- not DC -- and at a MUCH slower rate.

Not all DC Fast Chargers are equal... some are as slow as 25kW ... the fastest are 350kW (but the truck will top out at just a little over 150kW (e.g. maybe 170kW). As the battery fills up ... the rate will gradually reduce -- this is normal. But if you visit a station that only supports say ... 50kW ... then that's all you'll get (and you'll be lucky to get all of it ... usually they top out at a little below their max rate.) SO... it pays to use the filters in PlugShare to find the faster DC Fast Chargers. The other nice thing about PlugShare is that you can make an account and leave comments on the charge experience. This is really nice because if the station is broken, you'll usually find someone left a comment. If a station is hard-to-find ... there's probably a comment telling you how to find it. It's worthwhile having that app downloaded to make sure the charging stop you are counting on using is actually working before you arrive with a low battery at a broken charging and no nearby alternatives.

CCS stands for "Combined Charging Standard. The "1" is because in Europe they use CCS2 -- a variant design. They call it the "combined" charging standard because if you look at the plug, it's really a J1772 plug with two extra beefy pins at the bottom. Those extra-beefy pins are the DC pins.

Tesla has their own proprietary connector that isn't compatible with anything besides a Tesla. There is no support for DC Fast Charging at a Tesla station (but Tesla plans to roll this out ... but it will require upgrading stations to also have a CCS1 connector ... and a much longer charging cord.)

Each Electrify America station will have a number of charing stalls. Their small stations are usually 4 stalls. Two of these will be rated at up to 350kW charging rate. Two will be rated up to 150kW rate. ONE of the 150kW stalls will also have a CHAdeMO plug (although I think they've announced that any new stations will no longer get CHAdeMO plugs.) Each stall has two cords ... but only one can be use at a time. There is no difference which of the two cords you use ... pick the one that has the easiest reach (with the exception of the special stall that has 1 CHAdeMO plug).

By etiquette we usually avoid the CHAdeMO stall if a different stall is available. This is because while we can use any of the stalls, someone with a Leaf can ONLY use that stall. So they'd be stuck waiting even if there were other open stalls.
I use this app when I'm on the road and need to overnight.
https://www.evhotels.org/demo-app
 

BzzzzztZapPow

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So, I am new to the EV/charging. I found in a couple of locations, there are EVs parked in the charging stall, but not charging....not even plugged in. Maddening.

I did find that using the Ford Pass app to be useful. First I filtered for Ultra Fast DC (150kWh) and then Fast DC (50kWh). Using the CCS, I tapped into some of those free kWh. I used a local 'fast' charger and it was ok. Still not seeing the extra 250kWh in my account for the delayed pro charger, though.

Allegedly, my Pro Charger is coming at the end of th month and am scheduled with the SunRun subcontractor for installation on the 28th. Can't wait to leave the house with the truck preconditioned and a 'full tank'.
 

TheVirtualTim

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So, I am new to the EV/charging. I found in a couple of locations, there are EVs parked in the charging stall, but not charging....not even plugged in. Maddening.

I did find that using the Ford Pass app to be useful. First I filtered for Ultra Fast DC (150kWh) and then Fast DC (50kWh). Using the CCS, I tapped into some of those free kWh. I used a local 'fast' charger and it was ok. Still not seeing the extra 250kWh in my account for the delayed pro charger, though.

Allegedly, my Pro Charger is coming at the end of th month and am scheduled with the SunRun subcontractor for installation on the 28th. Can't wait to leave the house with the truck preconditioned and a 'full tank'.
Yep - I agree it is frustrating to see EV owners parked in a charging stall they aren't using. This would be the equivalent of parking an ICE car in front of gas pump with no intention of fueling. Some places have better signage to indicate that the space is for use "while charging" and not actually meant as a parking spot.

As for daily charging, I limit my daily charging to 80% (more than I need for daily use) and don't charge to "full" unless I'm about to depart on a longer trip.

Lithium batteries get stress when drained to nearly empty or charged to full. If you never drain below about 15% and never charge above 80-85% (Ford's manual on the Mach-E lists "90%" -- I haven't seen what they list for the F-150 Lightning) then the battery avoids a lot of the stress that decreases the overall life of the battery pack.
 

Firestop

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Unless you're desperate and realize you are in for many hours of charging or a motel stay or need a few miles for confidence to a DC Fast Charger, you're not going to want to show up with a Lightning at a Level 2 J1772 EVSE.
Yep, desperate is correct, as noted in TFL’s recently released cross country trip video. They parked for ~6 hrs at a free charger at a Best Western and only gained ~35 miles of range…it’s sorta like opening a box of chocolates…you never know what kinda charge kWh ya gona get⚡
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