Ford dealers won't be required to have 24/7 charger access.

[jimfigler]

I wonder how many Ford dealers are even convenient while on trips. Some are right on highway service roads, but most aren’t. I would never want to venture more than a mile or two off of the highway to charge.

Hopefully the dealerships on highway service roads are smart and place the chargers outside of their gated lot for 24/7 access.

The dealer I bought mine from is less than a mile from I-90 exit. Restaurant within walking distance but the corner is fairly busy to cross.

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[N0v0w3ls]

In order to be EV Certified, Ford is only requiring a dealer to have 2 L2 charges installed (one customer facing and one in service) at a minimum of 32 amps. I expect it's more of something customers would plug into while they happen to be at the dealership and wouldn't make dealers a charging destination (at least not for me).

My local group has begun installing some Chargepoint DC fast chargers (50Kw) but they haven't installed it at the Ford dealership around the corner from me yet. They have one at their Chevy dealership and so far I haven't been able to get it to work anyway. I get an immediate charging error on the truck. Overall they seem pretty clueless about it, so I wonder if they have them rigged to not work after hours (I work out early in the morning and it's next to a coffee shop).

 

[N0v0w3ls]

The dealer I bought mine from is less than a mile from I-90 exit. Restaurant within walking distance but the corner is fairly busy to cross.

Howdy neighbor! I hear they're going to put in a DC charger like what they have across the street at the Chevy dealership, but I don't know where. I'd be willing to bet that dealers would actively discourage after hours charging just to avoid people lingering around the lots with the crazy theft stories these days. I've seen many times when I drove past the Chevy dealership that they had it ICE'd with service vehicles.

 

[jimfigler]

Howdy neighbor! I hear they're going to put in a DC charger like what they have across the street at the Chevy dealership, but I don't know where. I'd be willing to bet that dealers would actively discourage after hours charging just to avoid people lingering around the lots with the crazy theft stories these days. I've seen many times when I drove past the Chevy dealership that they had it ICE'd with service vehicles.

Hey I’ll have to check it out. I don’t really need local charging but I’ll make use of it on occasion. The free charging at Chestnut Ridge is nice but that ChargePoint unit is already beat up.

 

[COrocket]

If Ford really does shift to an EV company, dealership charging will be a piece but not a critical player in solving charging infrastructure challenges. If you look at Tesla, they’ve built over 16,000 stalls in the US spread over several thousand locations, whereas their service/delivery centers are numbered in the hundreds. And even their network isn’t growing fast enough as they try and catch the big guys in vehicle sales.

So there’s going to be a lot more room for expansion of charging networks beyond dealership footprints. Especially as some pointed out that some dealerships are not located in spots that people would normally stop on a road-trip, and they are not spaced evenly among major highways and interstates. For this reason I’m not particularly concerned whether my local dealer has 24/7 charging access or not

 

[GDN]

General motors is spending money to put chargers in Pilot & Flying J's. If the Ford dealers chargers are not going to be convenient then Ford should be doing something like GM instead of requiring dealers to install DC chargers. If the dealers are not willing to make the chargers assessable & help in the adoption of the very vehicles they've signed up to sell, then it makes the dealers less necessary it would seem to me.

Ford needs to make sure the Electrify America connection they seem to have improves & expands or find a better partner.

I was really looking forward to the placement of some dealers in more remote areas having 24/7 assessable chargers when traveling cross country. It would make me more confident in finding a charger.
I don't need a convenience store type situation. When I need a charger I just want a charger & I can find another place to find my snacks etc. until the network of chargers is built.

Something along these lines is the way to go. Farley has already failed miserably once putting his faith in EA and selling his soul down the river about the number of chargers in the Blue Oval network. He should have just been counting 110 outlets because it was never much more than that. There is absolutely nothing visible to see him trying to make anything better.

So next up he wanted to put it to his dealers (I have no love for them either the way that most of us are treated there on the sale and then service) but once again Farley wasn't putting any corporate money into anything to make charging better, he was trying to force his dealers to do it. It's still a joke of a network.

it isn't too late for him to still try and do the right thing, but he is several years in now and doesn't seem to care.

 

[cwstnsko]

Ford needs to make sure the Electrify America connection they seem to have improves & expands or find a better partner.

The Blue Oval Network is not just EA, it provides consolidated billing for 7 different networks, including all the EVGo chargers that GM helps to get installed at Travel Centers. EA is just the closest thing we have to a coherent CCS network and Ford bought a bit of pre-paid charging through them.

 

[DucMan]

I think it is good that not all Ford dealers are not near a highway exit. When you need to travel in rural areas it will be convenient that dealerships have them available. Demand and government money will cause fast chargers to sprout along interstates. In order for an EV to replace an ICE vehicle there needs to charging in rural area, suburban areas, and along highways.

 

[trev5150]

This isn’t the problem. The problem is being tied to Electrify America, the overall charging network being a patchwork of vendors and pricing plans, and the overall unpreparedness of this country for the demand created by legislation and zeitgeist. Auto dealerships aren’t and never were gas stations, so why we expected them to become that for us is perplexing. Dealerships are independent franchise, not company owned Tesla stores. The whole concept of charging at dealerships was a stillborn mess.

 

[Zprime29]

Dealerships will need to adapt or they will die off. Tesla has shown everyone that direct sales, for the most part, is a better model for the customer. There is a need for charging to be available for folks that can't plug in overnight. Having a nearby dealer that someone could go plug in and have a nice place to hang out once or twice a week would make owning an EV more of a reality. They don't need to become a convenience store, thought having some items for sale whilst people wait for their charge would certainly help recoup the cost of the chargers.

 

[jerock]

As fast as the change to EV's from ICE vehicles is taking place, we really need all of the above solutions to take place to prevent a real mess with charging.

 

[trev5150]

Dealerships will need to adapt or they will die off. Tesla has shown everyone that direct sales, for the most part, is a better model for the customer. There is a need for charging to be available for folks that can't plug in overnight. Having a nearby dealer that someone could go plug in and have a nice place to hang out once or twice a week would make owning an EV more of a reality. They don't need to become a convenience store, thought having some items for sale whilst people wait for their charge would certainly help recoup the cost of the chargers.

Remember Saturn, the GM brand? The whole model there was “This is the car, these are the options, this is the price”.

And it didn’t matter. At all. No one cared.

 

[jimfigler]

In order to be EV Certified, Ford is only requiring a dealer to have 2 L2 charges installed (one customer facing and one in service) at a minimum of 32 amps. I expect it's more of something customers would plug into while they happen to be at the dealership and wouldn't make dealers a charging destination (at least not for me).

I watched Tim Bartz last night on youtube and he said they required to have 2 Level 3 chargers and then a 3rd with a year or two after that. His dealership is putting all 3 Level 3s in at the same time with a few level 2 as well.

 

[jimfigler]

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?...XSgmJTGuoFDcGvel&id=512677587&mibextid=cr9u03

 

[N0v0w3ls]

Looks like you're right!. The requirement I posted earlier was for the original EV certification program which sunsets at the end of 2023. Beginning on 1/1/24 dealers will need to have at least one 120kw fast charger for public use with 2 CCS ports and it needs to be listed on the BOCN. I read the Ford memo and originally they were requiring 24/7 access but dealers pushed back on it hence the limited hours. They are still encouraging 24/7 access but conceded to 7am - 8pm Monday - Saturday. Seems like they are also recommending dealers future proof by stepping up to 180 - 240kw for their fast chargers.

The Elite program will require additional DC fast chargers in service and one for new deliveries, but don't need to be open to the public or on the BOCN.

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