My first experience with using public chargers was slightly odd

[Aaron84]

This past weekend I wanted to really test the limits of my 2025 Lightning Lariat with the 131kWh extended range battery. I set off on my 157-mile one-way journey (I have a 45A charger at my destination) when the temperature was -18 degrees, and ended the journey when the temperature was -24 degrees. I had preconditioned the battery, had 100% state of charge, and an estimated range of 215 miles. After driving 67 miles at a speed of 65mph, with the heated seat, heated steering wheel, and cabin at 70 degrees on Auto Temp. My battery state of charge was 53%, and my estimated range left was 102 miles. I stopped by a charger at Aldi and attempted my first public charge at a 183kW fast charger. I have the Blue Oval network, the plug and charge option set, a valid card on file, and I have a card on file with the brand of Charger I was using. I plugged in the charger, and it said error can't charge, or something like that. But then I noticed the truck started to charge at roughly 70kW. I charged for 45 minutes until I hit 82% because then I noticed the truck would only charge at 20kW, and the Ford app sent me a message about the reduced speed. At the end of my session, it said the total energy delivered was 0.0000kWh for a duration of 45 minutes.

I checked both of my credit cards, and no pending charges, and no charges a few days after. Is that normal, or did I get really lucky?

Attached is a photo that I took.



Also, I heard that some places like grocery stores such as HyVee offer free charging. Is that true? If so, is there a list of places I can fast charge for free?



Lastly, I am over the moon with the fact that the truck was able to make the trip, in comfort, and I did not get stranded and have to put on my Ice Armor gear and brave the cold to get to safety.

Sponsored

 

[K6CCC]

From your photo it was an Electrify America station. Definitely should not be free. The 0.000 KWH is odd. Obviously you actually did get power since you State of Charge increased 29% (about 38 KWH). It would appear that something was not going right. 45 minutes to get from 53 to 82% is REALLY SLOW. That should have taken more like 15 minutes.
As for billing you credit card, that can take days (or even weeks).

 

[potato]

70 kW is what I've seen when the battery pack is cold. In those temperatures maybe the pack cooled off in the hour of driving.

BUT it usually warms up during fast charging and the speed should ramp up. So it could have been a problem with the charger. Hard to say without an OBD dongle so you can look at what the charger reports as the max available, and what the truck is requesting and receiving.

 

[chriserx]

I was the first to charge at my local Pilot after they installed and before I had my L2 installed. The stations were EVGo. I can't quite remember if I had Plug and Charge setup but I think it wasn't because it interfered with getting the Tesla discount if I remember right. Back to the topic, I otherwise had the exact same thing happen at Pilot, it 'rang up' $0 but a few days later the actual charge went through.

 

[RickLightning]

EA are either 150kW or 350kW chargers. No charger is 183kW...

At 80%, it should have been or 40Kw, really low 50s.

 

[fhteagle]

I checked both of my credit cards, and no pending charges, and no charges a few days after. Is that normal, or did I get really lucky?

EA has been known to set their stations to free vend mode during times of connectivity issues, maintenance, mechanical unreliability, etc.

 

[B177y]

EA is about as unreliable of a charging network as can be. I have had the same behavior before with a couple of random free slow charge sessions with no record at reduced speed. No rhyme or reason, even with other cars charging at full speed and having to pay. And yes, I had already used up my free Ford EA charging allowance.

Consider yourself lucky, the only upside to using a janky unreliable network is that sometimes it glitches in your favor.

 

[bc1]

I've had mine now for about 4 months. For the first couple months, I took pictures of each of the dash panel, sync screen charging mode, and the outside charging station before, during, and after just to help me get an understanding of what is going on with the charging and to track the mileage. The ford app doesn't exactly compare to everything else.

What free ford EA charging allowance? I remember someone at the stealership saying I would get one and when I went to try it, it wasn't free. Called the salesman and he said I didn't get a free allowance. If it is buried in the ford app then I better look.

 

[B177y]

I've had mine now for about 4 months. For the first couple months, I took pictures of each of the dash panel, sync screen charging mode, and the outside charging station before, during, and after just to help me get an understanding of what is going on with the charging and to track the mileage. The ford app doesn't exactly compare to everything else.

What free ford EA charging allowance? I remember someone at the stealership saying I would get one and when I went to try it, it wasn't free. Called the salesman and he said I didn't get a free allowance. If it is buried in the ford app then I better look.

Free EA charging came with my Mach-e in 2023. I think it was 200 kWh, but I'm sure @RickLightning will will know ... Didn't receive any EA allowance with the 2024 Lightning.

 

[Joe Dablock]

I remember getting free charging at EA with my Lightning and my MME as part of vehicle purchase. I eventually used it up.

is this what is happening?

 

[Adventureboy]

EA has been known to set their stations to free vend mode during times of connectivity issues, maintenance, mechanical unreliability, etc.

^^^. I suspect this is what happened. If the charger has a communication error with the network but can communicate with the EV fine, then it may default to free. I've had a few freebies over the years, and it starts with an error, then reconnect and then free charging. I've seen it on 2 separate charge networks.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I stopped by a charger at Aldi and attempted my first public charge at a 183kW fast charger. I have the Blue Oval network, the plug and charge option set, a valid card on file, and I have a card on file with the brand of Charger I was using.

Curious of the truck did any preconditioning while driving to the station.

Did you use Ford Navigation or Google Maps to locate and drive to this station or just knew where to go based on prior knowledge?

Also agree with others advice that this was a derated / free session, I used to get that frequently at a EA station at the Wrentham Outlet Mall, one of the terminals was constantly performing poorly with derated output per EA and a couple of times I got free charges there and at other EA's due to Comm's issues.

 

[shelnian]

This happened to me last year at Walmart and after a couple of weeks the charge finally came thru. The charger screen kept rebooting and resetting charge amount to zero but also kept charging at a normal rate.

 

[On the Road with Ralph]

Consider yourself lucky, the only upside to using a janky unreliable network is that sometimes it glitches in your favor.

I SO agree with this comment, especially when it comes to EA. I do A LOT of long distance travel in my Lightning - I charged in 18 different states in 2025 - and every once in a while the dispenser fails to communicate with it network and just continues to charge for free. I’ve had this happen multiple times on EA; maybe once on Tesla. Side note: After several years of paying for an EA Pass+ membership, I finally cancelled it because I’ve pretty much moved entirely to Tesla (where I switch the membership on-and-off based on my travel schedule) and iONNA, with the occasional stop at Rivian, whose sites in out-of-the-way places fit my trip patterns.

 

[K6CCC]

Side note: After several years of paying for an EA Pass+ membership, I finally cancelled it because I’ve pretty much moved entirely to Tesla (where I switch the membership on-and-off based on my travel schedule)

Tesla is my preferred DCFC vendor. I have charged only once at E.A - and that was only because the Tesla SuperCharger next to it was Tesla only (Baker, Calif.). And now Tesla has opened a new SuperCharger in Baker that is open to us (and I used once). I also had the E.A. membership for that one charge session and cancelled it, but E.A. kept billing me. Did not notice the billing one month, but did the following month. Ended up talking to them and the lady said she could see that I had cancelled on the date I told her, but she did not know why the cancellation did not take. She said she could force a cancel, but could not refund me the two months that were billed that should not have been. Left a bad taste in my mouth for E.A. A few months later I received an offer for a free month of Pass+ membership (I suspect it was unrelated). I did take them up on the offer because I had a trip planned where I really sort of needed to use the E.A. charger in Fenner, Calif. Well, as it turns out, E.A. picked the weekend that I took my trip to replace the chargers at Fenner, so I had to detour to Needles to charge at one of the two Tesla stations.

Sponsored