New to EVs? Learnings from Mach-E owners.

[RickLightning]

There are major differences between EVs and ICE vehicles. You can watch videos all day long, but there are some basic things you need to understand. I'll hit a few of the more important ones IMO.

1) Do NOT buy a home charger before checking with your local electric utility. Yes, I know that some will get the Ford bidirectional charger. Then skip to the next point. But, if you're considering BUYING a charger for your Lightning, do what I said. Why? Because your utility company may either sell discounted EVSEs, or provide a substantial rebate. Mine provided $500 for buying a ChargePoint Home Flex or a JuiceBox charger (I bought the 48).

2) RTFM (Read The F'in Manual) - yes, most people don't read the manual that comes with their vehicle, which for all Ford vehicles is now electronic only. Go to owner.ford.com before delivery and download the PDF version to all your devices and read it. I see posts all day long on forums with questions that are answered in the manual. This vehicle operates differently than your ICE F-150. For example, it requires a special procedure to go into a carwash or be towed (Temporary Neutral Mode). Find the lift points. Consider printing out that information and putting it in the glovebox.

3) Understand your battery capacity - Taking a trip with an EV is not the same as taking a trip with your ICE F-150. For one, there are less places to fill up. For another, when you run out, you're getting towed and looking stupid. Many are used to the inaccuracy of DTE on the ICE F-150. Well, the GOM (Guess-O-Meter) on the Lightning is going to have the same issues (caveat - Ford is testing an intelligent range capability with the Mach-E, I'm in the test group, that may help things). Remember that TEMPERATURE can dramatically affect range. You'll see how many miles per kWh you are getting, and can simply multiply that by the battery size and % of charge remaining to know your range. Speed affects range, just like in an ICE vehicle. On a recent trip, I slowed to 55 for 20 minutes to get to a charger with 3% battery left (planned). And, in the winter, know that your range may be 50 - 60% of the range in optimum conditions. Thread after thread on the Mach-E forum all winter long... Preconditioning the vehicle, using the heated seats and steering wheel instead of the heater, will noticeable extend your winter range.

4) Understand what comes with your vehicle as far as features go - Did you get free charging hours? Well, they're only good at Electrify America chargers, and they have to be activated in your Ford.com account, as does Plug and Charger if you plan on using it. There are other features common to ICE F-150s like connected Navigation. Learn what hands-free driving is before you try it for the first time. And more.

5) Test a DC fast charger BEFORE YOUR FIRST TRIP. Trust me on that.

6) Plan your trip with multiple sources - Don't just blindly trust the Ford Navigation. People have driven many miles out of the way, including backwards, to charge because they didn't do this simple thing.

a - Put your trip into GoogleMaps and note the driving distance, and time, without charging.​

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b- Use ABRP (A Better Route Planner), set to your vehicle, to plan your trip. You can fine-tune it to prefer EA chargers (fastest chargers in most of the country, and the only place to use your free charging hours), to only consider chargers over a certain speed, etc. You can add in wait time at each charger (I add 10 minutes because the time you exit the highway, go through 4 traffic lights, and the Walmart parking lot, it's 10 minutes). Compare this route to #1. Note the differences. Do they make sense to you? Pull up the EA website or map and see where all the chargers are if you want to. You can also send the ABRP route to a spreadsheet, putting it on GoogleDrive, and then letting your navigating partner access it during the trip.​

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c - Use PlugShare. After planning the trip, look up each and every location and see if any have longstanding issues. For example, Gainesville, Florida was always broken last year. Huber Heights, Ohio was also. Then, during the trip, look up the next stop and see if it's still ok. It will tell you that #2 charger is always broken.​

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d - Have a contingency plan. What if all the chargers are broken, or they have a power outage? Is there nearby level 2 charging to get you to the next DC charger? On a recent trip into the boonies of Georgia, in a snowstorm in March, we went miles down a road only to find it closed due to a tree falling. Backtracking, we reached a point where I knew I could go right and drive 25 miles to fast charger, or left and drive 10 miles to my destination with a 14-50 outlet at the campsite. I had 25 miles of range, so I went left. The point is I knew I had a decision to make because I planned the route out.​

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e - Note that once you start paying for charging, EA has a Pass+ plan. For $4 a month, instead of paying $0.43 per kW, you pay $0.31. Pays off in less than a day. In states that charge by the minute, it's $0.24 per minute instead of $0.32. Pays off in less than a day also. You can activate the morning of the trip, then immediately cancel, and 30 days later it will revert back. Note - Ford intends to charge $50 a year for their network to provide this discount and on other brands, but it's not yet operational and is a yearly charge, not a monthly charge (some people only travel sporadically).​

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f - As referenced above, some states charge by the minute (state law, EA is working to change that). Where they do, it's 1/2 the price of the by the kilowatt hour states, so push all the charging you can to those states. They are currently Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming. As an example of the difference, on a recent fill in O_io, I paid $19.84, plus tax, for 65kW. Had it been a per minute state, I would have paid $12 plus tax, i.e. 39.% less. With the larger battery on the ER F-150L, the difference would be even larger.​

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g - Use PlugShare, and the various apps like EA, to report PROBLEMS charging. This helps the networks fix things, as well as other travelers know of issues. I can tell you that after DC charging 40+ times, you will find malfunctioning chargers probably 25% of the time, maybe more. I recently found 50% of 8 chargers at an EA location not working, and even at one location found a malfunctioning charger that a tech had just worked on and he was standing right there as I got 14kW.​

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h - Look for hotels that have charging, most are free. Overnight, if you get to 100%, that gives you an extra hour or so of driving the next day (Mach-E charging curve slows at 80%, so most people stop there when DC charging). You'll also want to take into account the hotel cost, paying $50 more a night to get $20 worth of juice may not be worth it. Also, read the Plugshare reviews. Some chargers at hotels are quite old and SLOW. You may not get anywhere near 100% by morning. PlugShare allows you to select hotels in their filter, and Hotels.com does also.​

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i - Consider buying a TelsaTap if you travel a lot, which lets you use Tesla's destination chargers (not the Supercharger network). Some hotels have both, some may only have Tesla.​

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j - Before your trip, verify you can log into all the apps you use, because sometimes they have 30 day login limits. You'll look pretty stupid trying to charge at ChargePoint when you can't open the app...​

Hope these pointers help.

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[TRP]

All excellent points.

Speed kills. I get it, you don't want to be that guy in the slow lane getting passed by everything on the road. The difference between 75mph and 70mph is dramatic in the Mach E. The Lightning shape and size will make this even more apparent

 

[sotek2345]

on point h - if you use Hotels.com, you can search for hotels that offer charging an a amenity.

 

[RickLightning]

Added

 

[Regular150]

... and of course if you get in a wreck or your Lightning has an issue, Know before your Towed! All 4 wheels up off the ground!

 

[Prime8]

All excellent points.

Speed kills. I get it, you don't want to be that guy in the slow lane getting passed by everything on the road. The difference between 75mph and 70mph is dramatic in the Mach E. The Lightning shape and size will make this even more apparent

Interesting point about shape, I watched a video about the Aptera, a super efficient small EV. The builder said that the whole car had the equivalent drag of an F150 mirror.Puts things in perspective!

 

[Firestop]

5) Test a DC fast charger BEFORE YOUR FIRST TRIP. Trust me on that.

Great info….appreciate your post. Curious, what specifics should I be looking for????

 

[TRP]

Great info….appreciate your post. Curious, what specifics should I be looking for????

Just make sure you know how the process works. It's a little more involved than your regular gas pump.

If you are using Plug&Charge, you need to activate it before hand.

I use EA Pass+. The process I use is
1. Open the app and select the station number. It's usually at a the very top of the machine.
2. Plug in to the port on the vehicle
3. Swipe the bar on the app
4. The charge will start to initiate.....but there's a final step
5. On the charge station you will need to press the "Continue" button to actually start the charge session

All of this is not difficult, but can be frustrating when you don't complete the steps fast enough and the machine times out on you. You want to do it first while you have plenty of charge in the tank and not on a road trip with 5% left and no chance of going anywhere else.

 

[Firestop]

Just make sure you know how the process works. It's a little more involved than your regular gas pump.

If you are using Plug&Charge, you need to activate it before hand.

I use EA Pass+. The process I use is
1. Open the app and select the station number. It's usually at a the very top of the machine.
2. Plug in to the port on the vehicle
3. Swipe the bar on the app
4. The charge will start to initiate.....but there's a final step
5. On the charge station you will need to press the "Continue" button to actually start the charge session

All of this is not difficult, but can be frustrating when you don't complete the steps fast enough and the machine times out on you. You want to do it first while you have plenty of charge in the tank and not on a road trip with 5% left and no chance of going anywhere else.

Thank you

 

[Sam James]

Good list! My first point may not relate to Fords, but it caused confusion on my first few times charging the ID.4 (which are very infrequent):

5.b) If the charger fails, the plug locks and you can't disconnect from the vehicle, try pressing the unlock button on your fob/phone.

5.c) If the charger's screen fails try using the brand's app to start and stop the charge.

I can also attest that the TeslaTap 80-amp adapter works well. We've never needed it--and its not cheap--but its like having insurance in these "early" EV days. I've had mine for a few months and have had no issues with the milling like early buyers were complaining.

 

[Amps]

Just make sure you know how the process works. It's a little more involved than your regular gas pump.

If you are using Plug&Charge, you need to activate it before hand.

I use EA Pass+. The process I use is
1. Open the app and select the station number. It's usually at a the very top of the machine.
2. Plug in to the port on the vehicle
3. Swipe the bar on the app
4. The charge will start to initiate.....but there's a final step
5. On the charge station you will need to press the "Continue" button to actually start the charge session

All of this is not difficult, but can be frustrating when you don't complete the steps fast enough and the machine times out on you. You want to do it first while you have plenty of charge in the tank and not on a road trip with 5% left and no chance of going anywhere else.

You can also add the Electrify America pass to Apple Wallet from the settings in the EA app. On an iPhone or Apple Watch, just wave it near the NFC reader on the charger. There is a similar process using Android.

 

[Beans]

Speed kills. I get it, you don't want to be that guy in the slow lane getting passed by everything on the road. The difference between 75mph and 70mph is dramatic in the Mach E. The Lightning shape and size will make this even more apparent

Very true. I'm lucky to get 1.8 miles/kWh at 75 mph with my Lariat extended range.

 

[TRP]

You can also add the Electrify America pass to Apple Wallet from the settings in the EA app. On an iPhone or Apple Watch, just wave it near the NFC reader on the charger. There is a similar process using Android.

I have that as well, but I think the in app process works better. At least in my experience

 

[TRP]

Here's another I just thought of.


When you want to end the charging session at a DCFC, push the block button neck to the plug on the truck. Then unplug.
If the Lightning acts anything like the MME, if you end the session on the charge station it will throw a "Charge Station Fault" on the dash. You can click OK for it to go away and no harm is done, but it is annoying.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Great points! One thing I'd add... on the Mach-E forum we get a TON of posts in the winter about range. People think there is something wrong with the car. There isn't.

It is normal to lose range when the battery pack is cold. I'd lose maybe 10-15% if the temps were in the low 30°F's; more like 25% if the temps were around 20°F; and in single low single-digits ... range could be off 40%.

BUT... this is because the battery is cold. You can precondition the car/truck by leaving it plugged in at all times (whether or not it needs a charge) and setting a scheduled departure time (currently this is the ONLY way to pre-condition -- setting a "scheduled" departure time via the FordPass app but I'm told this will be changing to allow you to do it on-demand). You can set the schedule anytime you want prior to the actual time ... but the battery may need 1 hr or more to precondition. (Longest I've experienced was about 1h 15m). Doing a remote-start is NOT the same thing.

It will use the AC power from the charger to heat the battery and a warmed up battery works a charm even on very cold winter days. If your truck will fit ... park it in the garage.

One other thing to note about winter ... if you pull into a DC Fast Charger, you might notice the charger running and putting out kW's ... but not notice the vehicle charging. This is because it will use that power to run the battery pack heaters to bring them up to speed before it starts the charging process -- or it may charge more slowly until the batteries are warmer. It doesn't like to charge battery packs when they are cold.

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