Mach-E driver's panicked search stops four times on 200-mile trip looking for charging station

[Drex]

even if routes were planned, charging station locations known and within worst case range (think; winter temps, 35% less battery capacity along with heating needs.) What happens when you arrive to a place with 5 charging spots and there are 8 people waiting in front of you? Your glorified golf cart should come with bedding so you can sleep overnight if need be. Or you get to a hotel and all the spots are taken by folks who plugged in to slow charge and went to bed, or decided to have a dozen drinks by the pool and won't get in the car to move it?

I expect the reports of violence over charging station hogs and waits will not be far out in the future and they will grow.

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[Drex]

We have 3 level 2 chargers that went obsolete a few months after installing (thanks Ford/Lincoln). The 48A replacements, made by Webasto like the first ones, had a stop sales due to a defect. As of now we have about 26 Lightning pre-orders (Ford has more reservations than capacity, wonder if they have plans to deal with this) so we're looking at putting in a level 3 DC fast charger (which our city utility is completely unprepared for). Best I can estimate is it's going to cost us a min of $85K to put in a mid-size unit and the city will have to run a new service.

Electric is fine but the infrastructure to handle it both in commercial and residential, especially in more rural areas, isn't equipped to handle the extra loads. Besides our one Mach E, Lincoln hybrid and a guy with a bolt that lives in a neighborhood, our charges have had little use. Wait until people start buying these in volume and find out their home electrical service is undersized and can't do another 50A load. Buy an EV, spend $5K upgrading your home electrical system. I know the .gov is giving rebates but we are going about this backwards. We need capacity, upgraded lines/transformers/transfer stations before we find out the current grid is woefully under sized for the demand.

yep, replacing the usable chemical energy content in gasoline (which, relatively speaking, it extremely high per weight/volume) with battery power in a non-niche capacity (like California vowing to outlaw ICE vehicles) is not sustainable in the short or long term. The cost and logistics of diverting the copper and aluminum to building and feeding charging stations is so ludicrous as to defy even entertaining the thought. To say nothing of the actual generation of electricity through non-nuclear methods, they will be coal/gas fired plants. In the northern States, winter months, they will take more 'dirty' so called fossil fuels to generate the Amps needed than they would have used in an equivalent gasoline powered vehicle.

 

[flip]

yep, replacing the usable chemical energy content in gasoline (which, relatively speaking, it extremely high per weight/volume) with battery power in a non-niche capacity (like California vowing to outlaw ICE vehicles) is not sustainable in the short or long term. The cost and logistics of diverting the copper and aluminum to building and feeding charging stations is so ludicrous as to defy even entertaining the thought.

How did the nation and the manufacturers get on this crazy train??? There are enough smart people out there to know this isn't doable based on minerals and money. If that's the way the business is headed the only options are get out or get on board.

 

[boxwood]

What Ford knows is there is still a huge market for EV, and a Bronco EV to boot. There are enough customers in metro areas that will drive less than 50 miles a day in their bronco and be completely happy with the existing charging infrastructure.

So it may not work for you, but it will work for a lot of people. and it WILL sell.

 

[Carolina Jim]

What happens when...

In case you hadn't noticed, the folks making the decisions that run the country aren't Nobel laureates in logistics. You'd have to get in the way-back machine to enjoy common sense again.

 

[Ares]

if you’re talking about Tesla you’re wrong. They opened their patents years ago and the other manufacturers decided to ignore them. Even so later this year they are opening their super chargers to other manufacturers that didn’t get on the obvious leading standard.

well I believe this patent sharing was a 2 way street, if you used their patents, you had to let them use yours.

needless to say, the older OEMs have a very very big patent library, and didnt see that as a worthwhile trade.

 

[j_marinelli]

Never thought about it until now but I guess EV cars are like phones when it comes to charging

 

[Razorbak86]

We need capacity, upgraded lines/transformers/transfer stations before we find out the current grid is woefully under sized for the demand.

In a capitalist system, demand typically drags supply along behind it kicking and screaming. It happened with paved roads and gasoline stations in the early 20th century after automobiles became popular. It also happened in the early 21st century with broadband, fiber optics, and cell phone towers when cell phones and the Internet became popular. It will happen with EV infrastructure, too.

Few capital investments are made without knowing there will be sufficient demand to produce a return on the capital, and the ones that do happen without visible returns on the horizon often go bankrupt and liquidate while waiting for demand to catch up, and that removes excess capacity from the market.

 

[vrtical]

I thought this was cool, but there needs to be better widely adopted standards reminds me of beta vs vhs days or maybe laser disks. There is more cross platform availability, but I think there are limitations on the "FAST" charge side of the fence. I also want to add that battery technology in this space is rapidly developing.

TN is building the infrastructure. TDEC and TVA signed an agreement to collaborate and fund a network of fast charging stations every 50 miles along Tennessee’s interstates and major highways. This initiative would add approximately 50 new charging locations, tripling the existing fast charging network. There are only 24 fast charging locations currently operating in Tennessee that are open to all consumers and support both charging standards common to EVs.

 

[Ares]

This sounds like a Tesla (or big oil) hit piece …

Like, doesn’t the Mach e have a 270 mile range? Why would you freak out over 200 miles? He didn’t have google maps?

I suspect the journalist was more trying to evaluate the experience, whether or not he NEEDED to charge, he wanted to try and charge. his experience could be just as valid if it were someone taking that route as part of a longer trip, or a round trip, or who set off with less than 100% charge. really doesnt matter the circumstances.

its not clear how he found the 4 chargers though, if they were recommended by Ford, thats concerning that their charger list may not be scrubbed. or perhaps he found the chargers from a 3rd party, and failed to do his own due diligence.

 

[Carolina Jim]

In a capitalist system, demand typically drags supply along behind it

In the world of transactions, there's "push", and there's "pull". Pull being a product of customer demand; push being the derivative of edict. Your examples are all 'pull'.

IMO, today's political "edicts" are a weak foundation to justify capital investment in the hundreds of billions.

 

[sjp]

Colorado's getting EV chargers at all its state parks, but I'm still not waiting on an electric Bronco.

 

[North7]

What Ford knows is there is still a huge market for EV, and a Bronco EV to boot. There are enough customers in metro areas that will drive less than 50 miles a day in their bronco and be completely happy with the existing charging infrastructure.

So it may not work for you, but it will work for a lot of people. and it WILL sell.

Confirmed, Bronco EV to have 50 mile range to beat Jeep 4xe 17 mile range.

 

[BlueBronco]

Mach-e has a specialize ford app that tells him where all the charging stations are. I am doing a lot of research now as I may order a Mach e. Ford is the only ev maker that had done deals with all 3rd party charging companies where if a Mach-e owner can pull up to a charging station and use the ford app to pay. Without this, an owner would have multiple apps for each company

x2
Ford boasts the largest charging network across the country with claims of access to 16k stations. Plus they offer roadside assistance where they will tow you to the nearest charging station. Been researching them myself lately.

 

[SwankyTiger]

Buy an EV, spend $5K upgrading your home electrical system.

My house would require a full rewire to support another 240 plug. At a cost of somewhere around $25k.

Now my house was wired in the 50's and then remodeled in the 70's to 2 separate living spaces. But still, I can only level 1 charge at home now unless I want to spend an additional $25k.

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