How fast does the Ford EV load on road trips?

Longer trips are now possible with almost every electric car on the American market, thanks to long-range ratings and fast DC charging along major highways.

Each EV has a different combination of these two things. Preparing for electric road trips means being realistic about the two sets of numbers – about the range of the road and how long you will need to stay connected to the charger every few hours.

The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E with the Extended Range and rear-wheel drive battery pack reaches an EPA range rating of 300 miles, and Ford says its fast DC charging for this model will add 61 miles in range in 10 minutes.

In our time with Mach-E last month, an Extended Range 4X four-wheel drive model with a nominal range of 270 miles, our goal was to get a first glimpse of what real-world road travelers can see.

I didn’t see anything close to 270 miles in a Mach-E 70 mph highway range test – more like 220 miles – but to be fair, this is nothing unusual and the EPA range rating is not intended to be a meter reach at US highway speeds. What we observed was close to what the EPA’s road efficiency rating suggests in its nominal value.

As for the cargo side, I took the Mach-E to an Electrify America station in Troutdale, Oregon, and connected the 150 kw hardware at 29%. The outside temperature was about 50 degrees, on a dry day with a mixture of sun and clouds, and I drove to the loading stop at highway speeds.

Hassle-free fast charging interface

First, the Plug & Charge feature worked perfectly on the Electrify America charger. The technology makes credit cards and fobs obsolete and allows the same type of convenience that Tesla has been offering for many years, simply by recognizing your car and the account that is linked to it – in this case, the FordPass account (information below) that allows national roaming between networks.

To see exactly what happened, the plug connector said almost instantly “connecting vehicle”, followed a few seconds later by “payment processing”, which disappeared to “Authorized” faster than I could take a picture, replaced by some seconds of “starting charging” and then the well-known cooling fans and DC fast charging pumps starting So, from connecting the load to the start, it took less than 10 seconds, with no mess in your pockets for anything else .

Mach-E started right after 55 kw and steadily increased, reaching 79 kw at 34%, then slowing its progress to finally reach a peak of 99 kw from 54% to 59%, after which it started to fall continuously – for 93 kw by 62%, 84 kw by 74% and 53 kw at 80%.

That said, I added 51 kwh in 38 minutes. This brought the state of charge and estimated range from 29% and 67 miles to 80% (actually 81% at the time I unplugged the charger) and 189 miles. It was estimated at 122 miles earned in 38 minutes.

Not at full speed, apparently

During the fastest part, we saw the estimated range jump from 128 miles to 140 miles in less than 3 minutes. This is a rate that would correspond to about 40 miles recovered in 10 minutes – just that peak rate has not been maintained for 10 minutes.

Ford says the Extended Range Mach-E should be able to go from 10% to 80% in approximately 52 minutes. With the peak of my 99 kw session, I saw 29% to 81% in 38 minutes, which does not seem very distant.

When I contacted Ford about the peak power discrepancy, Ford reiterated that the Mach-E can charge up to 150 kw. But the spokesman noted that the battery will accept a higher charge rate when it is “empty” – about 10% upwards – and that very cold weather, driving behavior, vehicle maintenance and battery age and condition health care has an influence.

I haven’t had the vehicle long enough to replicate the test starting at 10% – to see how much is being earned when it actually reaches 150 kw – but we hope to have a Mach-E next time.

The Audi E-Tron, for example, also claims fast loading of 150 kw, but actually reaches a peak of 155 kw; Last year, at similar temperatures, I loaded a 31-72% E-Tron in 15 minutes.

Some takeaways

My lesson and advice for a 110 km / h trip with repeated loads: ideally, if you can connect at around 10% and charge up to 80% in less than an hour, you can use 70% of the load – which is about 155 miles.

Ford has hinted that it has the possibility to launch over-the-air updates that can improve reach and efficiency along the line – something that only Tesla has done so far.

Although preliminary observations point out that the charge will stop being a little longer than that – and yes, of course, longer than on a Tesla, even its previous V2 charge rates – the Mach-E’s autonomy is consistent and predictable, and everything in the test car Ford provided us just worked.

Perhaps even more important, there was no time wasted on the frustration for which only the first users tend to be patient. Compared to some of the loading obstacles that we experienced even in the recent past, just getting quick loads to start with was easy to navigate. The interface can locate shippers and plan routes around them. It worked well with the app. Charges started quickly. And that is another big leap forward.