How fast does the Ford EV charge while traveling on the road?

Longer road trips are now possible with almost any electric car in the US market, thanks to fairly long range ratings and quick DC charging along major highways.

Each EV has a different combination of these two things, however. Preparing for electric trips on the road means being realistic about those two sets of numbers, how far you can go on the highway, and how long you’ll need to be plugged into the charger, every few hours.

The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E with the extended-range battery and rear-wheel drive achieves a range of 300 miles per the EPA, and Ford says its DC fast charge for this model will add up to 61 miles of range in 10 minutes.

In our day with the Mach-E last month, a full-range 4X all-wheel-drive model with a rated range of 270 miles, we aimed to get a quick first glimpse of what true road travelers might see.

I didn’t see anything close to those 270 miles in a Mach-E 70 mph road range test – over 220 miles – but to be fair it’s not unusual and the range rating EPA is not intended to be a range gauge at US highway speeds. What we observed was close to what the EPA’s road efficiency rating suggests at first glance.

As for the load, I took the Mach-E to an Electrify America station in Troutdale, Oregon, and plugged in the 150kw equipment at 29%. The outside temperature was around 50 degrees, on a dry day with a mixture of sun and cloud, and I made it to the charging stop at highway speed.

Hassle-free fast charging interface

First of all, the Plug & Charge feature worked perfectly on the Electrify America charger. Technology is making credit cards and key fobs obsolete and giving you the same kind of convenience that Tesla has offered for many years, simply by recognizing your car and the account linked to it – in this case, the FordPass account ( info just below) which allows national “roaming” between networks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU_OawrWHNM

To run through what exactly happened, the connector almost instantly said “Vehicle connection” followed a few seconds later by “Payment processing”, which disappeared to “Authorized” faster than I could take a picture. , replaced by a few seconds of ‘load start’, then the usual cooling fans and pumps of DC fast charge start. So from plugging in to starting the charge, it took less than 10 seconds, with no fumbling in the pockets for anything else.

The Mach-E started up just beyond 55kw and grew steadily, reaching 79kw at 34%, then slowing its progress to finally peaking at 99kw from 54% to 59%, after which it started to decrease steadily – to 93 kw by 62%, 84 kw by 74% and 53 kw by 80%.

In total 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% by the time I turned off the charger) and 189 miles. This equates to approximately 122 miles gained in 38 minutes.

Not at full speed, apparently

During this quickest part, we saw the estimated range go from 128 miles to 140 miles in under 3 minutes. That’s a rate that would be about 40 miles regained in 10 minutes – only that peak rate didn’t hold up for 10 minutes.

Ford says the Mach-E Extended Range should be able to go from 10% to 80% in about 52 minutes. With a peak of 99kw in my session, I saw 29% to 81% in 38 minutes, which doesn’t seem far away.

When I contacted Ford about the peak power gap, Ford reiterated that the Mach-E can load up to 150 kW. But the spokesperson noted that the battery will accept a higher charge rate when it is more “empty” – by about 10% at most – and that the very cold weather, the driving behavior, the maintenance of the vehicle. vehicle, age and health of the battery will have an influence.

I haven’t had the vehicle long enough to replicate the test from 10% – to see how much is gained when it really hits 150kW – but hopefully next time we have a Mach-E.

The Audi E-Tron, for example, also claims a fast charge of 150 kw, but it actually peaks at 155 kw; Last year at similar temperatures I charged an E-Tron from 31 to 72% in 15 minutes.

Some takeaway

My takeaways and tips for a 70 km / h road trip with repeated charges: Ideally, if you can plug in around 10% and charge up to 80% in less than an hour, you will be able to use 70% of the charge —That is about 155 miles.

Ford has hinted that it has the option of rolling out live updates that could improve range and efficiency across the board, something only Tesla has done so far.

While preliminary observations indicate that the charge stops being a little longer than that – and yes, of course longer than in a Tesla, even its previous V2 charge rates – the Mach-E’s range is consistent. and predictable, and everything in the Ford test car provided us simply worked.

Perhaps more importantly, there was no time wasted due to the frustration that only first-time users tend to have the patience for. Compared to some of the charging obstacles we’ve encountered even in the recent past, starting fast charges has been smooth. The interface could find chargers and plan routes around them. It worked well with the app. Charges initiated quickly. And that’s another big step forward.