Newish 24 lightning owner travel charging experience

[jftexan]

2024 flash with 3k miles. Charges great at home on Tesla wall charger (12-15kw)


Ok so I have now charged or tried to charge at 4-5 fast charging and have had a pretty inconsistent experience. I’m curious if this is the norm:

Telsa v4 - pretty new near my house. Didn’t even have numbers on the stall. Tried this one twice at different times but never got the stalls to charge. The first time the adapter came out, second time no adapter but used by a2z.

Tesla v3 - easiest one, plug and play book charged 75kw consistently.

Tesla v3 - on the road, zero other cars charging. Goes from 125kw to 51kw after 10 minutes and therefore pretty slow.

finally a brand new electrify America that says it’s rated for 350kw. 1 other car and they are getting 150kw, best I could get was 50kw and it took an hour. Ugh.

is there possibly something wrk g with my truck? I’ve tested enough cases where I would think I’ve eliminated variables.

thanks

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[The Weatherman]

The V4 don’t sound like they are online yet. I think they would have their stall numbers in place if they were fully functional.

The EA’s are known for not maxing out on KW’s. I have seen this several times.

 

[RickLightning]

2024 flash with 3k miles. Charges great at home on Tesla wall charger (12-15kw)


Ok so I have now charged or tried to charge at 4-5 fast charging and have had a pretty inconsistent experience. I’m curious if this is the norm:

Telsa v4 - pretty new near my house. Didn’t even have numbers on the stall. Tried this one twice at different times but never got the stalls to charge. The first time the adapter came out, second time no adapter but used by a2z.

Tesla v3 - easiest one, plug and play book charged 75kw consistently.

Tesla v3 - on the road, zero other cars charging. Goes from 125kw to 51kw after 10 minutes and therefore pretty slow.

finally a brand new electrify America that says it’s rated for 350kw. 1 other car and they are getting 150kw, best I could get was 50kw and it took an hour. Ugh.

is there possibly something wrk g with my truck? I’ve tested enough cases where I would think I’ve eliminated variables.

thanks

Many posts on these questions.

You need to start with making sure that the Tesla locations ARE COMPATIBLE. Many are not. Open Tesla app, add vehicle and adapter. If the location doesn't show up, don't bother trying.

As far as charging speed, what's missing is the state of charge you're at when trying to charge. If you're trying to charge from 80% to 100%, then taking an hour is exactly right. Since you mentioned 50kW two times, I'm banking on that being the case. If so, WHY are you charging to 100% on a fast charger?

 

[jftexan]

Fair enough, I’ve read most of the posts but maybe I missed some that had more data on chargers.

all these chargers were on the ford app so assumed compatible but also were on Teslas app as well. I could activate the v4 but no charge.

all charging was done 50-80% except electrify which was 25-30%.

I have had so many charging faults, I’m just concerned that maybe my experience is related to my truck.

Finally, I had one of the early electrify SCs lock and couldn’t get the handle out. A tech was there and showed me the manual release under the hood.

 

[jftexan]

Thanks. I thought that too on the v4 but teslas were charging. I also read some have been turned off to non-teslas. Perhaps they aren’t open for Ford yet..?

 

[dmalonecentral]

Thanks. I thought that too on the v4 but teslas were charging. I also read some have been turned off to non-teslas. Perhaps they aren’t open for Ford yet..?

You can use the Tesla app to find compatible chargers. Under settings there is an option for “Charge your other EV” it will show you the compatible chargers.

I did this once at a Tesla charger. Tried multiple stalls and got a fault on the ones I tried. Pulled up the Tesla app and they weren’t on the list.

 

[mrau]

I also read some have been turned off to non-teslas. Perhaps they aren’t open for Ford yet..?

Another good source is PlugShare (App or web site). You can look up the station and see reviews that others have posted. Will likely show if other Fords have charged there.

Helps others when you post your experience there as well.

https://www.plugshare.com/

 

[solastobann]

2024 flash with 3k miles. Charges great at home on Tesla wall charger (12-15kw)


Ok so I have now charged or tried to charge at 4-5 fast charging and have had a pretty inconsistent experience. I’m curious if this is the norm:

Telsa v4 - pretty new near my house. Didn’t even have numbers on the stall. Tried this one twice at different times but never got the stalls to charge. The first time the adapter came out, second time no adapter but used by a2z.

Tesla v3 - easiest one, plug and play book charged 75kw consistently.

Tesla v3 - on the road, zero other cars charging. Goes from 125kw to 51kw after 10 minutes and therefore pretty slow.

finally a brand new electrify America that says it’s rated for 350kw. 1 other car and they are getting 150kw, best I could get was 50kw and it took an hour. Ugh.

is there possibly something wrk g with my truck? I’ve tested enough cases where I would think I’ve eliminated variables.

thanks

I just came back from a road trip from East Texas to East Tennessee. I’ve been on this route numerous times and pretty much know where the charging stations are. V4 in West Nashville is up and running and is very nice. The numbers aren’t on the charging station itself, but for some unknown reason, they are on the Little post that’s right next to the charger to keep you from crashing into it. They were great and they have a charging cord that’s twice as long as the regular ones. I try to use Tesla as much as I can, but occasionally have to do a overpriced Electrify America and one mega station has a string of lit Tesla chargers, but the station is not open so they’re not working. On the same parking lot is one for Mercedes-Benz, which does work and does so nicely although it is more expensive than Tesla. On this last trip, in Memphis, Tennessee, the Tesla charging station was an unbelievable 11¢ a kilowatt hour. It would probably be cheaper to charge there exclusively, even if you had a home charger because it was a supercharger.
I have mentioned this elsewhere, but one of the ways to save money is to have a subscription to Tesla that cost $12.99 a month and you get the charging rate of Tesla owners, I think. It is 20¢ or 30¢ cheaper than having Ford pay Tesla and you pay Ford, through the FordPass app.
some of the Tesla chargers look the same as others, and I have tried and failed at others and then realized that the Tesla app will tell me if it’s compatible or not. Some of the Tesla charging stations are in dimly lit areas with no activity around there so you’re pretty much want to sit there with the door locked and your Smith & Wesson close at hand, but that’s the way things go.

 

[mrau]

but one of the ways to save money is to have a subscription to Tesla that cost $12.99 a month and you get the charging rate of Tesla owners, I think. It is 20¢ or 30¢ cheaper than having Ford pay Tesla and you pay Ford, through the FordPass app

In our area it is about 12¢ less per kWh with a membership.

 

[solastobann]

In our area it is about 12¢ less per kWh with a membership.

12¢ is great. Most of the Tesla chargers I found were in the 34-35¢ range with the subscription. If you went through the FordPass app, it added another dime or more. Most of the Electrify America (or should it be electrocute America?) were in the 55¢ range. The most I ever paid was near Abilene, Texas, and it was 94¢. They should’ve been flying the Jolly Roger.

 

[Highpi]

As a non EV owner, at least for now, it sounds everyone has a couple of different apps to better navigate the charging stations. Are some of these free or is it monthly fee? And if you are paying for two or three, that digs into the savings over gas, I assume the savings is still worth it? In other words, say you are saving $200 a month on gas but paying $30 a month for apps, the savings is still $170, making still worthwhile.

 

[potato]

As a non EV owner, at least for now, it sounds everyone has a couple of different apps to better navigate the charging stations. Are some of these free or is it monthly fee? And if you are paying for two or three, that digs into the savings over gas, I assume the savings is still worth it? In other words, say you are saving $200 a month on gas but paying $30 a month for apps, the savings is still $170, making still worthwhile.

The apps are all free. A couple (Plugshare and ABRP) have subscription options (to remove ads and add a few premium features, respectively) but they are quite usable in their free form. All the charging network apps are free to use.

Some charging networks do offer monthly subscriptions in exchange for lower per-kWh rates. This is to lock you into using their network as much as possible once you've bought the subscription. Tesla and Electrify America/Canada come to mind. That's not really an app charge; more of a bulk purchase arrangement with the charging network.

 

[Cutlass70]

For the Tesla charge stations, my understanding is one needs the J1772 adapter to use them if you have a Lightning? Picking up, hopefully, today a Flash in CA and will drive about 350 back home. Have the Plugshare app at the ready but no J1772 adapter at present.

 

[jftexan]

Well there are Tesla stations that are unsupported and apparently some turned off from non Tesla. The ford and Tesla apps can show you the ones supported but I have had various luck with v4s that show up but don’t charge.

I use a A2z adapter while I wait on my ford one

 

[TaxmanHog]

For the Tesla charge stations, my understanding is one needs the J1772 adapter to use them if you have a Lightning? Picking up, hopefully, today a Flash in CA and will drive about 350 back home. Have the Plugshare app at the ready but no J1772 adapter at present.

There are AC adapters to be used at slow destination chargers.
There are DC adapters to be used on compatible super chargers
There are Super Chargers which have built in Magic Dock DC adapters.

Install the Tesla app, configure a profile for non-tesla vehicles, locate Tesla sites which are available on your path home that take advantage of magic dock until you get a Ford adapter or third party adapter.

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