Annoyance: The "DC charging flap"

[RickLightning]

FWIW, I agree with the OP. I’ve had the charge port door on my MME pop open from the water pressure of a touchless car wash. There are reports on the MME forum about doors being opened and ripped off in a brush type car wash. One guy left his open and broke it off backing out of his garage. Some report them popping open just driving down the street with no external force being applied.

When I picked up my dealer’s Lightning service loaner, the service manager warned me about 2 things: 1) “This thing is fast -be careful”, and 2) “Be careful with the charge port door. It will probably get redesigned in the future.” Apparently, someone had already damaged it. The truck had about 400 miles on it.

The whole design just seems very flimsy on both the MME and the Lightning.

The first time I saw an E-Tron charging at a DCFC, I was immediately jealous of its charge port design.

I'm not defending the design, but when you drive a car with a big (HUGE) warning that your chargeport door is open, you should have your license taken away. Drivers are supposed to have situational awareness. How many actually walk around a vehicle before driving to make sure there's no obstacles, nothing like a bike, or a pet, or a baby?

To pull out of a garage with a big orange warning on your instrument panel is a clear indicator of someone that shouldn't be driving.

As we've discussed elsewhere, the Fusion Energi had a door that worked fine and mine never opened on the road. Our 2021 Mach-E opened once. No big deal, pull over and close it.

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[VTbuckeye]

It would be nice if they made the charge doors hinge on the top (not left/right). This would protect the charge handle/plug area from falling snow/ice/rain. This would also keep it from sticking out as far. It would be nice if our xc40 opened that way because the charge door cover is unnecessarily long.

 

[Tony Burgh]

To me, a Ford truck owner of over 40 years, Ford was planning bring truck owners to EV’s. I don’t think they initially thought that they would have to convince EV owners to switch to trucks. I’m in the first category - I want truck simplicity and functionality with an electric drive. The number of non-truck EV drivers getting a Lightning want a Tesla with a bed. Within a few years those people will have moved on to the next big thing and Ford will need to retain their traditional truck base.
I have learned to put the toilet seat down since I have a wife and daughters and I’ve learned to put the gas cap back on and close the cover. Life lessons.

 

[greenne]

To me, a Ford truck owner of over 40 years, Ford was planning bring truck owners to EV’s. I don’t think they initially thought that they would have to convince EV owners to switch to trucks. I’m in the first category - I want truck simplicity and functionality with an electric drive. The number of non-truck EV drivers getting a Lightning want a Tesla with a bed. Within a few years those people will have moved on to the next big thing and Ford will need to retain their traditional truck base.
I have learned to put the toilet seat down since I have a wife and daughters and I’ve learned to put the gas cap back on and close the cover. Life lessons.

Also don't forget fleet sales. Ford is making moves to dominate the fleet EV Truck market. While I guess they could have made the auto door an "option" on retail... most fleet operators I know would not appreciate the added complexity of an auto door.

 

[beatle]

I also agree with the OP about the DC pins. I don't have my CSP yet, but I had been thinking of the DC pin cover getting in the way while I'm trying to plug in the connector. Since I have no plans for installing the HIS, having a L2 charger with DC pins seems like an annoyance. I've even considered installing a Tesla HPWC instead with a permanently installed TeslaTap to avoid this problem (and to get a reliable 80A charge rate.

I haven't left the charge port door open (yet) but I am still doing a lot of tasks with the truck very deliberately. If I were still driving my Model S on the regular I think I'd have left it open already.

To those who think the powered charge door is silly and unnecessary, what do you think of the powered frunk on the Lightning? Tesla does not have a powered frunk that opens and closes on its own. In fact, to close it you have to push down on the front latch so hard that some people have creased their hoods! This is a gripe made on the TMC forum, and a problem that is (mostly) solved by the aftermarket. Thankfully Ford did not replicate this problem on the Lightning and instead they show how great their frunk is (in action) in most of their marketing material.

 

[FlasherZ]

I'm not defending the design, but when you drive a car with a big (HUGE) warning that your chargeport door is open, you should have your license taken away.

Agreed. I'd like for people to experience my CDL school bus pre-check and perform that at least once a week.

That said, here's the core of my annoyance. With my wife's car, it's pretty simple -- arrive home, grab handle off wall, push button on handle to open charge port (or just press on the charge port itself), and insert. When leaving, push button on handle to release, pull handle out, and store on wall.

With Lightning, it's arrive home, push button on handle to grab handle off wall, push right side of charge door to release, pull open, flip down the DC flap, then plug in. When leaving, push button on handle for release, pull handle out, flip DC flap up, close charge door, push charge door right side to latch (which sometimes doesn't hold quite right), and insert the charger into the holder on the wall.

I'll get used to it.

(EDITED for clarity)

 

[RickLightning]

Agreed. I'd like for people to experience my CDL school bus pre-check and perform that at least once a week.

That said, here's the core of my annoyance. With my wife's car, it's pretty simple -- arrive home, grab handle off wall and push button, and insert. When leaving, push button, pull handle out, and store on wall.

With Lightning, it's arrive home, push button to grab handle off wall, push charge door and then pull open, flip down the DC flap, then plug in. When leaving, push button, pull handle out, flip DC flap up, close charge door, push charge door to latch (which sometimes doesn't hold quite right), and insert the charger into the holder on the wall.

I'll get used to it.

Saved you a step above. No reason to push button with AC charging. It explains in your manual to only push the button with DC charging.

 

[Fast150EV]

If you're like me, you'll first forget to close the charge door. You'll get in the truck and see "charge door open", sigh heavily, and get out of the vehicle again. Then you'll try to close the charge door, but it won't - because, you guessed it, you forgot to close the DC charging flap before you tried to close the charging door and the flap was hanging down, preventing it from closing.


I thought it was just me! 3x I've had to pull over after starting my drive to close the charger flap. My guess is the next generation of Lariet/Platinum will have auto closing doors. If they can do it for side mirrors they can make it work for a door flap.

 

[beatle]

I'll get used to it.

I've learned that this also means "forget how good you had it before."

 

[FlasherZ]

Saved you a step above. No reason to push button with AC charging. It explains in your manual to only push the button with DC charging.

I'm speaking of the button on the handle for the Charge Station Pro which is a manual catch, not the white button on the truck. In fact, even during DCFC charging, I haven't really had to push the white button at all either - using the button on the EA charger itself will cause it to interrupt and release.

 

[F150ROD]

To me, a Ford truck owner of over 40 years, Ford was planning bring truck owners to EV’s. I don’t think they initially thought that they would have to convince EV owners to switch to trucks. I’m in the first category - I want truck simplicity and functionality with an electric drive. The number of non-truck EV drivers getting a Lightning want a Tesla with a bed. Within a few years those people will have moved on to the next big thing and Ford will need to retain their traditional truck base.
I have learned to put the toilet seat down since I have a wife and daughters and I’ve learned to put the gas cap back on and close the cover. Life lessons.

This x 1000’s….. which is why I believe that if you want to flip your truck the time is now. There will be plenty of used Lightnings in the year or so. There are people getting into this truck expecting sports car handling, luxury interiors with the latest and greatest tech. This ain’t it.

Even Tesla is lacking in tech, Genesis is already using facial recognition to open their cars and drive…. Craziness

 

[Deleted member 9341]

I also agree with the OP about the DC pins. I don't have my CSP yet, but I had been thinking of the DC pin cover getting in the way while I'm trying to plug in the connector. Since I have no plans for installing the HIS, having a L2 charger with DC pins seems like an annoyance. I've even considered installing a Tesla HPWC instead with a permanently installed TeslaTap to avoid this problem (and to get a reliable 80A charge rate.

I haven't left the charge port door open (yet) but I am still doing a lot of tasks with the truck very deliberately. If I were still driving my Model S on the regular I think I'd have left it open already.

To those who think the powered charge door is silly and unnecessary, what do you think of the powered frunk on the Lightning? Tesla does not have a powered frunk that opens and closes on its own. In fact, to close it you have to push down on the front latch so hard that some people have creased their hoods! This is a gripe made on the TMC forum, and a problem that is (mostly) solved by the aftermarket. Thankfully Ford did not replicate this problem on the Lightning and instead they show how great their frunk is (in action) in most of their marketing material.

I wish the frunk wasn’t motorized. Sooo slow

 

[beatle]

I'll give you that it's sluggish to start opening (and the beep is annoying), but if I'm out, I often tap the open button on the fob as I'm approaching and it is ready for me when I get there. When I close it, it is always done closing by the time I get in the truck, put my belt on, and hit the start button, so I'd say it's "fast enough" in most cases. Still, it's strange that it doesn't lift right away like any other motorized hatch.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Please CHILL the conversation a bit.

We welcome our new Ford owners bringing life experiences from owning other manufacturers and models, whether an opinion is useful or not to us old school truck drivers remains to be seen, I trust in the all mighty Ford engineer!

 

[RickLightning]

I'm speaking of the button on the handle for the Charge Station Pro which is a manual catch, not the white button on the truck. In fact, even during DCFC charging, I haven't really had to push the white button at all either - using the button on the EA charger itself will cause it to interrupt and release.

Ah. So it's two steps to squeeze the handle and withdraw it?

Pushing the button on the EA charger is a BAD IDEA. I say this from experience, mine and others. It can cause the session to abruptly end on EA's side, resulting in several things. First, red ring on the vehicle (which isn't a big deal), and more importantly hanging up your EA account and causing future usage that day (at least) to be problematic. We had to get ours reset by EA and it caused havoc for hours that day on our trip. Always push the button in the vehicle's ring, then wait until you see that the session has ended on EA's screen, then remove the handle.

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