Canadian F150 charging in the US issues

[KDF150]

Hello fellow F150 Lightning owners and/or enthusiasts.

Maybe some of you have insights about one of the most painful challenges with my truck.

I’ve had repeated issues fast charging my Canadian 2023 F150 Lightning Lariat Standard Range the US.

The first one was in the summer on a camping trip to VT. Blink fast chargers in South Hero wouldn’t charge at all (tried 4 different chargers) Finally found another network that worked but had to drive into Burlington (charge point sun common) Not too long of a drive and ended up ok.

More recently I was set up to drive to NYC and had a few stops scheduled on the way using the Ford App.

Arriving at my first stop in Plattsburgh, I tried 3 DCFC locations and over 10 individual chargers with no luck. Always getting « charger error » and orange circle. All were Electrified America (seemed like the only Fast Chargers network within 30 miles)

- couldn’t create an account on the EA app with a Canadian credit card info’s and postal code.
- couldn’t get the charger to work using credit card as it would not complete handshake to then allow credit card payment.
- called EA support, Tried to create an account with first three postal code letters and add 00 at the end. Still did not work. Then no other alternative.
- Called Ford blue oval network assistance, they had no fix other than going to dealer. (The charger was « in network »)

It was a Sunday, the local Ford Dealership was closed. I ended up booking a hotel room and use their LVL2 charger overnight to finally drive back home. I then had to fly down to NYC.

When I got back 2 weeks later, I managed to get my truck to my local dealership for various recalls and asked about my issues. They could not replicate the problem even using similar ElectrIfied Canada chargers. (They indeed usually work well for me)

I have other trips planned to the US soon and I’d like to avoid living the same situation.

Could it be a billing issue with blue oval network?
Is it a technical issue with the truck /charger combination?
Anything else ?

Is this something some of you experienced and found a solution for?

Cheers!

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[TaxmanHog]

Hopefully you get some feedback from other Canadians traveling into the US and what their charging experiences are, if the same it might be related to BON and cross border currency exchanges on the network.

 

[NGBCFord]

Very strange this is happening to you. I set up an EA account and it's been working just fine in the US. I don't have an EA Canada account, just US.

Looking at my profile, the mailing address is optional so I didn't enter it. Maybe that will help?

 

[Jim657]

I have had several trips to the United States and never had an issue with charging whatsoever. I have used Electrify America, EVgo and Red E. As far as payment with U.S. apps, you simply just have to do the following. I know you mentioned you tried that, but that has worked for every American app for charging that I have used. I even have my truck set up for EVgo Autocharge, where you just plug in the vehicle, and it bills you without you having to do anything on the charger. You have to set up Autocharge in the EVgo app with your vin. I have never used the Blue Oval network, as far as I am aware. It does not work If you are from Canada you can find the chargers, but you cannot use it for payment. Even in Canada, I cannot get it to work. I have not used the new feature, Charge Assist, in the US yet.

 

[thunderbayterry]

I live in Thunder Bay, ON and drive to Minneapolis. I think the problems charging are with the PAYMENT. I've used the Zip Code trick above and it works (enter the numbers of your POSTAL CODE followed by two zeros). But it is SO TYPICAL in the US that they don't think about us Canadians. In Pine City Minnessota there is a BRAND NEW, BEAUTIFUL charging setup at the Circle K - and no matter what it will NOT accept my Canadian credit card! I've found the other chargers work.

Some advice: Get the Plug Share app - I use this only for RATING the quality of the charging experience. If you can't get a charger to work on your truck - GIVE IT A POOR RATING! I like to think (although I don't know for sure) that the charging network executives are looking at this. I hope they do.

 

[KDF150]

I have had several trips to the United States and never had an issue with charging whatsoever. I have used Electrify America, EVgo and Red E. As far as payment with U.S. apps, you simply just have to do the following. I know you mentioned you tried that, but that has worked for every American app for charging that I have used. I even have my truck set up for EVgo Autocharge, where you just plug in the vehicle, and it bills you without you having to do anything on the charger. You have to set up Autocharge in the EVgo app with your vin. I have never used the Blue Oval network, as far as I am aware. It does not work If you are from Canada you can find the chargers, but you cannot use it for payment. Even in Canada, I cannot get it to work. I have not used the new feature, Charge Assist, in the US yet.

thanks for the details! It gives me hope that it might actually work one day

I was wondering if my blue oval subscription could cause an issue in the handshake sequence with the charger in the billing steps. I submitted this hypothesis to both my Ford dealer and Blue Oval customer service, none of them had insights into the matter.

I did cancel my subscription in case this was the problem. Haven’t had the chance to try since. But I have to do a quick drive to VT next week, will see if they fixed the problem.

thanks again, I’ll let you know next week !

 

[Bwanapete]

are there problems when I drive from my US home into Canada?

 

[KDF150]

I have had several trips to the United States and never had an issue with charging whatsoever. I have used Electrify America, EVgo and Red E. As far as payment with U.S. apps, you simply just have to do the following. I know you mentioned you tried that, but that has worked for every American app for charging that I have used. I even have my truck set up for EVgo Autocharge, where you just plug in the vehicle, and it bills you without you having to do anything on the charger. You have to set up Autocharge in the EVgo app with your vin. I have never used the Blue Oval network, as far as I am aware. It does not work If you are from Canada you can find the chargers, but you cannot use it for payment. Even in Canada, I cannot get it to work. I have not used the new feature, Charge Assist, in

Very strange this is happening to you. I set up an EA account and it's been working just fine in the US. I don't have an EA Canada account, just US.

Looking at my profile, the mailing address is optional so I didn't enter it. Maybe that will help?

After I signed up, postal code was mandatory for the payment method to load money in my account. That is where I got blocked. But indeed simply creating an account was simple. But without money, not very useful

 

[KDF150]

I live in Thunder Bay, ON and drive to Minneapolis. I think the problems charging are with the PAYMENT. I've used the Zip Code trick above and it works (enter the numbers of your POSTAL CODE followed by two zeros). But it is SO TYPICAL in the US that they don't think about us Canadians. In Pine City Minnessota there is a BRAND NEW, BEAUTIFUL charging setup at the Circle K - and no matter what it will NOT accept my Canadian credit card! I've found the other chargers work.

Some advice: Get the Plug Share app - I use this only for RATING the quality of the charging experience. If you can't get a charger to work on your truck - GIVE IT A POOR RATING! I like to think (although I don't know for sure) that the charging network executives are looking at this. I hope they do.

All good insights thanks!

i tried my first Couche Tard / Circle K charger yesterday this side of the border. Not a fan of their charger selection. Cable is a bit short and the plug is weird to manipulate. But the charge went on without issue. They have Credit CArd payment at the charger but not operational. Their app is not super nice nor useful...

my favourite are still Circuit Electric (probably most useful app and reliable chargers) and Petro Canada for having easy credit card payment (although, I had one charger location not working at all with my truck)…

 

[Jim657]

are there problems when I drive from my US home into Canada?

There shouldn’t be any issue just make sure you get the Electrify Canada app. The US one won’t work in Canada I believe. you would also want to set up apps like Ivy and Flo as they are the more common ones you’ll come across at least in Ontario.

 

[Jim657]

thanks for the details! It gives me hope that it might actually work one day

I was wondering if my blue oval subscription could cause an issue in the handshake sequence with the charger in the billing steps. I submitted this hypothesis to both my Ford dealer and Blue Oval customer service, none of them had insights into the matter.

I did cancel my subscription in case this was the problem. Haven’t had the chance to try since. But I have to do a quick drive to VT next week, will see if they fixed the problem.

thanks again, I’ll let you know next week !

Not 100% sure, but the subscription shouldn’t matter my subscription is active and my vehicle charges. But like I said before, I don’t use the Blue Oval Network. Just make sure you have location enabled for all the charging apps, at least have it set for enabled while using the apps if it’s IOS . You can try setting up EVgo Autocharge but keep in mind once you’ve entered the information in the app, Autocharge will not work the first time as you need to plug it into an EVgo charger, to enable the feature for the first time.

 

[thunderbayterry]

All good insights thanks!

i tried my first Couche Tard / Circle K charger yesterday this side of the border. Not a fan of their charger selection. Cable is a bit short and the plug is weird to manipulate.

my favourite are still Circuit Electric and Petro Canada…

I've had trouble with the Petro Canada chargers not wanting to charge mine. Especially the one here in Thunder Bay.

 

[NGBCFord]

After I signed up, postal code was mandatory for the payment method to load money in my account. That is where I got blocked. But indeed simply creating an account was simple. But without money, not very useful

I had to update my credit card because my old card had expired. I had to input a zip code which was the number in my postal code followed by 00. I see you had tried that as well. Could it be something that you need to contact your credit card company? I'm just thinking of possibly roadblocks.

 

[KDF150]

I've had trouble with the Petro Canada chargers not wanting to charge mine. Especially the one here in Thunder Bay.

Feels like we’re still early adopters… well after 10 years of EVs.

I knew having “non-Tesla” EV had its challenges. Did not know it was this bad…

makes no sense to me that charging is still such a mess… I can understand the technical challenges, but they are all consequences of corporate greed, incompetence, absence of proper regulation/standardisation and lack of customer focus.

NACS will certainly shake things up a bit and hopefully incentivise charging networks to do a better job to make it easier to charge to attract customer wanting to switch to Tesla chargers…

 

[thunderbayterry]

Feels like we’re still early adopters… well after 10 years of EVs.

I knew having “non-Tesla” EV had its challenges. Did not know it was this bad…

makes no sense to me that charging is still such a mess… I can understand the technical challenges, but they are all consequences of corporate greed, incompetence, absence of proper regulation/standardisation and lack of customer focus.

NACS will certainly shake things up a bit and hopefully incentivise charging networks to do a better job to make it easier to charge to attract customer wanting to switch to Tesla chargers…

Agreed!! Say what you will about Elon Musk, but IMO what he has done for the EV world is pretty impressive. And I like that the Tesla charging network will soon (hopefully) be opened up to us. Whether it be a magic jack, or an adaptor from Ford, I'm looking forward to using a Tesla Supercharger while on a trip. The Tesla Destination chargers (I believe they are Level 2 not 3) seem to work well, with an adapter you can buy from Amazon (thats what I did) - they are just slower than the SuperChargers.

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