Should Ford Have Their Own Fast Charging Hubs?

[cal]

this does bring to light, though, a conversation about the 'disconnect' between engineers, manufacturers, DCFS charge providers, and us owners:

A) if you don't OWN and DRIVE and TRAVEL long distances with an EV, and EV of ANY size, brand, shape, speed, or range, you DON'T truly understand DCFC needs: Location, Location, Location. Numbers, Numbers, Numbers. Speed, Speed, Speed.
B) if you sit in an engineering office, at a desk, and expect to 'understand' what EV owners really need, you are going to fail in your efforts. You are going to build DCFC units that seem to have ridiculous Interaction Requirements from drivers, ridiculous Sized units, and placed in Ridiculous logisticals locations(i.e., the main drag lane coming into a Walmart!)...
C) if you are a manufacturer who doesn't understand how an owner needs to easily charge at home, you tend to put the charge port wherever it fits the easiest manufacturing location, rather than where it can be best used at. No, there is no single 'easy' answer here, and I'll bet we all have a varied option about 'where' a charge port should be. If you are a Lightning owner, I'll bet, though, you would agree that having a charge port at BOTH sides of the truck makes the MOST sense, and especially since you have the PORT DOOR already there!
D) DCFC Charge Providers need to consider ALL the needs of drivers arriving to CHARGE: Location(where is the unit compared to the lanes of travel/traffic), Logistics(how does one pull into/up to/next to a unit), the number and Length of cables for each unit(why do we need TWO cables if the unit can ONLY charge a single vehicle at a time?), the RELIABILITY of each unit, the SPEED(please Advertise real-world numbers), and the capabilities of ACTIVATING and Paying for the session.

Us owners see it ALL. The others seem to only see what 'they' are in the business of seeing.

I totally agree with “Ya gotta be a user to really understand the needs”. When pointing out the CT misses, I commented how little they seemed to take from the existing truck designed. Stupidly arrogant. When Gordon Murray was designing what has become the best designed sports car in the world he had several design standards to beat. One of them the Acura NSX was his daily driver. Wed gotta be better than this, etc. Never saw Musk or Franz driving the best selling truck during the design phase. It‘s almost like they considered existing truck buyer preferences were so simple, so easy to satisfy.

And is shows. The CT is not a bad truck but definitely not making a better or superior version.

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[RickLightning]

We need DCFCs now, the roll out is too slow! Day 1 of Lightning launch, chargers should have been in the ground. Call me skeptical that dealerships will follow thru in the time frame or quantity required. ICE Ford trucks are the revenue generator and it's "back to business" for many of them with the recent EV back lash and growth of BEV sales is in decline .

You probably shouldn't have bought an EV, because before buying it you could have realized that your expectations would never mesh with reality.

1,550 dealers are required to put in DCFCs.

Wasn't that...
A) Platinum level dealers only
B) By 2026
C) scrapped about a month ago

I don't know the exact terms but:

A) Nearly all Model e dealers
B) No.
C) No.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...d-dcfc-install-in-process-at-my-dealer.17300/

 

[mr.Magoo]

You probably shouldn't have bought an EV, because before buying it you could have realized that your expectations would never mesh with reality.

1,550 dealers are required to put in DCFCs.



I don't know the exact terms but:

A) Nearly all Model e dealers
B) No.
C) No.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...d-dcfc-install-in-process-at-my-dealer.17300/

Are you sure...
https://insideevs.com/news/697258/ford-cuts-dealer-ev-requirements-again/

Furthermore, the additional Level 3 fast-charger for 2026 for Certified Elite dealers has been removed altogether.

 

[RickLightning]

Are you sure...
https://insideevs.com/news/697258/ford-cuts-dealer-ev-requirements-again/

Furthermore, the additional Level 3 fast-charger for 2026 for Certified Elite dealers has been removed altogether.

Deadline is 6/30/24. They reduced the number of required DCFC chargers from 5 to 3, as well as the additional one by 2026.

 

[mr.Magoo]

Deadline is 6/30/24. They reduced the number of required DCFC chargers from 5 to 3, as well as the additional one by 2026.

Cool !

 

[hturnerfamily]

Ford went thru the same arguments back in the early 1900's when they wanted to build the 'everyday car for everyone' ... there weren't enough gas stations in the early days and folks had to 'figure out' how to travel, find a station, take gas with them, or all of the above...

it will grow over time... we just aren't very patient anymore... : )

 

[Txxthie]

You probably shouldn't have bought an EV, because before buying it you could have realized that your expectations would never mesh with reality.

1,550 dealers are required to put in DCFCs.

Is that what you interpret from my post and comments? I have been driving exclusively BEV's since 2017 and was charging at EA when they were ghost towns. That isn't the case anymore. I am very comfortable and knowledgable with charging and road tripping BEV's. It's the new to EV owners that will be discouraged especially if they purchase CCS vehicles.

Tesla is running away with the electrical car market at least here in the US. They have their own charging network and sell more BEV's than all manufacturers combined. The time to "be required" has passed long ago! Let's be real, how many dealerships like EV's! I interact with many auto salespeople doing my job and the narrative flipped in 2023. Covid fast tracked BEV growth in 2021-22 due to vehicle shortages, but now the sugar high has faded. PHEV's are now the goal and they don't need DCFCs.

 

[Txxthie]

Ford went thru the same arguments back in the early 1900's when they wanted to build the 'everyday car for everyone' ... there weren't enough gas stations in the early days and folks had to 'figure out' how to travel, find a station, take gas with them, or all of the above...

it will grow over time... we just aren't very patient anymore... : )

When we transitioned from props to jets, they sent all existing planes to Canada. Seriously though, most people default to easy and gas is still that.....familiar and easy! Most on this forum must have a pioneering attitude or chose the not easy route, especially yourself for towing with a CCS vehicle while road tripping.

 

[Ishkatan]

The Ford Charger Pro stations talk to Ford computers. Not well, but they when I called about mine they told me they could see it on line. Ford should improve connectivity then have owners sign up as providers, collect a small fee for administration / mapping and a profit for the owner.

Suddenly thousands of 19kWh chargers could become available from people willing to have someone pull up in their driveway. Sorry, no bathroom facilities or food vending but at least you can get a decent charge in an hour or two while you nap in your car. As the station owner I should make a profit - say $5/hr. or $0.25/kWh?

We need to think less in terms of gas station models and a bit more out of the box. In this case, my Ford Charge Station Pro, which is idle most of the time.

 

[invertedspear]

The Ford Charger Pro stations talk to Ford computers. Not well, but they when I called about mine they told me they could see it on line. Ford should improve connectivity then have owners sign up as providers, collect a small fee for administration / mapping and a profit for the owner.

Suddenly thousands of 19kWh chargers could become available from people willing to have someone pull up in their driveway. Sorry, no bathroom facilities or food vending but at least you can get a decent charge in an hour or two while you nap in your car. As the station owner I should make a profit - say $5/hr. or $0.25/kWh?

We need to think less in terms of gas station models and a bit more out of the box. In this case, my Ford Charge Station Pro, which is idle most of the time.

There's already a service called EV Match (app based) where you can do this.

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