Our testing beat Ford’s estimated time to charge to 80%
Last week we posted our Mustang Mach-E 70 mph range test video in which we were able to cover 282.5 miles before the state of charge hit zero, at which time the Mach-E was reporting that it could go another 3 miles.
Since we already had the Mach-E with a depleted battery at an Electrify America DC fast charger, we used the opportunity to conduct another DC Fast charge test. Last month, Kyle Conner posted a Mach-E DC fast charge test on his Out Of Spec YouTube channel and InsideEVs Mark Kane used the data for a great DC fast charge analysis deep-dive article.
However, Ford has been updating the Mach-E software up to the vehicle’s launch, so we wondered if the charging curve would be the same as when Kyle recorded his session nearly two months ago.
Plug&Charge Success
We used the Mustang Mach-E’s Plug&Charge feature and it worked as it should on the first try. With Plug&Charge, all the owner needs to do is plug the EV into the charger, and the vehicle and charger communicate to authenticate the session and bill your pre-established account. In fact, every time I’ve personally used Plug&Charge with the Mach-E it worked on the first try.
The only problem I can see is that currently, you cannot link your Electrify America account to the account in your Ford Pass that is linked to Plug&Charge. Therefore, you cannot pay the discounted rate that Electrify America members do, and that’s a problem.
In New Jersey, Electrify America bills by the kWh, and as a Pass+ member, I pay $0.31 per kWh. Since the Ford Pass currently cannot be linked to an Electrify America Pass+ account, users pay the guest rate of $0.43 per kWh. Since the Mach-E took in 92 kWh during my DC fast charge test, the cost was significantly more than it should have been. Instead of paying $28.52 to fully charge the Mach-E, it cost $39.56. This is something that Ford needs to figure out, or it renders Plug&Charge useless as nobody will use it if it means the charging session will cost 40% more.
Unplug at 80%!
Ford recommends unplugging at 80% when using a DC Fast charger and we couldn’t agree more. It took us 47 minutes to charge the Mach-E from 0% to 80% and another 102 minutes (1 hour & 42 minutes) to charge from 80% to 100%. That’s an average charge rate of 1.7 miles/minute from 0% to 80% and then it took 5 minutes to add each additional mile of range from 80% to 100%.
Source:State Of Charge (YouTube)
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