[Wayne]

I have not been able to plan a trip on my computer and have it accessible in my car using the Navigation software. Do any of you know of a way to do this?

I have planned a trip from Chicago to Drummond Island and back using A Better Route Planner (ABRP) which has apps and can connect through apple car play. I wanted to compare the output with the Ford Navigation if it is possible to plan for an extended trip without sitting in the car.

ABRP is okay, but you need to manually add in hotels with charging as a waypoint, and it completely misguides me across the Lake Michigan Express Ferry and won't accept the Badger Ferry. The choice of routes is cumbersome too, I have add to insert charge stations along the route I want to travel instead of simply dragging the auto generated route to a preferred route similar to a google map app.

Any other suggestions?

 

[RickMachE]

Have you tried ABRP on your desktop computer? The trip can be saved and easily accessed in the app.

I've only charged at hotels at night, therefore they aren't a waypoint. I arrive with 10% - 20%, charge all night, and then access my day #2 trip.

You can use Trip Planner in the FordPass app and send it to the car.

 

[Wayne]

Have you tried ABRP on your desktop computer? The trip can be saved and easily accessed in the app.

I've only charged at hotels at night, therefore they aren't a waypoint. I arrive with 10% - 20%, charge all night, and then access my day #2 trip.

You can use Trip Planner in the FordPass app and send it to the car.

That's how I did my trip using ABRP on my computer. I added a hotel as part of the whole trip in one segment. If you add the kW and time, it calculates your charge percentage when you are ready to head out. I added in two hotel and home events, and the rest. The only problem I had was I had to add in a few extra waypoints to force the route where I wanted to go instead of where it programed me to travel. Since the trip will most likely be a bunch of corrections on the way it is not too much of a problem. I am anxious how it is going to work with my Apple Car Play and if real time traffic information works well.

I am guessing Google should come out with something similar or much better in the near future. They can sync it with their Google Travel app that I love for vacation trips.

 

[RickMachE]

Plan route on GoogleMaps. Figure out where I want to stop for the night based on a 20% added time to charge rule. Find a hotel with Plugshare, set on hotels with chargers, for the night. THEN plan day 1's route arriving with just enough charge to go to dinner, i.e. 10% or so.

Then plan day 2, and so on. Never combine the days.

 

[RSF]

I have done many trips, one being 7k miles. I wouldn't rely on the in car nav for anything other than getting you to your next stop. I do all of my own planning, and I actually start with EA's map then look at things like elevation in Google maps.(there is a way in Google maps to see the elevation change of your route). I prefer to charge on EAs network almost exclusively and have had nearly 100% success everywhere so I will plan my routes around it. I also look for lodging that has charging but on my extended trips I would only stay at exits with an EA station nearby.

 

[xgman]

So what happens if the selected hotel has no open charge spots that night?

 

[RickMachE]

So what happens if the selected hotel has no open charge spots that night?

You were smart and had an alternate, i.e. fast charger nearby within range. Or, you call the hotel and find out how often they are used. Some are never used.

 

[Ravensfan1996]

Going on my first long trip next month, i planned a route with google maps. Then i pulled up plugshare and picked the chargers on the route (EA) with nearby restaurants/mall etc. Also Plugshare can tell me the ratings of the charges if always down or always up etc. Each day of travel is about the range of the car, but will charge about halfway there. Ive made a note on my phone of the charger/hotels addresses to type into my NAV plus extra chargers nearby if ones are down. Luckily my route takes me along 95 in the NE with plenty of chargers.

 

[RickMachE]

ABRP lets you send the trip to spreadsheet with all stops.

 

[RSF]

You were smart and had an alternate, i.e. fast charger nearby within range. Or, you call the hotel and find out how often they are used. Some are never used.

i never count on a hotel for an overnight charge, I consider that a pleasant surprise. For my road trips that have interim overnight stops, I always pick a spot with a L3 charger nearby. But sometimes we got lucky and there was a L2 charger available at the hotel (rarely, on our trip from NY to Key west and back, only two hotels had chargers) I also found EA to be the only network I would trust to have working chargers and the few times I encountered a problem, their customer service was right there and could fix it. I stopped using ABRP as it would use obscure charging sites. I found doing the route planning myself with multiple tools was the best approach.

 

[RickMachE]

ABRP has settings. You can go in and "prefer" EA. You can ignore specific locations. You can tweak it to few stops but long, quickest arrival, or short stops but many. And on.

Plugshare has a setting for hotels, so no surprises, unless it's full.

Yes, use multiple apps to plan.