Congratulations on your new Mustang Mach-E! We’ve been looking forward to seeing them take to the roads since their announcement back in 2019. We’ve put together some tips for how best to charge your Mach-E at home so you can keep the focus on the fun that comes with a new car rather than worrying about charging.
Included Charger
You may be thinking, doesn’t the car come with a charger? While the answer is yes, in most situations that charger is less than ideal. The included charger, called the Ford Mobile Charger, has two attachments so it can be plugged into either a standard 120V outlet or a 240V NEMA 14-50 outlet. When plugged into a standard wall outlet it would take almost 4 days to fully charge the car from 0-100%. If you’re lucky and happen to have a 240V outlet accessible and close to the car, that does allow for a faster charge, but it still charges below the Mustang Mach-E’s charging acceptance rate.
Acceptance Rate
The Ford Mustang Mach-E has an onboard charger that is able to accept up to 10.5kW of power. This means its acceptance rate is 10.5kW. You can learn more about the intricacies of acceptance rates here. To simplify for the Mach-E’s case though, the included Ford Mobile Charger can deliver 7.2kW of power to the car which is less than the 10.5kW the Mach-E can accept. This means that the car could charge faster if you were to plug into a more powerful charger.
While it’s obvious that 10.5kW is better than 7.2kW, what do those numbers actually mean in real life? To fully charge the Mustang Mach-E with the 240V Ford Mobile Charger it would take approximately 15 hours. With a faster charger able to deliver 10.5kW the charge time drops to around 10 hours. That’s the difference between being able to fully charge overnight, or having to leave in the morning with less charge than you want. So the next question is, which chargers can deliver the power needed to meet the Mustang Mach-E’s charging acceptance rate?
High-Speed Chargers for the Mustang Mach-E
Ford Connected Charge Station
The first high-speed home charging station that may come to mind is Ford’s Connected Charge Station. The Ford Connected Charge Station is Ford’s optional extra high-power charging station that will provide the full power needed to meet the Mustang Mach-E’s acceptance rate. It does have some downsides though. Most significantly, Ford stopped selling the charger for several months after there were reports of the charger not functioning. While it appears that issue has now been fully resolved, the charger itself is still quite large and has a separate connector holster. Together this means the Ford Connected Charge Station takes up a lot of space wherever you choose to mount it. Furthermore, the charger is quite expensive at $800. That’s $100 more than one of our favorite chargers, the ChargePoint Home Flex.
ChargePoint Home Flex
The ChargePoint Home Flex can provide enough kilowatts to meet the Ford Mustang Mach-E’s acceptance rate so you know you’ll be charging as fast as possible. It also has one of the best designs of any home charger, ensuring it doesn’t take up too much space and cable management is easy. Unlike some other EV charger cables, the ChargePoint Home Flex’s cable is extremely flexible, meaning you’ll always be able to coil it up quickly and easily to keep it neat. Finally, the ChargePoint Home Flex has great built-in connected features if you’d like to make use of them. Learn about all the advantages that come with the ChargePoint Home Flex here. We believe that better features at a more affordable price makes the ChargePoint Home Flex the perfect choice for charging the Mustang Mach-E at home.
DC Fast Charging
There is one other type of charger that is important to address: DC Fast Chargers. DC Fast Chargers offer the fastest charging speeds but are not viable solutions for homes. Most homes don’t have enough electrical capacity to support them, they are extremely expensive, potentially costing more than your car, and using them too often can negatively impact battery longevity. That said, they are a great option when you’re on a long road trip and need to recharge quickly.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E has a DC acceptance rate of up to 150kW which is clearly much higher than the 10.5kW it can accept from a home charger. This means if you stop to recharge at a highway side DC Fast Charger you can expect to charge the battery from 0-80% in 52 minutes. If you were thinking about stopping for food or to use the restroom this is a great time to do so.
If you’re wondering how long it would take to get from 0-100%, it would be quite a bit longer. As mentioned earlier, DC Fast Charging can cause battery degradation, so to protect the battery, the Mustang Mach-E reduces its charging speed substantially after reaching 80% charge.
Charging the Mustang Mach-E
With the right charger, charging the Ford Mustang Mach-E at home is fast and easy. We hope this guide helps you make the best choice for your Mach-E and home. If you’re interested in installing a 240V outlet or one of the faster home chargers, including the Ford Connected Charge Station, contact us to schedule a free quote. We hope we can play a part in making EV ownership as simple and easy as possible, so you can focus on the fun of a new car.
