A PAIR of social media stars who drove a £43,000 Ford Mustang EV 1,000 miles found that it added hours onto their journey.
The duo took the pricey Mach-E model on a road trip around upstate New York as part of an electric car test carried out by YouTuber Marques Brownlee.
YouTube/@TheStudioDavid and Brandon found their road trip heavily delayed by EV charging[/caption]
YouTube/@TheStudioThey were left exasperated by broken and slow charging points[/caption]
In the video, Brownlee’s team compared the all-electric Ford with a Tesla and a petrol-powered Audi to see which one at up the miles best.
Team members David and Brandon drew what would turn out to be the short straw in the form of the Mustang as they set off on their immense journey.
They came across their first issue at the first charging station they found, where the “fast-charging” point capable of charging at 150Kw per hour only charged at 10Kw per hour.
At this speed, it could take more than seven hours to fill the car’s battery from empty.
Fortunately, they already had partial charge but getting up to the level they had agreed to start the race at took some time.
Once they finally got on the road, they discovered a second major problem.
With 185 miles to their destination at Niagara Falls the Mustang had a stated remaining range of 175 miles, compared to 224 in the Tesla and 440 in the Audi.
This left them needing to charge up again during the journey.
Their day only went from bad to worse when the next charging point they found was out of order, forcing them to drive on to another one with limited range left.
The one after that apparently charged them £28 despite declining to charge their car.
The only other available charger on the site was a “DC prong” point that would have taken until 2am the next morning to fill them up, so about 12 hours.
With a few miles left on the range they arrived at another charging station at around 2pm which would charge them up to 80% over the course of 90 minutes.
The rest of the team managed to get to the Falls at about 6.30pm while David and Brandon ended up getting in at about 12.40am, by way of another broken charger.
Brandon fumed: “I’m not mad at the car, because the car is fantastic.
“But if you have a charging system that is this unreliable, what is the point?”
Social media commenters shared his frustration.
One wrote: “The Ford vehicle team is more like hunting for charging points rather than going on a road trip.”
Another added: “RIP David and Brandon. Your sacrifice has left us as informed shoppers.”
And a third said: “Brandon and David… gotta feel sorry for these guys.”
Ford has been contacted for comment.
It comes after an expert mechanic explained how “cheap plastic” is ruining modern cars.
Meanwhile, Ford made the decision to slash the Mach-E’s price by a huge sum in a bid to boost sales.
YouTube/@TheStudioThey ended up reaching their destination in the middle of the night hours after their friends[/caption]
AutoexpressThey said that the £46,000 Ford Mustang Mach-E they were driving was ‘fantastic’ but that the charging network was ‘unreliable’[/caption]