A year with a Kuga, and an issue
Discussion
Very narrowed down version of my observations of my wifes switch to electric with the all new Plug in Kuga. And potentially an issue with it charging?
Ordered new to arrive in in Oct 2020, arrived after 7 months after a huge delay thanks to a worldwide recall. Lots of issues around our part exchange dying a death in the process of this, and having to re hash a finance deal. Dubious efforts from Ford but ultimately a deal was struck with loan car to facilitate no vehicle during final 5 weeks.
3 weeks into ownership, and car breaks down with a major software fault, during driving it totally malfunctions, computer freezes and car is disabled in middle of the road. Full recovery to dealer, hours lost, and another courtesy car.
After that, car behaves and generally all is well. Part of the deal in October 2020 was Ford contribute / cover the cost of fitting a bespoke outside charging point. This STILL has not happened almost 1.5 years later. We have had nothing but issues trying to sort this, not so much with Ford but everyone else. Convoluted process of going through electricity provider, then electricity company, and also British Gas? All to do with having a new part fitted to our fuse box, then an isolator, then this, then that, then they are too busy and have no appointments to fit any of these things, and so on and so forth. Consequently it is windows open on the house all day with 4 way sockets hanging out the window and wires trailing across the drive. It drives me round the bend.
Then there is the cost of charging it. not something I had much thought about, but according to her sisters husband ( who had the hump when we charged it at their house once and checked the exact cost on their energy app ) it is something like £5 per charge. After the hrrrmphing and eye rolling we no longer charge it at her sisters house anymore. And yes, her sisters husband is an absolute t
t of the highest order.
Anyway lately we have noticed that after each charge the range is falling. When new we were getting 40 / 38 miles when fully charged but now only 28. We also have had issues where we charge it and the range is showing as 4 miles, or 7, or 10 e.t.c. as if there is a battery fault. It is booked in again to investigate. Has anybody else had this after a year?
All of it has convinced me I am right to avoid electric, I still feel we are not there with practicality and infrastructure yet - and I have found it all quite frustrating to be honest. We did a long road trip as our summer holiday around the UK and had to fill it up around 4 times, purely as we couldn't charge the thing at any of our destinations, no charging facilities at all. Owing to the size and weight of the fully laden car it was quite a costly process.
Ordered new to arrive in in Oct 2020, arrived after 7 months after a huge delay thanks to a worldwide recall. Lots of issues around our part exchange dying a death in the process of this, and having to re hash a finance deal. Dubious efforts from Ford but ultimately a deal was struck with loan car to facilitate no vehicle during final 5 weeks.
3 weeks into ownership, and car breaks down with a major software fault, during driving it totally malfunctions, computer freezes and car is disabled in middle of the road. Full recovery to dealer, hours lost, and another courtesy car.
After that, car behaves and generally all is well. Part of the deal in October 2020 was Ford contribute / cover the cost of fitting a bespoke outside charging point. This STILL has not happened almost 1.5 years later. We have had nothing but issues trying to sort this, not so much with Ford but everyone else. Convoluted process of going through electricity provider, then electricity company, and also British Gas? All to do with having a new part fitted to our fuse box, then an isolator, then this, then that, then they are too busy and have no appointments to fit any of these things, and so on and so forth. Consequently it is windows open on the house all day with 4 way sockets hanging out the window and wires trailing across the drive. It drives me round the bend.
Then there is the cost of charging it. not something I had much thought about, but according to her sisters husband ( who had the hump when we charged it at their house once and checked the exact cost on their energy app ) it is something like £5 per charge. After the hrrrmphing and eye rolling we no longer charge it at her sisters house anymore. And yes, her sisters husband is an absolute t
t of the highest order.Anyway lately we have noticed that after each charge the range is falling. When new we were getting 40 / 38 miles when fully charged but now only 28. We also have had issues where we charge it and the range is showing as 4 miles, or 7, or 10 e.t.c. as if there is a battery fault. It is booked in again to investigate. Has anybody else had this after a year?
All of it has convinced me I am right to avoid electric, I still feel we are not there with practicality and infrastructure yet - and I have found it all quite frustrating to be honest. We did a long road trip as our summer holiday around the UK and had to fill it up around 4 times, purely as we couldn't charge the thing at any of our destinations, no charging facilities at all. Owing to the size and weight of the fully laden car it was quite a costly process.
Edited by Armchair_Expert on Wednesday 19th January 05:50
My wife had the charge conversation. I get the etiquette but firstly it is supposed to be close family and secondly payment or compensation would happily be offered. The issue with BiL is that the mere act of even asking appears to be too much. Yes it can use petrol so not an issue now, but what when we are all fully EV - this will become an occurrence every time we visit, plus they live in the middle of nowhere so it does become an issue. They also appear to be very well off, so no excuses there.
The charge point issues are a mystery. But very much a reality. We are having to shell out fee's for the electricity supplier to come round and make these changes. We also have a modern fuse box so had no idea there were so many obstacles to a simple installation.
It's not I don't think electric is bad - but it certainly seems to come with its fair share of issues. 2.5 L engine which sounds very agricultural does not inspire confidence in me that we are getting great MPG. And our road trip literally gave us zero opportunity to charge anywhere other than motorway service stations which were a) fiddly b) busy c) expensive and d) interruptive to our schedule travelling from one place to another on a time schedule.
The charge point issues are a mystery. But very much a reality. We are having to shell out fee's for the electricity supplier to come round and make these changes. We also have a modern fuse box so had no idea there were so many obstacles to a simple installation.
It's not I don't think electric is bad - but it certainly seems to come with its fair share of issues. 2.5 L engine which sounds very agricultural does not inspire confidence in me that we are getting great MPG. And our road trip literally gave us zero opportunity to charge anywhere other than motorway service stations which were a) fiddly b) busy c) expensive and d) interruptive to our schedule travelling from one place to another on a time schedule.
Yes those points I agree with.
The wife does a 30 mile round commute so it can work in theory, however, it is the constant faff of charging it, having to set up extension lead into extension lead, open window, throw the large bulky cable out, connect it, then live with the draft of cold air coming in through the house. This since new, is not fun, and I have tripped over the wires umpteen times.
Thing is we also use her car for the constant popping out to the shop and back, so if it is empty we then have the 2.5L petrol engine stop starting all the time. Its a big car and this isn't ideal. The electric range seems to nose dive instantly, 10 hrs of charging doesn't seem to get you far in reality.
She loves it. I accept it. The real issue was we were led to believe we would have a home charger installed easily and almost no cost, however this isn't the case, and the impracticality of how we are charging it is sending me bonkers.
The wife does a 30 mile round commute so it can work in theory, however, it is the constant faff of charging it, having to set up extension lead into extension lead, open window, throw the large bulky cable out, connect it, then live with the draft of cold air coming in through the house. This since new, is not fun, and I have tripped over the wires umpteen times.
Thing is we also use her car for the constant popping out to the shop and back, so if it is empty we then have the 2.5L petrol engine stop starting all the time. Its a big car and this isn't ideal. The electric range seems to nose dive instantly, 10 hrs of charging doesn't seem to get you far in reality.
She loves it. I accept it. The real issue was we were led to believe we would have a home charger installed easily and almost no cost, however this isn't the case, and the impracticality of how we are charging it is sending me bonkers.
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