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
Armchair_Expert said:
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?
Is this your first winter with the car, it’s not clear when you actually got it…Battery size on a plug in Kuga seems to be 14.4kwh.
The average cost of a kwh of electricity in the UK seems to be
17.2 p.
Therefore average cost to charge from empty using a UK domestic supply would be about £2.50.
This is likely to increase as electricity prices look set to be rising.
The average cost of a kwh of electricity in the UK seems to be
17.2 p.
Therefore average cost to charge from empty using a UK domestic supply would be about £2.50.
This is likely to increase as electricity prices look set to be rising.
Range drops when it's colder.
Apart from that, every problem you've had could be experienced with any car/manufacturer/dealer.
Apart from the problems getting the charger fitted, which are just bizarre sounding tbh.
I don't understand how this can convince you electric is bad. You haven't tried electric yet, you have a hybrid with a very limited all electric range and are complaining you had to fill it up on a long road trip
Apart from that, every problem you've had could be experienced with any car/manufacturer/dealer.
Apart from the problems getting the charger fitted, which are just bizarre sounding tbh.
I don't understand how this can convince you electric is bad. You haven't tried electric yet, you have a hybrid with a very limited all electric range and are complaining you had to fill it up on a long road trip
Armchair_Expert said:
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 tt 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.
Notwithstanding the issues you have.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.
It's a plug in hybrid so doesn't HAVE to be charged right? In fact I think you should be able to keep it in full hybrid mode and it will regen charge and only use charge to assist the petrol engine.
Also, if someone came round to my house in a plug in hybrid and wanted free charge I think I'd also be a little miffed. Would you also be miffed if your BiL came round and syphoned off 5k of fuel from your car?
I suppose this does open up the whole debate regarding charging and when we are all in EVs, how etiquette will play out regarding charging your car when you go visit someone.
worsy said:
I suppose this does open up the whole debate regarding charging and when we are all in EVs, how etiquette will play out regarding charging your car when you go visit someone.
I don't see it as a new sphere of etiquette at all, it's just plain old manners surely?The OP had to be told by his brother in law how much power in ££ his car was using. It's perfectly simple for the OP to calculate that himself ahead of asking to plug it in in the first place. Asking to plug in without giving any consideration to how much of someone else's money you were effectively asking for is just rude.
I've plugged in at friends and relatives but I know roughly how much it will cost and normally more than compensate by paying for take away food, drinks etc. It's perfectly reasonable to ask to make use of a convenient plug socket but totally unreasonable to do so without understanding what you're asking for and preemptively compensating the kind owner.
TheDeuce said:
worsy said:
I suppose this does open up the whole debate regarding charging and when we are all in EVs, how etiquette will play out regarding charging your car when you go visit someone.
I don't see it as a new sphere of etiquette at all, it's just plain old manners surely?The OP had to be told by his brother in law how much power in ££ his car was using. It's perfectly simple for the OP to calculate that himself ahead of asking to plug it in in the first place. Asking to plug in without giving any consideration to how much of someone else's money you were effectively asking for is just rude.
I've plugged in at friends and relatives but I know roughly how much it will cost and normally more than compensate by paying for take away food, drinks etc. It's perfectly reasonable to ask to make use of a convenient plug socket but totally unreasonable to do so without understanding what you're asking for and preemptively compensating the kind owner.
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.
Armchair_Expert said:
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.
How far is it to your brother in law's?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.
I’ve had my Kuga PHEV since April 2021. Currently on just under 12,000 miles and average economy over that period is 112mpg.
I charge it as often as I reasonably can (plugged in overnight at home at [currently…] 5p/kWh) but I wouldn’t dream of charging it at a motorway service area. It’s pretty slow at charging and the kWh unit rate at a motorway service area is very steep.
It gets plugged in when I’m at Tesco, if there’s a charger free and if I’m away overnight with work, I’ll try to select a hotel with free EV charging, but that’s about it.
Oh, and it does get plugged in on cheap juice overnight if I go to see my parents!
When I’ve been unable to plug in overnight and had to travel to work (30 miles cross country), it’s usually hit 60mpg with no charge on the traction battery. I’m pretty happy with that… and the current 22p/mile that HMRC allow me to reclaim from my employer for business mileage.
I charge it as often as I reasonably can (plugged in overnight at home at [currently…] 5p/kWh) but I wouldn’t dream of charging it at a motorway service area. It’s pretty slow at charging and the kWh unit rate at a motorway service area is very steep.
It gets plugged in when I’m at Tesco, if there’s a charger free and if I’m away overnight with work, I’ll try to select a hotel with free EV charging, but that’s about it.
Oh, and it does get plugged in on cheap juice overnight if I go to see my parents!
When I’ve been unable to plug in overnight and had to travel to work (30 miles cross country), it’s usually hit 60mpg with no charge on the traction battery. I’m pretty happy with that… and the current 22p/mile that HMRC allow me to reclaim from my employer for business mileage.
Armchair_Expert said:
From our house around 125 miles. From her parents ( which we usually use as a satellite anyway and visit them when we are down there ) only around 15. Her parents have no issue with us charging.
So when you do go full EV you'll have zero issues then.I don't know what part of your experience so far makes you think you'll struggle with full EV as and when
essayer said:
Where did you go in the U.K. that there weren’t any 7kW chargers?
Can the Kuga only use 7kw chargers?If so that's indeed going to make life tough to find one and always slow to charge...
On the other hand, who cares? It's a hybrid, just put petrol in it once in a blue moon. That's the whole point, not having to worry if there's no charger on a long trip
Armchair_Expert said:
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.
It sounds extreme but we see people who use national companies often saying things like 'I sent my details in to them in September and haven't heard anything.' (this is an email we had in late December!) Or simply I can't speak to anyone or get any response. Edited by Armchair_Expert on Wednesday 19th January 05:50
The big installers tied up all the national work without having the infrastructure to service it or even understanding what is involved and it's led to a lot of very unhappy customers unfortunately.
Not specifically related to the OP but this is the kind of thing that annoys me when "Fifth Gear Recharged" refers to PHEVs as "the best of both worlds" when in reality they are the worst of both worlds.
- To make the most of a small battery/range you have to invest £1000+ in a home charger
- Extra weight of lugging batteries around hits the ICE MPG
- Extra weight & complexity of the ICE hits the battery range, e.g. taking a tankful of petrol and an ICE 3 miles to the shops and back when in EV mode
- Extra cost of servicing and maintenance, more moving parts = more to go wrong.
- Compromised packaging of the drivetrain affects boot space etc
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