Travel app recommendations

Rob Mathewson

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Jul 9, 2026, 9:07:47 PM (5 days ago) Jul 9

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hey all

I'm heading east to North Carolina. What app should a bring along to manage charging for my rental Mach-E?

Rob Mathewson 206-396-0449

SevaS...@hpev.com

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Jul 9, 2026, 10:37:16 PM (5 days ago) Jul 9

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Hey Rob congrats on renting a MachE for your trip, hopefully its a long-range pack and I think you'll enjoy it!

The first "must-have" app would be PlugShare - best for crowdsourced info and offers ratings for reliability of individual stations (Very important to check!) as well as pricing info and specific location notes (where exactly on the property is a charge station, hours of operation etc.) PlugShare also allows you to filter your results which is very helpful. For a MachE you may want to filter by CCS, J1772 etc. On the map, Orange pins will be for DCFC (DC Fast Chargers) and green pins will be for standard slower Level 2 (or even Level 1 wall outlets ~ however I usually filter out the regular 120V wall outlets since they are so slow and your rent car may not even come with its own EVSE).

2nd important app is the Tesla App, assuming you wish to use Tesla Superchargers for fast-charging and assuming your MachE comes with an adapter or you bring your own (see below). Basically, Tesla has the most plentiful and I would say reliable DCFC network in North America. Unfortunately it requires you to get the Tesla App and make a little account and provide your credit or debit card there since the Superchargers themselves do not accept payment. The only other potential snafu is not all Supercharger sites are compatible with CCS vehicles even if you have the adapter. But, the good news, is that the Tesla app should have an option for filtering the stations so that you only go to ones which can charge your MachE rental (however unless it is a rare location with "Magic Dock" - where the station includes the CCS to NACS adapter, you will need to bring your own NACS to CCS adapter) But the Tesla App will have an option for "Charge my other EV" and you can initiate a charge station in the app by telling it which stall number (for example 3C) you are at and then it will activate that station and allow you to plug in and charge. you can see in the app how quickly it is charging and how much it is costing. Tesla superchargers are often but not always cheaper than Electrify America or GM Ultium Networked DCFC in my experience and once you have the app they are VERY reliable. Additionally after the first time you plug in it should recognize it is a Ford MachE and show that in the app.

Rivian Adventure Network of DCFC is also one of my new favorites! No app required (tho you can use it) just a tap-to-pay credit card, plug in and boom you're in business and the station clearly shows the rate of power delivery as well as the cost (like a gas pump!) These are not as plentiful, but they tend to have very good reliabilty as well as cords long enough to reach the MachE side charge port and they are all natively CCS so no adapter is required for your MachE.

STEPHEN'S 7 EV TRAVEL TIPS

Here are some more of my thoughts and tips:

With any of the DCFC options BE SURE YOU REMAIN AWARE OF END OF CHARGE IDLE USAGE FEES! Not only is it bad EV ettiquette to leave an EV at a DCFC (or any charging station) when it has finished charging but most of the DCFC network companies assess penalty fees by the minute beyond a short grace period from when your DCFC session completes and the car is full (or at whatever SOC your car is set to stop at).
Rental company may not give you the car fully charged when you pick it up! Check in advance or plan accordingly (this happened to my brother recently and can be an unpleasant surprise if your first stop is far away and now right off the bat you have to find a charging station!)
Check Frunk & Trunk compartments for Ford EVSE unit. The rental company or previous renters may have taken the EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment - basically the little Level1 & 2 power cord which originally came with the car) out of the vehicle so you won't have it. This also happened to my brother recently when he rented a Ford EV.
Check for NACS to CCS DCFC adapter or consider bringing your own. This has happened to 2 of my friends recently where the rental EV did not also include the NACS (Tesla) to CCS fast charging adapter. You may ask them ahead of time, or if you decide not to use Tesla Superchargers then it won't matter but just plan for that in advance and know which non-tesla stations you will charge at.
Consider bringing an L2 NACS to J1772 adapter since it is very unlikely the car will come with one of those. This is a much smaller NACS adapter than the DCFC one and it then allows you to use Tesla Destination Chargers which are more common at hotels and often totally free to use. These adapters are usually slightly smaller than a soda can so easy to pack in your luggage and are easily available on Amazon (I recommend one capable of 80Amps ideally but 48Amps rating should suffice for a MachE.)
If you need all the range, then set the End Of Charge SOC Limit in the EV to 100% since it is a rental and not your own battery -- you don't need to worry about extending the life of the HV Battery by limiting it to 80% and instead can just fully charge it. The MachE will likely default to this automatically (a feature I normally find annoying, but in this case, who cares since it's a rental EV)
USE THE FORD's BUILT IN NAVIGATION FOR LONGER TRIPS OR BEFORE STOPPING AT A DCFC LOCATION! Many modern EVs will pre-condition (Warm up) the HV Battery in preparation for fast charging and this can dramatically cut down the time you spend at a DCFC location, BUT the EV has to know you are going to one in the first place! This doesn't matter as much in the summertime as during the winter but it is still good practice and should ensure optimal DCFC speeds.

WILL YOUR TRIP REQUIRE LONG DRIVES OR JUST AROUND THE SAME CITY?

If you will not be road-tripping and you'll be in a major city the whole time, you may well not need to even bother with the Tesla Superchargers or app. But if you will be going on long drives or to more remote areas, then the Supercharger usage may be more beneficial.

Lastly, PLAN YOUR LODGING around EV Charging :)

You can check PlugShare in advance and search the map for hotels with charging (PlugShare even has a Lodging filter as I recall which you can temporarily enable to quickly narrow your search). If hotel has charging be sure to ask in advance if they can save the stall for you or check how many stations they have. Also check to see if it is a J1772 station or a Tesla L2 NACS station ("Tesla Destination Charger") and if it is the latter, then check whether it will require a NACS-to-J1772 adapter or if it is built into the Destination EVSE itself (some newer ones are).

This last point is one of my #1 recommendations, the reason is, hotel charging is very often free for guests and then you may solve the charging issue completely as you will simply charge at night while you're sleeping and wake up to a full charge! This is one of the joys of EV ownership! Because for the majority of EV owners the majority of the time, charging is an afterthought and life is better since you always awaken to a "full tank" and never need to charge for daily commutes and activities -- only on roadtrips! And such is the case when you stay at a hotel with an EVSE station then you may not have to spend any "time" at all charging!

OTHER USEFUL APPS

ChargePoint App - Common network for both DCFC and L2 options.

Electrify America App - Common network for DCFC stations

EVGo App - Common network for DCFC stations

FLO app - Another newer DCFC network and has sharing agreements with some other network providers too.

ABRP - A Better Route Planner. This app is useful for planning longer road trips in an EV in advance and deciding where to stop.

SuperFast EV Chargers App (Used to be called Tesla Superchargers app) From Ndili Technologies - this free app I find very useful for quickly searching for Tesla Supercharger sites and it allows you to quickly see if the site will be capable of charging non-Teslas or not (you can even easily filter for "OTHER EVs ONLY") Version 3 and Version 4 Superchargers are the best for non-Tesla EVs and V4 chargers in particular will typically have the longer cables which makes it easier to reach the charge port location on a MachE. This app allows you to see by pin color which version of Supercharger it is and also it shows new stations under construction or being planned! :)

Have fun Rob and when on your trip if you run into issues you have my # and can text or call for advice.

Stephen Johnsen

SEVA President

www.seattleeva.org

Owner HPEV LLC

www.hpev.com

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