How long can you idle a Mach-E in subfreezing temperatures? - One owner did a test.

[breeves002]

Since that happened just up the road from me, it has been the subject of some debate with my non EV owning friends. I figured I could idle my car with the interior heat at 67 and manage to consume no more than 1 kW per hour. He kept his car much warmer, and he has the pano roof (I don't), so I think 1 kW per hour is easily achievable.

My car could sit there for 44 hours and still only use half the battery. That is much, much better than ICE. And I even purchased a heating blanket that only draws 45 Watts, which would allow me to keep the interior temp even lower if needed.

And no fumes to leak into the cabin and kill the occupants.

BEV beats ICE yet again!

44 hours assuming the battery stays warm which it won't. Keep in mind up to about 10-15% loss in capacity from the cold.

Either way you can sit there a LONG time.

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[Logal727]

My go-to answer for this question is now: If I had more than 30% battery it wouldn't be an issue at all. But things get dicey if I was low SoC since it's a bit easier to refuel with gas than electrons. The fact that I'm rarely below 30 percent means I'd be way more comfortable driving through weather like this in a BEV than ICE any day.

Also, feel like people totally forgot how ICE vehicles make heat? Like, good luck not running out of gas cause it's required to heat the vehicle. So much disinformation around EVs.

 

[nhammerschmidt]

Sound like a very fair test. Results were better than I would have expected keeping the heat that high!

I know, with my coat on, my heat is set at like 65

 

[Njia]

I wonder though, how many times they had to hit the recirculate button ?. One of the concerns regarding the I-95 situation was air quality from ICE exhaust. I would prefer to have the air recirculate continuously in that scenario for efficiency and in the interest of not breathing in as much exhaust.

Except his own...

 

[Maquis]

There must have been some current draw on the 12v battery....?! That needs to be maintained....

Which will be a fraction of what’s required to run the E-heat.
I‘m pretty sure the guy who made the video had a 12V battery in his car.

 

[MachEZRt1]

Except his own...

Methane, the ozone and people killer ha!

 

[nvabill]

This owner did a controlled test of idling his car like it was stuck in traffic in freezing temps like what happened on I95 in VA.

https://www.insidehook.com/article/vehicles/electric-car-12-hours-freezing-cold-test

Good information, thanks!

 

[SuzzyQ]

And peeing into a bottle...

And this too?

 

[JSeis]

When I get in my MME in the winter I look akin to the Michelin man (on a bit of a diet): Warm cap, gloves (both at the ready), Long sleeved shirt over quality synthetic long sleeved tee. Tough pants, thick socks, quality Keen’s. A rain jacket in back next to a blanket, the ax, & a chain saw… ‘cause you never know…..?

 

[Jimct]

tl;dr is he did the test of what basic math can tell us. He used 25% of an ER battery in 12 hours of sitting in the car with the heat between 70-75ºF....

Assuming a pre-conditioned battery that's about 1.5kW average vehicle consumption.

I did a very similar experiment with my 2021 Kona and got the exact same results. About 1.5kW/hr at 72 degrees, 25 outside temp. A full charge would be good for about 66 hours.

 

[MachEPilot]

So, you're stuck out in the cold?

 

[iankellogg]

and without Netflix on that big screen...

Thankfully you can watch youtube on android auto if you know how to do it.

 

[mkhuffman]

I did a test tonight. Very interesting.

It appears that my car averages around 1.5 kWh of battery usage regardless of the temperature I set the interior. I think that is actually not true, as I am sure setting the interior temp at 80 degrees requires more energy than setting it at 60 degrees, but the difference is hard to measure. Well to be more clear, the difference between what the OP video measured and mine set at 64 degrees is hard to measure.

So the graphs shows two things: first, it shows the energy required to maintain the cabin at 67 degrees. And then the f-ing car shuts off because I didn't realize the auto shutoff was still on. But when I turned the car back on, it goes back into the same cycle of hovering around 1.5 kW. Before the car shut off, I had the interior set at 67 degrees. After, 64 degrees. No noticeable difference.

The bottom line is this: divide your remaining battery capacity by 1.5 kWh and you will know how long your car will last idling in the cold. I bet it is longer than most ICE vehicles.

The exterior temps for this test were around 27 degrees. So similar to what those people on I95 experienced.

 

[Qzsu]

This owner did a controlled test of idling his car like it was stuck in traffic in freezing temps like what happened on I95 in VA.

https://www.insidehook.com/article/vehicles/electric-car-12-hours-freezing-cold-test

This is not a Mach E owner. He was loaned a brand new test vehicle from Ford. While the test is a good one, the vehicle hadn't been used/abused yet, so it's biased.

 

[jonkMACHE]

This is a facet of the MachE I'm particularly interested in. I live in NYC and have a choice to make regarding parking the car on an open lot vs. an indoor garage. The indoor garage is of course warmer and has E-charging outlets, but it's also $200 a month more expensive... the outdoor lot is a great price, but I'm concerned on those cold days (in NYC it is rare the temp dips below 20F, but we do get sustained temps in the mid 20s pretty consistently) if the car will give me trouble starting up from only the battery.

Of course, this is all counterbalanced by the fact that I do not trust the people valeting the cars. I have seen these people drive $200k cars around the garage like it's the Indy 500. I would ring someone's neck if they put a dent in my new MachE by driving it like that. The outdoor lot, on the other hand, lets me park it and pick it up myself so I see that as an advantage.

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