Power Cap in The Real World

[LS61303]

Hey folks. I had the pleasure of test driving a Cyber Orange (lovely color) GT at a nearby Ford this past weekend. I was really hoping to fall in love with the GT because I have been thinking about upgrading from my X4 Premium if I could find a deal and leverage my equity/this crazy used car market. However, I gotta say, I wasn't overly blown away by the difference in performance between my car and the GT.... part of that was due to experiencing the power cap as soon as I powered on the car.

I have only just learned about the power cap recently and how it occurs when certain electrical conditions have been meant, but I am wondering how often GT/GTPE owners have been experiencing the cap in the real world. It was very disconcerting to me that the power cap was enabled as soon as I fired up the car. I confirmed that the car had not even been driven that day, so its not like I stepped inside to test drive right after someone was flogging it. It was about 18 degrees out when I tested it, so I am not sure if the lower temps had something to do with it.

I love the way the GT looks, and I love my current X4 Premium, but I feel like for a lot of people, the lack of consistency in peak performance makes spending $7k+ a tough sell.

GT owners, how often do you see the grey bars of doom? Does it truly take away from the ownership experience?

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[benk016]

Hey folks. I had the pleasure of test driving a Cyber Orange (lovely color) GT at a nearby Ford this past weekend. I was really hoping to fall in love with the GT because I have been thinking about upgrading from my X4 Premium if I could find a deal and leverage my equity/this crazy used car market. However, I gotta say, I wasn't overly blown away by the difference in performance between my car and the GT.... part of that was due to experiencing the power cap as soon as I powered on the car.

I have only just learned about the power cap recently and how it occurs when certain electrical conditions have been meant, but I am wondering how often GT/GTPE owners have been experiencing the cap in the real world. It was very disconcerting to me that the power cap was enabled as soon as I fired up the car. I confirmed that the car had not even been driven that day, so its not like I stepped inside to test drive right after someone was flogging it. It was about 18 degrees out when I tested it, so I am not sure if the lower temps had something to do with it.

I love the way the GT looks, and I love my current X4 Premium, but I feel like for a lot of people, the lack of consistency in peak performance makes spending $7k+ a tough sell.

GT owners, how often do you see the grey bars of doom? Does it truly take away from the ownership experience?

I typically see 1 or 2 bars daily with the cold weather. The colder the battery is the less power it has available.

How many bars were you seeing of limitation?

 

[LS61303]

I typically see 1 or 2 bars daily with the cold weather. The colder the battery is the less power it has available.

How many bars were you seeing of limitation?

If I remember correctly, it looked like 4. Is this the max cutoff or is there more of a cap even past 4 bars?

 

[benk016]

If I remember correctly, it looked like 4. Is this the max cutoff or is there more of a cap even past 4 bars?

There are many more. More bars can show up from lower battery charge as well. So when its cold, and you have a low SoC, you can see 3/4 of that meter with gray bars.

If I am driving at 80 or so for any period of time, I'll typically see 5-6 bars until I drop speed for a bit. This is likely due to the inverter running hot with that sustained current going through it. (my guess)

So there are several factors that go into that limitation. And those all could change as Ford collects more driving data from cars in the real world.

 

[phil]

In my real world, I have never noticed a lack of sufficient power. It's hard to see those bars, cuz they are tiny, but I did find four or so while driving at freeway speeds, like 80+. I will say the power is less impressive at high speeds than at low speeds, but it's always been plenty for me.

 

[LS61303]

There are many more. More bars can show up from lower battery charge as well. So when its cold, and you have a low SoC, you can see 3/4 of that meter with gray bars.

If I am driving at 80 or so for any period of time, I'll typically see 5-6 bars until I drop speed for a bit. This is likely due to the inverter running hot with that sustained current going through it. (my guess)

So there are several factors that go into that limitation. And those all could change as Ford collects more driving data from cars in the real world.

This is great data, thanks! This is exactly what I was trying to figure out. How much can the power be throttled, and under what kind of circumstances. I am super hopeful that Ford learns more about how the cars are being used and will scale back the aggressiveness of the system. I totally understand that our EVs get hot, but if I am paying for the GT name, I want the GT performance available as much as possible. Aside from the power gripes, I really liked the way the car handled (that probably is due to the 245 tires on it), the interior upgrades were pretty nice, and the whole front end is just so good to look at. Really wanted to feel a night and day difference in the driving experience but just didn't during the 20 minutes I was out in it...

 

[Kevin P]

If it was 18 degrees and not pre-conditioned or having been started for a while, you will get a lot of power reduction until the car/battery warms up. Typically will take 5 minutes or more when its really cold. Once the car is warmed, you will get a small amount of power reduction due to the cold weather, but its hardly noticeable to me. And of course, as you speed up or SOC goes down, as mentioned above.

 

[Bryan_GTPE]

It’s really based on temps from what I have seen so far. It’s been cold for Florida, but I have not preconditioned the car and it does stay garaged when home, so that leveled out the temps to around 55 on Sunday when it was 30 for example. I only noticed 1 bar after I left Home Depot and that hung around for a while, but I did not do any highway driving and acceleration was still absolutely blistering and that was in Engaged. From what my experience has been, highway speeds at 80+ will get a few to show up, but I need to be doing it for at least 15 minutes, considering my commute on the highway is only that long when I do go to the office, it thus far has not negatively affected my experience. I don’t use onepedal, but I do keep it in L for more regen and my max SOC is 90% after a charge, but I don’t charge everyday, so some days less until I drop below 40%, then recharge.

 

[MadManMoon]

I charge to 90% overnight for my daily commute, and I usually have no gray bars when I leave for work. After one hard pull (passing someone, for example) while flooring it, I'll usually end up with two gray bars for a short period. The most I've seen to date was 4 bars, and that was at a sub-50% state of charge.

 

[lefortpf]

I'm in SoCal (50s @ nite) and have never seen these bars in daily driving. Same for hwy speeds @ 80mph or jack rabbit starts on city streets. I'm VERY happy with the performance of my GT (not PE) in daily driving.

 

[Neil4Real]

When I test drove my GT PE I didn't notice the power limit at all. It definitely felt way faster than my Premium AWD Extended, I was seriously shocked as it is only a little over a second faster, but wholly smokes, off the line it is insane! I've let a lot of people drive my car, that also tried out my Premium, and they noticed the power instantly as well. I think the car was just cold and possibly had a low SOC, it may have also not been in unbridled where you notice it the most.

 

[LS61303]

When I test drove my GT PE I didn't notice the power limit at all. It definitely felt way faster than my Premium AWD Extended, I was seriously shocked as it is only a little over a second faster, but wholly smokes, off the line it is insane! I've let a lot of people drive my car, that also tried out my Premium, and they noticed the power instantly as well. I think the car was just cold and possibly had a low SOC, it may have also not been in unbridled where you notice it the most.

Yeah the more and more I read these posts, the more I think it was the cold that killed it. The dealers always keep the SoC on their EVs at 100 because they’re clueless, so I can rule out a low charge… must have been the Midwest freeze we had going when I drove that day.

And I can attest; the car DEFINITELY felt faster than my X4, don’t get me wrong. It felt like it had a good amount more pep to its step at about half throttle. But any time I’d get on it a little, the power cap was just night and day noticeable. One minute I’m pulling, next minute it’s just as fast as my Premium… but I could tell it had more pep even just cruising around town. Maybe I’ll have to test drive in the spring summer to get a better idea of it’s full capabilities.

 

[LS61303]

I'm in SoCal (50s @ nite) and have never seen these bars in daily driving. Same for hwy speeds @ 80mph or jack rabbit starts on city streets. I'm VERY happy with the performance of my GT (not PE) in daily driving.

Sounds like the GT is a no brainer for folks out in the warmer climates! No power cap bars at all is pretty impressive.

 

[sotek2345]

Yeah, cold was your issue. I see 2 to 3 grey bars on ours if we precondition, and 12+ if we don't precondition. Since we got ours on 12/31, we have only ever had no grey bars for about 30 Seconds one day after preconditioning.

 

[buzznwood]

Sounds like the GT is a no brainer for folks out in the warmer climates! No power cap bars at all is pretty impressive.

You still get bars in warmer climates even in normal driving, and this is the thing with the cap limits it really is not a one size fits all approach of x amount of time before bars, I have easily locked out 50% of the bar just accelerating from 50 to 70 in normal freeway traffic. As what you see in the bars isn't what you are going to get when you actually ask for the power as you have to take into account the lock out counter. Do a full power run merging onto a freeway and you can lock out a whole host of power and have to wait seconds for it to clear.

Everyone will have different driving conditions to deal with and what some may never have an issue with others will, the best you can do is what your doing in taking a test drive and see how it works out for you. In everyday low speed situations in town where you just need a quick sprint to get into the flow of traffic you wont have an issue as the speeds increase the current limitations quickly show up.

Again this is one of those thigs where peoples thoughts are going the subjective and what you like but for me a performance vehicle needs consistency with its power delivery and the GT/GTPE just does not have that and until that it fixed I can't with a straight face call it a performance vehicle as the implementation of the power cap kills and serious performance credentials it has. I just see it as premium+ with better looks and the addition of some nice low end poke that may or or not be available to me at higher speeds.

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