SWO

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The wife and I had an opportunity to take the GT on a week-long road trip visiting friends and family in Florida and decided to take a fun (circuitous) path from our home in Maryland west to Kentucky before heading southeast through Asheville and then making our way down to Fort Myers and then back up I95 home. I have a set of CR1 wheels (factory tires) and decided to throw them on. Our path took us over the Appalachian Mountains twice. Temps ranged from a low of 30 to upper 70's in Florida

Some stats:
  • 3.0mi/kWh average consumption (temps ranged from 30 to upper 70's, though the average was probably 40's). Mostly highway 70-72mph.
  • DCFCs: 17 (10 EA, 5 EvGo, 2 other)
  • L2: 5 overnight charges (4 at hotels, 1 other)
  • Average of 140mi/charge.
Planning:

I used ABRP to plan each day the night before, and looked at Plugshare to make sure I had good charging stops. A lot of fuss is made over having to do this with an EV, but it's really no different than the route planning we had to do for trips before GPS routing existed (anyone remember the AAA flip books?).

I only deviated from the ABRP / Ford navigation recommendation once (day 2). Both had me taking a path through the middle of West Virginia and relying on a single Chargepoint CPE 250, arriving with a low SOC and charging to over 90%. I played around with ABRP adding waypoints and discovered I could go around WV creating a much safer route and only adding 25 min to my travel time (faster roads, faster chargers).

Can't emphasize enough how much of a morale boost it is to start the day with a full charge and preconditioned vehicle. We were able to accomplish that almost every day (more on that later), but starting the day with a cold battery and having to DCFC isn't fun.

Charge Networks:

EvGO: I had issues with one of the 350kw chargers south of Columbus. It would reliably lose communication after about 8 minutes of charging and I had to re-initiate each time (I am set up for P&C, so not a big hassle). This is where I realized that below a certain SOC, the Mach-E charging strategy is a lot like the Lightning. I would get about 160kw for a few minutes before it dropped down. Ironically, the end result was that the disconnects let me charge up a little faster. At a second 200kw charger in Richmond, P&C wouldn't work (the app did, however) and we only got 60kw range charging speeds.

Electrify America: EA was mostly solid until the last day. It's counterintuitive, but the more remote locations along the interstate seem more reliable, whereas the locations in high-traffic / high density areas are a mess. Along I95 in the mid Atlantic region, many chargers are de-rated (some noted on the EA app, some not). Most drivers seem oblivious to this. I saw one older woman with an EQS plugged into an EA charger hobbled to 33kw. She was reclined back taking a nap and added maybe 5kw of "free" charging in the time it took me to get to 80%. If you have the ER battery, the 350kw chargers are appreciably faster on average, reliably giving 158-163kw at plug in vs. 120-range for the 150kw chargers.

I ran into one EA location (Walterboro SC) where every charger was de-rated to 50kw. In that instance, I added just enough charge to get me to the next charger. Passing through Richmond, I tried stopping at an EA location only to discover it was completely full with a queue - every car charging was one sold with free EA (VW, Kia, Hyundai, Lucid) and had local VA plates. Luckily I had enough charge to make it to the next station further North.

As an aside, I hated at least 75% of the physical EA locations we stopped at. Most Walmarts aren't clean, there are cars zooming through the parking lots, and several were sketchy as well.

Hotel L2: Again plugshare is great here. Hilton seemed to have the best free L2 chargers. On our last night in Hilton Head I made a reservation at the only hotel with L2 charging (a single plug). I knew from Plugshare that it was hit or miss, so I expected the worst and got it. It turns out they had a 32+A charger being supplied by a 20A circuit (I feel like that has to be a code violation?). Unless you can adjust the charging current in the vehicle (like Tesla) it will pop the breaker (which our car did). Not being able to charge overnight meant we had to top off at the nearest EA, adding at least 30min to a long day.

The Mach E:


In a nutshell, the car performed great and did almost everything asked of it. The car received 2 small powerups (4.2.1, 4.2.2) over the trip without issue (it is in EA). I used Ford's navigation exclusively and am pretty confident that any DCFC stops where we didn't receive 150+kw charging were a result of a charger limitation. I did make a conscious effort to turn the heat off when we were within 20mi of our next charger. Adding waypoints or new charge locations was pretty simple and straightforward with one hiccup on the last day.

One limitation (it may be intentional) of the Ford navigation is that it seems to be smart enough to know that a charge stop will be long (it could see that the EA chargers we needed to use were throttled to 50kw), but not smart enough to tell me to get moving once I had enough charge to make it to the next charger. As a result, on our last day, it had me charging at the 50kw Walterboro EA for over an hour and a half to over 70%. I said to hell with that and left when I had enough miles (+20 for cushion) to make it to Florence. This threw Ford Nav / Sync for a fit trying to redirect me back to Walterboro. When I did a delete/replace charger in the navigation, something froze and I ended up having to do a Sync reboot using the steering wheel controls to fix it. The Sync reboot had things working smoothly again and leaving Walterboro early saved me 30 minutes.

CR-1 wheels:

I averaged 3mi/kwh for the whole trip. My efficiency at highway speeds varied from 2.6 (windy, cold weather) to 3.3 (Florida in the upper 70s). Anecdotal, but efficiency seemed MUCH better under 50mph, where 3.7+ was common. Lifetime efficiency on our car with the GTPE wheels was 2.6mi/kwh, so slapping the CR1 wheels on the car saved me 158kwh (about 3 charging stops or $76 at $.48/kwh) over the 3k miles. Wife still hates them and wants the GTPE wheels back on as soon as possible. 😁

Ford Mustang Mach-E 3,082mi Road Trip Observations 20230308_132904
Ford Mustang Mach-E 3,082mi Road Trip Observations 20230312_203239
 
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AZBill

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I am curious, where any of the EA sites upgraded to the new chargers? Those are power shared and have a single CCS connector on them. Out west they are in the process of retrofitting all the old ABB chargers. All are capable of 350kw, but may reduce if multiple cars are charging

Ford Mustang Mach-E 3,082mi Road Trip Observations 1678713376985
 

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Great write-up!

Did you find Ford's navigation asking you to leave the freeway at (nearly) every exit only to get right back on?
 
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SWO

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I am curious, where any of the EA sites upgraded to the new chargers? Those are power shared and have a single CCS connector on them. Out west they are in the process of retrofitting all the old ABB chargers. All are capable of 350kw, but may reduce if multiple cars are charging

Ford Mustang Mach-E 3,082mi Road Trip Observations 1678713376985
None of the EA chargers we stopped at had the new chargers, though I have used them once previously and liked them a lot (MUCH snappier display)
 
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SWO

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Great write-up!

Did you find Ford's navigation asking you to leave the freeway at (nearly) every exit only to get right back on?
Nope. :)

It did a good job re-routing us for some backups on 95 though.
 


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Curious as to how accurate ABRP ended up being in terms of efficiency.

Just did an 850 mile trip in my Model Y (still waiting for my MMEGT to come in) and real world was 3.1 mi/kWh at an avg temp of 35 degrees at an average speed of 67 mph. ABRP, leaving automatic settings on, projected this drive to be 2.8 mi/kWh.

Considering I'll be taking this trip 8x per year for another 2 years, I'm curious if I can expect ABRP's projection of 2.4 mi/kWh under the same conditions to be accurate since highway speeds in cold weather is my worst case scenario.
 

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Curious as to how accurate ABRP ended up being in terms of efficiency.

Just did an 850 mile trip in my Model Y (still waiting for my MMEGT to come in) and real world was 3.1 mi/kWh at an avg temp of 35 degrees at an average speed of 67 mph. ABRP, leaving automatic settings on, projected this drive to be 2.8 mi/kWh.

Considering I'll be taking this trip 8x per year for another 2 years, I'm curious if I can expect ABRP's projection of 2.4 mi/kWh under the same conditions to be accurate since highway speeds in cold weather is my worst case scenario.
ABRP has been inaccurate for me. I usually get 3.1-3.7 m/kWh on my highway drives, and ABRP doesn't come close. I can usually skip one to two of every three suggested stops. When I set it to 270 Wh/mile, I can still skip one of every three. I'm almost to the point of not using it other than to get an idea of its suggested route and just winging it. On a recent trip, ABRP added a 2-hour detour through a major city because it couldn't route to a charger that was just outside its calculated range. I found this out from Ford's navigation at the first ABRP stop. Only lost 30 minutes. I might bump up the efficiency again and allow it to have me arrive with 5% remaining charge.
 

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Curious as to how accurate ABRP ended up being in terms of efficiency.

Just did an 850 mile trip in my Model Y (still waiting for my MMEGT to come in) and real world was 3.1 mi/kWh at an avg temp of 35 degrees at an average speed of 67 mph. ABRP, leaving automatic settings on, projected this drive to be 2.8 mi/kWh.

Considering I'll be taking this trip 8x per year for another 2 years, I'm curious if I can expect ABRP's projection of 2.4 mi/kWh under the same conditions to be accurate since highway speeds in cold weather is my worst case scenario.
ABRP has a set efficiency for the car at 65mph. YOU CAN CHANGE THAT NUMBER... For the 2022 AWD ER, that's 3.29 mi/kWh at 65mph. You can also add in weight, i.e. for a passenger and luggage. And more.

YOUR efficiency won't be MY efficiency. Also, you should note that relying on Ford's This Trip, Trip 1, or Trip 2 is potentially fraught with challenges as something may not reset at times, causing inaccurate data. You want to do the math against what you put in, less a 10 - 15% drop, and see what your true efficiency is.

I plan summer trips, driving at 73 - 77mph, at 2.8. I plan winter trips at 2.3. I exceed those numbers often, but not by much.
 
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Also, you should note that relying on Ford's This Trip, Trip 1, or Trip 2 is potentially fraught with challenges as something may not reset at times, causing inaccurate data.
I haven't paid attention that closely, but my understanding/observations have been that the error occurs at the start of a trip (mileage failing to reset due to the timing of modules booting up IIRC). If the mileage resets when the Trip 1/2 is reset, the data should be ~good.
 
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SWO

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Curious as to how accurate ABRP ended up being in terms of efficiency.

Just did an 850 mile trip in my Model Y (still waiting for my MMEGT to come in) and real world was 3.1 mi/kWh at an avg temp of 35 degrees at an average speed of 67 mph. ABRP, leaving automatic settings on, projected this drive to be 2.8 mi/kWh.

Considering I'll be taking this trip 8x per year for another 2 years, I'm curious if I can expect ABRP's projection of 2.4 mi/kWh under the same conditions to be accurate since highway speeds in cold weather is my worst case scenario.
ABRP under-projected my Select, and over-projects my GT. As another poster mentioned, you can change the reference consumption. I've also had good experience using bluetooth to allow it to see battery level / consumption. I used it on a trip that was going to be cutting it close and it had a prediction that was accurate to within 1% by the time I was half way there.
 

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I haven't paid attention that closely, but my understanding/observations have been that the error occurs at the start of a trip (mileage failing to reset due to the timing of modules booting up IIRC). If the mileage resets when the Trip 1/2 is reset, the data should be ~good.
Yes, but no.

Last fall we took a trip. Before the trip in late October, our Trip 1 and Trip 2 efficiency was reading 3.1. Note that we had just under 4,000 miles on the car. After we returned from the trip, I noticed that the efficiency in trip 1 and trip 2 was now reading 2.7 and 2.4, respectively. Mileage is still correct. Therefore, something in the car hiccupped, and zeroed out the efficiency right after the trip, because it's impossible to go from 3.1 to 2.4 in a few hundred miles, the weighted average of that would be negative.
 

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Interesting delta on the efficiency based on the wheel/tire change. My dog retrieval trip last May with a stock GT-PE with ACC set to 72 (35 or less when it was snowing) got me between 2.2-2.6 mi/KWh, average of around 2.4. Those CR1 wheels and tires are amazing for a road trip! 😍🐩 Not that I want to buy and store a set just for something I might do once every decade. 🤪🐩
 

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Nice write-up. Looks like we both figured out how to mostly avoid West Virginia. I travel East - West between Arlington VA and Louisville KY several times a year, and IMHO we likely used the same roads through Western Maryland and Ohio.

I am guessing that the one West Virginia charging station you mentioned might well be the 24 kWh ChargePoint at the H-D dealership on I-79. It does always work and is always accessible, but... 24 kWhs? haha and it's in the middle of really nowhere.

I've grown fond of the one ChargePoint 62kWh (two cords, two cars can charge at 62 kWH) station in Friendsville MD, right on the MD - VW line on I-68. Nice little town and if you catch the day and time right, you can eat a burger at the Public House across town (all of about six blocks) while charging. Very few trucks on that part of I-68 as well, unlike on the Penn Turnpike the next East - West thru highway just to the North, not to mention the Penn Turnpike tolls.

I'm also fond of the Gallipolis ChargePoint double charging station on the Ohio River... just within my AWD Ext Batt Mach E's reach from Friendsville MD. Smack downtown and there's some stuff to do in that historic riverfront downtown. The dog loves it there.

From Gallipolis it's easy to head either West to Ciny / Lexington or (I guess ) South across the waist of W Va.
 

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ABRP has a set efficiency for the car at 65mph. YOU CAN CHANGE THAT NUMBER... For the 2022 AWD ER, that's 3.29 mi/kWh at 65mph. You can also add in weight, i.e. for a passenger and luggage. And more.

YOUR efficiency won't be MY efficiency. Also, you should note that relying on Ford's This Trip, Trip 1, or Trip 2 is potentially fraught with challenges as something may not reset at times, causing inaccurate data. You want to do the math against what you put in, less a 10 - 15% drop, and see what your true efficiency is.

I plan summer trips, driving at 73 - 77mph, at 2.8. I plan winter trips at 2.3. I exceed those numbers often, but not by much.

I am aware one can change the reference consumption, but what I am trying to figure out is how accurate the provided reference consumption is versus real world. Yes, obviously there are conditions one can add such as passenger weight, wind, temp, etc. Understood, and used many times in planning drives.

The accuracy in data is where I wish there were something like TeslaFi (or the myriad of 3rd party data loggers) for the MME. This is one of the things I'll miss when I trade my ModelY for the MME:

Screenshot 2023-03-13 at 1.05.22 PM.png
 
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Nice write-up. Looks like we both figured out how to mostly avoid West Virginia. I travel East - West between Arlington VA and Louisville KY several times a year, and IMHO we likely used the same roads through Western Maryland and Ohio.

I am guessing that the one West Virginia charging station you mentioned might well be the 24 kWh ChargePoint at the H-D dealership on I-79. It does always work and is always accessible, but... 24 kWhs? haha and it's in the middle of really nowhere.

I've grown fond of the one ChargePoint 62kWh (two cords, two cars can charge at 62 kWH) station in Friendsville MD, right on the MD - VW line on I-68. Nice little town and if you catch the day and time right, you can eat a burger at the Public House across town (all of about six blocks) while charging. Very few trucks on that part of I-68 as well, unlike on the Penn Turnpike the next East - West thru highway just to the North, not to mention the Penn Turnpike tolls.

I'm also fond of the Gallipolis ChargePoint double charging station on the Ohio River... just within my AWD Ext Batt Mach E's reach from Friendsville MD. Smack downtown and there's some stuff to do in that historic riverfront downtown. The dog loves it there.

From Gallipolis it's easy to head either West to Ciny / Lexington or (I guess ) South across the waist of W Va.
Yep I'm familiar with all those chargers on plugshare. :)

On a related note, one thing I learned about ABRP is that it doesn't take operating hours into account. If I had followed it's directions, it would have sent me to the CPE250 at the GM(?) dealership that's turned off during non-working hours at 1am.
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