Stupid questions from EV newbie

[s7davis]

I have a few dumb questions that I haven't seen elsewhere (mostly because other threads are for intelligent questions). I swear in real life I'm an intelligent adult, but need to hear others confirm what I'm thinking for me to gain the confidence:

1. Do EV's need to "warm up" like an ICE? I'm in Chicago, so it's frequently 20-30 degrees F in the winter, but maybe 40 degrees in my garage. If I'm plugged in for the night, can I have the car preset to begin warming up at a certain time so it's ready, even though I'm still plugged in charging? My guess is the car can be on but, only being an ICE owner, you obviously shouldn't start your car while fueling.

2. Similarly, if you're out shopping (think, gone for an hour or two), should you plan to have the car begin warming back up so you don't have to sit in the parking lot for a few minutes?

3. I told my wife we can start the EV even while our garage doors are closed because there are no emissions. She said it isn't worth the risk of dying. Is there a good way of explaining this concept to her? Maybe a YouTube link or some other method? It sounds so dumb, but when you've been trained to do something your whole life, it's difficult to change. However i don't want to have to run to the garage if my car is preset to warm up at a certain time.

4. I'm getting a dedicated line from my circuit breaker and my electrician has told me I need to decide where in the garage i want this to be. Does anyone have suggestions for where I should put this? I back into my garage and I think I'll park on the left of a two car port, since I believe the plug is on the front left of the car. Just put it on the wall right there? Should I put it high up so people can walk under it or low so it's easy to step over? Should I put it on the 10 foot feeling and just have it dangle down?

5. Is there any logic to NOT plugging your car in every time you are home? I'm thinking of articles about phone batteries where you are better off letting a phone run to low vs topping off 1-2% after a short trip.

Thanks to anybody who invests time in answering my questions and feel free to post your own questions. Just make sure they are dumb! No intelligent questions please.

1. As far as I am aware of no need to preheat car. However, it is nice that with these electric cars you can mess with the climate control settings via phone or computer to set it to the temp you would like and the car will activate the heater/AC to desired temp for when you get into the car but give a few minutes for it to do that. For example I think you can set departure times in settings and then set the temp you would like the cabin to be at for when you get in car then you just leave.

2. Same as answer 1 but you can tell the car at anytime to start warming up the cabin on cold days or cooling it off on hot days a few minutes before you start heading back to the car. With Electric cars the HVAC is continuously on and off to keep the batteries at the proper temps.

3. No Emissions and not Gas Engine so it is perfectly safe to have the HVAC run to heat or cool car while it is sitting in the garage.

4. for this one is all up to you. But the cost all depends on where your circuit breaker panel is located and the distance the wires have to go to the outlet. Also depends on how long a charging cable you plan on using as well. If you back into a garage my bet would be to put close to doors. But also depends on if you sticking with what ford gives you or buying a 3rd party charger. Some of the 3rd party chargers have extremely long cables. But if fuse panel is in your garage measure how far it is from where you would like to put it and just get an idea. The charge port on the Mustang Mach E is on driver side front Fender.

5. Their are a lot of articles about this however, since ford is only using like 80% of the batteries actual capacity not going to matter too much. However, if you do a full 80 or 90% charge tonight and do not travel a lot you can probably got about 3 or 4 days on that 1 charge. However, this saying is from Tesla forums so dont bite me. I happy Tesla is a plugged in Tesla. I think the same for any electric car as you can set the charging parameters to only charge to 80% or lower if you like and to start charging when it hits 20% so technically you can plug it in and set the parameters how you like but once you do it will not charge until it is the correct time of day or the percentage is at the min allowed.

Just a side not most people getting EVs now dont care cause it is such a small amount but if it matters the EVs will add about 50 -100 bucks a month on electricity I am assuming.

Sponsored

 

[OttawaGuy]

Here's a question, not sure if the already BEV owners have tested it

Drag is something that reduces range drastically as well as cabin heating/cooling. But in the summer, which would be less harmfull (in days where it is bearable of course), opening windows while you drive OR using AC when it's too hot in the car.

Which would have less impact on range, if everything else remains the same

 

[RonTCat]

Here's a question, not sure if the already BEV owners have tested it

Drag is something that reduces range drastically as well as cabin heating/cooling. But in the summer, which would be less harmfull (in days where it is bearable of course), opening windows while you drive OR using AC when it's too hot in the car.

Which would have less impact on range, if everything else remains the same

Slow, maybe <30mph, windows.
Faster, A/C.

 

[ab13]

3. I told my wife we can start the EV even while our garage doors are closed because there are no emissions. She said it isn't worth the risk of dying. Is there a good way of explaining this concept to her? Maybe a YouTube link or some other method?

I would say its the same thing as this, or a ceiling fan, etc... You can turn it on and off and control the speed. You see the thing spin faster at faster speed and slower at a lower speed, the biggest difference is the motor is much more powerful in the car to turn the car tires.

https://images.homedepot-static.com...vn/black-lasko-pedestal-fans-1843-64_1000.jpg

 

[Maquis]

Let me clarify this one. To extend your range you should definitely run the climate control to heat/cool the car while it is plugged in. That will use house electricity rather than battery. However, this is not necessary to operate the vehicle as the electric motor(s) and battery require no "warm up" to function properly.

Thanks for spelling out what I meant!

 

[Rocky29670]

Just a side not most people getting EVs now dont care cause it is such a small amount but if it matters the EVs will add about 50 -100 bucks a month on electricity I am assuming.

So for experienced EV owners, what kind of percent increase can i expect my monthly electric bill to increase by? I didn't think it would be quite that high.

 

[JamieGeek]

So for experienced EV owners, what kind of percent increase can i expect my monthly electric bill to increase by? I didn't think it would be quite that high.

$50/month for 1000 miles/month for me with time of use rates (overnight charging). This was the same between the Focus Electric and the Bolt. In the summer it can be as low as $30..and last summer ! LOL what $15.

I get a separate bill (separate meter) for the EV so I know exactly how much its costing.

 

[RonTCat]

So for experienced EV owners, what kind of percent increase can i expect my monthly electric bill to increase by? I didn't think it would be quite that high.

All depends on electricity and fuel prices, but most people will spend about half as much as gas. If you spend $100 a month right now on gasoline, you would spend about $50 a month more on electricity.

 

[s7davis]

Also for electricity cost check with your power company for the non peak rates which usually are at night and for electric vehicle rates some companies give lower rates for the EVs. Or could consider solar panels to help high up front cost but helps a lot if you live in a nice sunny area.

 

[CHeil402]

So for experienced EV owners, what kind of percent increase can i expect my monthly electric bill to increase by? I didn't think it would be quite that high.

This should be easy enough to calculate. Just figure out how much energy you use and multiply that by the price you pay for electricity. Some of the videos / images show about 3 miles per kWh for the Mach E. Here in southeast PA, my utility is PECO which charges about $0.13 / kWh.

For 100 miles the Mach E would take 33.3 kWh which would cost me $4.33. Currently I have a gas car with about 28 mpg. Gas right now around me is about $2.70 / gallon. So that same 100 miles would need about 3.6 gallons which would cost me about $9.72.

Obviously that varies based on your cost of electricity and gas and the fuel efficiency of your current car. But as previously stated... expect to have your electic bill go up by about half of your gas expenses.

 

[CHeil402]

I have a few dumb questions that I haven't seen elsewhere (mostly because other threads are for intelligent questions). I swear in real life I'm an intelligent adult, but need to hear others confirm what I'm thinking for me to gain the confidence:

1. Do EV's need to "warm up" like an ICE? I'm in Chicago, so it's frequently 20-30 degrees F in the winter, but maybe 40 degrees in my garage. If I'm plugged in for the night, can I have the car preset to begin warming up at a certain time so it's ready, even though I'm still plugged in charging? My guess is the car can be on but, only being an ICE owner, you obviously shouldn't start your car while fueling.

2. Similarly, if you're out shopping (think, gone for an hour or two), should you plan to have the car begin warming back up so you don't have to sit in the parking lot for a few minutes?

3. I told my wife we can start the EV even while our garage doors are closed because there are no emissions. She said it isn't worth the risk of dying. Is there a good way of explaining this concept to her? Maybe a YouTube link or some other method? It sounds so dumb, but when you've been trained to do something your whole life, it's difficult to change. However i don't want to have to run to the garage if my car is preset to warm up at a certain time.

4. I'm getting a dedicated line from my circuit breaker and my electrician has told me I need to decide where in the garage i want this to be. Does anyone have suggestions for where I should put this? I back into my garage and I think I'll park on the left of a two car port, since I believe the plug is on the front left of the car. Just put it on the wall right there? Should I put it high up so people can walk under it or low so it's easy to step over? Should I put it on the 10 foot feeling and just have it dangle down?

5. Is there any logic to NOT plugging your car in every time you are home? I'm thinking of articles about phone batteries where you are better off letting a phone run to low vs topping off 1-2% after a short trip.

Thanks to anybody who invests time in answering my questions and feel free to post your own questions. Just make sure they are dumb! No intelligent questions please.

No dumb questions as they say. There are plenty of good answers, but here's my $0.02.

1. Technically neither ICE cars or EV cars need to warm up but both benefit from it. For an ICE car, you let it warm up in cold weather so the engine oil thins out to put less mechanical stress on your engine and for personal comfort reasons as the heat that comes out of the vents is waste heat from the engine. You get better mileage out of an ICE car with less mechanical resistance (and better comfort). While an electric motor doesn't really care about temperature, the battery does. Batteries are not as efficient at extreme temperatures and will also be less efficient if too cold. If you leave your car plugged in, the computer in the car can use the available electricity to precondition the battery. If it's not plugged it, typically the battery management system will use power from the battery to keep it from getting too cold and possibly damaged. This would just result in parasitic charge loss. So while its not required to precondition the battery, leaving it plugged in would allow you to save charge protecting the battery and a preconditioned battery would also get better range.
2. As previously mentioned, it's really a comfort thing at that timescale. You can just get in and go without issue, but the cabin might be colder than you like. If you don't have to worry about range (e.g.: running out of charge due to battery capacity spent warming the car), then go for it. But not required.
3. Not a dumb question to err on the side of caution when an ICE car can kill you doing this. But to put it simply, the engine in an ICE car uses incomplete combustion when it burns gas to power the engine (even when just idling). One of the generated products of incomplete combustion is CO (carbon monoxide) which is toxic. Not a big deal when not in an enclosed space, but obviously bad otherwise. Since there is no fossil fuel burned in an EV, there is no combustion and therefore, no CO generated. You can also console her by installing a CO detector in the garage (which probably should already be there anyway).
4. I did the same and had the electrician install an outlet on each side of my 2 car garage while here. Although I'm not replacing my second ICE car now, it was still cheaper to run two lines together than a second one later on. I had an outlet installed instead of being hard-wired and had it placed about 4 feet from the ground. Regardless of how I park (pull in / back in) the charge cable will reach as I bought the Grizzl-e with a 24 foot cable. And when not in use it's coiled on the wall out of the way. I do like the options installed on the ceiling, but that's more expensive.
5. Ford put best practices in the manual. Typically best to keep it plugged in all the time unless you're going to 'store' it long term. (Think greater than 1 month sitting in your garage). In this case only, it's better to keep it around 50% state of charge. But otherwise, there is no harm leaving it plugged in all the time. While it's bad to keep a battery fully charged or let it fully deplete, there is already a 'reserve' amount of the battery kept out of use for this purpose. The ER has a 98.7 kWh battery, but only 88 kWh is available (the other 10% is unused so the battery isn't fully charged). If you don't plug it in all the time in cold weather, as previously mentioned, the battery management system will use battery power to keep the battery pack above a minimum temperature which does run a real risk of fully depleting the battery deeper than it should.

Hope this helps!

 

[Mirak]

One suggestions and one question.

Re the wall charger placement, the middle back wall of the garage is a good place because this should allow you to park on either side of a two-car garage (or two different spots in a larger garage) and still reach. If you put it on one-side or the other, it limits where you can park. This might not matter to you, but it might matter to a future homeowner.

Question: I'd appreciate more clarification on charging best practices for optimal battery life. What does Ford recommend? If you plug in every night, will the car decide how much to recharge for best health, or will it always charge to 100% unless you choose a different setting? Why would you ever choose a different setting?

 

[darren]

A word of caution regarding #3. EV has no emission so it is safe to have it running in a closed garage. The concern I have is that if you have another ICE car in your garage. You might be careful at the beginning, but you might loosen up mentally at time goes by, and start your ICE in a close Garage.

Personally, I will just stick with the simple rule of not have any vehicle "running" in an enclosed space.

 

[JamieGeek]

A word of caution regarding #3. EV has no emission so it is safe to have it running in a closed garage. The concern I have is that if you have another ICE car in your garage. You might be careful at the beginning, but you might loosen up mentally at time goes by, and start your ICE in a close Garage.

Personally, I will just stick with the simple rule of not have any vehicle "running" in an enclosed space.

That really hasn't been an issue for me driving a car with a plug for 7 years now.

Ok yes I used to start the C-Max Energi in the garage all the time (and immediately shut it off if the gas engine started) but I've never accidentally started the ICE next to the Mach-E (even though at some point they were both Ford's and had similar keyfobs).

Also note that the preconditioning schedule means that you never have to actually do something to start the car...it just happens. I can't explain how awesome it is to walk out every day in winter to a nice and warm and toasty car without ever having to do anything.

 

[trutolife27]

I have a few dumb questions that I haven't seen elsewhere (mostly because other threads are for intelligent questions). I swear in real life I'm an intelligent adult, but need to hear others confirm what I'm thinking for me to gain the confidence:

1. Do EV's need to "warm up" like an ICE? I'm in Chicago, so it's frequently 20-30 degrees F in the winter, but maybe 40 degrees in my garage. If I'm plugged in for the night, can I have the car preset to begin warming up at a certain time so it's ready, even though I'm still plugged in charging? My guess is the car can be on but, only being an ICE owner, you obviously shouldn't start your car while fueling.

2. Similarly, if you're out shopping (think, gone for an hour or two), should you plan to have the car begin warming back up so you don't have to sit in the parking lot for a few minutes?

3. I told my wife we can start the EV even while our garage doors are closed because there are no emissions. She said it isn't worth the risk of dying. Is there a good way of explaining this concept to her? Maybe a YouTube link or some other method? It sounds so dumb, but when you've been trained to do something your whole life, it's difficult to change. However i don't want to have to run to the garage if my car is preset to warm up at a certain time.

4. I'm getting a dedicated line from my circuit breaker and my electrician has told me I need to decide where in the garage i want this to be. Does anyone have suggestions for where I should put this? I back into my garage and I think I'll park on the left of a two car port, since I believe the plug is on the front left of the car. Just put it on the wall right there? Should I put it high up so people can walk under it or low so it's easy to step over? Should I put it on the 10 foot feeling and just have it dangle down?

5. Is there any logic to NOT plugging your car in every time you are home? I'm thinking of articles about phone batteries where you are better off letting a phone run to low vs topping off 1-2% after a short trip.

Thanks to anybody who invests time in answering my questions and feel free to post your own questions. Just make sure they are dumb! No intelligent questions please.

not dumb we need more EV BEV drivers. keep asking away for all. Its everyone's job to talk about your BEV and help people get use to them

Sponsored