10,100 commute miles, Observations & Takeaways.

[JSeis]

My garage has heat/AC, so it will be interesting to see how it does when I leave early some morning when it's 20F outside and the car is at "room temp" as I keep the garage at about 58F in winter.

I just went and cruised around in the snow at 33 degrees and.. down to 2.2 M/KWh. So clearly cold sucks a lot of power when we get the rare snowy days.

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[JSeis]

My garage has heat/AC, so it will be interesting to see how it does when I leave early some morning when it's 20F outside and the car is at "room temp" as I keep the garage at about 58F in winter.

FYI, the recent snows have really nailed range. I’ll be lucky to get over 2.5 M/KWh next few days with temps in the hi 20’s to low 30’s.

 

[devildog125]

Things I really like:

1. Quiet & refined feel & what a Lincoln should be.
2. Handling-Damned fine cornering and squirts around town like a wet pumpkin seed.
3. Economy, I’ll save $3,600+ a year in fuel & service costs.
4. PAAK, works fine.
5. Charging-no sweat. EA needs work though.
6. Style/design is handsomely butch.
7. Headlights-very good & I drive a lot in the early mornings, late evenings. I’d like aftermarket LED spots though.
8. Comfort-seats are good.
9. Roominess with hauling space!
10. 2 screens. I like.
11. I’d say it’s security is more than up to par. I’ve tried to fool the door latches by having the door barely closed and three times it’s partly latched and locked me out.

I commute just under 90 round-trip miles a day/5 days a week on 2-lane rural road in western Washington. 7 speeds zones: About 40 miles at 50-55, mph the rest 25-30-40 mph. All along a beautiful shoreline/forested highway complete with short hills, patched roads/deer-elk/typical heavy trucks, weekenders blasting through at 65. My driving style is conservative as I’ve had way to many close calls with trees blocking, landslides, flooded roads, deer-elk, incompetent drivers. I leave early, get home mid-eve at times. Thus I’ve a lot of night driving in the late fall through late winter.



My most recent commuter is our TT Flex. An absolute cruising beast. Nothing quite like feeling the torque steer with full boost coming on! And the Flex has a fabulous smooth ride.



The MME is a great commuter (with the stiff ride of our Edge Sport we traded off). Serenely quiet. Fast when it needs be. Easily hauls four, groceries, etc. Range works very well for my daily drive and a couple out of town 120+ mile trips a year. I like the looks and it gets compliments from hot rodders, Porsche, and Mustang GT

drivers.



Things I really want

1. M/KWh & outside temperature on small dash. A simple glance down is better than a head swivel right.
2. Better ergonomics & one tap for frequently used functions (trunk/frunk/. “Trips”should be on the left side of screen. One tap to completely black big screen.
3. I’ve not found the perfect resolution to heat v. defogger. Our warm 55-58 degree rainy days means it doesn’t take much to defog the wind and warm the car. I usually drive with auto at “1” but I’d prefer driving with defog on at a dry low fan speed. I find myself lowering heat from 70 to 68 to 66.
4. Rotary dial with better tactile feed-back? I find myself looking at the dial. Maybe it’s just that it does have a hard stop left and right?

Average energy use in 10,000 miles?. From July through November it held at 3.7 miles/KWh. I was a little surprised that this held up deep into fall but about December 3rd it dropped to 3.5 and still at 3.5 December 18th. Since Dec 1st it’s at 3.0 since December 1st for winter. January and February it will average 3.0-2.8. Headwinds, heavy rains, & temps in 40’s-30’s can drop the M/KWh to 3.0 and lower and cold weather is the biggest variable. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with the consistency. Of note in the last 6 months estimated range varies from a high at 90% charge of 217 miles to a low of 157 miles & 90% charge. These roughly correspond to about a high of 3.9 and low of 3.0. miles/KWh



Range impacts are speed, cold, cabin heat, rain-wet pavement and headwinds.

1. Fit/finish-Excellent. The MME gets the looks & compliments. Feels like what a Lincoln should be. I’d love the drivetrain in the Flex.
2. Lighting-Stock headlights better than expected. Range and wide pattern really pick up off-shoulder edges. Probably in my top 3 including an ‘04 Expedition, ‘67 Dodge D200 with giant sealed beam parabolics. Interior lighting good though I’d prefer the big screen to go black. I use calm. Less cabin light means better night vision.
3. Also finding the overhead cabin lights are a bit awkward as I keep punching the blue lights to turn them on.
4. Handling-ride: Good and stiff, I like the steering, turn-in. Stiff suspension in a short wheel base SUV reminded me of our Edge Sport on road grade slumps/uneven road surfaces. Oddly, the MME occasionally reminds me of the rear solid axle Mustangs I’ve had.
5. Driver aids: I use adaptive cruise and auto head light dim and that’s it. Any higher level is just going to train me to be less aware and I’m unwilling to be less aware.
6. Current AI is like.. not outstanding. Curvy roads confuse lane centering and bad fog lines/shoulder stripes aren’t seen? and I’m really unsure of collision avoidance with unexpected braking happening on curves with parked vehicles off shoulder, vehicles turning off highway. And forget it when it comes to big animals lunging out of the woods. I could get into a long harangue on this. I want drivers who are aware and not hand clapping, phone chatting, snoozy, distracted a-holes. I stopped using intelligent cruise as it doesn’t fit the roads I drive.
7. Power-speed-etc: as noted.. The MME squirts around like a wet pumpkin seed in sub 50 mph urban traffic. I always drive in Whisper and use 1-pedal in town. Passing acceleration excellent. Loses steam above 80 mph. Reminds me of a small fast version of 60’s big block 2-barrel in a 4:11 rears 390/station wagon: fast start with low down grunt.. but less top end. I really don’t care about top speed as I rarely cruise above 70-75 mph on the occasional cross-state trips.
8. Charging: At home is a piece of cake. Swapped a 30 amp dryer breaker & outlet for a new 40 amp breaker and new NEMA outlet. Used existing copper AWG 8 and no issues. Use cabin warming in morning and that’s terrific. I charge nightly and usually from about 45% to 85%-90%. If we get an extended range Lightning.. gonna rethink home charging service..!
9. Longer road tripping & charging: Three trips- two at 120 miles away and one at just under 300 miles w/two mountain passes. Used EA sites and no issues but DC fast charging speeds were never over 40-70 ? and throttling to 7-8 above 80% meant I couldn’t get that extra % quickly which for me is important as the last 90 mile leg home has.. no charging stations (unless I go out of my route 20 miles). More driving long distances will help me figure out the logical outbound and return charging sites. As more stations appear probably a non-issue. And like any long haul traveler running the same route— we’ve our fav stops and once dialed in.. no issues.
10. Surprised at how few BEVs I’ve seen at EA.. like 1 in a half dozen stops. I saw one and only one MME while crossing into Oregon. In 10,000 miles that’s it.. one. I might have the only MME in a 50 mile radius. I’m the first BEV to be serviced at the local Ford Dealer. And they’ve sold 1 more. The local dealer had one, which we bought in July and it’d sat on the lot for two weeks. Dealer recently sent me a note and offered $1500 more than what we paid for it nearly 6 months ago.
11. PAAK: Once I saw the MME as a computer on wheels that has the quirky boot up of an AI linear thinker…., PAAK made sense. OTA really helped on getting CarPlay working. if I unlocked it from the watch/phone by the time I got to the garage/parking lot I never had to touch the phone again unless I plugged it in. I unlock it/locked it with my Apple Watch as well as noted.
12. That being said… I cleared my end up by updating PAAK online and PAAK with same login and finally solved the icon issue (I had my name in a dozen configurations in my contact list) and the updates solved the weirdness of hieroglyphics in the PAAK app. All is good and I’ve used PAAK for 6 months every day with no issues. PS a poorly wrapped fob in aluminum foil will leak signal and SNAFU stuff.
13. Energy & cabin: summer I average 94-95% energy to Route and winter is way more variable 70%-80%-90%. Winter weather is mild with intermittent cold. It can be 56 degrees and pouring rain. Or clear and 35 F. Or 37 F and pouring rain. Fall-winter I usually wear a pile vest under a heavy winter coat because if I have to get out of car for any reason I’m prepared. I alternate between setting auto at “-“ bar and 65-68 F or cycle windshield defrost on manually with temp at 76. Works great to defrost quickly but left on, just over heats cabin. If outside temps drops well under 50 to low 40’s I use auto heat at a low setting. Since heat is an energy suck, I’d like a setting that allows more mild weather use. If that fan could be duty-cycled at say 5%-10% it’d work great at mid 50’s temps.
14. I find the big screen & tech a potential for distraction.
15. I’ve only seen 2 MMEs on the road.. I could be the only one in my county and four surrounding. The dealer said they’d been contacted by out of state buyers to purchase MME but they only had three and two were orders. Ours was the lone one off the lot new.
16. I love the quiet and soundproofing probably helps cabin insulation.
17. Under stated color is stealth.
18. Windshield recall came and no issues, dealer service handled well and sticking with the same service personnel really helps.
19. Auto dim headlights work very well but can occasionally be slow.. could be wet window?
20. OTA software updates- no issues- wireless at work & home.
21. Suspension: Interesting, when I expect it to be jarring it isn’t but on some frost heave and slump dips it is. While on I-90 at 70+ it dawned on me I couldn’t hear or feel expansion joints.
22. Frunk-store winter clothing and windshield cleaner. Thinking of taking out partitions.. adding an electric chainsaw.
23. Tires-they work. I run at 45 psi summer, 38 winter.
24. Overall-Perfect commuter and perfect SUV. Saves $ with at-home charging. I don’t miss frequent oil changes, air filters, fuel filters, etc.
25. In the future charging two cars at home will be a challenge as two charging at a combined 120 amps is 60% of a typical 200 amp home service. Bigger batteries mean higher amp charging…Our home is all electric and we’re fortunate with 325 total amps available on two separate circuits.
26. I’d say the ability to tune charging and departure times w/in 5-10 minutes instead of within the hour will be huge for dual car charging.
27. What I might add: Rear receiver for a bike rack. LED spots-driving lights ‘cause more is better for night driving.
28. It’s a journey and I’m enjoying the ride ? !

Good write up! I'd add that I'd like to see a "driver only mode" hvac option meaning that only blowers in the driver area are on and everything else is off. This would conserve some juice and range.

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