TheSeg

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I'm interested in how Apple Maps does on a longer trip.
As am I with the new EV routing features.

My usual routing test is setting directions to Mickey & Friends Parking Lot. Not that I make the direct drive to there on a trip, but it's south enough to give padding to my real destination. Apple is showing the same two stops as ABRP does, so there's that.

My big question is how the route holds when you charge up. Will it remember your route, or will it re-route as if you were starting your trip at the station? I'll report back whenever I do make another trip.
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Re: A Better Route Planner

I agree it's bad for turn-by-turn routing. On my pervious trip from SF to LA, I started with ABRP via CarPlay and it crashed 30 miles in, reverted to km, and started to freeze again. Switched to Apple Maps where I was able to Siri to my first charging stop.

ABRP is great for plotting a trip! I get a great sense of what the trip will be like. I'll keep using it in the future to plan other trips, especially for hotel planning. But on the road, I'll use Apple Maps.
Are you saying that you will willingly use Apple maps? Like, for free? No incentive$? Interesting...
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Apple Maps is good now fwiw
In my experience, Google maps is better. One time Apple maps wanted to add 5 to 10 min to a route when clearly it should have routed me differently (compared it w/ Google maps).
 

TheSeg

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Are you saying that you will willingly use Apple maps? Like, for free? No incentive$? Interesting...
:p:)
The depths of which Google had a head start with mapping in 2005 and Apple starting 2012 years later meant massive resources to close that 7 year gap. This is also why I'll never use the Ford's mapping system. When I've tried, it couldn't find full addresses I typed in.

Justin O'Beirne has documented and analyzed the changes for over twelve years now. To which Apple's caught up in most places after over a decade of work. There's no big (or any) announcement that a certain area got better.

Pre-lockdowns, I was using Google Maps for directions with my phone mounted on the dash of my Focus. Using CarPlay with my Mach-E had me test the Apple Maps waters. So far it's not directed me wrong for the areas I drive. Though I would not be shocked if that wasn't the case for your area.
 

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I LOVE the per-minute states because I pay about half as much as per-kWh locations.

The reason I often unplug at 65% is that the charging speed really starts to drop between 60%-70% (about 75 kW at 65% SOC) and I get a bit impatient. I’m hoping that Ford continues to improve the charging curve to get a higher sustained charging rate. 0-50% is pretty quick, but not so much after that.
My last MME road trip, Stranded in Wisconsin: Mach E road trip fail, did not end well, so I approached my recent road trip with some trepidation. Last week (April 5-8), I had a business trip, traveling from Michigan to three of my company's offices in Louisville (KY), Nashville (TN), and Knoxville (TN), with a side trip to North Carolina to visit old friends, then back to Ann Arbor (MI). Round trip, just under 2,000 miles.

I'm back (and so is my MME), and I can say that this road trip was a huge success. Although I don't have BlueCruise yet, it didn't really matter, as many of the roads in Tennessee and North Carolina are too twisty to leave to a computer (and I'd rather engage the car myself on those stretches anyway).

A significant percentage (about 40%) of my electrons came from Level 2 charging, as I was able to charge up (usually for free) in the parking lot of each hotel. All in, I only spent about $130 on charging ($100 for DCFC and $30 for Level 2), which is well under half of what I would have spent fueling an ICE vehicle. My overall efficiency was 2.7 mi/kWh, which is pretty decent considering I drove through a fair amount of rain, snow, wind, and some colder than usual spring weather.

Key thoughts/takeaways:
  1. Electrify America is reliable and fast; I trust no other charging network, especially for highway charging.
  2. With the EA charger spacing and the charging curve (factoring in bladder limitations), the ideal charge session was from <5% to 65%. Usually about 25-30 minutes. I arrived at each destination with <10% SOC and relied on Level 2 overnight.
  3. Ahem, EA: we need DCFC stations in West Virginia. WV is a black hole for CCS charging, and I had to navigate around (via Virginia) to get back to Michigan.
  4. Ford needs to work on its navigation app (navigating to nearby chargers); when I would skip a charger (because I had adequate range to get to the next one), the navigation app got hung up on the charger I passed by and would tell me to turn around and head back, even after 20+ miles beyond that charger, even when it was obvious I had plenty of range for the next EA station. Even going to the nav menu and manually selecting the next charger didn't always work. In short, the nav system is still really flaky and needs a lot of work.
  5. When charging to your next destination, give yourself at least a 30-mile buffer. I had multiple occasions when I'd charge from 5% to 65%, left with a 30-mile surplus to my next destination, and would arrive with less than a 5-mile buffer, even without drastically changing my driving style. If you encounter additional wind or wet weather, that buffer disappears quickly. I did have one nail-biter where I arrived with 0% SOC and 1 mile of indicated range. When in a pickle, it's easy to gain some range at the end of a segment by hanging out in the right lane and driving a bit below the speed limit for the last 5 +/- miles. It helped me once or twice.
  6. When in Kentucky, buy bourbon. Lots of it.
  7. A Better Route Planner is ok for planning, but it sucks at in-route navigation. Ditch it and stick with Waze or Ford's nav app.
  8. I never had to wait for a charger; all charging sessions (Level 2 and 3) had open and available chargers.
  9. The car has redeemed itself after my last road trip debacle; I'm not going to worry on my next road trip.
  10. Range anxiety? A BIT of that on the long return trip when I relied solely on DCFC. I pushed the limits a bit and pulled into EA stations 3-4 times with less than 5% SOC. This anxiety would go away if DCFC was available, say, at a 50-mile interval. We're not there yet.

TN5.jpg


TN3.jpg


TN6.jpg


TN1.jpg
I usually did the math myself. Using the SOC, I estimated total kWh available and multiplied by 2.5 (to be conservative). It can sneak up on you when you drive into worsening conditions. I was driving in dry sunny conditions (2.8 mi/kW) and it got cold and wet (2.3 mi/kW). That’s why the mileage buffer is important.
Hi BadgerGreg,

I wonder if you can help me. Using kWh as your range guide, how do you do the math. For example, I have 135 miles remaining (50% charge), and the next charging station is 100 miles. How can I figure out an estimated SOC when I arrive at the charging station using kWh method. I hope I explained my question clearly.
 

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Hi BadgerGreg,

I wonder if you can help me. Using kWh as your range guide, how do you do the math. For example, I have 135 miles remaining (50% charge), and the next charging station is 100 miles. How can I figure out an estimated SOC when I arrive at the charging station using kWh method. I hope I explained my question clearly.
Ignore the "135 miles remaining"

Look at the miles per kWh you are currently getting. Multiple the size of your battery (68 or 88 for 2021, 70 or 91 for 2022) x % SOC x miles per kWh.

Then, remove your safety margin, i.e. "I want to arrive with the ability to drive X more miles".

Conversely, if the next charging station is 100 miles away, what miles per kWh do you have to achieve to get there? 50% x battery size = X kWh left. 100 / X = the miles per kWh you have to achieve. Is that reasonable, given what you are achieving now? Do you need to turn the heat off? Do you need to slow from 75 to 65mph?
 

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Ignore the "135 miles remaining"

Look at the miles per kWh you are currently getting. Multiple the size of your battery (68 or 88 for 2021, 70 or 91 for 2022) x % SOC x miles per kWh.

Then, remove your safety margin, i.e. "I want to arrive with the ability to drive X more miles".

Conversely, if the next charging station is 100 miles away, what miles per kWh do you have to achieve to get there? 50% x battery size = X kWh left. 100 / X = the miles per kWh you have to achieve. Is that reasonable, given what you are achieving now? Do you need to turn the heat off? Do you need to slow from 75 to 65mph?
Got it, thank you!! I will use this calculation when I travel out of my neighborhood next time.
 
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Hi BadgerGreg,

I wonder if you can help me. Using kWh as your range guide, how do you do the math. For example, I have 135 miles remaining (50% charge), and the next charging station is 100 miles. How can I figure out an estimated SOC when I arrive at the charging station using kWh method. I hope I explained my question clearly.
I multiply the SOC by 88 kWh (useful capacity, although I believe that's going up to 91 kWh soon). For example, a 50% SOC should be approximately 44 kWh of useful power storage. Under normal conditions (dry, warm, not windy), you should get 2.7 mi/kWh if you average 75 mph. That should yield a range of ~119 miles. If it's cold, rainy, and windy, your range could drop to ~2.2 mi/kWh, which would only give you 97 miles. That said, your decision to charge above 50% would depend on the weather conditions. I try to give myself a 30 mile buffer, so I'd probably want to be at 55%-60% if I had 100 miles to go, especially if the weather wasn't ideal.

Using an average of 2.5 mi/kWh is a bit more conservative and should give you a good range number. That's what I've been using.

If your range drops and you're worried about arriving with enough charge, you can always drop your speed. It's amazing how much more efficiency you get when you drop from 75 mph to 65 mph.
 

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Also keep in mind that some of the information is rounded. I always estimate on the conservative, safe side.

Example:

If you car displays 50% battery (on an 88kWh battery) and 2.9 miles per kWh, it could be saying 49.46% and 2.846 miles per kWh or it could be saying 50.44% and 2.944 miles per kWh.

.4946 x 88 = 43.52kWh x 2.846 = 123.9 miles
.5044 x 88 = 44.39kWh x 2.944 = 130.7 miles

If I see 50% and 2.9, I use 50% and 2.7.

.5 x 88 = 44kWh x 2.7 = 118.9 miles. That has given me at least a 5 mile buffer, and up to an 11.8 mile buffer. I then usually remove another 20 miles for my safety buffer, i.e. I would use 98.9. So, in the example of the next charging station being 100 miles away, I would go for it, because with my safety margin, I'm only off by 1.1 miles. Easy, peasy.
 

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I multiply the SOC by 88 kWh (useful capacity, although I believe that's going up to 91 kWh soon). For example, a 50% SOC should be approximately 44 kWh of useful power storage. Under normal conditions (dry, warm, not windy), you should get 2.7 mi/kWh if you average 75 mph. That should yield a range of ~119 miles. If it's cold, rainy, and windy, your range could drop to ~2.2 mi/kWh, which would only give you 97 miles. That said, your decision to charge above 50% would depend on the weather conditions. I try to give myself a 30 mile buffer, so I'd probably want to be at 55%-60% if I had 100 miles to go, especially if the weather wasn't ideal.

Using an average of 2.5 mi/kWh is a bit more conservative and should give you a good range number. That's what I've been using.

If your range drops and you're worried about arriving with enough charge, you can always drop your speed. It's amazing how much more efficiency you get when you drop from 75 mph to 65 mph.
Nice, good to know. I do not like using the recommended arrival SOC I see what different apps (ABRP, Ford, etc.) where they have you at 10% or thereabouts. I also like charging to 80% when I stop at a Charging Station even though the recommendation states less.
 

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What's interesting here is that @BadgerGreg's car immediately failed after this successful trip. Had it happened a few hundred miles ago, this thread would be much different. Great dodge on that.
 

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Also keep in mind that some of the information is rounded. I always estimate on the conservative, safe side.

Example:

If you car displays 50% battery (on an 88kWh battery) and 2.9 miles per kWh, it could be saying 49.46% and 2.846 miles per kWh or it could be saying 50.44% and 2.944 miles per kWh.

.4946 x 88 = 43.52kWh x 2.846 = 123.9 miles
.5044 x 88 = 44.39kWh x 2.944 = 130.7 miles

If I see 50% and 2.9, I use 50% and 2.7.

.5 x 88 = 44kWh x 2.7 = 118.9 miles. That has given me at least a 5 mile buffer, and up to an 11.8 mile buffer. I then usually remove another 20 miles for my safety buffer, i.e. I would use 98.9. So, in the example of the next charging station being 100 miles away, I would go for it, because with my safety margin, I'm only off by 1.1 miles. Easy, peasy.

thank you,
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