mkhuffman
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Mike
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2020
- Threads
- 24
- Messages
- 6,199
- Reaction score
- 8,200
- Location
- Virginia
- Vehicles
- 2021 MME GT, Jeep GC-L, VW Jetta
- Thread starter
- #1
This week I drove from my home in Williamsburg to see my parents in Roanoke. On the way there and back I captured data from the trip using Car Scanner. This is a report of what I measured coming home. On a side note, the efficiency in mi/kWh going there was similar to what I measured coming home. I was not sure that would be the case because of the elevation change, but it was. That was interesting.
The Route
I left my mom’s house in Roanoke County at 5:30 AM and drove through the city to I81. I took I81 up to I64. I did go around Richmond instead of going through, but otherwise it was all I64 until I got to Williamsburg at around 9:30 AM. The route is around 243 miles. I had one charger stop which I will describe later.
From Roanoke to Charlottesville, the route is very, very hilly. I went over Afton Mountain, and while it is a puny mountain compared to what is out west, it is still a significant elevation change. Between Charlottesville and Richmond the terrain gets less and less hilly, and it is pretty flat from Richmond to Williamsburg.
So this route had a really good mixture of different types of terrain - it wasn’t all mountain or all flat.
Temperature
I started Car Scanner after I left my mom’s house. In hindsight, I wish I had started while sitting in the garage so I could have captured the temperature in the garage. I guess it was in the upper 40’s, maybe low 50’s in the garage.
The cabin temperature was set to 67 F for the entire trip, fan on Auto. I used the steering wheel and seat heaters for most of the trip. I changed the seat temperature to low and off a couple times. It feels great when you first get in, but after an hour my back starts to sweat a little. Yes, I know, I have sweating issues. You should see me after a run. That said, I found 67 degrees to be a very comfortable temperature especially if you have long sleeves on. I was in short sleeves for the first half, but that was fine as well.
For the first half of the trip the outside temperature was below freezing. The second half it was mostly in the 30s. This is definitely not subzero arctic conditions like our friends in the Great White North experience, but it more closely resembles a typical winter temperature in Virginia. (Even though this morning it was 13 F outside.)
Temperatures ranged from 25 F to 41 F. It was strange that the measured temperature rose so much when I stopped to charge, but I guess that makes some sense. I am not sure where the temperature sensor is, so it must be in an area that senses the heat from the battery heating system.
Speed
I drove over the speed limit for most of the trip, which is what most people do, right? ;-) Anyway, the start of the trip was suburb and city, so lower speed and some traffic lights. When in 70 speed zones I set the cruise to 78 mph. In slower speed zones I tried to not be the fastest car on the road, and my cruise is set to keep me at 8 mph over the speed limit. If the traffic is faster than 8 mph over the limit, like in a 60 or 65 zone, I bump it up. Usually people are driving in the 70s when the speed limit is 60-65 mph, so I exceeded the 8 mph standard in those cases to keep up with traffic. I never intentionally exceeded 78 mph.
You will note by the graph that my max speed looks to be 77 instead of 78. This correlates with The Google, which also showed me actually going around 77. The MME speedometer appears to be off by 1 mph at 78 mph. Just an interesting side note. May save some people from getting a ticket when it is close…
Tire Pressure
My GT drives great and I don’t seem to have the oscillating “bounce” issue that is apparent in the Premium model. However, I don’t like how harsh the suspension is, and there is a rebound “bounce” when I hit bumps on the highway. I have decreased my tire pressure to 32 psi (cold) because it takes away a lot of the harshness, and the rebound bounce from bumps is less apparent. Don’t get me wrong, it is still there, but better.
Anyway, my tire pressure setting is not good for the best range. So while it does make the drive more comfortable, I realize efficiency could be impacted by up to 10%. More on range later.
Charging
I stopped at one DCFC on the way home. I really only needed a short 15-20 minute charge, but I had to use the facilities (you know) and wanted a nice, fresh cup of hot coffee. I stopped at the Sheetz just east of Charlottesville that has 350 kWh EA chargers. There were no other cars there when I stopped, and no spaces were ICEd. That Sheetz is very busy at 7:30 AM with lots of work trucks and guys gearing up for work. It is a nice facility, and there are lots of restaurants and fast food places within a short walking distance.
I could have stopped the charge after 20 minutes but I didn’t want to worry about range. I wanted to be able to heat and drive at the speed I want to drive, so I left it on until it was around 77% charged. You can see by the graph that my average charging speed was 91 kW, which is pretty good.
Tracking the HV Charge Power Limit was something I have never done before, and I think I can interpret what it means correctly. From the graph it looks like the battery is maintained for charging at around 100 kW during a drive. At the start, it is much lower, which makes sense. As the battery heats up from driving, it eventually reaches 100 kW and is maintained there.
After plugging in, the car heats up the battery even more and the charging speed starts out slow, then ramps up as the car is charged. It looks like the limit tops out at 150 kW, which confirms Ford literature regarding the max charge speed. I wish I had looked at the charging speed on the station prior to turning it off to see if it was at 150 kW, but I didn’t. Next time I will be sure to do that. I was inside enjoying my coffee until it was time to stop the charge.
I used Plug and Charge and it worked flawlessly. I arrived at the station, opened the charging port door, and inserted the charger plug. I stood there for about 20 seconds to make sure the charging started, and then walked away into the Sheetz. It is easier than getting gas. Tell that to your ICE owning friends!
Range and Efficiency
And now what you really care about, how efficient was my drive considering low tire pressure, cold exterior temperatures, large elevation changes (for part of the route) and 78/77 mph highway speed? I think really good. After reading all the other posts about how horrible the range is in winter, I really expected bad results. Not the case. I am going to repeat this route in the summer and I am really interested to see how much better it is when it is warmer outside.
According to actual data, not the GOM BS, my range is around 214 miles under the conditions specified previously. This is real, not estimated. You can see exactly how much battery capacity I started with, and now much I ended with.
What is very interesting is how the efficiency for the first part of the route was better than the second part. One would think it should be the opposite considering the first part was a lot more hilly and was colder. The only logical explanation is speed: the first part of the route has a lot of slow, highly efficient driving. I drove like my mom: weak acceleration, always using the motors to slow down. And my mom lives higher up, so it was mostly a decrease in elevation from her house to the highway through Roanoke. My efficiency for that part was well over 3 mi/kWh according to the car.
When I got home I took a picture of the car Trip display. It is pretty close to what I measured with Car Scanner. Also it does not appear any of the battery was used due to the cold temperatures (this is only from the Sheetz to Williamsburg, when it was warmer but still cold). Very interesting.
Summary
I love this car. It is so much fun to drive, and even on trips is great. My calculated range of 214 miles was excellent considering the conditions and my cruise control speed of 78 mph. You can easily drive for 2.5 hours on the highway without stopping. Not many people want to do that, and if you do, you can. Of course I didn’t do that, but I didn’t want to.
The biggest complaint people have who never owned a BEV is charging stops on trips. Well, I needed to stop anyway to go to the bathroom and wanted some coffee so it was not inconvenient at all. In fact, the process of starting and stopping a charge is easier than getting gas. Sure the refueling process takes longer, but getting gas is a multistep process with credit cards, zip codes and contains the risk of dripping gas on your hands or your shoes. Dirty and smelly. No, charging is better than getting gas, especially if you have to do something while you charge, like I did.
Let me know if you have any questions about my trip.
The Route
I left my mom’s house in Roanoke County at 5:30 AM and drove through the city to I81. I took I81 up to I64. I did go around Richmond instead of going through, but otherwise it was all I64 until I got to Williamsburg at around 9:30 AM. The route is around 243 miles. I had one charger stop which I will describe later.
From Roanoke to Charlottesville, the route is very, very hilly. I went over Afton Mountain, and while it is a puny mountain compared to what is out west, it is still a significant elevation change. Between Charlottesville and Richmond the terrain gets less and less hilly, and it is pretty flat from Richmond to Williamsburg.
So this route had a really good mixture of different types of terrain - it wasn’t all mountain or all flat.
Temperature
I started Car Scanner after I left my mom’s house. In hindsight, I wish I had started while sitting in the garage so I could have captured the temperature in the garage. I guess it was in the upper 40’s, maybe low 50’s in the garage.
The cabin temperature was set to 67 F for the entire trip, fan on Auto. I used the steering wheel and seat heaters for most of the trip. I changed the seat temperature to low and off a couple times. It feels great when you first get in, but after an hour my back starts to sweat a little. Yes, I know, I have sweating issues. You should see me after a run. That said, I found 67 degrees to be a very comfortable temperature especially if you have long sleeves on. I was in short sleeves for the first half, but that was fine as well.
For the first half of the trip the outside temperature was below freezing. The second half it was mostly in the 30s. This is definitely not subzero arctic conditions like our friends in the Great White North experience, but it more closely resembles a typical winter temperature in Virginia. (Even though this morning it was 13 F outside.)
Temperatures ranged from 25 F to 41 F. It was strange that the measured temperature rose so much when I stopped to charge, but I guess that makes some sense. I am not sure where the temperature sensor is, so it must be in an area that senses the heat from the battery heating system.
Speed
I drove over the speed limit for most of the trip, which is what most people do, right? ;-) Anyway, the start of the trip was suburb and city, so lower speed and some traffic lights. When in 70 speed zones I set the cruise to 78 mph. In slower speed zones I tried to not be the fastest car on the road, and my cruise is set to keep me at 8 mph over the speed limit. If the traffic is faster than 8 mph over the limit, like in a 60 or 65 zone, I bump it up. Usually people are driving in the 70s when the speed limit is 60-65 mph, so I exceeded the 8 mph standard in those cases to keep up with traffic. I never intentionally exceeded 78 mph.
You will note by the graph that my max speed looks to be 77 instead of 78. This correlates with The Google, which also showed me actually going around 77. The MME speedometer appears to be off by 1 mph at 78 mph. Just an interesting side note. May save some people from getting a ticket when it is close…
Tire Pressure
My GT drives great and I don’t seem to have the oscillating “bounce” issue that is apparent in the Premium model. However, I don’t like how harsh the suspension is, and there is a rebound “bounce” when I hit bumps on the highway. I have decreased my tire pressure to 32 psi (cold) because it takes away a lot of the harshness, and the rebound bounce from bumps is less apparent. Don’t get me wrong, it is still there, but better.
Anyway, my tire pressure setting is not good for the best range. So while it does make the drive more comfortable, I realize efficiency could be impacted by up to 10%. More on range later.
Charging
I stopped at one DCFC on the way home. I really only needed a short 15-20 minute charge, but I had to use the facilities (you know) and wanted a nice, fresh cup of hot coffee. I stopped at the Sheetz just east of Charlottesville that has 350 kWh EA chargers. There were no other cars there when I stopped, and no spaces were ICEd. That Sheetz is very busy at 7:30 AM with lots of work trucks and guys gearing up for work. It is a nice facility, and there are lots of restaurants and fast food places within a short walking distance.
I could have stopped the charge after 20 minutes but I didn’t want to worry about range. I wanted to be able to heat and drive at the speed I want to drive, so I left it on until it was around 77% charged. You can see by the graph that my average charging speed was 91 kW, which is pretty good.
Tracking the HV Charge Power Limit was something I have never done before, and I think I can interpret what it means correctly. From the graph it looks like the battery is maintained for charging at around 100 kW during a drive. At the start, it is much lower, which makes sense. As the battery heats up from driving, it eventually reaches 100 kW and is maintained there.
After plugging in, the car heats up the battery even more and the charging speed starts out slow, then ramps up as the car is charged. It looks like the limit tops out at 150 kW, which confirms Ford literature regarding the max charge speed. I wish I had looked at the charging speed on the station prior to turning it off to see if it was at 150 kW, but I didn’t. Next time I will be sure to do that. I was inside enjoying my coffee until it was time to stop the charge.
I used Plug and Charge and it worked flawlessly. I arrived at the station, opened the charging port door, and inserted the charger plug. I stood there for about 20 seconds to make sure the charging started, and then walked away into the Sheetz. It is easier than getting gas. Tell that to your ICE owning friends!
Range and Efficiency
And now what you really care about, how efficient was my drive considering low tire pressure, cold exterior temperatures, large elevation changes (for part of the route) and 78/77 mph highway speed? I think really good. After reading all the other posts about how horrible the range is in winter, I really expected bad results. Not the case. I am going to repeat this route in the summer and I am really interested to see how much better it is when it is warmer outside.
According to actual data, not the GOM BS, my range is around 214 miles under the conditions specified previously. This is real, not estimated. You can see exactly how much battery capacity I started with, and now much I ended with.
What is very interesting is how the efficiency for the first part of the route was better than the second part. One would think it should be the opposite considering the first part was a lot more hilly and was colder. The only logical explanation is speed: the first part of the route has a lot of slow, highly efficient driving. I drove like my mom: weak acceleration, always using the motors to slow down. And my mom lives higher up, so it was mostly a decrease in elevation from her house to the highway through Roanoke. My efficiency for that part was well over 3 mi/kWh according to the car.
When I got home I took a picture of the car Trip display. It is pretty close to what I measured with Car Scanner. Also it does not appear any of the battery was used due to the cold temperatures (this is only from the Sheetz to Williamsburg, when it was warmer but still cold). Very interesting.
Summary
I love this car. It is so much fun to drive, and even on trips is great. My calculated range of 214 miles was excellent considering the conditions and my cruise control speed of 78 mph. You can easily drive for 2.5 hours on the highway without stopping. Not many people want to do that, and if you do, you can. Of course I didn’t do that, but I didn’t want to.
The biggest complaint people have who never owned a BEV is charging stops on trips. Well, I needed to stop anyway to go to the bathroom and wanted some coffee so it was not inconvenient at all. In fact, the process of starting and stopping a charge is easier than getting gas. Sure the refueling process takes longer, but getting gas is a multistep process with credit cards, zip codes and contains the risk of dripping gas on your hands or your shoes. Dirty and smelly. No, charging is better than getting gas, especially if you have to do something while you charge, like I did.
Let me know if you have any questions about my trip.
