Ask an Electrical Engineer

[CHeil402]

Strange,

Mine looks like this:

No mention of 10.5 KW OnBoard Charger or Up to 150KW DC Chrg Capabl

???

Mine doesn't have it either. However, from Ford's website about their charger, they list the charger rated at 48 A, so I would still hold true to get the 50 A or greater adapter.

https://www.ford.com/buy-site-wide-content/overlays/mach-e-overlays/ford-connected-charge-station/

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[JamieGeek]

Strange,

Mine looks like this:

No mention of 10.5 KW OnBoard Charger or Up to 150KW DC Chrg Capabl

???

Yeah I think its because my CA Rt1 has less features than a First Edition or a Premium they filled in that section with "other" stuff to make it look good instead of a blank spot LOL.

 

[benk016]

I have a charge point on a 60amp circuit, so it delivers 48amp to the car. Chargepoint reports that my car pulls a constant 11kw while charging.

 

[EV Lab]

I'll add a shout out to EV Modeler for his analysis here:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...tery-buffers-and-dcfc-limits.2431/#post-74988

And my own analysis of the battery architecture and likely how the charge and discharge limits are set:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-of-the-rwd-sr-version.2755/page-3#post-89808

 

[JPMACH]

Like several people on this forum, this will be my first EV. I’ve always wanted an EV since the very first Tesla came out a while back but was a die-hard manual transmission fan and never saw a vehicle that really made it worth the tradeoff… but I finally think the MME is that car. However, it’s not my first experience with electric vehicles. My day job when I’m not on these forums is a passenger train professionally licensed electrical engineer and you’d be surprised how much they have in common (just at a larger scale). As I’ve posted before even a diesel train is really just a diesel generator powering an electric motor.

Anyway… I’ve been following this forum for a while and really have had a connection to this wonderful group of people. There’s been a lot of technical questions about the car in general and on powering it. So I’m starting this thread to “give back” to the wonderful group of people here working through issues (@ChasingCoral) and providing insight (@hybrid2bev) while I eagerly await mine.

I wanted to essentially start an ask-me-anything-type of post specific to electrical engineering. I’m not saying that there isn’t already a plethora of great information on here, and I will do my best to link to existing discussions where I can and give credit where credit is due, but I wanted to open a discussion for any type of related question. There are no dumb questions. What’s a volt? What’s the difference between a kW and kWh? What’s a heat pump? Why is there a high voltage and low voltage battery on my car? What’s a GFCI? Etc.

I don’t posit to know everything, so I will take my time in answering questions and doing research where I can. I will try to separate my opinion from fact and would be happy to have others voice their opinions as I’m sure there are plenty of people on here smarter than myself… science should be humble and accept new evidence when presented with it. I know a lot of this information is widely available on the internet, but sometimes you don’t know what to ask, there is conflicting information, or answers are too technical. Although I’m an engineer I was raised by a bartender dad and waitress mom, so I like to think I’m a better communicator than the stereotypical engineer and I will try to make the answers as clear as possible, but also link to more detailed sources where applicable for those interested. I’ve known and worked with plenty of brilliant people that just couldn’t communicate effectively.

Sorry for the long post and if it falls into the void of the forum, so be it, but I’ll keep an eye out for posts now or in the future! I hope, if nothing else, to inspire thought.

 

[JPMACH]

Great stuff! Like CHeil402 said, always great reading on this forum. I have been following posts on the Mach-E Forum for four-six months to learn more about my Mach-E. I just received my ME about three weeks ago, I have not driven it much as we have had too much snow. This is my first EV. Overall, I love my new car, a couple of issues, but minor overall. Regarding your post, should I only charge my ME to 80 or 90% and not a full 100%? I've been charging every night at 100%. Another question for everyone, are there any good apps that will map out long trips? Meaning after so many miles, say 200-240 where you can charge? I am planning a trip to CA and looking for a way to plan our trip and I would rather not calculate each stop on my own after driving 200+ miles.

 

[ARK]

Lithium batteries prefer to stay between 20 - 80% of their capacity to extend their life. Ford recommends setting a maximum state of charge (SOC) of 90% for daily use... and as previously explained, 90% of the user meter (88 kWh * 90% = 79.2 kWh) is actually 80% of total battery capacity (79.2 kWh / 98.7 kWh = 80%).

Because Tesla exposes more of the total pack capacity than Ford, the end user has to set the preferred charge range lower than the MME to get the equivalent pack SOC.

As far as the low end, I don't know what Ford or Tesla use as the reserve, but I find it unlikely that 0% on the range-o-meter is actually 0 kWh in the pack for the same reasons.

Long story short, for daily trips, the battery in the MME will prefer to stay charged daily to 90% compared to letting it fully drain before plugging it in.

Thank you for posting all of this detailed information!

Might a 100% charge on the Mach-E (or really any electric car) actually be a little bit closer to the battery’s true max capacity IF Ford (and other electric car makers) are keeping some hidden capacity near empty. For example, with the Mach-E, if Ford makes about 90% of the battery available for use, might the 0% to 100% charge that people can see really reflect 5% to 95% of the battery’s true charge, or 2% to 92% or whatever the manufacturer decides should be the top and bottom buffers?

 

[Scarpia]

Great thread, and thanks for supplying your expertise.

Can someone somehow correct the typo in the subject line? My OCD will drive me nuts looking at that constantly. ?

 

[JamieGeek]

Great stuff! Like CHeil402 said, always great reading on this forum. I have been following posts on the Mach-E Forum for four-six months to learn more about my Mach-E. I just received my ME about three weeks ago, I have not driven it much as we have had too much snow. This is my first EV. Overall, I love my new car, a couple of issues, but minor overall. Regarding your post, should I only charge my ME to 80 or 90% and not a full 100%? I've been charging every night at 100%. Another question for everyone, are there any good apps that will map out long trips? Meaning after so many miles, say 200-240 where you can charge? I am planning a trip to CA and looking for a way to plan our trip and I would rather not calculate each stop on my own after driving 200+ miles.

Apps: A Better Route Planner and Plugshare.

 

[CHeil402]

An aside from the questions, I found this that I made for my father in law on EE basics and how to use a digital multi-meter (DMM) if anyone wants a quick read.

 

[CHeil402]

Great stuff! Like CHeil402 said, always great reading on this forum. I have been following posts on the Mach-E Forum for four-six months to learn more about my Mach-E. I just received my ME about three weeks ago, I have not driven it much as we have had too much snow. This is my first EV. Overall, I love my new car, a couple of issues, but minor overall. Regarding your post, should I only charge my ME to 80 or 90% and not a full 100%? I've been charging every night at 100%. Another question for everyone, are there any good apps that will map out long trips? Meaning after so many miles, say 200-240 where you can charge? I am planning a trip to CA and looking for a way to plan our trip and I would rather not calculate each stop on my own after driving 200+ miles.

My personal recommendation would be to follow Ford's recommendations and set your car to charge to 90% (based on the car's range meter... which is actually 80% of the battery capacity). That's what I'll be doing to maximize the battery life. That being said, I do think the difference between charging to 100% and 90% will be negligible in terms of overall degradation unless you plan on keeping the MME for a long time (like 100k+ miles).

As far as planning out trips. The MME's built in nav will plan stops, but at least before they improve it with future updates, you don't have quite as much customization you can play with on your route. One site that I've used that allows for a plethora of customization is https://abetterrouteplanner.com/.

When doing road trips, you should set the website to not charge above 80% simply because L3 chargers go VERY slow on the MME above 80% per Ford's settings (also discussed in many threads).

 

[CHeil402]

Thank you for posting all of this detailed information!

Might a 100% charge on the Mach-E (or really any electric car) actually be a little bit closer to the battery’s true max capacity IF Ford (and other electric car makers) are keeping some hidden capacity near empty. For example, with the Mach-E, if Ford makes about 90% of the battery available for use, might the 0% to 100% charge that people can see really reflect 5% to 95% of the battery’s true charge, or 2% to 92% or whatever the manufacturer decides should be the top and bottom buffers?

It's certainly possible. All Ford's told us is that the battery is a 98.7 kWh pack with 88 kWh usable (for the extended range). How Ford dsitributes that is unknown and could be changed/expanded in the future with an OTA update.

 

[CHeil402]

Great thread, and thanks for supplying your expertise.

Can someone somehow correct the typo in the subject line? My OCD will drive me nuts looking at that constantly. ?

Haha, good catch... what can I say, I'm an EE. Thanks and fixed.

 

[louibluey]

I have a charge point on a 60amp circuit, so it delivers 48amp to the car. Chargepoint reports that my car pulls a constant 11kw while charging.

11 kW works fine, also a chargepoint Flex. More detail with the sense energy monitor, but that is whole panel, so includes bumps from other stuff running in the home.

 

[SoriceConsulting]

Reading with interest... Very informative. Just wanted to say thanks(!) to
CHeil402 for the great posts...

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