Ford navigation and elevation

[mac123]

I took my first road trip from the Bay Area down to LA, after taking delivery of my GT a month or so back. The positive things I liked about the drive was the ride and blue cruise. Blue cruise worked beautifully for me the entire trip down on I-5 and worked as well as tesla’s autopilot for me. (I’ve had Teslas as my primary car since 2014, prior to switching over to the GT.

the first leg of the trip from the Bay Area to Coalinga, CA (Harris Ranch chargers), ford’s navigation system and the estimate that it provided for range were fairly accurate. I charged at the Harris ranch electrify America charger to 90% upon which the ford navigation system said that I’ll make it all the way to my hotel in LA without needing to make another charging stop, but ABRP said I needed to make another stop. I decided to go with what ford navigation said (based on the confidence from the first leg of the trip) and it nearly stranded me. it looks like the ford navigation system didn’t factor in the elevation gain of nearly 4200 ft from sea level and the steep ascend of tejon pass as I neared LA. My estimated range dropped off a clip, the navigation system automatically added a fast charging stop at Santa Clarita. A few minutes later, it estimated that I won’t make it Santa Clarita. It was a nerve wracking drive, and I drove on the right lane and slowed to under 50 mph speed. Long story short I finally made it to the Santa Clarita electrify America charger with 4% charge remaining. The regenerative braking from the descent from the top of tejon pass to Santa Clarita saved the day for me.
Does anyone know what logic goes into the calculation of range in ford’s navigation system ? And I’m certain that it does not factor in elevation gain into its calculation, which seems to be a huge miss as far as I’m concerned on ford’s part, and makes the mach-e a poor choice for road trips.

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[RobFitzgerald167]

Ford Navigation does a pretty good job with factoring in climate and elevation. I drove from LA to Chicago last week, and it made the necessary adjustments when the temperature was 20-30 degrees colder than when I originally mapped out the route in both ABRP and Ford Trip planner. I've gone to Vegas 3 x's in my MME and it's added necessary charging stops to account for elevation.

 

[RickMachE]

The OP's post is why I've been saying, NEVER RELY ON ONE SOURCE FOR YOUR TRIP PLANNING.

We use Ford's Navigation, and run ABRP on one phone and GoogleMAPS on the other. ABRP allows you to adjust based on things like temperature, and you can either change the consumption in the settings or move the slider to match your current battery percentage. It also is easier to include, or exclude, types / brands of chargers, like only going to >50kw chargers.

GoogleMaps lets you know if the proposed route(s) are taking you way off course.

We had two experiences similar to OP's, although I won't blame them on anyone but myself. On the MassPike, I planned our next stop and didn't realize that the MassPike actually has a high point (sign and everything), and that we were climbing up to it. We got warnings to get off and find a charger, then to plug into the nearest outlet we could find (or similar). Of course we made it just fine.

On the NY Thruway, we were headed to Erie, PA to charge, and I skipped all the recommended charging because it involved getting off and back on the Thruway (and higher tolls as a result). Ended up getting to Erie with 3%, 9 miles left, and probably only because I told my wife (driving) to slow to 50 for the last 10 miles. She was pointedly annoyed at me. ? ?

We have an upcoming trip of 2,500+ miles, and I'm debating the Mach-E vs. my F-150 with its 36 gallon tank and 700+ mile range. No stops except to hit a bathroom, and my estimates show the cost comparison as ~$450 in gas or ~$225 in electricity. Do I want to have to spend many hours over the trip (30% more time) charging, or spend $225 and not thing about it? And, with the truck I have 4x4 and brand new tires/battery, so bad weather is a non-issue. Decisions, decisions.

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