Ford Range Increase Coming?

Redundant

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jim
Joined
Nov 18, 2019
Threads
18
Messages
489
Reaction score
546
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
Mach-E 4X-Space White, 1 Ford Flex, 2 Ford Escapes
Country flag
I don’t understand why Ford didn’t include a heat pump in a new car designed for 2021. It is one of the main items people wish for in the future in another thread about what they like and would want. I mean Konas and leafs have them. Being in NE, I am acutely aware of the comments about significant range loss in cold without it. This is the one item that makes me think the next version will be better because they will put it in. Is it so expensive to add Ford thought it would bump the price too much? The Mach-E was practically perfect for a newly designed vehicle but this seems like a huge mistake/oversight.

What do you think? Am I over reacting?
Sponsored

 

Jolteon

Banned
Banned
Joined
Sep 25, 2020
Threads
4
Messages
385
Reaction score
218
Location
Michigan
Vehicles
Model 3
Country flag
That's my thinking too, although we'll still have an Escape in the garage too so we don't even have to rent a car. Just have to pick which vehicle we wanna use. Logically we should just keep using the Escape for that, but we'll try the Mach-E on that drive (Denver-Vegas) in the Spring as a test. Maybe we'll find that switching to a bunch more 30-minute stops isn't so bad. We're already starting to take it a bit easier. We used to always drive straight through, but lately we've been breaking up the return drive with a hotel night (shorter daylight window driving east). 12 hours is pushing the limit for a single-day drive, and we ain't getting any younger. ?
I just did a 702 mile day in my Model 3 last Sunday, it's definitely on the long side, but I think honestly the breaks help tremendously vs just going straight through. Plus eating, restroom breaks, etc. can all be timed during those charges, so they don't feel long at all.

In fact, I broke my own rule about road tripping that day, I used Tesla's route planner and relaxed, instead of stopping at every single Supercharger once low, and even while that wasted some more time, it was still not a stressful day at all.

The Mach-E will have adaptive cruise, which will make long drives even easier. Plus the CoPilot 360 2.0 blah blah whatever the hands free driving is called, once that comes out next year.
 

timbop

Well-Known Member
First Name
Tim
Joined
Jan 3, 2020
Threads
63
Messages
6,729
Reaction score
13,758
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
Solar powered 2021 MME ER RWD & 2022 Corsair PHEV
Occupation
Software Engineer
Country flag
I don’t understand why Ford didn’t include a heat pump in a new car designed for 2021. It is one of the main items people wish for in the future in another thread about what they like and would want. I mean Konas and leafs have them. Being in NE, I am acutely aware of the comments about significant range loss in cold without it. This is the one item that makes me think the next version will be better because they will put it in. Is it so expensive to add Ford thought it would bump the price too much? The Mach-E was practically perfect for a newly designed vehicle but this seems like a huge mistake/oversight.

What do you think? Am I over reacting?
I think here in Jersey we'll be fine without it.
 

MailGuy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2020
Threads
14
Messages
646
Reaction score
951
Location
Washington
Vehicles
Bolt Premier, Mini Cooper SE, Mustang Mach E FE
Country flag
I don’t understand why Ford didn’t include a heat pump in a new car designed for 2021. It is one of the main items people wish for in the future in another thread about what they like and would want. I mean Konas and leafs have them. Being in NE, I am acutely aware of the comments about significant range loss in cold without it. This is the one item that makes me think the next version will be better because they will put it in. Is it so expensive to add Ford thought it would bump the price too much? The Mach-E was practically perfect for a newly designed vehicle but this seems like a huge mistake/oversight.

What do you think? Am I over reacting?
Honestly, I have never missed this in the Bolt. The Mini has it, but I can’t say it’s radically changed my experience. Mechanically, it adds complexity to change the flow of refrigerant to what is otherwise a simpler design Yes, the A/C circuit is already there for battery and cabin cooling, but that’s what they’re optimized to do. Not also heat. My impression is the people who think they need it most, colder climates, will be disappointed. But that’s just an opinion.
 

dbsb3233

Well-Known Member
First Name
TimCO
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Threads
54
Messages
9,299
Reaction score
10,814
Location
Colorado, USA
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-E FE, 2023 Bronco Sport OB
Occupation
Retired
Country flag
That's what I'm wondering too. My guess is he (like EPA, apparently) is assuming people only do highway speed for part of their drives. That's how the EPA gets a ridiculous 48 MPH average on their highway cycle that peaks at 80, because they assume people are also spending a lot of time on those legs doing city driving. Which completely pollutes that as a "highway" leg IMO.

To me a highway leg is driving from a charger near the on-ramp of an interstate to the next charger near the off-ramp down the line. So for instance 199 miles at 75 MPH + 1 mile at 25. That's like 74.75 MPH average. Not 48 like EPA calculates, because they figure half the leg is city.
 


Jolteon

Banned
Banned
Joined
Sep 25, 2020
Threads
4
Messages
385
Reaction score
218
Location
Michigan
Vehicles
Model 3
Country flag
I don’t understand why Ford didn’t include a heat pump in a new car designed for 2021. It is one of the main items people wish for in the future in another thread about what they like and would want. I mean Konas and leafs have them. Being in NE, I am acutely aware of the comments about significant range loss in cold without it. This is the one item that makes me think the next version will be better because they will put it in. Is it so expensive to add Ford thought it would bump the price too much? The Mach-E was practically perfect for a newly designed vehicle but this seems like a huge mistake/oversight.

What do you think? Am I over reacting?
I don't understand it either. It's a colossal mistake, IMO. The biggest one on the entire vehicle.

I'm confident someone made the decision that owners wouldn't prioritize it, which I think, ultimately was wrong. I honestly suspect they looked at the Bolt and Model 3, saw they didn't have one, and thought they were good to go without as well, and use the same old HVACs as their fossil cars and just add the same PHEV high voltage coolant heater to it.

Now that Model Y beat Mach-E to market with much higher efficiencies thanks to the heat pump, I'm not sure whether Ford is really "capable" of making a quick change to add it. The legacy approach would be "eh, we'll get it on the next-gen in 6-7 years." We'll see what they actually do.
 

DBC

Well-Known Member
First Name
Don
Joined
Oct 1, 2020
Threads
8
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
1,428
Location
San Diego
Vehicles
Volt ELR
Country flag
This is a meaningless statement in that the EPA doesn't test for driving at 75 MPH. It's like saying that if you drive at 90 MPH you won't get the same range as X says you will when they drove at 75 MPH. True but ... Duh!

There is a component of the EPA test that is quite aggressive. It's heavily weighted in the Highway number, which is why the actual range will conform quite well to this EPA number. For example, the Highway number for the Nissan Leaf is 188 miles. That's effectively the range of 180 reported by Car and Driver and less than the steady speed highway range of 203 reported by CARWOW.

And a lot depends on where you drive. A flat course will favor an ICE vehicle because a BEV will outperform on terrain with a lot of vertical. In this situation a BEV can recapture a good deal of the energy spent climbing while for an ICE it's just a dead loss. So if you want a BEV to look better just be selective about where you drive it. That's what the auto companies do when they launch a new BEV. There is a reason why one of the Mach E variants is named "California Route 1". :)
Sponsored

 
 




Top