Hopes for the MME in its first year

RVAtom

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Like most of us around here I am looking forward to taking delivery of my Mustang Mach E soonish. It's the calm before the storm of ”Picked up my car!” posts coming in the next few weeks. I’ve had a few things noodling around the back of my head for the last little while though, and I wanted to get them out and maybe get some thoughts from some other folks that still don't have their cars.

Alternate titles: “Things I am Expecting will Change” or even “Things I will be Disappointed if they Don’t Change”

Usable battery capacity.
It is my hope that the large battery holdback is something that will be updated OTA sometime within the first 12-18 months of customers getting their cars. It seems obvious that at some point someone wrote in sharpie on a whiteboard during the design of the MME “Under promise, over deliver” and that was the mantra of many things at the very least in the last year or so of rollout and marketing. Once they get a good idea of battery degradation numbers from users, hopefully they give us a few more kWh out of that reserve, and suddenly our range numbers can jump up another 10 or 15 miles. I’ll actually be a little disappointed if they don’t do this one, but not a ton because that would likely mean 5 years on we would all still have nearly the same range as on day one due to a curved release on that holdback over time.

DC charging speed curve
I likely wont DC fast charge often, or maybe not even at all for the first few years. We have an ICE vehicle for road trips, and I have a garage to charge in at night. But I think with the under promise over deliver mantra, Ford may be setting the bar low so they can improve in the future once they know they aren’t going to kill a bunch of batteries with faster charging. I really don't have a horse in this race personally, but for the sake of Ford’s image as a company that understands BEVs, I think it is important that they make improvements here.

Acceleration
I’m not a 0-60 speed guy. I’m Mr. Practical 99% of the time. It seems like a few of the reviewers on Youtube made comments about the acceleration being good but then dropping off as speed crossed about 30 mph, almost like the car was holding back. Going back to the previous point, it would be good for Fords bona fides as a BEV manufacturer to have an OTA update find another few tenths or so of acceleration. This feels like something they might even have planned during design. Sandbag 0-60 times a bit, under promise, and then get a press release when you need/want one saying there is an improvement. I could take or leave this one personally. With a car seat in the back I doubt I'm going to be launching from a whole lot of stoplights.

Frunk Electronic Controls
Remember when we debated this thing hotly for about 48 hours back in December? Feels like forever ago! I’m still not sure what the full story is there, but I think we landed on the conclusion that they might be able to enable phone/touchscreen control of the latch in an update sometime. Whatever regulatory approval they need to get, I hope they can get it. Something about pulling that latch handle as an only means of opening feels antiquated in a great car like this for me. For my commute home, I was imagining I would pop my frunk using my phone from inside my office while I packed up in the afternoon, load my lunchbox and laptop in, and use the touchscreen to open when I pulled into the garage.

Active Drive Assist Update
This is the only one on the list that has been mentioned explicitly by Ford, and the only one on this list that I expect to happen. I will be very disappointed if Ford doesn’t get this one released on time because they communicated so far in advance for expectations. I think this is a no brainer though. I don’t think they would have announced anything if they couldn’t do it. I’m not even sure I will be buying it. It would probably be a waste of money for me for the small amount of interstate driving I will likely be doing.

Heat Pump Option (longer term)
I think this is a no brainer, but it would take at least a couple years. I doubt Ford wants to spend a bunch of money redoing major portions of their brand new car platform. There are always the same comments every time about “it gets too cold where I live” whenever heat pumps come up, but I think that is a silly argument. All of those places have lots of days of the year where it is 30-50 degrees. The heat pump would add tons of miles to your range on those days. There will still be super inefficient ways to heat your car when it is really cold out, but lets get those efficiency numbers up when they can count.

Honorable mentions
Sentry Mode/Dashcam
Supercharger use agreement + necessary hardware

A key theme in a lot of these hopes is just that Ford proves to us MME owners and the general car buying public that they “get it” as far as OTA updates go, and make meaningful changes, not just some token changes here and there to say they have done it. I’m sure I am going to love this car, but I think Ford can help remind us how much we love the car on a regular basis with some OTA updates
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My hopes are simple: No recalls and it lives up to the hype (oh and any minor issues get fixed via OTA).

Not much more than that..

Oh yeah: That everyone gets vaccinated by May ;)

I doubt the battery buffer (er "holdback") will change at all during the lifetime of the Mach-E. Sure the range may change based on other factors but I would bet that the buffer is etched in stone at this point.
 

agoldman

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I would expect mostly bug fixes early on and no big changes in any of the systems for a good while.
 

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I file Heat Pump under "things with the smallest impact that get the most discussion".

If a heat pump can pay its way, i.e. you get more range per weight than other options, you will most definitely see a heat pump option in the future. I know it's being studied, it's just not a good option right now. Maybe Tesla will come up with "octovalve, version 2", and you can get some small net gain out of it. You'll know that has happened when everyone copies that design.
 

jksu

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- Camp/pet mode (allow AC to continue running for set period of time)

- Ability to use monitor via Airplay when parked (ie. watching AppleTV, Netflix, YouTube while charging or camping)
 


PeeCee

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Like most of us around here I am looking forward to taking delivery of my Mustang Mach E soonish. It's the calm before the storm of ”Picked up my car!” posts coming in the next few weeks. I’ve had a few things noodling around the back of my head for the last little while though, and I wanted to get them out and maybe get some thoughts from some other folks that still don't have their cars.

Alternate titles: “Things I am Expecting will Change” or even “Things I will be Disappointed if they Don’t Change”

Usable battery capacity.
It is my hope that the large battery holdback is something that will be updated OTA sometime within the first 12-18 months of customers getting their cars. It seems obvious that at some point someone wrote in sharpie on a whiteboard during the design of the MME “Under promise, over deliver” and that was the mantra of many things at the very least in the last year or so of rollout and marketing. Once they get a good idea of battery degradation numbers from users, hopefully they give us a few more kWh out of that reserve, and suddenly our range numbers can jump up another 10 or 15 miles. I’ll actually be a little disappointed if they don’t do this one, but not a ton because that would likely mean 5 years on we would all still have nearly the same range as on day one due to a curved release on that holdback over time.

DC charging speed curve
I likely wont DC fast charge often, or maybe not even at all for the first few years. We have an ICE vehicle for road trips, and I have a garage to charge in at night. But I think with the under promise over deliver mantra, Ford may be setting the bar low so they can improve in the future once they know they aren’t going to kill a bunch of batteries with faster charging. I really don't have a horse in this race personally, but for the sake of Ford’s image as a company that understands BEVs, I think it is important that they make improvements here.

Acceleration
I’m not a 0-60 speed guy. I’m Mr. Practical 99% of the time. It seems like a few of the reviewers on Youtube made comments about the acceleration being good but then dropping off as speed crossed about 30 mph, almost like the car was holding back. Going back to the previous point, it would be good for Fords bona fides as a BEV manufacturer to have an OTA update find another few tenths or so of acceleration. This feels like something they might even have planned during design. Sandbag 0-60 times a bit, under promise, and then get a press release when you need/want one saying there is an improvement. I could take or leave this one personally. With a car seat in the back I doubt I'm going to be launching from a whole lot of stoplights.

Frunk Electronic Controls
Remember when we debated this thing hotly for about 48 hours back in December? Feels like forever ago! I’m still not sure what the full story is there, but I think we landed on the conclusion that they might be able to enable phone/touchscreen control of the latch in an update sometime. Whatever regulatory approval they need to get, I hope they can get it. Something about pulling that latch handle as an only means of opening feels antiquated in a great car like this for me. For my commute home, I was imagining I would pop my frunk using my phone from inside my office while I packed up in the afternoon, load my lunchbox and laptop in, and use the touchscreen to open when I pulled into the garage.

Active Drive Assist Update
This is the only one on the list that has been mentioned explicitly by Ford, and the only one on this list that I expect to happen. I will be very disappointed if Ford doesn’t get this one released on time because they communicated so far in advance for expectations. I think this is a no brainer though. I don’t think they would have announced anything if they couldn’t do it. I’m not even sure I will be buying it. It would probably be a waste of money for me for the small amount of interstate driving I will likely be doing.

Heat Pump Option (longer term)
I think this is a no brainer, but it would take at least a couple years. I doubt Ford wants to spend a bunch of money redoing major portions of their brand new car platform. There are always the same comments every time about “it gets too cold where I live” whenever heat pumps come up, but I think that is a silly argument. All of those places have lots of days of the year where it is 30-50 degrees. The heat pump would add tons of miles to your range on those days. There will still be super inefficient ways to heat your car when it is really cold out, but lets get those efficiency numbers up when they can count.

Honorable mentions
Sentry Mode/Dashcam
Supercharger use agreement + necessary hardware

A key theme in a lot of these hopes is just that Ford proves to us MME owners and the general car buying public that they “get it” as far as OTA updates go, and make meaningful changes, not just some token changes here and there to say they have done it. I’m sure I am going to love this car, but I think Ford can help remind us how much we love the car on a regular basis with some OTA updates
For the Acceleration Part, I've only seen people complain about it on a Select Trim. The video from the Smoking Tire that have a Premium ER 4WD didn't seem to have any issues with acceleration past 30.
 
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BlueMach

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My priorities would be:

  1. En-Route Battery Preconditioning for DCFC (this should be OTA #1 priority, IMO)
  2. Route Planner enhancements (display speed, display cost, display availability)
  3. Camp Mode (seems easy enough, and would be awesome to have for road trips)
  4. Dash Cam/Sentry Mode
I'm not really that focused on a range improvement as it seems somewhat like it should be lower on the list than battery conditioning. If the battery was able to deliver 150 kW in freezing temperatures, that alone would make road trips shorter, and would shorten road trips even more than unlocking more of the capacity while being stuck at 39 kW (TFL video) charging. It's a far better bang for the buck to improve charging than improve range.
 

silverelan

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@RVAtom, that's a nice wish list!

The acceleration thing you saw on @TFLtommy's review was because they were in a SR model that had limited power to draw upon. The ER AWD models don't seem to run out of breath so fast but there's not too much room for additional power based on the hardware specs. Maybe they can eke out another 10hp or so?

I'm not sure they will open up more battery capacity since Ford is still reeling from warranty issues on their fossils (Ford Focus turned their warranty actuaries gray). Battery packs are really pricey and they don't want to have premature warranty claims. If I had to guess, I'd say they improve efficiencies by a modest percentage so we'll end up seeing a slight range bump in the first generation cars of like 5-15 miles or something, similar to what other mfgs have done to optimize the existing hardware.

DCFC characteristics is something we're all crossing our fingers on! There's a lot of room for improvement there with on-route preconditioning, shortening the 10-80% time, plus softening the charging cliff after 80%. Again, Ford might be spooked by warranty claims on battery degradation so it's possible that what we see is what we'll get.

Ford has managed to literally shock and delight everybody with the MME so far, and I think we're all going to love this car as a daily driver. The MME's road tripping capabilities is an opportunity for improvement and I'm optimistic Ford will get us there.
 

flamant15

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I would like to see a bit better acceleration off the line. Mine does not jump off the line (MME CR1). Maybe add launch control, that could easily be done with software. Also I don't like the way the frunk closes, maybe a video on how to do it optimally, I am always having to do it 2 to 3 times before I get it closed again.
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