How to improve the Guess-O-Meter

[JohnnyForensic]

Anyone who has been on this forum for more than a week has encountered the question of "what happened to my range?!" and "why am I not getting xx miles?" and "I think I have the wrong battery".

For some people on this forum the Mach-E was their first BEV and others are hardened veterans. However by now many have had their cars for a few months with some celebrating a year. So clearly everyone is an expert and can answer the following:

How would you redesign the Guess-O-Meter? What would you change so that people aren't constantly asking these questions?

• Should it just display the EPA range at 100% no matter what? This obviously would lead to "what happened to my battery? It said I could go more miles!"
• Do all EV customers need to be given a math lesson before getting the car?
• Should there be no range displayed and only battery percentage?

What is your proposal to fix the problem?

Straight-up user education. Hell, if the GOM drops by a big amount, say 10% of expected, put up a notice on the big screen saying that various factors can affect estimated range such as blah, blah, blah. Put a check box at the bottom to never show again (if they don’t want it) and an ok button.

I don’t mind the GOM, especially as mine seems to be pretty darned good at guessing. The users just need more hand holding.

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[AKgrampy]

What I would like is a display that indicates mi/kWh * available battery kWh as my miles remaining. Plus a simple way to reset mi/kWh as my driving conditions change. I do not think I will have any issue anyway as my driving will be local and I plan to charge daily.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Ironically …

“Tesla is starting to account for wind, air density, and more when doing range calculation”

https://electrek.co/2022/03/16/tesla-accounts-wind-air-density-range-calculation/

 

[npgeorgeuw]

On my Bolt there is a bar on the left very prominently that at the bottom has your low end range and at the top your high end range and currently where you are trending in between those points. That is much more informative. With my Mach E the damned battery can't be trusted to even tell me how much is left. Park it and start it ten minutes later and suddenly it's 3 or 5% lower or 2% higher. It's become a bit of a laugh.

 

[JoeDimwit]

I think it should just show battery percentage and average kWh. I mean most ice cars don’t tell you how far you can make it. People just intuit it. I know charging is different then fueling up. I hope eventually though we end at a point where it won’t be as big of consideration and we just see battery percentage.

Most modern cars do tell you range to empty, but it’s usually something you have to navigate to in order to see.

 

[JoeDimwit]

Wow, that’s common sense, having the GOM tell you that you can increase range by turning off accessories. ??‍?

I feel like people understand that concept. everybody knows you lose mpg and horsepower when you turn the AC on in an ice vehicle. What moat people don’t understand about that in an EV is how much of an effect climate control is having.

 

[JoeDimwit]

What if the GOM were to change color based on current use? Like if you are driving very efficiently, GOM Is blue, driving average is white/gray, driving unefficiently is yellow, being a donkey is red, and if you’re regenerating it’s green?

That could give live feedback and also a lot more information simply.

Also, I would be fine with having the ability to disable any data other than state of charge and speed if the driver wants a quieter display.

 

[RedDragon]

I would like to see:
Remaining KWHs on battery
Average kWh / mile of the current trip
Real time kwh / mile consumption - think if you are on a ski trip and come down a huge mountain descent and get on the freeway home. Or if you turn the HVAC on and off. If this is in some line chart format where you could see where u were earlier in a trip versus where you are now would be helpful. Maybe show the development over the latest 30 mins in realtime and have the ability to scroll back if you want to look at earlier times.

With all this info we could more accurately calculate our remaining range. Maybe this could be all integrated in the trips tab. That huge graph that just just tells me percent of energy used on HVAC , driving, etc is nice but it's not useful enough to need to take up the whole screen.

 

[RedDragon]

I also like the bolt feature of the range and where you are trending in it. That should be added to the small instrument cluster and then my suggestions above on the trips section on the main screen.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

I would like to see:
Remaining KWHs on battery
Average kWh / mile of the current trip
Real time kwh / mile consumption - think if you are on a ski trip and come down a huge mountain descent and get on the freeway home. Or if you turn the HVAC on and off. If this is in some line chart format where you could see where u were earlier in a trip versus where you are now would be helpful. Maybe show the development over the latest 30 mins in realtime and have the ability to scroll back if you want to look at earlier times.

With all this info we could more accurately calculate our remaining range. Maybe this could be all integrated in the trips tab. That huge graph that just just tells me percent of energy used on HVAC , driving, etc is nice but it's not useful enough to need to take up the whole screen.

I like this but I also feel that's way more suited to the big center screen for a detailed look rather than a quick glance like the GOM (is supposed to) provide on the cluster

 

[DaMeatMan]

Anyone who has been on this forum for more than a week has encountered the question of "what happened to my range?!" and "why am I not getting xx miles?" and "I think I have the wrong battery".

For some people on this forum the Mach-E was their first BEV and others are hardened veterans. However by now many have had their cars for a few months with some celebrating a year. So clearly everyone is an expert and can answer the following:

How would you redesign the Guess-O-Meter? What would you change so that people aren't constantly asking these questions?

• Should it just display the EPA range at 100% no matter what? This obviously would lead to "what happened to my battery? It said I could go more miles!"
• Do all EV customers need to be given a math lesson before getting the car?
• Should there be no range displayed and only battery percentage?

What is your proposal to fix the problem?

The reality is that the GOM is totally fine, it's just that people don't like the REALITY of what they see.

But if we're being honest here it's actually doing a pretty good job at estimating range and you really don't need to fix what ain't broken. But rather we just need people to do their due diligence researching what essentially amounts to the second most expensive purchase they will likely ever make aside from buying a home... go figure.. lol

I personally knew full well what to expect when I bought the car, and I'm glad Ford was realistic about it. Sure I could beat the GOM if I lowered heat and stuff in the cold. But I appreciate not being lied to.

At the end of the day Advertising is for commercials and ads, but has absolutely no place inside the vehicle. I want real world information in the cockpit, not Advertising! So appreciate Fords approach here!

 

[OWG]

I think it should just show battery percentage and average kWh. I mean most ice cars don’t tell you how far you can make it. People just intuit it. I know charging is different then fueling up. I hope eventually though we end at a point where it won’t be as big of consideration and we just see battery percentage.

But they do. Your Crosstrek has an estimated range display (usually 13% optimistic), mine genrally gives a ~500 mile range when filled. It is just that the consequence of not paying attention can be mitigated by a 1-5 mile walk carrying a fuel can.

 

[Carsinmyblood]

When CDFCs are closer together, we can just glance at the %-ometer and find a charger when we need to, and use it like a gas gauge.

For now, we need at least a guess at miles left so we'll know if we can go another 70 miles, or have to stop at the charger at the next exit.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

The reality is that the GOM is totally fine, it's just that people don't like the REALITY of what they see.

But if we're being honest here it's actually doing a pretty good job at estimating range and you really don't need to fix what ain't broken. But rather we just need people to do their due diligence researching what essentially amounts to the second most expensive purchase they will likely ever make aside from buying a home... go figure.. lol

I personally knew full well what to expect when I bought the car, and I'm glad Ford was realistic about it. Sure I could beat the GOM if I lowered heat and stuff in the cold. But I appreciate not being lied to.

At the end of the day Advertising is for commercials and ads, but has absolutely no place inside the vehicle. I want real world information in the cockpit, not Advertising! So appreciate Fords approach here!

I agree that people should do more research into what they are buying but it also hard to know what you don't know. And there have been plenty of people here who did research and knew cold would impact range but were unaware to the extent as well as what "cold" means. So should there be a temperature vs range plot in the marketing stuff? I'm not sure any manufacturer wants to be the first to publish that about themselves

 

[DaMeatMan]

I agree that people should do more research into what they are buying but it also hard to know what you don't know. And there have been plenty of people here who did research and knew cold would impact range but were unaware to the extent as well as what "cold" means. So should there be a temperature vs range plot in the marketing stuff? I'm not sure any manufacturer wants to be the first to publish that about themselves

The general rule is that you should assume a 40% - 50% reduction at sub zero temps no matter if the car has a heat pump or not, and go from there.

If you go into buying an EV with those expectations, I think it's hard to be disappointed, particularly when you consider that a big part of range loss does not just come from (consumption used to heat the cabin or pack), but also due to the reduced energy density of battery chemistry most often used in EV's.

I know I went into it with that expectation from the get go, and I quickly realized that there were many things I could do to optimize range, and do better so I was actually quite pleased because I went into it knowing the REALITY of the technology I was buying (no matter who makes it), and I had very realistic expectations from the start.

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