Increase range on GT for long trips

[Secret Sauce]

Your post made it sound like the solution is easy. But it really isn’t because every car has its compromises.

Want a good looking, fast, fun to drive somewhat affordable BEV?

Mach E GTPE.

But no cooled seats, weak heater, 5 sec limit, so so stereo, no leather seats etc

Want all of the above? Possibly the Macan EV GTS……. But it’s no longer somewhat affordable.

The sad thing is that Ford could have given us everything we ask for and the price wouldn’t go up that much.

Maybe in 2026 refresh?? One could hope.

I'm on my seventh year driving an EV. It took awhile to adjust my thinking to this new idea but it wasn't that hard. Now it's kind of painful to drive an ICE car.

When you find something with no compromises, I hope you'll let me know.

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[Ghost Ryder]

people keep leaving this out or think it is a joke.

go into adaptive cruise with a one bar spacing with any truckish thing. A large pickup, cement truck, rv, van, even a minivan.

I swear i get 10 percent back, pushes from 3.3 to 3.5 to 3.9.

the wake gets bigger as they go faster, too. Do it with a truck doing 60 and no climate control, i think it is the best you can do

Once you're past 70mph, wind resistance becomes the biggest factor affecting range. Anything you can do to reduce that will increase range.

 

[Mach1E]

Once you're past 70mph, wind resistance becomes the biggest factor affecting range. Anything you can do to reduce that will increase range.

For sure.

But I value safety over saving 37 cents on electricity on my drive.

Only time I use the 1 bar distance is in slower heavy traffic. Emphasis on slow.

 

[Ghost Ryder]

For sure.

But I value safety over saving 37 cents on electricity on my drive.

Only time I use the 1 bar distance is in slower heavy traffic. Emphasis on slow.

Completely agree. I remember when the Prius first came out. There were lots of videos of prius drivers inches from a Semi's bumper. All in the name of breaking the hypermiling record.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I am willing to deal with it because I really like my car. That doesn't mean the compromises are reasonable. It is yet another reason why most car buyers are not ready for a BEV. They are not ready to be cold in winter when their current cars blast out free heat.

Yup, and race car drivers aren’t going to be able to condition themselves by blasting the heater with the windows up on 100+ F days. As Davey Allison used to say: “Welcome to my world!”

 

[Auto Motive]

You can get close to CR1 #s. 3.1/3.2 miles per kwh is what I see on the highway going low 70s in warm weather.

Just charged to 100% for a trip yesterday and the GOM read 290mi. Averaged 3.1 over 155 miles going 70-75mph (about 135 miles of which was highway), >2000ft elevation gain.

Our GTPE returns 3.5 kwh under 50 mph and 3.0kwh at 65 mph a/c on when temps are close to 80 deg. Our new model Y performs much better under 50 mph runs 5.0kwh when temps are at 65 deg and over.

 

[eastern refugee]

I drive regularly from Bakersfield to LA. Roughly 200 miles one way. From roughly 300 ft to 4144 thru the mountains and back down to sea level. My GT at 75 on adaptive cruise is the sweet spot and gets 3.0 miles/KWH. I swapped wheels to ones that are roughly 3-4 pounds less. I had a 2021 FE and could never get over 2.7. Now on occasions depending on winds (temperature honestly is a non factor as I go from day 80 to 40 degrees and back down to 60) I can get 3.2. 75 MPH in Cali on the I-5 with a speed limit of 65 will NEVER get you a ticket. Above 77 you run a 50/50 chance. 30 years of driving here and you learn how far to push it.

 

[JoeDimwit]

I remember a commercial for DUI that changed the words to that song to “I can’t drive point one fiiiiiiive”.

 

[bbulkow]

For sure.

But I value safety over saving 37 cents on electricity on my drive.

Only time I use the 1 bar distance is in slower heavy traffic. Emphasis on slow.

To each their own. Larger vehicles are really really big reflecting surfaces, I'm very comfortable with one bar generally and behind larger vehicles more specifically.

I use two bars in the rain and sometimes at night when traffic is more spaced out.

Point is, this idea that "speed is range physics is physics" is wrong because the OP is asking about *in traffic* (when just going slower might not be the safest).

 

[bbulkow]

Our GTPE returns 3.5 kwh under 50 mph and 3.0kwh at 65 mph a/c on when temps are close to 80 deg. Our new model Y performs much better under 50 mph runs 5.0kwh when temps are at 65 deg and over.

Wow, guess that's why I didn't get the PE. My premium ER RWD '23 gets 3.5 regularly at 67 (my favorite cruise control setting) and 4.0 closer to 63 and 3.3 closer to 70, most driving around 70degrees so far.

 

[bbulkow]

Once you're past 70mph, wind resistance becomes the biggest factor affecting range. Anything you can do to reduce that will increase range.

I don't think this is true if you account for the turbulant air and complexities of following on a modern american freeway.

But I don't have the data.

I really want to know what the energy consumption is behind different vehicles. My intuition is you're better off at 70mph with one bar distance cruise control, than 65 with noone cutting the air for you.

Doing 60 behind a commercial truck that clearly has logging on and a mandate to hit that speed... you see the miles flash by and she's sipping battery. Trucks do *not* seem to like hangers on, though. I think they don't mind when it's another truck. Maybe I'm making it up, but they'll slow down more, hit their flashers, all kinds of things.

I think I can do a measurement accurately enough with a road test and the ODB2 monitor, because I think it'll be sensitive enough, with like 5 minute periods behind different vehicles. Using the ford power app is probably not good enouh. Maybe someday I'll have a free afternoon and get 'er done.

I like the game of finding good vehicles to follow, because I get bored easily. Right now, I tend to go slow in the right lane until someone starts passing at about the speed I want, then I grab their tail. It takes some practice to estimate the speed difference of a passing car, though. I look for cars that also have cruise control on, otherwise, they might not be predictable.

 

[Cabel]

At my age, my GT PE's battery always lasts longer than my bladder anyway, so 270 mile range is more than enough.

 

[JonathanEzor]

So on my ride home yesterday, I had AC on, 27% of my energy consumption was AC, it was a 15miles ride, I don't know about you but 27% energy consumed is not "almost no power" .

Motor Trnd Mythbusters tested this. Heater used more energy on a Mach-E than the baseline for the same course, but A/C did NOT. See https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxV9WYTPAtY2vjgVRDbL52zGxtLVXdCAS8

 

[mkhuffman]

So on my ride home yesterday, I had AC on, 27% of my energy consumption was AC, it was a 15miles ride, I don't know about you but 27% energy consumed is not "almost no power" .

Did you confirm that E-Heat was actually turned off? It will be on even when AC is on, especially if you select "Auto". It is possible the resistance heater was used at some point during that recorded trip, maybe just at the beginning if the car was colder than the set temperature.

27% is much higher than I have seen when using AC only, so there is probably something else going on.

 

[moparguy]

Motor Trnd Mythbusters tested this. Heater used more energy on a Mach-E than the baseline for the same course, but A/C did NOT. See https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxV9WYTPAtY2vjgVRDbL52zGxtLVXdCAS8

You know man, I don't care about Mythbusters, I could care less about what heater use! mine doesn't even work even after five billion updates anyway, I posted what my eye saw, what my car told me, my own experience, not some random dude on Youtube, 27% of energy consumption on AC for highway rides is very excessive in my humble opinion, I already lose 20% in range anyway, then losing 27% on top for using the AC is too much, I rented a gas car this past weekend to drive to Phoenix, not going to stop every 150 miles to charge a 250 EPA estimated car.

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