Is Low Range Gone in 2025?

[Bad Dolphin]

Mostly engaged with one pedal.
So you say when I am using one pedal drive and L the recuperation is better?
I'll try it.

Yes, that's what I understand from this thread. We drive all the time on Unbridled, so we are already at max and L does nothing to enhance.

When you drive in engage, it will take the level of one-pedal up to Unbridled level, making for stronger deceleration when you lift your foot.

The only difference is that one-pedal will take you to a full stop. If you turn one-pedal off in Engage and only use L, the deceleration effect will be stronger but will not take you to a full stop.

Driving in Engage with one-pedal as you do does take you to a stop. Adding L will making that braking more aggressive (which you of course control with your right foot.)

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[kltye]

Driving in Engage with one-pedal as you do does take you to a stop. Adding L will making that braking more aggressive (which you of course control with your right foot.)

No, 1PD is already max regen and brings you to a stop with friction brakes at the end (<5 mph or so). L in 1PD in any drive mode doesn't do anything.

 

[Bad Dolphin]

I don’t actually know if “L” works in my car because I’ve never used it. Not even once. I also turned 1pd on before I left the dealer’s lot when I bought it and haven’t turned it off since. I should probably test this L thing and 2pd out sometime.

Oh if you've been driving one pedal you'll not care fir 2 pedal!

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Oh if you've been driving one pedal you'll not care fir 2 pedal!

I see no reason to rush into trying it.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I have been quietly finding out information about this for the forum, and I have an "official" answer.

Yes, the low gear was removed with the switch to the monostable shifter. The engineering data showed that there was overall low usage of Low Gear and that customers generally would rely on other drive modes.

 

[RickMachE]

The reason that there is overall low usage of a feature like the "L" button is due to several factors:

1) Consumers don't read manuals.
2) Consumers don't explore features on their vehicles.
3) Consumers aren't inquisitive.
4) Consumers want to just drive. Stop confusing them with features they are not smart enough to understand.

Go spend a day on various car manufacturer FB pages. You'll find the vast majority of EV owners are more than clueless.

It's like the Parking feature (not that I'm advocating it). "People don't use it" says Ford. Why? See all the above reasons, coupled with 5) It is slow as F. 6) Doesn't park in empty lot, has to be next to a car. Or the kick to open feature. A good portion of consumers are too stupid to follow the kicking directions.

By the "low usage" criteria, you could eliminate things like handsfree driving, cruise control, DC fast chargers, ..... Even refillable windshield washer tanks because the average consumer can't fill it up, just install a new full tank.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I’m a guilty party in that I drive in Unbridled. Were there a knob for the drive mode I would have ripped it off of the car. Since L does nothing in Unbridled, I don’t use it.

 

[RickMachE]

I’m a guilty party in that I drive in Unbridled. Were there a knob for the drive mode I would have ripped it off of the car. Since L does nothing in Unbridled, I don’t use it.

I'll bet if a survey was sent out, "Which Drive Mode do you use?" and one of the answers was "Wait, there are drive modes?", it would receive the most responses.

 

[kltye]

I have been quietly finding out information about this for the forum, and I have an "official" answer.

Yes, the low gear was removed with the switch to the monostable shifter. The engineering data showed that there was overall low usage of Low Gear and that customers generally would rely on other drive modes.

Thank you for getting more info for us; that is greatly appreciated. This is the kind of communication we're looking for from this forum!

Having said that, please communicate back to the engineers that using telemetry is an idiotic way to make engineering decisions. All this does is to remove product differentiation and forces everybody to be the same. There's a reason we didn't buy any other EV - because we like the features on this one, not that one, or that other one, or... etc.

Also, if you remove features because you think we can depend on other features, like the touchscreen - you better make damn well sure that it's as (almost) easy as pushing a physical button. I don't mind touch interfaces (I loved my 2013 Fusion which was the only model year with non-touchscreen touch controls for HVAC and cabin lights, before it was replaced with physical buttons), but I think we all agree that the Sync 4A hardware has pretty dismal performance. Members of the forum have even gone as far as rewiring and repurposing buttons to open the trunk to avoid using the touchscreen.

Going on a tangent here, but it's little things like this that are really depressing about humanity. Android (and Windows) are copying Apple UI designs because they make a popular product. Lots of EVs are copying Tesla because they're (still, for now) the market leader in the US. Guess what? They're not the market leaders because of things that are being copied (shitty UI). They're the leader because they have a compelling product. And once again: shitty UI does not make a compelling product.

Finally, how the heck do you know that customers are relying on other drive modes to replicate L? I'm a software dev and I'm charged with looking at telemetry - I can tell you that while I can see customers using a feature, I can only guess at the reason.

I'm irritated that Ford is decontenting their vehicles and is taking their time backporting improvements to earlier model years (are we ever getting the nice new IPC graphics for <2025 model years?), and then using "telemetry" to insult us.

 

[CarGuyBill]

I have been quietly finding out information about this for the forum, and I have an "official" answer.

Yes, the low gear was removed with the switch to the monostable shifter. The engineering data showed that there was overall low usage of Low Gear and that customers generally would rely on other drive modes.

Thanks for the Official Answer. It would be nice to have an adjustable regen like in other makes. The reason I posted this thread was to make sure I was not missing something being out of the Mach E loop for a few years.

 

[Mach1E]

I have been quietly finding out information about this for the forum, and I have an "official" answer.

Yes, the low gear was removed with the switch to the monostable shifter. The engineering data showed that there was overall low usage of Low Gear and that customers generally would rely on other drive modes.

This has been the answer on a lot of features but they really need to quit making decisions like this.

People buy cars for the features they use the LEAST, but still want the ability to use them when they NEED or WANT them.

Examples- range- most of the time you don’t use it all.
Horsepower- most of the time you don’t floor the car.
Back seats or 3rd row- most of the time they’re empty.

If they keep making these engineering decisions like this you will end up with a 40 horsepower 1 person vehicle with 35 miles of range…… that NO ONE wants!

Next time let the marketing team make decisions instead of the engineers!!

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Next time let the marketing team make decisions instead of the engineers!!

Or better yet, let Brian (with the help of this forum). Sound like a plan?

 

[Mach1E]

Or better yet, let Brian (with the help of this forum). Sound like a plan?

I’ve learned that accountants and engineers should bring the data that helps make decisions, but they shouldn’t be the ones making the decisions.

Bring on Brian!

 

[CarGuyBill]

Seems like the Regen Breaking could be added with the current shifter. There is a detent like on the turn signal with a half press and lock detent. After putting the vehicle in Drive (move all the way down past the detent) it might be able to be programed to do more regen by bumping it down one more time (which currently put the vehicle in Neutral) Video for better explanation for those that have the rotary shifter.

 

[ARK]

The reason that there is overall low usage of a feature like the "L" button is due to several factors:

1) Consumers don't read manuals.
2) Consumers don't explore features on their vehicles.
3) Consumers aren't inquisitive.
4) Consumers want to just drive. Stop confusing them with features they are not smart enough to understand.

Go spend a day on various car manufacturer FB pages. You'll find the vast majority of EV owners are more than clueless.

It's like the Parking feature (not that I'm advocating it). "People don't use it" says Ford. Why? See all the above reasons, coupled with 5) It is slow as F. 6) Doesn't park in empty lot, has to be next to a car. Or the kick to open feature. A good portion of consumers are too stupid to follow the kicking directions.

By the "low usage" criteria, you could eliminate things like handsfree driving, cruise control, DC fast chargers, ..... Even refillable windshield washer tanks because the average consumer can't fill it up, just install a new full tank.

Out of curiosity though, why do you use L when exiting freeways? Why not just press the brake pedal, you get the same result of increased regen?

Personally at least, when I first got the Mach-E, I messed around with using L for occasions like you described, exiting the freeway. But I found it just takes too much mental energy to do that all the time when I could just press the brake pedal and get the same result because of the blended braking that is always present.

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