Mach-E GT in Cincinnati snow storm - driving experience & feedback

[ElectrifyCLT]

Is it an issue with the LED headlights since they don’t generate much heat, in contrast to halogens which do? Just wondering if snow ever accumulates enough to dull the headlights and if you ever have to stop to wipe them off.

I was moreso thinking how headlights in an ICE vehicle probably stay warmer due to their proximity to other components generating significant heat (motor, radiator, etc).

OP, I am in Northern KY, not too far from the airport. If you need anything let me know. Named Kevin and have a Mach E GT too

I saw a silver MME on 275 on the way in yesterday, good to see more of them in the Cincinnati/KY area!

Thank you for the offer. We're staying in Newport. The drive from Anderson Township over to Newport last night was dicey. Seemed like the crews got caught flat footed and lost the roads last night. Made it safely and great to see hotels with EV chargers in the area!

Sponsored

 

[MellowJohnny]

Drove 20 miles from a relatives to my hotel with three others on board with me. The winter storm over performed the forecast in Cincinnati, so we were met with 3-4 inches of untreated covered roads the whole way to our hotel.

Key Takeaways:
- As long as it’s not ice and just snow, the car handles fine on all season tires.
- Keep 1PD engaged. The transition from power to deceleration keeps things smooth and traction pretty well dailed in. I never touched the brake pedal.
- ABS takes over even in 1PD mode if it detects slippage. Never lost control but the car let ABS take over on one downhill-while-turning-on a banking section at about 25mph. Did just fine.
- As with many situations while driving, it’s not you that you should be worried about, it’s the others around you. A car flew past us at 45MPH on 275 only to end up in the guardrail 10 minutes down the road.
- Without an engine under the hood, our car accumulated nearly 3/4 of an inch of snow on the hood. It was never an issue, but I do worry if on a longer drive the build up would become problematic for visibility/reduced headlight performance.
- Car remained perfectly comfortable for all passengers. Heat was set to 68 with front and rear defrost. No complaints. With our glass roof there was no build up of snow on top of the car.

In general I’m very impressed. This is NOT a Mustang in the sense of winter weather performance. With a set of proper winter tires I’m sure it’s a beast.

Oh, and the car looks like an absolute stunner in the snow.

There’s only one problem, the car is now on the charger and FordPass is telling me it’ll only have 155 miles when fully charged. Something must be broken with the car. Any ideas? ?

Did she "snowplow" at all through the deeper snow? Wondering about the ground clearance on unplowed roads when ruts start to build in height.

Thanks for the report! Nice to know she was sure-footed in the snow as I sit here in Toronto watching about a foot of snow come down

 

[ElectrifyCLT]

Did she "snowplow" at all through the deeper snow? Wondering about the ground clearance on unplowed roads when ruts start to build in height.

Thanks for the report! Nice to know she was sure-footed in the snow as I sit here in Toronto watching about a foot of snow come down

No! Granted this was only 3-4 inches of snow, but totally untreated roads. Only time I felt/heard some scraping was entering the hotel parking lot due to the snow + steep incline off the road.

 

[Dmcerm]

Drove 20 miles from a relatives to my hotel with three others on board with me. The winter storm over performed the forecast in Cincinnati, so we were met with 3-4 inches of untreated covered roads the whole way to our hotel.

Key Takeaways:
- As long as it’s not ice and just snow, the car handles fine on all season tires.
- Keep 1PD engaged. The transition from power to deceleration keeps things smooth and traction pretty well dailed in. I never touched the brake pedal.
- ABS takes over even in 1PD mode if it detects slippage. Never lost control but the car let ABS take over on one downhill-while-turning-on a banking section at about 25mph. Did just fine.
- As with many situations while driving, it’s not you that you should be worried about, it’s the others around you. A car flew past us at 45MPH on 275 only to end up in the guardrail 10 minutes down the road.
- Without an engine under the hood, our car accumulated nearly 3/4 of an inch of snow on the hood. It was never an issue, but I do worry if on a longer drive the build up would become problematic for visibility/reduced headlight performance.
- Car remained perfectly comfortable for all passengers. Heat was set to 68 with front and rear defrost. No complaints. With our glass roof there was no build up of snow on top of the car.

In general I’m very impressed. This is NOT a Mustang in the sense of winter weather performance. With a set of proper winter tires I’m sure it’s a beast.

Oh, and the car looks like an absolute stunner in the snow.

There’s only one problem, the car is now on the charger and FordPass is telling me it’ll only have 155 miles when fully charged. Something must be broken with the car. Any ideas? ?

I am such a sucker for little gadgets/features like that glowing pony... love it! Great pic!

 

[Cabel]

With summer tires installed (no new rims/tires yet, as I blew the budget on XPEL film and ceramic coating) mine's staying in the garage until the winter storms are over.

 

[Joekoehler60]

Drove 20 miles from a relatives to my hotel with three others on board with me. The winter storm over performed the forecast in Cincinnati, so we were met with 3-4 inches of untreated covered roads the whole way to our hotel.

Key Takeaways:
- As long as it’s not ice and just snow, the car handles fine on all season tires.
- Keep 1PD engaged. The transition from power to deceleration keeps things smooth and traction pretty well dailed in. I never touched the brake pedal.
- ABS takes over even in 1PD mode if it detects slippage. Never lost control but the car let ABS take over on one downhill-while-turning-on a banking section at about 25mph. Did just fine.
- As with many situations while driving, it’s not you that you should be worried about, it’s the others around you. A car flew past us at 45MPH on 275 only to end up in the guardrail 10 minutes down the road.
- Without an engine under the hood, our car accumulated nearly 3/4 of an inch of snow on the hood. It was never an issue, but I do worry if on a longer drive the build up would become problematic for visibility/reduced headlight performance.
- Car remained perfectly comfortable for all passengers. Heat was set to 68 with front and rear defrost. No complaints. With our glass roof there was no build up of snow on top of the car.

In general I’m very impressed. This is NOT a Mustang in the sense of winter weather performance. With a set of proper winter tires I’m sure it’s a beast.

Oh, and the car looks like an absolute stunner in the snow.

There’s only one problem, the car is now on the charger and FordPass is telling me it’ll only have 155 miles when fully charged. Something must be broken with the car. Any ideas? ?

My car dropped from estimated range >320 in the summer to 165 in 30 degree temp I drive the same. I've found that I actually get +230 miles to a full charge. I think their computer is poorly estimating range in temp drop.

 

[Jimrpa]

Last night we had a nasty mix of snow and ice. My experience last night was that my Premium AWD ER was sure-footed in snow, however, when I was on a highway that was a combination of packed snow and icy ruts, the car was super skittish. Driving between 20-25 mph (on a road where people routinely drive 70 mph), the car kept losing traction and I definitely felt the abs kicking in through the accelerator. It wasn’t a pleasant drive. I was in unbridled 1PD. And I was happy I had a copilot to do things like turn on the rear window defroster. I certainly didn’t want to take my attention away from driving to look around on the screen. Voice controls would have been handy. I do wonder if snow tires would have helped a little bit with that situation.

 

[ElectrifyCLT]

Last night we had a nasty mix of snow and ice. My experience last night was that my Premium AWD ER was sure-footed in snow, however, when I was on a highway that was a combination of packed snow and icy ruts, the car was super skittish. Driving between 20-25 mph (on a road where people routinely drive 70 mph), the car kept losing traction and I definitely felt the abs kicking in through the accelerator. It wasn’t a pleasant drive. I was in unbridled 1PD. And I was happy I had a copilot to do things like turn on the rear window defroster. I certainly didn’t want to take my attention away from driving to look around on the screen. Voice controls would have been handy. I do wonder if snow tires would have helped a little bit with that situation.

I'd imagine that winter tires would certainly help in that situation. Anytime ice comes into play, it's really a non-starter for me. Snow I'm willing to give it a go and see what happens. Ice, no way. Glad you got where you needed to safely.

 

[Jim Guthry]

My GTPE handled great between the late December PNW snow. I have Quatrac Pro tires on right now, road tripped without issue. 1PD in whisper was great going down hills and the only time I lost traction was when I tried. I wanted to get a feel for where the grip was and slammed the brakes in a safe area. My theory is the weight of the car contributes a lot to the grippyness. My car consistently claimed 150-170 mile range but I ultimately got a little over 210 real world.

 

[Ejectionseatfixer]

I had the opportunity to try mine out in our latest blast here, we got around 8 inches, granted the roads were cleaned up but I drove it like Id drive an ICE car, and noticed nothing different. As the OP stated, my battery availability dropped but that was expected.

 

[JSeis]

Nice report. While the recent snow/ice we had a couple of weeks ago was a PITA, black ice is the real deal and that’s a common occurrence here. Rain + quickly clearing skies near dawn and coupled with mid 30’s temps equals the perfect conditions for black ice forming in the dark hollows, bridge decks, shady areas. It can also form in the late eves after the sun sets.

The solution? Know your highway really really well and watch the temps. The MME’s mass is a blessing and a curse. Any sudden action in acceleration, braking, turning,.. can stick your vehicle in the ditch, guard rail, bay, river before you can blink your eyes.

Years ago I drove a 4WD Subie (XT) and put an after market thermometer under and slightly behind the front license plate. It gave incredibly accurate readings of road air 12” above the road surface. Nowadays in a strange modern tech backslide..it takes the MME thermometer minutes to adjust. So it’s basically worthless for understanding immediate road conditions.

That’s why local route knowledge is so important.

 

[MellowJohnny]

No! Granted this was only 3-4 inches of snow, but totally untreated roads. Only time I felt/heard some scraping was entering the hotel parking lot due to the snow + steep incline off the road.

Good to hear - this is the road outside my house today - an F-150 drove by and “plowed” its way up the street. This is what I had in mind

 

[ckt]

I think if yours is RWD, and assuming 1PD don't use the front brakes, it's best to drive in snow with 1PD off and use your brakes to slow/stop as it'll use all 4 brake pads.

 

[backwardsfish]

More Mach E Snow Porn!

Similar experience to our Select RWD on all seasons. Only different was I found NOT using 1pedal was more reliable/controllable of an experience as the 1pdeal de-accel was much too aggressive in wet snow especially and kept causing back end to slip out.

 

[ElectrifyCLT]

More Mach E Snow Porn!

Similar experience to our Select RWD on all seasons. Only different was I found NOT using 1pedal was more reliable/controllable of an experience as the 1pdeal de-accel was much too aggressive in wet snow especially and kept causing back end to slip out.

Makes sense since regen and braking forces are only applied to the rear wheels in 1PD on RWD models.

Sponsored