Mach-E sets world record.. 840 miles at 6.5 miles per Kwh

[DaMeatMan]

An electric car journey from John O'Groats to Land's End has been confirmed as a world record.
BBC South transport correspondent Paul Clifton and two co-drivers drove the length of Britain aiming to set a new standard for driving efficiency in an electric car.
They broke the record for energy use on the 840-mile (1,350km) route.
Mr Clifton said it was an attempt to show if electric cars were viable for "real world long distance use".

The team - supported by AA breakdown drivers and Ford engineers - left John O'Groats in their Ford Mustang Mach-E on 3 July.
To save energy on the journey south, the air con was kept off, the windows closed and the radio was not used, and the team travelled through the night to avoid any traffic congestion.

The car was charged at public service stations along the route and made it to Cornwall 27 hours later, achieving an economy figure of 6.5 miles (10.5km) per kilowatt hour.
Final analysis was carried out by Guinness World Records adjudicators before the attempt was verified.
The team's attempt at a second record - for the lowest charging time, currently held by Daniel North and Sean Miller who drove a Tesla on the same journey in September 2020 - is still being verified after problems recording the charging data.

Analysis
By Paul Clifton, BBC South transport correspondent
World records like this are all about teamwork.
Yes, top-drawer driving skills are required, but so too are months of planning, selecting and testing the right car for a journey of hundreds of miles.
The aim was to assess whether these electric cars are now viable for real world long distance use
I admit I wasn't convinced an electric car was yet quite a match for petrol or diesel for very long distance travel.
I've changed my mind. We have reached the tipping point.

Source:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-57777588.amp

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[mkhuffman]

I admit I wasn't convinced an electric car was yet quite a match for petrol or diesel for very long distance travel. I've changed my mind. We have reached the tipping point.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but no, we have not reached the tipping point yet. Nobody is going to get that kind of efficiency driving at normal highway speeds in the MME. They probably drove 25 or 30 mph the entire way. If you drive an ICE car at 40 mph steady state it will get unbelievable mpg also. But again, nobody does that.

On the other hand, at least we now have a good benchmark for the best efficiency we can get out of our MMEs!

 

[benk016]

840 miles, in 27 hours. That comes out to an average of 31mph.

If you figure in some charging stops, with that average of mi/kwh, they maybe charged 3 times. So figure 30 minutes for a charging stop is 1.5 hours of that time.

so 840 miles, in 25.5 hours, that only brings the average up to just under 33mph.

Its a cool record, but doesn't really represent any real world driving.

 

[DaMeatMan]

Both of you have very valid points and I wish I had done the math before posting lol. Putting this into context it appears to be a clever marketing stunt.

That said, I would disagree with you amd say that we have actually reached a tipping point and I say that from my first hand experience with my own MME 4X. I can pile the wife and kids into the car, and make a 3 hour drive at highway speeds of 110km/h (which is literally the most time the kids will tolerate in the car) and get to wherever it is we need to go, with plenty of juice left for in town driving and getting to a charger.

This is by no means scientific, but to be honest this (to me) represents more than 99% of the extent of most family trips. Certainly in my household and within my immediate family. That said, if I can go where I want to go, and do what I need to do with this car (today), then we have passed a tipping point at least in my eyes. Particularly when you consider that we also have a 7 seater Kia Sorento that is just sitting idle at home, and we always take "Dad's car" my MME 4x on road trips because it's actually the preferred vehicle for all of us including the kids lol!

 

[benk016]

Both of you have very valid points and I wish I had done the math before posting lol. Putting this into context it appears to be a clever marketing stunt.

That said, I would disagree with you amd say that we have actually reached a tipping point and I say that from my first hand experience with my own MME 4X. I can pile the wife and kids into the car, and make a 3 hour drive at highway speeds of 110km/h (which is literally the most time the kids will tolerate in the car) and get to wherever it is we need to go, with plenty of juice left for in town driving and getting to a charger.

This is by no means scientific, but to be honest this (to me) represents more than 99% of the extent of most family trips. Certainly in my household and within my immediate family. That said, if I can go where I want to go, and do what I need to do with this car (today), then we have passed a tipping point at least in my eyes.

I am totally happy with my range on my car. And I actually get worse than a lot of people on here. My average on the highway is 2.6-2.8mi/kwh, but highway driving around here is 70-80.

I want to see these cars take off, but Articles like this aren't going to help. They are going to give people a false idea of what the cars can do. If someone just found that article, and didn't know anything about EV's, its easy to see that someone might think the Mach E can go 840 miles on a charge. Also, no one will ever take a road trip going 32 miles an hour.

I guess I just kind of wish that this article was made more in a way to showcase they drove in a way that was not standard in order to break a record, and that this isn't what customers should expect from the car.

 

[SJ_Okay]

I thoroughly enjoyed Mr Cliftons trolling of the Tesla Owners UK group on Facebook.

 

[mkhuffman]

Both of you have very valid points and I wish I had done the math before posting lol. Putting this into context it appears to be a clever marketing stunt.

That said, I would disagree with you amd say that we have actually reached a tipping point and I say that from my first hand experience with my own MME 4X. I can pile the wife and kids into the car, and make a 3 hour drive at highway speeds of 110km/h (which is literally the most time the kids will tolerate in the car) and get to wherever it is we need to go, with plenty of juice left for in town driving and getting to a charger.

This is by no means scientific, but to be honest this (to me) represents more than 99% of the extent of most family trips. Certainly in my household and within my immediate family. That said, if I can go where I want to go, and do what I need to do with this car (today), then we have passed a tipping point at least in my eyes. Particularly when you consider that we also have a 7 seater Kia Sorento that is just sitting idle at home, and we always take "Dad's car" my MME 4x on road trips because it's actually the preferred vehicle for all of us including the kids lol!

Many have made the point regarding personal preference and personal driving needs. However, I think those of us who are buying the MME (and other BEVs) are still early adopters, and we are willing to deal with some of the inconveniences that driving a BEV creates. For BEVs to take off in the U.S., and Canada (our hat), I believe we need to have BEVs with 400 miles of HIGHWAY range. No BEV can do that yet, and none planned can either. Except maybe the Lucid Air, but that is a $160k vehicle and not something that will move the car market.

I think we need 400 miles of highway range because that is basically the minimum consumers expect from an ICE vehicle. Personally I hate stopping to get gas, and most people will hate stopping to charge for 30 minutes even more than I hate stopping to get gas. When I take a long trip, I only want to stop when I want to stop, not when the car makes me stop.

When BEVs match or exceed ICE highway range (at 75 mph average speed, not 33 mph), we will be at the tipping point. IMO. Until then, it will be mostly early adopters. Mostly.

 

[trutolife27]

840 miles, in 27 hours. That comes out to an average of 31mph.

If you figure in some charging stops, with that average of mi/kwh, they maybe charged 3 times. So figure 30 minutes for a charging stop is 1.5 hours of that time.

so 840 miles, in 25.5 hours, that only brings the average up to just under 33mph.

Its a cool record, but doesn't really represent any real world driving.

charged less than that and they drove faster. couple of videos out there on it.

 

[JBA]

I bet they went on a 25 degrees (celsius) day and turned of airco and all other accessories and probably drove behind trucks or busses for the longest part of the route.

There is no way they achieved this with normal driving at or close to the speedlimits.

Nothing wrong with that but these sort of test don't mean much and are basically a waste of time.

 

[JSeis]

Here’s a real world example: I commute daily 88 miles round trip. My 1000 mile trip average is 3.7 mi/KWH. I usually cruise at 46 mph on the twisty sections, 55-56 mph on the straights and speed limits in town/between towns: 30, 35, 50. That still takes 54-56 minutes to go the 45 miles. I could go much faster given that road is empty of morning traffic and afternoon traffic steams at near 65 mph.

But I really manage my speed to avoid deer/elk and always give following cars a reason to not pass or pass (56-57 mph and most won’t pass).

if I drop to ~52 mph I’m at 3.9 mi/KWH. A afternoon 15 mph tailwind and 54-55 mph gets me to 4.1 mph. Either way I’m pushing that 68 KWH battery to over 250 miles.

My daily energy costs at any of the above are ridiculously low compared to ICE. I’m paying about $1.40 per day (our home electric rate is $.0634/KWH) VS nearly $16/day driving my TT Flex at 24.6 mpg.

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