Met the Ford team today + charging tips from Donna Dickson (Mach-E Chief Engineer)

[FLmac]

Boy all this stress about BlueCruise. My crude opinion (but still keeping it PG) based on 3 months of having it is it’s kinda like desperately wanting to hook up with the hot chick in high school and then finding out she’s got stank breath. You’ll still go there some because everyone else is impressed, but inside you’re disappointed…

I thought I would never use BlueCruise and I actually use it everyday. I love it! It‘s not perfect and I don’t always feel like I’m centered in the lane (the middle lane is the best imo). It makes my commute much less stressful and way more relaxing. I do worry the adaptive cruise is going to plow me into a car, but I’m getting less nervous about that. I’ve also never had a car with adaptive cruise, so it’s way better than setting cruise, then slowing down, then speeding up, over and over again.

I guess maybe I like the stank breath or maybe if you move past 1st base with BlueCruise you’ll see she more than makes up for the stank breath!

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[Logal727]

Ford has done a good job with their labor of love, and it shows in the MachE's popularity. But they really need to step up their game in order to compete down the road. MY 2023 or 2024 should come with the bells & whistles other cars (like the Tesla MY and Ioniq 5 Limited) already have like additional cameras w/ proper sentry mode, better battery management & faster charging rates, better seats & suspension, etc. + stronger OTA deployment.

Things aren’t better in the OTA department on the Ioniq 5. I hang out in the Reddit forum for it and it’s a lot of the same stuff we complain about.

 

[FLmac]

This has been explained. Anyone who’s read more than one post from me knows how eager I am for the frunk button. Clearly Ford is focusing resources on other updates that they feel are either more important to the functioning of the vehicle (all the under the hood stuff to keep things running smoothly) and the marquee feature a lot of people want to see - BlueCruise. Which do YOU think would get more negative press “Over 1.5 years in and some Mustang Mach E owners don’t have remote frunk release” or “Over 1.5 years in and Ford still hasn’t delivered their much hyped BlueCuise to early Mustang Mach E buyers”?
I’m not a marketing expert, but I’ll bet Ford is really focused on trying to make sure the second headline doesn’t get printed!

I hate to sound like the snobby kid with all the cool new toys, but my car came with the frunk button since it’s a Job 2. I store my charger in the frunk and use it at work everyday. I never use the button. It’s not practical. Maybe because I carry a purse, but it’s way easier to open the car door, drop my bag and phone, pull the handle twice and then use the frunk. The other side… when I get to work I leave my bag in the car, open the door, pull the handle twice and done. I don’t want to unlock my phone, click on FordPass, hold down the button for the frunk. I’m sure there are different situations where the button would be helpful, but I have it and don’t use it.

 

[macchiaz-o]

I hate to sound like the snobby kid with all the cool new toys, but my car came with the frunk button since it’s a Job 2. I store my charger in the frunk and use it at work everyday. I never use the button. It’s not practical. Maybe because I carry a purse, but it’s way easier to open the car door, drop my bag and phone, pull the handle twice and then use the frunk. The other side… when I get to work I leave my bag in the car, open the door, pull the handle twice and done. I don’t want to unlock my phone, click on FordPass, hold down the button for the frunk. I’m sure there are different situations where the button would be helpful, but I have it and don’t use it.

We mostly complain about the button because we were "promised" it and don't have it. I agree with your assessment that once we actually have it, most of us won't use it because we'll be busy complaining about the lack of bidirectional charging or whatever.

Keeps us busy. ?

 

[ChasingCoral]

You must have blue cruise already, as do I. Not everyone does. Some people bought the car, paid extra for blue cruise, was told they would get it by X date, and it's been a year and they still don't have it.

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In Jan Ford of Europe began talking to news outlets about an escape room game for the Mach-E. They had no intentions of actually rolling this out to cars but allowed countless news outlets to make big headlines about it. ( THIS IS LITERALLY VAPORWARE 101 )

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Still no frunk button for some

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You bring up OTA's - I'm happy Ford is trying their best but the way the updates are rolling out is archaic. We all are on this forum having to crowd share info on what the latest update is. From my research, I can't find any source via Ford on what updates have been pushed for the car.

Plus a ton of people are still stuck on very early versions of the car for some odd reason.

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The above is just this car -> don't even get me started on the terrible rollout of the Bronco

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I'm going to go drive my car now. You all can have fun protecting your corporate daddy's honor ?

Well, we can certainly see who isn’t likely to be invited to one of these parties!

 

[ChasingCoral]

I hate to sound like the snobby kid with all the cool new toys, but my car came with the frunk button since it’s a Job 2. I store my charger in the frunk and use it at work everyday. I never use the button. It’s not practical. Maybe because I carry a purse, but it’s way easier to open the car door, drop my bag and phone, pull the handle twice and then use the frunk. The other side… when I get to work I leave my bag in the car, open the door, pull the handle twice and done. I don’t want to unlock my phone, click on FordPass, hold down the button for the frunk. I’m sure there are different situations where the button would be helpful, but I have it and don’t use it.

Given a choice between Blue Cruise and a frunk button, I’m confident I know which one I’ll use more often.

Come on Blue Cruise!

 

[SnBGC]

Given a choice between Blue Cruise and a drink button, I’m confident I know which one I’ll use more often.

Come on Blue Cruise!

I don't know.....that drink button sounds pretty interesting. What do you have on tap?

 

[Gullwingdmc]

Given a choice between Blue Cruise and a drink button, I’m confident I know which one I’ll use more often.

Come on Blue Cruise!

There’s a drink button coming too! Does it dispense from under the touch screen?

 

[AllenXS]

The frunk button. Duh.

Maybe they’re frunking with us

 

[AllenXS]

I don't know.....that drink button sounds pretty interesting. What do you have on tap?

Had to be blue moon

 

[Bayviews88]

I hate to sound like the snobby kid with all the cool new toys, but my car came with the frunk button since it’s a Job 2. I store my charger in the frunk and use it at work everyday. I never use the button. It’s not practical. Maybe because I carry a purse, but it’s way easier to open the car door, drop my bag and phone, pull the handle twice and then use the frunk. The other side… when I get to work I leave my bag in the car, open the door, pull the handle twice and done. I don’t want to unlock my phone, click on FordPass, hold down the button for the frunk. I’m sure there are different situations where the button would be helpful, but I have it and don’t use it.

I have a Job2 car as well, and there should be a Frunk open option on the Infotainment screen under Select the Mustang -> Controls -> Access

 

[samev]

I hate to sound like the snobby kid with all the cool new toys, but my car came with the frunk button since it’s a Job 2. I store my charger in the frunk and use it at work everyday. I never use the button. It’s not practical. Maybe because I carry a purse, but it’s way easier to open the car door, drop my bag and phone, pull the handle twice and then use the frunk. The other side… when I get to work I leave my bag in the car, open the door, pull the handle twice and done. I don’t want to unlock my phone, click on FordPass, hold down the button for the frunk. I’m sure there are different situations where the button would be helpful, but I have it and don’t use it.

For Job2 cars, I suspect the Frunk button can be activated quite easily via a voice command or a shortcut on your phone or by hovering over an NFC tag stuck inside or on the exterior of the car. Might try it out using Tasker at some point.

 

[devmach-e]

Also, I got to meet Donna Dickson (Mach-E Chief Engineer) in person for the first time. She sat in my car and we talked about it at length.

She did offer a helpful tip for those who worry about the miles/kWh rating. I'll paraphrase because I wont recall word-for-word.

One of the reasons to avoid charging above 90% (unless you need the range) has to do with the car's ability to leverage regenerative braking. When the battery is at (or near) 100%, it is harder to push electrons into it. As a result, the regenerative braking is less efficient with a full battery and you'll see a lower miles/kWh rating (particularly in stop & go driving when regen is really useful.)​

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If you limit charging to 90%, you've left some room to make regenerative braking more efficient. (I cap mine at 80%)​

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Also, it will tend to be more efficient (better rating) on longer drives rather than short trips.​

If you are a person who routinely charges to 100% ... but don't technically *need* that 100% ... you'd be better off to limit the charging to get higher efficiency.

I'm really surprised that more people don't know this. I knew it before I got my Bolt EV. Chevy had something called "Hilltop Reserve" that capped the maximum charge at 90% so that if you lived at the top of hill (like I do), you had full regenerative braking from the get go. And believe me, the first time you go down a hill and have to rely solely on the friction brakes of the Bolt EV, it's a bit of a rude shock. Not dangerous mind you, just surprising if you've been used to the very strong regenerative braking that the Bolt EV had. Hilltop Reserve became "Target Charge Level" in the 2019+ models, where you could specify a range instead of just a fixed value of 90%.

 

[AKgrampy]

Had to be blue moon

So you get the frunk button and the beer button and creat a vaporware monster - “FrunknStien” Couldn’t help myself!

 

[JamieGeek]

I'm really surprised that more people don't know this. I knew it before I got my Bolt EV. Chevy had something called "Hilltop Reserve" that capped the maximum charge at 90% so that if you lived at the top of hill (like I do), you had full regenerative braking from the get go. And believe me, the first time you go down a hill and have to rely solely on the friction brakes of the Bolt EV, it's a bit of a rude shock. Not dangerous mind you, just surprising if you've been used to the very strong regenerative braking that the Bolt EV had. Hilltop Reserve became "Target Charge Level" in the 2019+ models, where you could specify a range instead of just a fixed value of 90%.

Yup my Bolt was set to hilltop reserve pretty much 99% of the time I had it--and I live in a flat area LOL.

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