New Job/ New car?

[Dburk]

My wife took a new job and she will be doing anywhere from 80-175 miles a day. Was looking into the Mach-E, I'm really concerned about the range, especially in the winter. I would be looking into the premium AWD Extended Range. I don't want her to get stranded because sometimes there isn't a charger in the direction she would be going. Also don't want her to be uncomfortable (heat/ac) if its going to kill her range. I just feel if i'm going to pay 50k plus for a vehicle I should be able to not worry about such things. We also plan on putting a lot of miles and keeping it for probably close to 6 years putting it around 200k miles.

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[BMT1071]

My wife took a new job and she will be doing anywhere from 80-175 miles a day. Was looking into the Mach-E, I'm really concerned about the range, especially in the winter. I would be looking into the premium AWD Extended Range. I don't want her to get stranded because sometimes there isn't a charger in the direction she would be going. Also don't want her to be uncomfortable (heat/ac) if its going to kill her range. I just feel if i'm going to pay 50k plus for a vehicle I should be able to not worry about such things. We also plan on putting a lot of miles and keeping it for probably close to 6 years putting it around 200k miles.

175 miles in the winter could be dicey in any currently available BEV. Maybe swap cars with her on cold long distance days?

 

[Dburk]

Thats part of it she doesnt know when the long distance days are going to be, she finds out where shes going when she gets to the office as the schedule changes dependeing on patients. I drive 120 miles to work each day. May be better off getting a Hybrid.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

You will, of course, want to make sure you have 240v (aka "level 2") charging in your home/garage. Set a departure schedule so the car pre-conditions (or use remote-start about 15 mins before you need to leave). This warms up the batteries and cabin.

The max level 2 charge rate is 48 amps and that will add about 27 miles of range per hour of charging. If the car was so dead that you had to push it back into the garage ... it would topped off in about 10 hours. But more realistically... you'll maybe drain it down to 10% and then recharge back up to 90% on a daily basis. That's about 216 miles of range using Ford's economy average (but I easily beat that number on my car by a good 10% without even really trying.)

The car can use level 2 charging at lower amperage rates ... it just takes longer.

Driving fast eats through the batteries faster. If you're worried about range, don't drive 80 on the freeways ... drive 70 instead. Just use the Intelligent Cruise Control.

Do opportunistic charging wherever possible. If she is at a destination that has an EV charger ... use it. There are also the Electrify America DC Fast Chargers around ... if the car is low no need to charge it all the way to 80% ... you could probably just add 10 or 20% to the car and that wouldn't take very long and should easily be enough to make up for a slightly shortfall in range if you occasionally have that happen. An EA charger is supposed to be able to add about 55 miles of range to the car in only 10 minutes ... but this will only be true when the battery is down around 10-20% charge state AND assumes the batteries are not cold (charging speed is reduced when batteries are cold. It will also be reduced if the batteries are too hot.)

 

[smp]

175 miles in the winter could be dicey in any currently available BEV. Maybe swap cars with her on cold long distance days?

Wow. I haven't been paying too much attention to the winter side of things, but you are saying that an MME that will reliably get 265+ miles range in fair weather may not be able to get 175 miles range on a cold winter day? That *will* be disappointing for me, if that's the case.

smp

 

[BMT1071]

Wow. I haven't been paying too much attention to the winter side of things, but you are saying that an MME that will reliably get 265+ miles range in fair weather may not be able to get 175 miles range on a cold winter day? That *will* be disappointing for me, if that's the case.

smp

40% reduction in range is not uncommon when it is very cold and HVAC use is high. I have heard anecdotal stories of Tesla Model S drivers not being able to make the Portland-Boston round trip in the winter without charging.

 

[smp]

40% reduction in range is not uncommon when it is very cold and HVAC use is high. ...

Wow. Luckily for me, that is not a deal-breaker, but that is disappointing, just the same.

Thanks very much for the info on what to expect!

smp

 

[Larry]

Thats part of it she doesnt know when the long distance days are going to be, she finds out where shes going when she gets to the office as the schedule changes dependeing on patients. I drive 120 miles to work each day. May be better off getting a Hybrid.

Well you said “patients” which I will take to mean she really needs to get where she is going on schedule. This is heresy but I think you are right. Until battery and charger technology advances a bit more, she needs a hybrid.

 

[Dburk]

The car will be in a heated garage. I have access to 240v. I did find out I have access to a charger at my work for the cold days. Would the battery have any issues with going to 200k miles?

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Wow. I haven't been paying too much attention to the winter side of things, but you are saying that an MME that will reliably get 265+ miles range in fair weather may not be able to get 175 miles range on a cold winter day? That *will* be disappointing for me, if that's the case.

smp

On *any* BEV vehicle, you take a range hit as the weather gets colder and colder. When the temps are say... 30°F outside it might be a 15% hit. But if the temps get really cold ... near 0°F then you could lose a lot more.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

The car will be in a heated garage. I have access to 240v. I did find out I have access to a charger at my work for the cold days. Would the battery have any issues with going to 200k miles?

Did you mean to say 200 miles ... or are you talking about the overall life of the battery pack (200k)?

Setting a departure schedule or doing a remote start will cause the car to pre-heat the cabin and pre-warm the battery packs using your AC power since the car is plugged in. This pre-conditions the car so that the batteries are happy and you don't need to use much battery to maintain cabin heat. And, of course, you can do the same at work to pre-condition the car for the trip back home.

Overall health of the battery packs is best maintained by avoiding the need to dip into the last 10% of power and avoid needing to charge more than 90% full. Either of this is a little stressful on the batteries and reduces their overall life/health. Of course you can do it ... but it is recommended to only do this when it is needed instead of making a habit of doing it on a daily basis.

 

[Dburk]

Yeah overall battery life 200k miles.

 

[BMT1071]

Wow. Luckily for me, that is not a deal-breaker, but that is disappointing, just the same.

Thanks very much for the info on what to expect!

smp

Don't forget that preconditioning can do a lot to mitigate the range loss, and make your drive more comfortable. Getting the battery and cabin up to temp while still plugged in really helps.

 

[BMT1071]

Yeah overall battery life 200k miles.

This is a good article about battery degradation:
https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/

 

[ARK]

Thats part of it she doesnt know when the long distance days are going to be, she finds out where shes going when she gets to the office as the schedule changes dependeing on patients. I drive 120 miles to work each day. May be better off getting a Hybrid.

Yeah, hate to say it, but I sort of agree that a hybrid may be best for this scenario. Especially if she has no fixed route, and would have to figure out if there are chargers nearby on her route. And I suppose only you or she could say how comfortable she would be figuring all this out on her own, finding a fast charger, and sitting in her car at some semi-unfamiliar charging spot for 30 min+ in winter.

In addition, if she is making a handful of stops each day, and each time having to turn the car on and crank the heat back up from freezing (because she is parked outside the patients home?), this will do nothing for her winter range.

Something like the Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid or just normal Escape Hybrid may be better choices here.

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