No live power usage data?

[blakehaas]

We recently got a 2021 Mustang Mach-E AWD Premium for my wife, and it’s a really impressive car. I drive a 2020 Chevy Bolt EV, so switching between the two has been an interesting experience.

One thing that surprised me about the Mach-E is how little information it provides about power usage. I can’t see details like how much power I’m drawing or gaining through regeneration, or how much power the heater, AC, and other systems are consuming. It feels a bit like I’m flying blind compared to the Bolt.

In the Bolt, there’s a wealth of information available to the driver about energy flow, so the contrast with the Mach-E is pretty stark in that respect.

My wife loves the Mach-E and doesn’t miss the additional data, but I think I would if it were my primary car.

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[Mach-Lee]

Join the club, we've been complaining about the lack of power info for the past three years.

 

[kdonnel]

I also own a Bolt and an MME.

While the Bolt will tell you live power usage, when driving the Bolt I don't use it to change my driving in any way so it provides no real value.

I have never found myself thinking, oh, I should turn down the heat or I should slow down since I am drawing so much power.

I drive the car how I want. I go as fast or as slow as I want. I set the HVAC to the temp I want. If I need to charge more often as a result, I charge more often.

I treat my EV like every other ICE I have owned.

I never looked at the real time MPG display and used it to change my driving style.

 

[Rudi Krupsdahl]

Yes, it's amazing they haven't introduced it yet. Virtually all other car brands can figure it out. and show the date on the display screen.

 

[honourx]

Have you looked at the Mach E’s trip screen? See this screenshot.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Have you looked at the Mach E’s trip screen? See this screenshot.

Problem with that is it's an average of the whole drive not the current or short-term efficiency. Short term efficiency is very useful for seeing sudden efficiency changes in real time such as the effect of slowing down 5 MPH, or if you suddenly turn into a headwind. Instead you will just see your average slowly creep down without knowing how bad it is for a while. If I need to maintain a minimum efficiency to reach a destination, it's hard to dial things in.

Ford could easily add some type of graph showing efficiency over time as well.

Unfortunately they sort of made some assumptions that the average person wouldn't know or care about this information when designing the Mach-E, but it's already become virtually industry standard to show live energy consumption data in EVs. Everybody else besides Ford shows it.

 

[Zardoz]

Have you looked at the Mach E’s trip screen? See this screenshot.

I agree that gives a peak of the data, but is meant to be looked at after the drive is over. "Where DID your energy go" vs "Where IS your energy going". Some drivers will not ever want to look at this data, some will. Similar to gauges on an ICE. But I feel the data being missing is something that is lacking. Especially on a Mustang, known for performance. Performance cars tend to provide more vehicle data than grocery-getters.

 

[Maquis]

It’s interesting that Ford decided to include it on the Lightning. ?

 

[woody]

The Bolt is a simple, practical, and usable EV.
The MME is far too complex, impractical, and usable only with much ordeal (still, going on 4 years).

beauty contest - MME (granted this has been the primary goal for American automobile manufacturers, 2nd is designed failure/obsolescence, for 70+ years)

function and best vehicle - Bolt- no contest (embarrassing as that may be)

 

[JimmyMachE]

I can’t see details like how much power I’m drawing or gaining through regeneration, or how much power the heater, AC, and other systems are consuming.

These values can be displayed with obd2 dongle (heater output kW etc.) on the centre screen:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...roid-auto-without-needing-work-arounds.38541/

 

[ReverendPete]

I agree that we could use more information integrated. I miss the display I have on my Highlander Hybrid.

As a small consolation, if you have forscan and a dongle, you can enable the power meter that the GT models have. I did it over a year ago, but it's not a whole lot more information. It shows how much power you're consuming or regenerating on a tiny graph on the IPC, but it's just a little visual display, and not giving you any real numbers, and not particularly useful.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/how-to-enable-power-meter-on-non-gt-mach-e.18783/

 

[blakehaas]

@Ford Motor Company room for improvement here?

Is there an official place to provide feedback for this sort of thing?
It should really be an option to show or not show more data on the drivers screen.

 

[eponey]

Problem with that is it's an average of the whole drive not the current or short-term efficiency. Short term efficiency is very useful for seeing sudden efficiency changes in real time such as the effect of slowing down 5 MPH, or if you suddenly turn into a headwind. Instead you will just see your average slowly creep down without knowing how bad it is for a while. If I need to maintain a minimum efficiency to reach a destination, it's hard to dial things in.

Ford could easily add some type of graph showing efficiency over time as well.

Unfortunately they sort of made some assumptions that the average person wouldn't know or care about this information when designing the Mach-E, but it's already become virtually industry standard to show live energy consumption data in EVs. Everybody else besides Ford shows it.

I'm pretty interested that this is your take on this, you of all people should know that the majority of that information especially in real time just doesn't matter, in fact serves little to no purpose outside of some aggregated minimum for utility, which is provided by ford and along with most of the design queues of this car is simply omitted, aren't you an engineer?

 

[blakehaas]

I'm pretty interested that this is your take on this, you of all people should know that the majority of that information especially in real time just doesn't matter and along with most of the design queues of this car is simply omitted, aren't you an engineer?

I use the real time information of my bolt to maximize my miles per kwh. I can see how many kw I'm pulling from the battery. It allows me to dial in the accelerator to maintain a better efficiency. Same with regen. I can see when the regen kw starts to decline when breaking and I can feather the break to extend the generation. It's hard to explain but the information is useful if you have access to it.

I really like knowing when my resistive heater has reached operating temp. It goes from 5-7kw down to 2.

To say it makes no difference is silly imo.

 

[eponey]

I use the real time information of my bolt to maximize my miles per kwh. I can see how many kw I'm pulling from the battery. It allows me to dial in the accelerator to maintain a better efficiency. Same with regen. I can see when the regen kw starts to decline when breaking and I can feather the break to extend the generation. It's hard to explain but the information is useful if you have access to it.

I really like knowing when my resistive heater has reached operating temp. It goes from 5-7kw down to 2.

To say it makes no difference is silly imo.

This is all nonsense, I can't help you if you cant see it simply just doesn't matter.

Set it at auto at a temperature you can tolerate and drive the car.

Aggregate efficiency is in the trip app, if it's minimized it'll show the current mi/kw on the tray, this provides all of this feedback with one simple number.

If you desire feedback on your driving there is a brake coach you can activate, also the trip app provides feedback on your efficiency in driving.

I really don't want to be just inflammatory but I want you to understand how little anything like this actually matters - what is the single most important variable (that you can actually control) for range in any EV?

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