Range collapse

[Phil-Springs]

I bought my extended range Ford Mache AWD in late January 2022 and up until now have done circa 25,000 miles. The car has been cosseted being garage every night and only charged up to 80% apart from long journeys as I was advised to do by the main dealer. Until a month ago an 80% charge was giving me roughly 210 miles increasing up to circa 250 in the summer which I was quite happy with. However a month ago I drove into London having charged the vehicle to 80% overnight giving me that 210 mile range. However when I completed the 53 mile round trip I was horrified to see that my remaining range had collapsed to only circa 95 miles. In other words a 53 mile journey had utilised 115 miles of my range. A disaster! I then carried out a reset on the mileage to factory settings which gave me a 270 mile range but having given the vehicle two full charges up to 100%, on both occasions this only gave me a real range of 140 miles. So my battery is clearly suffered some form of catastrophic failure.

This week my local Ford dealership have carried out a full diagnostic test on the battery (which they sent onto Ford )and tell me that it has 98% capacity remaining so there is nothing wrong with the battery and have effectively washed their hands of this as has the main dealer I bought the vehicle from. So I contacted the Ford customer service department who told me that it is nothing to do with them and to go back to the main dealer. So much for Ford customer service. I find this both extremely disappointing and insulting.

The car is on finance with Ford Motor credit so my dealer suggested that I seek redress from them which I am currently in the process of doing so.

So I am one very unhappy Ford Mache owner and after this experience wish that I had never purchased the vehicle in the first place and am very unlikely to ever purchase an EV again unless forced to by the government. And am very interested to see if any other owners have suffered a similar experience?

I hope you keep us informed on how the redress process with Ford is going.

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[Sikkun]

It's not that it's the 69 bazillionth thread on this, it's the way the OP comes here for support and everyone tells them the same thing and they insist everyone's wrong that makes me smile

That’s what brand new 0 post accounts are for.

The not reading other threads is one thing. But the conclusion of “I hate the vehicle, EVs suck, give me my money back”, paired with refusal to listen to any advice…..never really seems like it’s a legitimate customer.

 

[HGxxx]

Dont trust the miles remaining on your IPC. Calculate your range based on the miles/kw in the trip planner.

 

[ipca204]

YAY! Yet another GOM thread. These and the NACS adapter threads are the lifeblood on the forum!

 

[rhougey]

In addition to operating temperature, there are other factors that will affect real range as well as estimated future range. Speed, terrain, wind, tyre pressure, interior accessory use, etc. If you have considered all of these without satisfaction, it may be comforting to know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE. There have been many others who have gone before you with the same experience and resulting certainty that their car is broken.

Alister:
I apologize for being a little bit snarky above.
I believe you are conflating actual range results with estimated future range. Based on your original post, the description implies that when you use the word “getting”, you are speaking of the number, indicated as “range” on your display. The only way to know what you are GETTING is to actually run an experiment. If you are willing to go through this exercise, I believe you will be satisfied regarding your concerns that your battery has failed.

Find a loop of approximately 30 miles near your home, where you can drive fairly consistently at an average speed of about 50 mph. This will be your test track. With it being a loop, it will negate to a large degree wind and elevation changes, although it would be ideal not to have significant hills.

Pick a day where you have about 5 hours of time to complete the test, and when the temp will be right around 8C (48F). Set your level 2 charger (at least 7kW) to charge to 100% and to be finished one hour before you plan to begin your drive. Set your departure time to be 5 minutes before you plan to leave.

With the car charged to 100%, and with the departure time having just finished warming your battery, go to your trip page, set it to trip 1, and reset it to zero. Depart on your drive and head for your chosen route. Do not use any cabin heat other than short term defrost to keep your windscreen clear as necessary with only as much heat and fan as necessary (16C should be enough). Do not make any stops (which would allow the battery to cool) during the test. You can listen to the radio, but if you have a big aftermarket subwoofer it should be disabled.

Drive conservatively averaging 50 mph or so until your percentage of charge is down to 10%. At this point you will have “gotten” 90% of your potential range. Refer to your trip 1 page, and divide the miles covered by .9. The result will be your actual potential range on a 100% charge, based on actual miles driven at 8C with other variables minimized. I believe it will be 200 or better (I think likely 220-230). The trip 1 page should show 97-98% of your energy having gone to miles driven with the balance to outside temp and accessory use.

If your car fails this test, you may have a problem with the car.

 

[2FlyMache]

I agree with previous posts on not enough information to assess the actual situation. I know that highway driving for EVs is the least efficient and impacted by a ton of variables. I just did a 200 miles trip in 45 degree weather and up and down mountains. My miles per KW was around 2.4 driving at 74 mph. What I do is look at how many miles I get at every 20% as well as a 50% check which gives me a pretty good idea of total range for conditions. I also just got an obd dongle that I use with my ABRP premium membership that is very good at final prediction per my current driving conditions.

 

[rreddy3]

Alister, if you get an obd dongle as suggested by Patrick, you could get the CarScanner app. That app can tell you the HVB soc in kwh on what I understand to be a real time basis. You can multiply that by the mi/kwh shown displayed by the car for the current trip.

My understanding is the mi/kwh display is a periodically updated, rolling average. It’s
not an instantaneous, real time data point. Accordingly the accuracy of the “range” computed by actually HVB soc times mi/kWh the car is reporting ar any given moment is not absolute. I rhink of it as an estimate, possibly attainable, “all other things being equal “. It might be useful to you and may, or may not, be more useful than the GOM estimate.

BTW, Amersham looks delightful, enchanting, in the few images I saw of it online. Obviously you’re concerned about the range issue, but that said, I would just enjoy life in Amersham, have fun driving the car, and wait until spring when, we all hope, all is right with the world and EV range.

A final thought, although I could be wrong, I suspect Ford Credit will politely tell you “not
our problem” and close the book on your inquiry, no offense intended by me to you Alister, but it’s not Ford Credit’s issue to
deal with.

I hope all turns out well for you.

 

[profdraper]

FWIW, I hope this helps & following some of the links that others have provided here. I've owned three EVs over the last several years & am also aware of similar in other EV brands owned by family & friends:

ALL EVs in my experience have this same innacuracy re. range readouts & the aptly named 'Guessomter'. This can be improved to some degree via charging practices (& especially with EVs with LFP batteries like the Mach-E select; they can be charged to 100% regularly).

Whichever, I find no real difference is this to that of my old ICE cars, the 'range' estimate was usually BS and didn't fw calculate well depending on conditions etc. The only thing that mattered & was accurate with ICE was the fuel guage.

So to take a leaf out of that book:
Only take notice of the % amount, ie the 'fuel guage'.
and 2) unlike many EVs, the Mach-E navigation tends to be very accurate in this respect: set a destination & it will find chargers if necessary & based on real availble range.

 

[MachEMaster]

Charge to 100%, and reset your Driving History. That will straighten the GOM out!

 

[profdraper]

Charge to 100%, and reset your Driving History. That will straighten the GOM out!

Well, yes-ish ....
Have done this a number of times earlier, it can help but certainly doesn't really help all that much with the GoM issue.

Also reset the trip meters before a 100% charge (ditto for other brands of EVs).

FWIW I usually charge my MME Select to 100% on a regular basis & given LFP battery chemistry. The GoM can still be wonky, ie, the WLTP rating is 470Km but have only ever seen this once, and, that dissapates very, very quickly on what seems to be a log curve, certainly not linear. eg, that 70k is gone in maybe 10k of driving ...

One thing: charge from a lover level all the way to 100% seems to do the best job, eg, say from 30%. This car or others, NB that BYD recommend charging from 10% to 100% every six weeks or so.

Reset driving history, reset trip meters, charge on home AC charger from (say) 30% to 100% (and NOT via public DC charger). This can help a little in the short term in my experience, but gets a bit boring and inconsistent. The Fuel guage % is the main thing.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Your battery was cold, it was cold out, you were on the motorway, and likely had the heat on.

Batteries are like people - we both like 20c temps. Lower or higher and your milage may vary.

 

[Ravensfan1996]

Resetting the driving history really does nothing as after the reset it just verifies back to your normal driving habits and outside temp etc. The best thing to do is watch your miles per kWh. Use the trips app in the car for that info. Keeping the closer to 3+ miles per kWh will get it close to est range, In winter you wont be able to get that due to cold temps. Id advise charging to 90% daily, and 100% when you want to take a longer drive. No harm in doing that. everything seems normal as others have said it’s just normal winter lower range. Keeping heat to a min and not full and use to heated seats and steering wheel and preconditing (setting departure time) will help as well

 

[eponey]

To get a manual estimate of range, for example for the ER - Take your battery percentage, multiply it by 91kw ( or whatever your battery size is) then by your current efficiency for me it's mi/kw in the trip app. This will give you a rough idea in current conditions.

Remember driving much over 60-65 mph DRASTICALLY drops your range, velocity is squared when calculating drag. Cold air is also denser.

The heater uses a small amount of energy over time, the longer the time running (which you cannot control for the battery) more range loss.

So example 100%( or 1) * 91 kw * 3.24 mi/kw is around 290 mi which is pretty close to the nominal full range for my car.

So if we take your initial post you were getting 2.9 mi/kw nominally in winter time which is pretty reasonable for driving at a normal speed around town maybe a little highway, but if you road trip above 60-65 this is going to drop fast.

In order to get 140 mi for 91 KW you would have a efficiency of 1.5 mi/kw which is not impossible but I can't recall ever seeing it that low maybe if was going 80mph up hill below zero, maybe.

 

[Donna216]

The day this group told me to stop looking at the miles to E or "GOM," was the day my driving range got easier to manage.

 

[Fullerjr]

"Collapse" must be a headline writer for the Guardian.

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