Range estimate not adding up?

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Mail run is at 30 mph. It's steep here.

Is it this steep? ?

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[DYohn]

1. Stop trying to calculate battery capacity in the same way as gasoline tank capacity. It's not at all linear.
2. Stop worrying and drive it.

 

[mkhuffman]

First thing reset your driving history and then see what it says.

If battery temp is around 77F then you should see close to the EPA range right after doing that. But you live in Seattle, looks like your average temp is about 55F so I would expect you see about 230-240 miles 100% range after resetting due to the cooler temps.

I also recommend resetting your driving history if this is a issue for you. The GOM in my car is pretty accurate considering how I drive, but if your GOM is not accurate, doing a reset could help.

 

[JSeis]

My CR1 GOM shows a range of 218 miles at 88%. I feel like my observed efficiency per the screen is about 2.7 m/kWh.
My EV Driving logs in the Ford Pass app show my worst trip at 3.1 m/kWh and many more at 3.7 or above.
Why the discrepancy? Should I reset something? I’ve only had the car two months and it was chilly when I first got it. Hot now.

Weather, driving style, heat use, preconditioning-all play a part. A 20 mph headwind & pouring rain can drop my energy use to 3.2 mi/KWh or lower if air temp is mid 40’s. If the windshield fogs up, car gets cold, windshield wipers going steady, etc, all that plays into demand. On a cool day with bright sun, car warms up, tail wind pushed me home I can see 3.9-4.1 or if I spent all day driving locally under 40 mph that number goes 5+.

Right now I’m saving ~ $5,000 a year over gas use. The twin turbo Flex sits mostly idle as my S.O. bops around locally. So the gas savings is absurd crazy. Saving $100 a week is real money. Some of the diesel 3/4 ton PU drivers I know (fallers, track hoe operators, in remote logging areas) are blowing through diesel at $60-$100 + per day or more if they are driving 100 miles, then driving 20 up & down steep terrain.

 

[Vinstang]

My GOM now shows 245-250 for my SR RWD. That's likely based on our driving history about 50% local, never more than 70mph.

On a road trip I just had, when I was driving at mostly 70, I got about 220.

For an ER model, 220 is really low. Do you normally drive at 75mph or higher?

The numbers you're saying line up with what I'd expect. I'm ashamed (proud?) to admit that in my first week of ownership I haven't driven over 75mph, and never consistently over 70. I've used most of my highway driving to test out BlueCruise – it's worked great, but still I'm not yet comfortable with it driving me that much over the speed limit.

Exactly this. You say your range estimate is 220 miles, at 80% efficiency. 270 at 80% efficiency is 216 miles. I'm confused about what you were expecting?

At the end of the day, don't worry about the estimate, actually measure the mileage you get yourself rather than looking at the estimate. But I'm your case it looks spot on to me.

I think that's one specific question I have: do the "My EV driving" estimates include all the energy used on the trip or only the portion of that energy used specifically for driving (excluding climate controls)? I assumed it includes all the energy used, meaning it already includes that 80% efficiency number.

 

[Vinstang]

Update: today I charged my car to 100% and used an OBDII scanner to check my energy level, and it says my full capacity is only 84.3 kWh. That seems significantly too far below the 91 kWh of usable capacity advertised, right?

I found another thread where someone reported that their Extended Range Mach-E has 88.5 kWh of capacity. That's arguably pretty close to 91 kWh, but since mine is 7 kWh less than it's supposed to be I do think I should take it to the dealership to somehow get it fixed. Maybe one of the battery cells isn't working? :/

I also notice from the Car Scanner app that my battery's state of charge is 94% even though its state of charge display is 100%. But even dividing that out would still only be 89.3 kWh total, and since the car refuses to charge beyond its displayed 100% this supposed additional charge capacity is unusable anyway. Just felt like mentioning that though.

 

[nitinkumar00]

How long have you had the car. Initially you will get range all over the place. It’s going to give you worst case. Then after a month it will base it on last month average. When I first got the car range was all over the place it was winter too but it gave me worse case the first month. Now in 4th month my trip one average is at 2.8 but my trip two average last 3K+ miles is 3.0. Highway and city combination. You really have to wait a few months after you get it.

 

[EELinneman]

You need to use a premium charge station to get the most range

Not here in Colorado because of the altitude.

 

[SnBGC]

Update: today I charged my car to 100% and used an OBDII scanner to check my energy level, and it says my full capacity is only 84.3 kWh. That seems significantly too far below the 91 kWh of usable capacity advertised, right?

I found another thread where someone reported that their Extended Range Mach-E has 88.5 kWh of capacity. That's arguably pretty close to 91 kWh, but since mine is 7 kWh less than it's supposed to be I do think I should take it to the dealership to somehow get it fixed. Maybe one of the battery cells isn't working? :/

I also notice from the Car Scanner app that my battery's state of charge is 94% even though its state of charge display is 100%. But even dividing that out would still only be 89.3 kWh total, and since the car refuses to charge beyond its displayed 100% this supposed additional charge capacity is unusable anyway. Just felt like mentioning that though.

Too early to be concerned. Drive your car for a while. The kWh to empty starts low and then gradually increases as you repeat charge cycles. At least that is how it worked on my car.

 

[RedStallion]

I think the only number you can reliably get from the car is the mileage (assuming the tires are inflated to the correct pressure).
It's very easy to prove that the efficiency the car reports is not equal to the mileage/energy ratio as people assume. It's a very simple experiment. Drive the same distance in different conditions and compare the average of two numbers with the efficiency the car reports for the two segments.
For example, I drove from home to the destination and back today. It was colder in the morning, so A/C wasn't working much. The efficiency for this segment reported by the car was 3.1mi/kWh. On the way back it was very hot, so the A/C was running on full. The efficiency reported by the car was 2.7mi/kWh. A simple math gives you 2.9mi/kWh for the round trip, but the car reported 3.1mi/kWh, which is nowhere near.

 

[Vinstang]

How long have you had the car. Initially you will get range all over the place. It’s going to give you worst case. Then after a month it will base it on last month average. When I first got the car range was all over the place it was winter too but it gave me worse case the first month. Now in 4th month my trip one average is at 2.8 but my trip two average last 3K+ miles is 3.0. Highway and city combination. You really have to wait a few months after you get it.

Too early to be concerned. Drive your car for a while. The kWh to empty starts low and then gradually increases as you repeat charge cycles. At least that is how it worked on my car.

I've only had the car for a bit over a week, so I'm hoping that, yeah, I just need to give it some more time and miles for the range estimate to get more accurate. I could definitely see that increasing the GOM's estimated range, but I wouldn't expect that to increase the kWh total capacity. @SnBGC, are you saying that you did some measurement like I did and found that the kWh total energy actually increased over time? I thought batteries only decreased their capacity over time. But I haven't run down the charge below 50% yet, and for some reason I do feel like doing a couple "full" cycles might somehow help something for some reason.

 

[SnBGC]

I've only had the car for a bit over a week, so I'm hoping that, yeah, I just need to give it some more time and miles for the range estimate to get more accurate. I could definitely see that increasing the GOM's estimated range, but I wouldn't expect that to increase the kWh total capacity. @SnBGC, are you saying that you did some measurement like I did and found that the kWh total energy actually increased over time? I thought batteries only decreased their capacity over time. But I haven't run down the charge below 50% yet, and for some reason I do feel like doing a couple "full" cycles might somehow help something for some reason.

It is more related to average HVB temp. Your battery is still a bit cold from those readings. Wait until later in the summer and then you can expect to see higher kWh to empty calculations.

 

[Maquis]

Update: today I charged my car to 100% and used an OBDII scanner to check my energy level, and it says my full capacity is only 84.3 kWh. That seems significantly too far below the 91 kWh of usable capacity advertised, right?

I found another thread where someone reported that their Extended Range Mach-E has 88.5 kWh of capacity. That's arguably pretty close to 91 kWh, but since mine is 7 kWh less than it's supposed to be I do think I should take it to the dealership to somehow get it fixed. Maybe one of the battery cells isn't working? :/

I also notice from the Car Scanner app that my battery's state of charge is 94% even though its state of charge display is 100%. But even dividing that out would still only be 89.3 kWh total, and since the car refuses to charge beyond its displayed 100% this supposed additional charge capacity is unusable anyway. Just felt like mentioning that though.

Temperature matters. Your battery is at about 20C, so 90%, roughly.

 

[Fatty Lumpkin]

3.7 mi/kwh is crazy good. What do you do?

It’s really not all that hard. At least 80% of my miles come from commuting in to Boston. I commute a little over 30miles each way, A couple miles on back roads, 10miles on the interstate at highway speeds, trying to stay around 70 or lower (this is where it’s easy to kill your range) and then the rest of the way on a slightly congested highway with a speed limit of 50 and enough variable traffic to create a decent amount of regen. Today I got 3.9 and reached 320 on the GOM.

 

[Dzrhino]

My GT is now showing 281 miles at 100%. Probably a reflection of my driving habits but nice to see.

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