TheVirtualTim
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Tim
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2020
- Threads
- 26
- Messages
- 1,215
- Reaction score
- 2,195
- Location
- Dearborn, MI
- Vehicles
- Mach-E First Edition, Escape Hybrid
- Thread starter
- #1
For the holidays @AEtherScythe and I are headed to Florida (from Michigan). We were *supposed* to go to Washington DC (Lorton, VA - about 500 miles for us) and board the Amtrak AutoTrain. When were were nearly there, the phone rang and an Amtrak robo-call announced that our train had been cancelled. Apparently the previous train had problems and was running *extremely* late and they realized they'd never be back for the next day's departure ... so they cancelled. Worse... all trains for the remainder of the month were full. We saw it was slight more than another 1000 miles so we decided to drive it in two days.
First ... in when we left on day #1 (before we knew the AutoTrain was cancelled) it was 27° and stayed there pretty much all day. The car averaged 2.7 miles/kWh for the first half of the day (headed east on the Ohio Turnpike). The 2nd half of the day we had some headwinds and the car averaged 2.6 miles/kWh. This is GREAT considering the EPA estimate for our AWD-Extended range car is 2.7 miles/kW ... and we pretty much still got that even in 27° weather. We DID PRECONDITION and noticed it started warming the battery pack about 50 minutes prior to scheduled departure.
Recharging in the cold weather (exclusively used EA stations) was slightly slower... on average around 96 kW.
Tricks ... and what I wish could be classified as a bug but is probably really an RFE.
1. Always precondition in cold weather. It helps a lot.
2. I set the cabin To 65° only ... but used seat-heaters on auto as well as steering wheel heat ... and was completely comfortable.
3. (The Bug/RFE) turn on the 'recirculate' ... unfortunately after something like 5 minutes the car self-reverts to pulling in outside air. This is unfortunately *especially* for an EV with e-heat because taking the already warmed air and just re-warming it a bit is MUCH more energy efficient than pulling in 27° outside air and fully heating it.
As for the trip-planning...
I paid the $4.99 to use ABRP Premium and I have a Bluetooth OBD monitor. ABRP says it'll use the OBD to get more accurate data from the car. Well ... the bit about using the OBD (you have to go into Bluetooth devices on your phone, manually connect the OBD module and then ABRP will use it).
Unfortunately ABRP's accuracy was all over the place. It initially said my battery % was a little lower than what the car said. I realize my 88 kWh battery is *really* a 98.8 kWh batter ... so maybe it was fooled by the 10%. But later it was off by much worse ... and after charging it noticed we had more energy but THEN it reported an even HIGHER state of charge vs. what the car reported (so much for the difference being explained by the battery buffer).
There were other annoyances with ABRP. It would occasionally pick an EVgo and I wanted to edit it's selection... very hard to do. I was constantly trying to find ways to work around it.
I decided to try the in-car nav system. Several cool things I learned....
1. You can pre-plan your trips using the FordPass app. Use the 'Maps' tab, pick your destination. After working out your trip if you 'save' it then it will be sent to the car (Which will prompt if you want it to start that trip when you get in the car.)
The car will AUTOMATICALLY add charging stops to your trip (assuming the trip is long enough to need charging). Suppose you don't like the selected stops. I didn't like that it added some EVgo stops ... I'd rather use EA (I still have free charging credits)
(I've made a video demo that I'll upload once we make it to our hotel)
2. In the car, on the Nav screen, tap the Wrench/Screwdriver icon in the lower left corner.
3. Next tap Turn List
4. On the mini turn-list display tap "See All Turns"
There are two taps ... "Trip Overview" and "Turn List" on this panel. In "Trip Overview" will show only the charge stops. The "Turn List" tab will show every turn.
Also, each charge stop listed will show the predicted state of charge at arrival and the minimum amount you'll need to charge to in order to make it to the next charge stop (it doesn't just have you go to 80% every time).
If you want to edit the charge stop, just tap the charge stop (either in Trip Overview or Turn List view). Two new buttons appear in the bottom right ... "Replace" and "Details". "Replace" is awesome.
5. Tap "Replace". If the car is in motion you'll get a warning that the driver shouldn't be doing this. Your passenger will have two buttons "Override" and "Map" (tap Map returns to the Nav screen).
6. Have the passenger tap "Override".
You will get a map with numbered icons on the right ... and a list on the left with the NAME and ADDRESS of every other charger in the area.
The upper right corner of that list has an icon you can tap to apply filters (e.g. Fast chargers only ... or "No Cost" or in "Ford Network")
This was SO MUCH BETTER than the ABRP experience ... which had horribly accuracy and was difficult to edit. ABRP will let you set some charge network preferences ... I could tell it to "prefer" a network and "prefer to avoid" or "avoid" a charge network. But I couldn't just tap a charge stop and edit it like I can on the built-in system.
Unless ABRP adds a lot of improvements ... I think I'll be using the in-car trip planning.
Edit: Here's the video. Recorded with my phone -- hand-held while Leon (@AEtherScythe) is driving ... so audio quality is a bit weak and the video bounces around a bit.
First ... in when we left on day #1 (before we knew the AutoTrain was cancelled) it was 27° and stayed there pretty much all day. The car averaged 2.7 miles/kWh for the first half of the day (headed east on the Ohio Turnpike). The 2nd half of the day we had some headwinds and the car averaged 2.6 miles/kWh. This is GREAT considering the EPA estimate for our AWD-Extended range car is 2.7 miles/kW ... and we pretty much still got that even in 27° weather. We DID PRECONDITION and noticed it started warming the battery pack about 50 minutes prior to scheduled departure.
Recharging in the cold weather (exclusively used EA stations) was slightly slower... on average around 96 kW.
Tricks ... and what I wish could be classified as a bug but is probably really an RFE.
1. Always precondition in cold weather. It helps a lot.
2. I set the cabin To 65° only ... but used seat-heaters on auto as well as steering wheel heat ... and was completely comfortable.
3. (The Bug/RFE) turn on the 'recirculate' ... unfortunately after something like 5 minutes the car self-reverts to pulling in outside air. This is unfortunately *especially* for an EV with e-heat because taking the already warmed air and just re-warming it a bit is MUCH more energy efficient than pulling in 27° outside air and fully heating it.
As for the trip-planning...
I paid the $4.99 to use ABRP Premium and I have a Bluetooth OBD monitor. ABRP says it'll use the OBD to get more accurate data from the car. Well ... the bit about using the OBD (you have to go into Bluetooth devices on your phone, manually connect the OBD module and then ABRP will use it).
Unfortunately ABRP's accuracy was all over the place. It initially said my battery % was a little lower than what the car said. I realize my 88 kWh battery is *really* a 98.8 kWh batter ... so maybe it was fooled by the 10%. But later it was off by much worse ... and after charging it noticed we had more energy but THEN it reported an even HIGHER state of charge vs. what the car reported (so much for the difference being explained by the battery buffer).
There were other annoyances with ABRP. It would occasionally pick an EVgo and I wanted to edit it's selection... very hard to do. I was constantly trying to find ways to work around it.
I decided to try the in-car nav system. Several cool things I learned....
1. You can pre-plan your trips using the FordPass app. Use the 'Maps' tab, pick your destination. After working out your trip if you 'save' it then it will be sent to the car (Which will prompt if you want it to start that trip when you get in the car.)
The car will AUTOMATICALLY add charging stops to your trip (assuming the trip is long enough to need charging). Suppose you don't like the selected stops. I didn't like that it added some EVgo stops ... I'd rather use EA (I still have free charging credits)
(I've made a video demo that I'll upload once we make it to our hotel)
2. In the car, on the Nav screen, tap the Wrench/Screwdriver icon in the lower left corner.
3. Next tap Turn List
4. On the mini turn-list display tap "See All Turns"
There are two taps ... "Trip Overview" and "Turn List" on this panel. In "Trip Overview" will show only the charge stops. The "Turn List" tab will show every turn.
Also, each charge stop listed will show the predicted state of charge at arrival and the minimum amount you'll need to charge to in order to make it to the next charge stop (it doesn't just have you go to 80% every time).
If you want to edit the charge stop, just tap the charge stop (either in Trip Overview or Turn List view). Two new buttons appear in the bottom right ... "Replace" and "Details". "Replace" is awesome.
5. Tap "Replace". If the car is in motion you'll get a warning that the driver shouldn't be doing this. Your passenger will have two buttons "Override" and "Map" (tap Map returns to the Nav screen).
6. Have the passenger tap "Override".
You will get a map with numbered icons on the right ... and a list on the left with the NAME and ADDRESS of every other charger in the area.
The upper right corner of that list has an icon you can tap to apply filters (e.g. Fast chargers only ... or "No Cost" or in "Ford Network")
This was SO MUCH BETTER than the ABRP experience ... which had horribly accuracy and was difficult to edit. ABRP will let you set some charge network preferences ... I could tell it to "prefer" a network and "prefer to avoid" or "avoid" a charge network. But I couldn't just tap a charge stop and edit it like I can on the built-in system.
Unless ABRP adds a lot of improvements ... I think I'll be using the in-car trip planning.
Edit: Here's the video. Recorded with my phone -- hand-held while Leon (@AEtherScythe) is driving ... so audio quality is a bit weak and the video bounces around a bit.
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