Dmcerm

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My wife and I frequently drive between Woodland Park and Ridgway in Colorado, a ~240 mile trip normally (that we stretched into 255 miles exploring charging options today). Here's the elevation profile:

mache_ - 6.jpeg


So as you can imagine, we were nervous about what our range would be like in an EV with this sort of elevation change (the peak in the middle is Monarch Pass if you're curious). We decided to take our time on our first EV trip, stopping at most of the chargers along the way to check them out. There are three 50kW DCFCs on this route, those were our main focus though we also checked out various L2 chargers...a total of six plugs in all (there were a few more L2s we didn't bother to check out). Of those, the only failure was a DCFC in Salida that stopped charging after a few kWh, though credit where credit's due, ChargePoint's app warned us this station was at reduced power and providing 0, so we didn't expect much.

Car is a Premium, AWD, ER

Here's the DCFC we tried out in Buena Vista. Arriving there at a 73% SoC meant we hit the 80% cliff quickly, driving away with an 82% SoC (we started the trip at 100%).

mache_ - 1-2.jpeg


Our dog Khaleesi settled in and was right at home, similar to the CX-5 we traded in for this Mach-E:

mache_ - 2.jpeg


I found this map view interesting...it looks like it's showing how far we can go in any direction from our current position. One icon is the DCFC it's decided we should stop at, enroute to our final destination (Ridgway).

mache_ - 3.jpeg


Finally, charging at home in Ridgway:

mache_ - 4.jpeg



So, what's the verdict? Temperatures ranged from 29-45. We had the heat on manual...E-heat turned on, fan set to speed 1, seat heater on low for my wife's seat only. With all the detours we made to check out various chargers, our 240 mile trip ended up being 255...and we averaged a truly impressive 3mi/kWh!!! For reference, in an ICE, our best travel time would be about 4:15, for just under a 60mph average...this trip was longer due to all the charger stops! We set the cruise control to 3-5 over; speed limits were up to 65mph in places.

mache_ - 5.jpeg


It should also be noted that for the first half or so of the trip, we were driving into very bad headwinds...forecast to be 20-30 and while I couldn't measure that, it felt like at LEAST 30.

This car was a dream to drive. Truly awesome, Ford did a great job. The lane centering took some getting used to...it doesn't recognize when a lane is diverging into two. It'll try to keep you centered between the two diverging lines, then when a new line appears in the center it freaks out and gives up. Also can't see lines that are covered in the dirt common to Colorado roads in the winter (no surprise there!). So, it's a very nice driver aid, but I can see why Ford is saying they'll only offer hands free on pre-mapped highways.

We had one CarPlay bug...wouldn't show the display and couldn't switch phones...but rebooting the car fixed that.

My only other gripe would be the built in nav...I liked how it planned a charging stop for us (even though we technically could have made it without charging), but we weren't interested in the L2 it chose and wanted to press on to the next DCFC...when we ignored its turn directions and continued on, it never adapted, it never recalculated...it kept trying to get us to turn around for the next 60 miles until we finally stopped at the 'wrong' charger.

We were both really impressed overall...we hit a 3mi/kWh energy consumption through the mountains of Colorado in a pleasant February day drive. Sure, in worst case winter conditions we'll need to really take advantage of one of the chargers we tried out, but most of the year, I think we'll be able to do this drive without stopping (once my wife learns to trust the range meter more!).

We do this drive frequently so I'll update this thread over time with more data. I'm especially curious about energy consumption on the return trip, where we'll gain elevation but typically have a tailwind.
So, with your Premium AWD, ER, you haven't been experiencing any of the issues other owners have seen lately?

Great write-up! Thanks!
 
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MattG

MattG

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So, with your Premium AWD, ER, you haven't been experiencing any of the issues other owners have seen lately?

Great write-up! Thanks!
the only issue is several messages reporting an electrical system drain, and that the car transferred power to the 12V battery as a result. No clear pattern in those messages. I was going to take it in for service, but considering how hard that sounds to debug and the amount of my time that would be spent driving there, I’ve decided to just live with that for now. I’m wondering if the drain might be normal, if the set point for this message is just too low.

Before taking delivery, the dealer did do a bunch of software updates to the vehicle which is why I think I haven’t seen the issues others have with a dead LVB. My car is at least keeping that LVB charged, though there might be an underlying issue still.
 
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MattG

MattG

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Yesterday, my wife and I drove this same route in reverse. Only one charging stop so slightly fewer miles (244). Daytime, average temp of 28 instead of the 38 last time. Sunny so the heat was set to fan speed one, e-heat on, limited seat warmers needed. Result is the same 3 mi/kWh as reported by the car.

I did more post-processing of the data this time. the single charge stop delivered 21.74kWh to the car, which reported a state of charge increase corresponding to a 94% efficiency in charging which seems reasonable. Accounting for energy added, our ACTUAL energy usage was 2.89 mi/kWh, less than the car’s reported 3. Applying the same 94% to the charge added on the initial trip, that route used 2.89 as well. It helps explain why our finishing charge state equated to 5kwh if you remove our charge stop, instead of the 7 we should have had if we were truly averaging 3mi/kWh.

So, the car’s reporting is rounding a bit more than I’d like. We’ll see if that changes over time.

The car is proving to be a very good road trip car. Cruise control works great, lane centering makes for more relaxing driving once you get used to its inability to deal with brief breaks in lines (as lanes diverge for a passing lane for example).

As another comparison, my wife would start to get mildly carsick if I’d drive our CX-5 quickly over Monarch Pass (on this route). Not so with the Ford, which I attribute to much less body roll and more composed cornering than that Mazda.
 
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MattG

MattG

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I’ve done this round trip three times now. Started with a reported 3mi/kWh. As the weather is warming that’s been increasing, up to 3.1, and now 3.3. Impressive, especially as we’re starting to also leave the climate control on auto.

I wanted to add though that the factory tires are garbage in the snow, I’ve had quite a few chances to test that out the past month. Traction control and ABS are seamless so acceleration and braking is OK (though 1PD can result in a brief loss of traction at first), but the lateral grip of these tires in snow and ice is really bad and the car often loses its composure briefly. I’ll definitely be putting proper winter tires on it next fall.
 

@kWhpony

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My wife and I frequently drive between Woodland Park and Ridgway in Colorado, a ~240 mile trip normally (that we stretched into 255 miles exploring charging options today). Here's the elevation profile:

mache_ - 6.jpeg


So as you can imagine, we were nervous about what our range would be like in an EV with this sort of elevation change (the peak in the middle is Monarch Pass if you're curious). We decided to take our time on our first EV trip, stopping at most of the chargers along the way to check them out. There are three 50kW DCFCs on this route, those were our main focus though we also checked out various L2 chargers...a total of six plugs in all (there were a few more L2s we didn't bother to check out). Of those, the only failure was a DCFC in Salida that stopped charging after a few kWh, though credit where credit's due, ChargePoint's app warned us this station was at reduced power and providing 0, so we didn't expect much.

Car is a Premium, AWD, ER

Here's the DCFC we tried out in Buena Vista. Arriving there at a 73% SoC meant we hit the 80% cliff quickly, driving away with an 82% SoC (we started the trip at 100%).

mache_ - 1-2.jpeg


Our dog Khaleesi settled in and was right at home, similar to the CX-5 we traded in for this Mach-E:

mache_ - 2.jpeg


I found this map view interesting...it looks like it's showing how far we can go in any direction from our current position. One icon is the DCFC it's decided we should stop at, enroute to our final destination (Ridgway).

mache_ - 3.jpeg


Finally, charging at home in Ridgway:

mache_ - 4.jpeg



So, what's the verdict? Temperatures ranged from 29-45. We had the heat on manual...E-heat turned on, fan set to speed 1, seat heater on low for my wife's seat only. With all the detours we made to check out various chargers, our 240 mile trip ended up being 255...and we averaged a truly impressive 3mi/kWh!!! For reference, in an ICE, our best travel time would be about 4:15, for just under a 60mph average...this trip was longer due to all the charger stops! We set the cruise control to 3-5 over; speed limits were up to 65mph in places.

mache_ - 5.jpeg


It should also be noted that for the first half or so of the trip, we were driving into very bad headwinds...forecast to be 20-30 and while I couldn't measure that, it felt like at LEAST 30.

This car was a dream to drive. Truly awesome, Ford did a great job. The lane centering took some getting used to...it doesn't recognize when a lane is diverging into two. It'll try to keep you centered between the two diverging lines, then when a new line appears in the center it freaks out and gives up. Also can't see lines that are covered in the dirt common to Colorado roads in the winter (no surprise there!). So, it's a very nice driver aid, but I can see why Ford is saying they'll only offer hands free on pre-mapped highways.

We had one CarPlay bug...wouldn't show the display and couldn't switch phones...but rebooting the car fixed that.

My only other gripe would be the built in nav...I liked how it planned a charging stop for us (even though we technically could have made it without charging), but we weren't interested in the L2 it chose and wanted to press on to the next DCFC...when we ignored its turn directions and continued on, it never adapted, it never recalculated...it kept trying to get us to turn around for the next 60 miles until we finally stopped at the 'wrong' charger.

We were both really impressed overall...we hit a 3mi/kWh energy consumption through the mountains of Colorado in a pleasant February day drive. Sure, in worst case winter conditions we'll need to really take advantage of one of the chargers we tried out, but most of the year, I think we'll be able to do this drive without stopping (once my wife learns to trust the range meter more!).

We do this drive frequently so I'll update this thread over time with more data. I'm especially curious about energy consumption on the return trip, where we'll gain elevation but typically have a tailwind.
What did you use to get the elevation profile? Good information to know when road tripping through changing elevation.
 
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MattG

MattG

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What did you use to get the elevation profile? Good information to know when road tripping through changing elevation.
I used Google Earth on a Mac to generate that elevation profile. As you said, it’s good to know when planning longer trips! I thought ABetterRoutePlanner would show this too but can’t find that option when I checked last.
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