Standard Range or Extended Range

[AZBill]

Do not forget that your battery will degrade over time, so if you plan on keeping it for many years, you will notice the impact. A smaller battery will need more charging cycles and will degrade faster. For example, my Bolt has lost 10% of battery capacity after 99k miles.

Also, if you go on a trip, even only once a year, what happens if you get to a DFDC charger on a trip and it is broken. I had that happen with my Bolt once, and sure wished I had more range. I had to spend 2-3 hours on a L2 to get to my next stop.

Bigger battery also charges faster on a DFDC.

With an EV, range is king.

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[Glen]

I ordered extended range AWD.

 

[generaltso]

With a 100 mile round trip commute, I'd go with the ER battery. I went with the SR, but my round trip commute is 20 miles.

 

[RickMachE]

Also, if you go on a trip, even only once a year, what happens if you get to a DFDC charger on a trip and it is broken. I had that happen with my Bolt once, and sure wished I had more range. I had to spend 2-3 hours on a L2 to get to my next stop.

Really? You've owned an EV and arrive at your charge stops with enough charge to make it to the NEXT charging location?

?

Just joking, but sort of not. Have done two trips, totaling 4,800 miles. I do NOT plan my trips allowing for making the NEXT DC charger location. I generally try to go to about 10% of the battery, or less, which would not make it to the next EA location.

However, I do ensure that I've researched the location on PlugShare ahead of time, that I check the status at the prior EA location on both PlugShare and EA, and that I ensure there are slower chargers in the nearby vicinity. Worse case, I hit a slower charger, get enough to get to the next EA charger, and leave.

We arrived at one location with 2% battery. Wife was not amused when we got numerous "you're not going to make it" warnings from the car, and I suggested she slow to 55 for the last 10 miles or so. #NoGutsNoGlory #MarriedOver40Years #GottaHaveFunInLife

 

[skeighle]

Although I Def would have preferred er, I went with Sr awd select for one main reason, that was what was available on a local lot without adm when my wife's car died. Will be trading up for er lightning when they are available. Although honestly my less than seamless experience with the mach e also had me considering the rivian. Particularly the 7 seater suv.

 

[timbop]

Really? You've owned an EV and arrive at your charge stops with enough charge to make it to the NEXT charging location?

?

Just joking, but sort of not. Have done two trips, totaling 4,800 miles. I do NOT plan my trips allowing for making the NEXT DC charger location. I generally try to go to about 10% of the battery, or less, which would not make it to the next EA location.

OK, so you live on the edge. I don't. I've only done a 1600 mile trip, and I DID stop with enough charge to get to the next DCFC if I couldn't get a charge. I too looked in plugshare to see where the problematic chargers were, which is one reason WHY I stopped before the battery was too drained. Not only did it give me peace of mind, but it also made the stops more tolerable. Rather than one 40 minute stop after 3+ hours of driving, we made two 20 minute stops after 1.5 to 2 hours. By the time we went inside to the restroom and walked around for a few minutes or chatted with others charging their cars, my car was ready to go. Maybe our bladders are older than yours, but stopping that frequently was actually pretty nice - much better than having to sit for another 20 minutes staring at the SOC creep upward.

 

[AZBill]

Just joking, but sort of not. Have done two trips, totaling 4,800 miles. I do NOT plan my trips allowing for making the NEXT DC charger location. I generally try to go to about 10% of the battery, or less, which would not make it to the next EA location.

The trip I made was in 2017, before EA existed. My first planned charging stop was 130 miles, but the next DFDC was 230 miles. Speed limit was 75mph. I arrived at the broken charger with 60 miles remaining on the battery and 100 miles to go. Today on the same route there are 9 fast chargers less than 200 miles from my starting point.

 

[DrJay32]

I gave a lot of thought to this. For 90% of my driving, SR would suffice. My longest drive usually involves a round trip from Colorado Springs to Denver (roughly 160-175 miles total).

BUT (there's always a but):

• I live in Colorado Springs, and there aren't many DCFCs around here at all.
• AWD is basically mandatory here given our weather.
• It gets COLD in the winter (frequently sub-freezing temps from Nov-May)
• If I do make a long round-trip drive, I want to make sure I have a little range left when I get home so I'm not locked into a charger.

So my rationale was to consider range starting from a typical 80% charge, and I chose the ER battery.

Having lived in SoCal for 18 years, I'd think the extended range would be less necessary given the availability of chargers, and you having an ICE vehicle for road trips as needed further reinforces the idea of SR being enough.

 

[RickMachE]

While the amount of charging time isn't significantly different (i.e. two 20 minute charges = one 40 minute charge), by the time you get off the highway, go through 2-4 traffic lights, find the charger, park, and get a working charger, it adds 15 minutes to the stop, or more, depending on how many chargers aren't working properly. So a trip with 4 possible stops (going further) that becomes 6 or more stops adds another 30 - 60 minutes. We've also find the chargers empty 50% of the time, and some are in a closed Sears parking lot (Massachusetts) where we were the only vehicle.

I don't plan on making it a habit of going that low - this was a trip where we felt confident that the chargers at that location were working, knew there were L2 chargers at that exit, it was a nice day, and we didn't want to get off and back on a tollway more than we had to. And, to be truthful, I wanted to get to a state that had per minute vs per kWh charging because it's 1/2 the cost. Going to 20% sometimes won't get you to the next EA charger. Some places seem to have a higher concentration of EA chargers than we've experience (Michigan to Florida, Michigan to Massachusetts). Like Atlanta has a ton of them, but between Atlanta and Florida there are 3, and two of them are 85 miles apart. At 2.7m/kw (what I use to plan), I need 36% of my 88kWh battery to get from one of those to the next, so keeping a 40% reserve I'd be driving between 40 and 80%, i.e. 35kw, or 95 miles. I'm not stopping every 95 miles on a 600 - 800 mile per day trip.

We do stop if we need to use the restroom, for a quick in and out. In looking at our two trips, we went longer on the 2nd trip after gaining confidence on the longer first trip. Did learn that things like elevation, and heavy rain, cut down on range. Longest we drove without stopping was around 3 hours, and many stops were 2 hours. Rarely do we go only 1 1/2 hours, but if that's where the charger is, then that's where it is.

I find the best way to plan is a combination of things. Do the route with GoogleMaps to see the best way. Then do it with ABRP and see where it tries to have you stop. Open the EA app and see where the other EA locations are - and try to figure out why ABRP is making you stop so soon (it's conservative). Then look at PlugShare to see history. Takes a bunch of work, but we did a 1,200 mile trip (each way) and then am 800 mile trip (each way) without any big problems except EA chargers not working.

 

[PA Bob]

I ordered a premium RWD SR. I never had AWD and only got stuck 2ce in my 50 yr driving career. I'm in health care so I have to drive in to work even if the weather is bad.
I didn't get the the ER battery for 2 reasons. 1. My daily commute is about 25 mi round trip so I don't need the range on about 98% of days. 2. I live in PA. I get a $750 rebate if the car is under $50000. The ER batt put the car over that so the battery really would be an extra $5750.
I figure that fast-charging station will proliferate so I won't need the range for long trips either. Right now, it would take 3 stops to cross PA, but that's because you have a big gap for fast-chargers in the middle of the state. In the near future it will be 2 stops and my wife requires at least 2 stops.
I bought a charging station instead and saved about $5200.

 

[ARK]

I think everyone has already hit the main points. I would add, unlike an ICE, electric vehicles are least efficient at highway speed, and the drop off in range is pretty substantial the faster you go.

I’d also add that typically, you would not be running the battery from 100% to 0% in a BEV. You also want a comfortable buffer, you don’t want to be getting it anywhere near close because it’s nice to not have to think about your remaining range, no matter how slow or fast you go, no matter how moderate or cold it is outside, no matter whether you have some random, long detour to run an errand for, etc.

I think while you probably would be fine with an SR battery, an ER battery could give you additional peace of mind. And particularly if you drive at 80mph+ for most of your commute, you’ll find yourself getting less than the EPA range.

If I were in your shoes and it was doable financially, I’d probably go for the ER battery. I think even the ER AWD would be plenty though, and you don’t need to specifically get the absolutely longest range version for your needs.

 

[DaMeatMan]

Trying to decide on standard range vs extended range… I live in Southern California (inland empire) the commute will be 100 miles round trip max and don’t see myself driving more that 180 miles in a day. We also have a minivan for the occasional road trip. So I’m going back and forth between the premium standard range, premium extended range and the California route 1. Any thoughts ore appreciated…

General rule of thumb is to buy the absolute longest range you can afford. EPA figures are estimates based on a particular usage scenario, but weather (both cold and hot) and the way you drive, as well as age of vehicle, road conditions etc can result in dramatically different real world range figures.

The way I see it, you pay for the thing once so just swallow the added cost of the Extended range battery to ensure you get the type of lifetime experience you want to get out of the vehicle in any situation, and not just the ideal.

You will get over the sticker shock much sooner than expected lol. The added capacity also has an impact on performance as well, as the larger battery can deliver more power.

The other added benefit (and this is important) is that you are far less likely to NEED to go below 10% and above 80% or 90% which prolongs the life of the battery. Basically assume that you are only going to use about 70% of the battery to give yourself that top and bottom buffer. So 70% of 270 rated miles is 189 miles that you should be getting, (in ideal conditions) while being very kind and gentle on the battery.

Not to mention right now "fast charging" above 80% is not possible and it slows to a trickle at about 12kw once you hit 80%, so going from 80% to 100% WILL take 2 hours. Ford has mentioned they will push an update to allow you to fast charge up to 90% and then slow things down after that, but that is yet to come.

 

[fightinag]

289 vs 428

 

[BMT1071]

You will get over the sticker shock much sooner than expected lol. The added capacity also has an impact on performance as well, as the larger battery can deliver more power.

It's only a positive impact if you spring for AWD also. The ER RWD is the slowest of the MMEs.

 

[Crilly]

Resale value.

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