The truth about Electrify America's progress and Traveling with the Mach E

[ClaudeMach-E]

Hahah, I know what you mean. I will do a 50 or 60 mile bike ride drinking multiple bottles of water and be fine but put me into a car with a cup of coffee and I have to stop after a couple hours.

Well now to avoid all of these inconvenience I always avoid drinking coffee when we go for a road trip.

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[timbop]

Well now to avoid all of these inconvenience I always avoid drinking coffee when we go for a road trip.

although with a BEV for trips you might as well drink a cup so you feel like you're getting more value for your recharge stop

 

[jhalkias]

Well now to avoid all of these inconvenience I always avoid drinking coffee when we go for a road trip.

Nocando without my morning coffee. Weird thing is, on a road trip, I can go about 3 hours. But not at the office. Road trips strengthen the bladder.

 

[MattG]

Well now to avoid all of these inconvenience I always avoid drinking coffee when we go for a road trip.

Try espresso! All the caffeine goodness, none of the pit stop urgency.

 

[dbsb3233]

Well, some humans, anyway. Our usual road trip is 785 miles in one day, with 2 stops. We're able to do it in all daylight, with one lunch, without any problem in our Escape. Different people have different abilities.

In the MME AWD ER, it's gonna add 2+ hours. Makes it a 2-day drive, with 6 stops and hotel each way. The longest leg ABRP shows is 185 miles (starting from 100% SOC at home), but the other 6 are all <130 miles (100 mile avg per leg). And the charging cost (according to EA) adds up to about $100 more than gas. But other than all that, it should be fun.

 

[dbsb3233]

ABRP shows it with 6 stops in the AWD ER. But that's with a 10% minimum. No way in hell am I risking 5% with no safe backups in many cases.

That's not "perception", it's sanity.

 

[dbsb3233]

I'm not risking it even only for the final destination either. Estimates can easily be off 5%. Having to run more climate control than expected... having more weight in the car... headwinds... hot/cold temps...

And L1 charging on a road trip?!? Seriously?!? No way in hell.

You don't have to take my word for it. Plug Denver to Vegas into ABRP on the MME AWD ER. Leaving home at 100%, arriving 10%, 10-80% min/max for each leg. 6 charging stops. 2 1/2 hours of en-route charging (2 hours longer than ICE).

 

[FredT]

Leaving home at 100%, arriving 10%, 10-80% min/max for each leg. 6 charging stops. 2 1/2 hours of en-route charging (2 hours longer than ICE).

I'm beginning to question my desire for an EV and wondering if perhaps I should get another PHEV.

 

[dbsb3233]

I'm beginning to question my desire for an EV and wondering if perhaps I should get another PHEV.

Depends on how you plan to use it, and what your tolerances are. BEVs are great as around-home vehicles if you have a place to charge them at home. Easy peasy, cheap fuel, no trips to the gas station. Efficient and powerful. And fewer parts to break than a PHEV. Overall usually the best for around-home driving.

But it all begins to reverse on road trips that require charging away from home. Charging speeds range from slow to very slow, you're limited on routes, backups are sometimes non-existent, and charging at EA actually costs more than gas.

Some people don't minds those compromises, but I suspect most mainstream drivers do. The way I look at it is if I needed that vehicle for a significant amount of lengthy road-tripping, I'd buy a PHEV instead. Fortuately I don't. We have 2 cars, and one will remain an ICE. We'll usually use the ICE on road trips and usually the BEV around home (where the vast majority of our driving is anyway). But if we only had one vehicle, it would be a trickier choice. A few rare long road trips (like >300 miles) we'd tolerate, but not many. Renting an ICE for trips is an option too.

Using ABRP to check out a few sample BEV trips from home is a good way to see what it would be like, and whether you think it would be tolerable.

 

[silverelan]

I'm beginning to question my desire for an EV and wondering if perhaps I should get another PHEV.

PHEVs are underrated and underappreciated. Very low maintenance and as Toyota has shown with the RAV4 Prime, potentially high performance.
PHEVs are also a compromise in technology that bring a few inconveniences with the gas tank.

For BEVs, the charging infrastructure right now is as bad as we'll ever know it. It was actually worse yesterday and will literally be better tomorrow as yet another new station opens.

 

[JellyBelly]

PHEVs are underrated and underappreciated. Very low maintenance and as Toyota has shown with the RAV4 Prime, potentially high performance.
PHEVs are also a compromise in technology that bring a few inconveniences with the gas tank.

For BEVs, the charging infrastructure right now is as bad as we'll ever know it. It was actually worse yesterday and will literally be better tomorrow as yet another new station opens.

We just need more of the PHEVs available - Toyota Rav4 Prime not yet available widely. My one way commute everyday is about 40 miles, very few PHEvs available at this time that can go that distance just on battery - Ideally I charge at home drive to work, charge at work all day and drive back all on electric - very few options out there (Escape is available now) for that but when available, PHEVs for next 5ish years seem to be optimal options espcially for those not wanting to have a second ICE only vehicle.

 

[JamieGeek]

I'm not risking it even only for the final destination either. Estimates can easily be off 5%. Having to run more climate control than expected... having more weight in the car... headwinds... hot/cold temps...

Ah but once you've driven an EV you quickly get a feel for how it consumes electricity.

Yes ABRP give you a good estimate telling you if a trip is possible or not but after driving the car for a while you'll know if ABRP (or any trip planner for that matter) is accurately predicting what you've been experiencing.

I've taken a few trips on the hairy edge like that and it isn't that big of a deal. The Focus Electric had a neat gauge to tell you how you were progressing comparing distance to empty (DTE) with distance to your destination; the Bolt does not so you have to do that comparison yourself.

It is basically this: You occasionally glance at DTE and miles to the destination. If DTE is falling faster than miles to dest then you take action (raise the cabin temp, or turn off HVAC completely, or, gasp, slow down). If you've planned correctly the needed action is really minor (raise the cabin temp 1-3 degrees, slow down 3 mph).

Note that the opposite is also true: If you find that DTE is falling slower than miles to dest you can crank the A/C, Heat, and/or go faster. (This has been my case: Start out with full charge, drive conservatively until you see that you'll make it with plenty of battery left and slowly increase speed.)

With the Focus Electric and its 70 mile range I would frequently (especially in winter) take trips where the DTE would read 0 miles as I pulled into our driveway. Its knowing the car and getting comfortable with what it can do.

On top of all that we'll see about Ford's crowd-sourced-AI-distance to empty gauge: It should take even more of the guesswork out of it.

It's not like you don't have anything to do and bam you're empty....

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