This car is great in the cold!

[Ride_the_lightning]

With all the posts whining about winter range, I thought I’d post my contrarian view. A big reason I got my MME AWD was for winter. I work from home but drive 50-100 miles a day, including taking kids to multiple schools and activities. On a day like today, where it’s 10F, I used to have to remote start my ICE car in the morning in the (open) garage. Even after the maximum 10 minute period, it still wasn’t warm enough to blow much heat, and my kids car seats were freezing. We would be breathing in fumes while I buckled them in. They would finally be warm when we arrived to school.

Now I walk out to a toasty preconditioned MME each morning. Every seat is warm. We get in with the garage door still closed, no fumes to breathe in. At my kids school, I can idle with my heat on and smugly judge all the parents idling their SUVs to keep warm while they wait for their kids.

At home, Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s club, my hair cut place or the movie theater, I can plug in to a L2 charger and come out to a topped-off battery for less than $1 in electricity cost. I have 1000 miles on my car and have never dropped below 60%. I have infinite winter range. This car is awesome.

Yes, we have a PHEV for long road trips. That’s the state of the tech right now. But we are happy and I’m sure In 5 to 10 years I’ll be confident enough to go full BEV only.

Sponsored

 

[MailGuy]

And I would add that with all the snow we’ve been getting, I’ve discovered my AWD FE is the best ice/snow car I’ve ever owned.

 

[Nav]

We get in with the garage door still closed, no fumes to breathe in.

This is it right here! That's the part I love, and that the car STAYS ON even if passengers get in first or the driver is busy buckling kids in first.

Had a Hyundai, was nice the remote start app let you pick climate settings, even defrost and heated seats (or leave to auto), however the car would always shutoff in the middle of loading kids first. With Lexus, it's nice you can remote start via the app or 3x lock button on the Key Fob, however that thing would shut off the second ANY door was opened. In the name of "safety"

Love this about the Mach-E

 

[Chuck]

It appears that not all Mach E's are made equal...

 

[Ride_the_lightning]

It appears that not all Mach E's are made equal...

-17F ya screw that. For their sake I hope he can make it work, but you couldn’t pay me enough to live somewhere like that. I think we hit those temps here once in the last 10 years (last Feb during the cold apocalypse).

-17 sucks. A diesel car would need an engine block heater in those temps. In fact, I remember renting some tiny little compact Hyundai in Michigan one winter, and the dang thing didn’t blow warm air the entire 40 mile drive to my hotel from the airport. It was just too cold. It generated a temperature delta, but at -17F you can’t expect anyreasonable heater to generate a temp delta of over 100F, which is what you need to feel “warm” air.

It does sound like Ford needs to “fix” the issue with recirc tho. If you can’t recirculate the air it will never warm up significantly in those temps.

 

[Av8tor]

It appears that not all Mach E's are made equal...

@Chuck Watch his second video from a heated garage. Up North, Outside, the battery mass keeps the heater from really heating up.

Second Video, all works well.

Mach-E, -29F OUTSIDE, parked in a Heated Garage - How's the heater performance now? - YouTube

 

[TruWrecks]

At 9F in snow and ice my MME handled very well. I only slipped 20 feet down a steep grade I had no business on without chains.

 

[Carsinmyblood]

With all the posts whining about winter range, I thought I’d post my contrarian view. A big reason I got my MME AWD was for winter. I work from home but drive 50-100 miles a day, including taking kids to multiple schools and activities. On a day like today, where it’s 10F, I used to have to remote start my ICE car in the morning in the (open) garage. Even after the maximum 10 minute period, it still wasn’t warm enough to blow much heat, and my kids car seats were freezing. We would be breathing in fumes while I buckled them in. They would finally be warm when we arrived to school.

Now I walk out to a toasty preconditioned MME each morning. Every seat is warm. We get in with the garage door still closed, no fumes to breathe in. At my kids school, I can idle with my heat on and smugly judge all the parents idling their SUVs to keep warm while they wait for their kids.

At home, Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s club, my hair cut place or the movie theater, I can plug in to a L2 charger and come out to a topped-off battery for less than $1 in electricity cost. I have 1000 miles on my car and have never dropped below 60%. I have infinite winter range. This car is awesome.

Yes, we have a PHEV for long road trips. That’s the state of the tech right now. But we are happy and I’m sure In 5 to 10 years I’ll be confident enough to go full BEV only.

My wife and I each have an MME. We've taken each car an multi-thousand mile long trips. Just like in a gas car, plan your stops. Usually the car finished charging before we finished eating.

 

[Billyk24]

-17F ya screw that. For their sake I hope he can make it work, but you couldn’t pay me enough to live somewhere like that. I think we hit those temps here once in the last 10 years (last Feb during the cold apocalypse).

-17 sucks. A diesel car would need an engine block heater in those temps. In fact, I remember renting some tiny little compact Hyundai in Michigan one winter, and the dang thing didn’t blow warm air the entire 40 mile drive to my hotel from the airport. It was just too cold. It generated a temperature delta, but at -17F you can’t expect anyreasonable heater to generate a temp delta of over 100F, which is what you need to feel “warm” air.

It does sound like Ford needs to “fix” the issue with recirc tho. If you can’t recirculate the air it will never warm up significantly in those temps.

My Hybrid Ford Escspe 2005 had no problem providing cabin heat in cold winter temperatures
My 2016 Toyota RAV4 doesn't either including bouts of below minus 10f.

 

[TruWrecks]

I took Ghost Stallion on a 4200 mile road trip in October in the western US. We would usually stop and eat or have a picnic while the car charged. We rarely finished before the car was ready.

The MME is an insanely great road trip car!

 

[RickMachE]

With all the posts whining about winter range, I thought I’d post my contrarian view. A big reason I got my MME AWD was for winter. I work from home but drive 50-100 miles a day, including taking kids to multiple schools and activities. On a day like today, where it’s 10F, I used to have to remote start my ICE car in the morning in the (open) garage. Even after the maximum 10 minute period, it still wasn’t warm enough to blow much heat, and my kids car seats were freezing. We would be breathing in fumes while I buckled them in. They would finally be warm when we arrived to school.

Now I walk out to a toasty preconditioned MME each morning. Every seat is warm. We get in with the garage door still closed, no fumes to breathe in. At my kids school, I can idle with my heat on and smugly judge all the parents idling their SUVs to keep warm while they wait for their kids.

At home, Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s club, my hair cut place or the movie theater, I can plug in to a L2 charger and come out to a topped-off battery for less than $1 in electricity cost. I have 1000 miles on my car and have never dropped below 60%. I have infinite winter range. This car is awesome.

Yes, we have a PHEV for long road trips. That’s the state of the tech right now. But we are happy and I’m sure In 5 to 10 years I’ll be confident enough to go full BEV only.

Great post. Love your enthusiasm. We love our Mach-E also. But don't know where you live in the Midwest.

Our Wal-Mart closed.
No chargers at Target, Meijer (supposedly coming someday) near us. Nor Home Depot, Lowes, Kroger. In fact, between our house and where all these stores are near us, not a single L2 charger except at a community college.

Locally, we charge at home. There are L2 chargers in parking garages in-town, pay to park but charging is free. We rarely go downtown. DTE had 2 free chargers at their office building, but they left the building and took the chargers.

 

[jamelski]

When it’s super cold out side. All the e heat is going to the battery pack. Lol. I love seeing posts and videos about no heat in cold cold cold places ? ?‍Ford needs to have a option like block heater but second e heat for cold a$$ area. One for battery one for cabin ?‍

 

[Av8tor]

When it’s super cold out side. All the e heat is going to the battery pack. Lol. I love seeing posts and videos about no heat in cold cold cold places ? ?‍Ford needs to have a option like block heater but second e heat for cold a$$ area. One for battery one for cabin ?‍

I think it's plug in and precondition

 

[mkhuffman]

With all the posts whining about winter range, I thought I’d post my contrarian view. A big reason I got my MME AWD was for winter. I work from home but drive 50-100 miles a day, including taking kids to multiple schools and activities. On a day like today, where it’s 10F, I used to have to remote start my ICE car in the morning in the (open) garage. Even after the maximum 10 minute period, it still wasn’t warm enough to blow much heat, and my kids car seats were freezing. We would be breathing in fumes while I buckled them in. They would finally be warm when we arrived to school.

Now I walk out to a toasty preconditioned MME each morning. Every seat is warm. We get in with the garage door still closed, no fumes to breathe in. At my kids school, I can idle with my heat on and smugly judge all the parents idling their SUVs to keep warm while they wait for their kids.

At home, Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s club, my hair cut place or the movie theater, I can plug in to a L2 charger and come out to a topped-off battery for less than $1 in electricity cost. I have 1000 miles on my car and have never dropped below 60%. I have infinite winter range. This car is awesome.

Yes, we have a PHEV for long road trips. That’s the state of the tech right now. But we are happy and I’m sure In 5 to 10 years I’ll be confident enough to go full BEV only.

I absolutely love this perspective! Personally the winter "issue" has not impacted me at all, and everything has been positive as you described. I start the car in the garage with the door closed, just like you do. Around town I never even think about range. As the movie is ending in the theater, I open FordPass and start my car so it is nice and warm when we get in. It is the perfect winter car for many use cases, that is for sure!

 

[BMT1071]

I absolutely love this perspective! Personally the winter "issue" has not impacted me at all, and everything has been positive as you described. I start the car in the garage with the door closed, just like you do. Around town I never even think about range. As the movie is ending in the theater, I open FordPass and start my car so it is nice and warm when we get in. It is the perfect winter car for many use cases, that is for sure!

The ability to start the car in my closed garage has to be in the top 5 of my favorite things about owning an EV.

Sponsored