Skip Towne
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2021
- Threads
- 16
- Messages
- 115
- Reaction score
- 170
- Location
- New Hampshire
- Vehicles
- Mach-E 4x Premium
- Thread starter
- #1
This is a bit of a report about what happened when I got CLOSE to the end of range and a questions about what would have happened if I kept going?
I started out a late night trip to the White Mountains of NH - where there are no charging options other than the charger at my destination. The northernmost DCFC is Manchester NH. It is usually a very quiet ride, NO traffic.
Started at 93% charge in my LR AWD MME Premium - the one with ficticous 270 mi range. the GOM said I had 168 mi range - ok for the 140 mi trip. When I started, the air temp was 20 deg.
By the time I got to "no where" in the mountains, the air temp was down to 0 deg and dropping. The GOM was dropping range much faster than I was travelling. At one point the GOM showed I didn't have enough range to make my trip. And I was on the most desolate part of my trip. I began to think I was going to stall out in the White Mountain National Forest and die a long, cold death before sunrise or any passerby came to save me or mock me for testing the BEV limits in sub-zero weather.
When I reached my "low battery" limit set at 30 miles, I took the advice to turn off climate control. My, how quickly the cabin temp drops when you do that. The panoramic glass gets real cold, real quick. I was remembering those scenes in the Apollo 13 movie with freezing astronauts, as I navigated my Mach-e spaceship through the desolate, dark, cold national forest. (queue forbodding music)
The center panel was flashing warnings that no charging options existed in my remaining range. It did tell me to prepare to plug in somewhere - without advice where. It thankfully made no mention of dying from hypthermia. It made no mention of notifying next-of-kin.
Miraculously at some point (about an indicated 15 miles, 8% battery left) the range started to extend - the GOM would drop 1 mile with every 2 or 3 travelled . Does anyone know if that was because the heat pump was warming the battery instead of the cabin? Or just a glide path of range use? Or the GOM starting to tell the truth under duress?
As I reached the end of my trip with still 4% battery and 10 miles range left on GOM, I tried to test my traction (did I mention the snow falling at 0 deg temp?) by trying to accelerate hard. The MME wouldn't accelerate hard - at all. It wasn't traction controll kicking in, it seemed to be a "don't be stupid, you are almost out of power" control mechanism. Anyone know that to be real? I've heard of Tesla's Limp Mode - does MME have a similar "I'll get you there, but slowly" mode?
Does anyone know what happens if you just keep going? How far out does it really stretch the range I.E. would you have 5 miles left for 10 or 12 miles? Does the MME just stop when the GOM gets to 0? Does it ever actually use the battery buffer or just stop because the driver is so stupid to go to indicated 0 mi range? I didn't want to test this in the situation I was in, but now that I survived, I remain curious.
Oh yeah, I'm trying to shedule the CSP 21P22 update, which reportly increases cold weather mileage, among other things. Seems like a good idea, now that I had time to think about it-- in the cold, while considing my mortality.
I started out a late night trip to the White Mountains of NH - where there are no charging options other than the charger at my destination. The northernmost DCFC is Manchester NH. It is usually a very quiet ride, NO traffic.
Started at 93% charge in my LR AWD MME Premium - the one with ficticous 270 mi range. the GOM said I had 168 mi range - ok for the 140 mi trip. When I started, the air temp was 20 deg.
By the time I got to "no where" in the mountains, the air temp was down to 0 deg and dropping. The GOM was dropping range much faster than I was travelling. At one point the GOM showed I didn't have enough range to make my trip. And I was on the most desolate part of my trip. I began to think I was going to stall out in the White Mountain National Forest and die a long, cold death before sunrise or any passerby came to save me or mock me for testing the BEV limits in sub-zero weather.
When I reached my "low battery" limit set at 30 miles, I took the advice to turn off climate control. My, how quickly the cabin temp drops when you do that. The panoramic glass gets real cold, real quick. I was remembering those scenes in the Apollo 13 movie with freezing astronauts, as I navigated my Mach-e spaceship through the desolate, dark, cold national forest. (queue forbodding music)
The center panel was flashing warnings that no charging options existed in my remaining range. It did tell me to prepare to plug in somewhere - without advice where. It thankfully made no mention of dying from hypthermia. It made no mention of notifying next-of-kin.
Miraculously at some point (about an indicated 15 miles, 8% battery left) the range started to extend - the GOM would drop 1 mile with every 2 or 3 travelled . Does anyone know if that was because the heat pump was warming the battery instead of the cabin? Or just a glide path of range use? Or the GOM starting to tell the truth under duress?
As I reached the end of my trip with still 4% battery and 10 miles range left on GOM, I tried to test my traction (did I mention the snow falling at 0 deg temp?) by trying to accelerate hard. The MME wouldn't accelerate hard - at all. It wasn't traction controll kicking in, it seemed to be a "don't be stupid, you are almost out of power" control mechanism. Anyone know that to be real? I've heard of Tesla's Limp Mode - does MME have a similar "I'll get you there, but slowly" mode?
Does anyone know what happens if you just keep going? How far out does it really stretch the range I.E. would you have 5 miles left for 10 or 12 miles? Does the MME just stop when the GOM gets to 0? Does it ever actually use the battery buffer or just stop because the driver is so stupid to go to indicated 0 mi range? I didn't want to test this in the situation I was in, but now that I survived, I remain curious.
Oh yeah, I'm trying to shedule the CSP 21P22 update, which reportly increases cold weather mileage, among other things. Seems like a good idea, now that I had time to think about it-- in the cold, while considing my mortality.
Sponsored