What's the most efficient winter driving? Speed? Blanket?

[music_cities]

I don’t think you will get 20.7 KWH per 100 KM. If I drive at 90 kms an hour at -20c on a flat highway with heat set at 20 degrees Celsius I will be around 28KWH per 100 KM or even higher. That’s with my Premium all wheel drive and with oem all season tires.

ABRP has a “reference consumption” and then it adjusts down for temperature etc. I probably should adjust it down a bit more for winter tires, but I already adjusted down for 5% battery degradation and my battery is brand new.

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[DevSecOps]

Looking on plugshare the one and only DCFC charger at Jasper doesn't have the best reputation with MachE's. It looks like the majority of charges are between 22 and 44kW. That might double your time at that unit which isn't exactly desirable.

 

[AliRafiee]

I don’t get why the stops are so long. It’s supposed to charge to 80% under 40 minutes. Is it telling to charge to 100%?
If you have the option charge to 80% and later stop for another 10-15 minutes for another charge to get you home.

Is your car a standard range?
The trip from Calgary to Banff is 80 miles. With my GT I should be able to get there and halfway back on a full charge, if not all the way back.

 

[AliRafiee]

Personally just enjoy the drive and the car. I keep my heated seats and steering whee. On. I set the temperature to 74 or 76F I uses “auto” and just one bac (out of three). Speed I tend to keep around 100 clicks. (Slower traffic keep right). Personally if I am not sure of the route I pre plan where my charging stations are.
Safe travels and I highly recommend The Banff Park Lodge for Sunday brunch.

74-76!!! It must be cooking in your car. Anything above 68 and I’m sweating my ass off.

 

[Auto Motive]

At -20Celcius (-4F) what's the most efficient way to drive? Slow to 80km/h or 70km/h? Buy a 12V electric blanket and turn the cabin temp down to 12C? At some low speed one is just going to be wasting energy keeping the cabin warm and/or the 12V electric blanket going, but how low is that speed?

Looking at the Banff-Jasper highway 93N ski trip, at -20C, with 5% battery degradation and 115kg extra weight (wife and luggage maybe a dog). In ABRP I have the reference consumption for my GTPE set at the default which is 4.83km/kWh (20.7 kWh/100km) which seems to be not too far off the mark if I let ABRP adjust for extra weight and temperature.

Here's the plan. I'm not really liking the 1hr 35min breakfast stop and 1hr 25min dinner stop, if I could save some juice we could stop for shorter.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=e21f3355-cd93-48cb-8825-a5320426fa96

Cold snowing blizzard conditions we use our 06 Jeep Commander 7 seater with 50k miles and wow in these conditions. Heater in front with fan and rear with fan.

 

[Womps]

ABRP has a “reference consumption” and then it adjusts down for temperature etc. I probably should adjust it down a bit more for winter tires, but I already adjusted down for 5% battery degradation and my battery is brand new.

If you have a 91 kwh battery and you use 21 kwh for every 100 kilometres of driving you will travel roughly 450 kilometres. I think 300 kilometres would be closer to your max @ -20 degrees.

 

[music_cities]

If you have a 91 kwh battery and you use 21 kwh for every 100 kilometres of driving you will travel roughly 450 kilometres. I think 300 kilometres would be closer to your max @ -20 degrees.

I agree, that's consistent with what I was calculating. Canmore (great L3 chargers) to Jasper (good L3 chargers) is 311km, so pushing it, hence the need to conserve energy and/or spend some time at an L2 and/or detour to the single L3 in Field, BC. The last 232km of it (Lake Louise to Jasper) is on a road with no electricity at all, just glaciers and other scenery.

I don’t get why the stops are so long. It’s supposed to charge to 80% under 40 minutes. Is it telling to charge to 100%?
If you have the option charge to 80% and later stop for another 10-15 minutes for another charge to get you home.

After Canmore there are no L3s on the route, so it's long stops at L2s.

The trip from Calgary to Banff is 80 miles. With my GT I should be able to get there and halfway back on a full charge, if not all the way back.

Calgary to Banff is easy, lots of chargers, and you can do the round trip without charging. It's Banff to Jasper that's the scenic challenge.

 

[AliRafiee]

Calgary to Banff is easy, lots of chargers, and you can do the round trip without charging. It's Banff to Jasper that's the scenic challenge.

I see. That’s going to be an adventure.

 

[ckt]

Assuming lvl3 charging isn't readily available on your routes and that you want the shortest travel times.

I would suggest turn off cabin heating, and use heated blankets. And use clear plastic sheets to cover all windows except for the windshield so there is an air pocket for insulation ?. I'd don't recommend going slower than the speed limit because it'll eat into your travel times.

And if you've a large portable battery station (2-4kwh), use that to power an electric space heater for your cabin.

Again, these recommendations are only if lvl3 charging aren't readily available (for shortest travel times) because if there are, then there's not much gains by hyper-mileing.

 

[ckt]

I would also monitor your real time miles/kWh vs ABRP assumptions. ABRP was too optimistic for me a couple of times and had I not ignored it, I would have been stuck in Michigan’s upper peninsula to this day! Well, okay, maybe I might have found my way somehow, but you get my drift.

On my 1st month of Mach-e ownership, I mistakenly trusted Ford nav in cold mountain driving. It said I would make it home, but mid way it found out it couldn't make it and auto routed me to a very long detour to a "nearby" charging station. But luckily I noticed it 5 mins in the detour. U turn, lowerer my speed and cabin. Made it home! Hopefully Ford nav is better now. But I still turned off auto route to charging station.

 

[SeaKayaker4Life]

I have been using an electric blanket in the Mach E for my daughter (now 4) for the past two years. Works great, especially since she doesn’t have a heated seat. I only need to run it on low and it draws very little current from the 12V outlet.

Even so, you’ll need your whole crew to be dedicated to go no-heat at -20C. No joke — you probably want a puffy jacket, snow pants, and heavy hat even with a blanket and heated seats.

I would do it but my wife would most certainly not.

Keep an eye on your consumption early in the trip so you get a feel for how the temperature is affecting you on that day relative to ABRP’s predictions, but also remember that elevation gains are killer on your efficiency so be prepared for your mileage to decrease as you go up into the mountains.

 

[AngryMan]

One option Ive considered but haven't tried out yet is to use a rest stop that accommodates RVs . That have a 240 line and if you use your mobile charger it fills in the blanks between DCFCs . It won't be pretty or fast but it just could save your day/weekend/trip....marriage

 

[music_cities]

One option Ive considered but haven't tried out yet is to use a rest stop that accommodates RVs . That have a 240 line and if you use your mobile charger it fills in the blanks between DCFCs . It won't be pretty or fast but it just could save your day/weekend/trip....marriage

PlugShare identifies a some campgrounds and rest stops. Unfortunately there is no power line on Highway 93N to Jasper, so no power in any of the campgrounds either.

 

[RickMachE]

ABRP has a “reference consumption” and then it adjusts down for temperature etc. I probably should adjust it down a bit more for winter tires, but I already adjusted down for 5% battery degradation and my battery is brand new.

Yes, it adjusts for weather. You can see this by doing a route TODAY, then change it to a month from now (when it's colder), and it changes the efficiency and stops. And you don't need to pay for the paid version to get this.

I find it conservative, so I tweaked the consumption rate. It's still a tad conservative, so as I drive if I notice it says 43% SOC and I'm at 49%, I hit the plus sign to raise it up, IF it's going to matter.

 

[SeaKayaker4Life]

I’ve also tried using the cabin-air recirculation option (so it just has to heat the already-warm air inside the car rather than the cold air from outside) but have noticed that it automatically switches back to drawing from the outside after a period of time and you need to keep resetting it.

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