Where's my range Ford?

[Crazypostman]

Glad the light hearted insult was well received. Anyway, I have frequently exceeded 3.3 driving around town in my GT so I don't know what you are doing that could keep you from that number. Are you using 1PD? As Nelson asked, are your tires at 40 psi? I doubt you will maintain 3.3 at 70 mph but around town it should be easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Yes on all those one pedal driving and 40 PSI. Maybe my next test since I can't get 3.3 at 70 maybe I'll see how slow I have to actually go before I can average 3.3 that might be interesting. Hopefully it's above 55 cuz I might get murdered on the highway LOL

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[Crazypostman]

Why is your speed rating 40%? That is a big clue to your problem. My speed ratings have been much, much higher than that and I speed. So you are doing something unusual to get 40%.

In the picture that was all 70 mph except for a mile at the beginning and a mile at the end getting to the highway.

 

[mkhuffman]

In the picture that was all 70 mph except for a mile at the beginning and a mile at the end getting to the highway.

Yeah and your acceleration number is low also. Get all three up close to 100% and you will be the winner of the EPA range test.

Seriously. Those numbers matter. I can't believe you have been complaining all this time when your driving is the cause of the poor range you are complaining about. It's right there. You don't need to post here to ask why. Look at the display already!

 

[Polar]

I'm not going to have the car very long I have another electric truck on order. It doesn't harm the battery as long as you don't leave it at the extremes. If you charge it all the way up use it immediately, if you drain it all the way down charge it immediately it's fine.

I… oh.

Well kudos for not just outright linking all your videos first off.

 

[devmach-e]

I guess the main argument I had isn't really valid because it does look like 70 is available but 3.3 of that is below 0% and that threw me off because I didn't think to drive the car past 0%

70 kWh is available for use, period. It's not hidden below 0%. You get to use 70 kWh out of the ~76 kWh battery pack. The ~3% buffer above and below our usable window is to help preserve the battery pack's capacity by not discharging it too much or charging it too much.

It is a similar thing with Toyota's hybrid battery packs back in the day. To help maintain the health of the pack (and thus longevity), Toyota opted to only allow the battery pack to be used between 40% and 80% SOC. Well, Ford is doing a similar thing. They're allowing us to use between 3 kWh and 73 kWh, but choose to express that as between 0% and 100%, or 0 kWh and 70 kWh.

 

[Crazypostman]

70 kWh is available for use, period. It's not hidden below 0%. You get to use 70 kWh out of the ~76 kWh battery pack. The ~3% buffer above and below our usable window is to help preserve the battery pack's capacity by not discharging it too much or charging it too much.

It is a similar thing with Toyota's hybrid battery packs back in the day. To help maintain the health of the pack (and thus longevity), Toyota opted to only allow the battery pack to be used between 40% and 80% SOC. Well, Ford is doing a similar thing. They're allowing us to use between 3 kWh and 73 kWh, but choose to express that as between 0% and 100%, or 0 kWh and 70 kWh.

The scan tool (assuming it's calibrated correctly) I have shows 70 kWh actually 69.28 but close enough. So I'm assuming it's showing me usable capacity estimate and not gross. When I get to 0% on the dashboard that same scan tool shows there's still 3.3kWh available. If I don't use that 3.3 then I was only actually able to use 66 and not 70. There is extra buffer below the 3.3 to protect the battery I'm assuming. Because when the screen shows 0% state of charge the BMS shows 5% state of charge. Also at the other end when the screen shows 100% state of charge the BMS shows 95%

 

[Crazypostman]

I… oh.

Well kudos for not just outright linking all your videos first off.

Everybody here is mad at me now, I would have tons of thumb downs LOL y'all will have to search for it the hard way to give me the down votes ?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Your battery capacity appears to be fine, your consumption is very high though. You should be able to manage 2.9 mi/kWh or higher at 70 MPH. If you want EPA range you have to do 3.5 mi/kWh. Either you're driving faster than 70 MPH at times, hard accelerations, or the wind was more of a factor than you think. Driving the same route out and back does not cancel out a crosswind, that will eat range both directions.

It appears you did your test on the 19th, the average wind speed in the Lawton area was 12 MPH from the SW during your test. That's enough to reduce the range by 10% or more.

 

[Crazypostman]

Your battery capacity appears to be fine, your consumption is very high though. You should be able to manage 2.9 mi/kWh or higher at 70 MPH. If you want EPA range you have to do 3.5 mi/kWh. Either you're driving faster than 70 MPH at times, hard accelerations, or the wind was more of a factor than you think. Driving the same route out and back does not cancel out a crosswind, that will eat range both directions.

It appears you did your test on the 19th, the average wind speed in the Lawton area was 12 MPH from the SW during your test. That's enough to reduce the range by 10% or more.

That is mostly right I did my loop between Altus and almost to Lawton it's east west between 9:00 and noon the wind was pretty much just light and variable at the beginning close to noon it might have picked up to 5 or 10. Maybe I'll redo the test on a day the wind is directly out of the east or west and as light as possible

 

[Polar]

Everybody here is mad at me now, I would have tons of thumb downs LOL y'all will have to search for it the hard way to give me the down votes ?

Don’t worry about that - I’m not the type to click through to linked videos. So no downvotes given from this guy ?

 

[JellyBelly]

I didn't try that. I got that message and I thought it was the end. I guess I'll go do circles in the parking lot and see how far I can go after I get that message maybe I'll find those missing kilowatt hours lol I don't think they should be hidden below zero though that's not fair to say 70 usable if it says 0 miles remaining on the dashboard.

So you're saying there is two bottom buffers. There's a bottom buffer below zero that's usable and then there's the battery protection buffer also beyond that. That makes sense... I just want to know how to get to this elusive 247 number I thought the Ford EPA numbers were pretty accurate? Tesla's were always inflated but I thought Ford was closer than this on the previous model year. I expected to get closer to 247 that's what I'm disappointed in I don't really care where they hide their buffers I just wish I could get closer to 247 without having to go below zero and pray.

Its the same with gas cars - dont ever get EPA mileage on them either. It should not matter what Ford hides , hidden buffer is not provided to drivers as usable energy anyway.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

That was probably supposed to be an insult but I like that... McFly! ? The70 mph range test I did was just one day. I've had the car for three other weeks. Usually just City driving 6 days a week and highway one day a week but I'm still not able to obtain that 3.3

Over the course of the 11 months I’ve had my Mach-e, I’ve averaged 3.7 miles per kWh. That’s a 325 mile range. Moderate to mildly cold weather, hills, mountains, high speed driving, sub freezing temperatures, exhibitionist driving, high temperature, all these things will affect your range. The variables affecting your range are nearly limitless. Some you have control over, others you don’t.

 

[devmach-e]

The scan tool (assuming it's calibrated correctly) I have shows 70 kWh actually 69.28 but close enough. So I'm assuming it's showing me usable capacity estimate and not gross. When I get to 0% on the dashboard that same scan tool shows there's still 3.3kWh available. If I don't use that 3.3 then I was only actually able to use 66 and not 70. There is extra buffer below the 3.3 to protect the battery I'm assuming. Because when the screen shows 0% state of charge the BMS shows 5% state of charge. Also at the other end when the screen shows 100% state of charge the BMS shows 95%

What is happening is that we’re not allowed to fully discharge the 76 kWh pack to 0 percent and we’re not actually allowed to full charge it to 100 percent either. Using your rough numbers:

5% x 76 kWh= 3.8 kWh
95% x 76 kWh = 72.2 kWh
3.8 + 72.2 = 76
72.2 - 3.8 = 68.4.

The actual percentages are a little different, so the 68.4 number is a lot closer to 69.5-70, but you get the picture. Point is, we never fully charge or discharge the 76 kWh pack, but we do have full use of the 70 kWh we are allowed to access. That ~3.3 kWh below 0 is the low end buffer. And the ~3.8 kWh that we never finish putting into the battery becomes the top end buffer.

 

[machefan]

You guys would argue with a rock if it talked back to you. Let this man and his wild Easter egg hunt for his "missing miles" be.

Good luck to you OP, I wish you well on your journey to find those dastardly hidden miles.

Thank you!

 

[mkhuffman]

Everybody here is mad at me now, I would have tons of thumb downs LOL y'all will have to search for it the hard way to give me the down votes ?

Sorry, I am not mad, just a little frustrated. You are doing much, much more than the average person to figure out your efficiency and range, so I should be more patient. Most people who post here complaining about range are only looking at the GOM, so kudos to you for doing much more than that.

I have never tried running my car to 0% to verify actual range either, so well done for giving it a shot! BTW - you can drive it beyond 0% per some reviews I have read. Tesla uses that below 0% range to justify the EPA range of their cars.

Anyway, I think most everyone else has hit on the areas that are impacting your range. Driving 70 mph on the highway with 12 mph winds (with probably higher gusts) could be equivalent to driving 85 mph if you are driving into the wind. (Great point @Mach-Lee!) Nobody is going to get anywhere close to EPA range driving 85 mph. The only exception might be the Tycan, that tests much better on the highway presumably because of the two speed transmission.

Edit: and don't worry about thumbs down from me either. I avoid YouTube at all costs, and would not thumb you down just because of a post in this forum anyway. I hope your channel is a success!

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