Winter Range - Do You Actually Suffer Or Is It Psychological?

[MellowJohnny]

Again with the “my range sucks now” ‘cause it’s winter where I live threads…

So I’m actually curious - does the range drop actually affect you?

Acceptable answers are:

1) Yes, my daily commute exceeds my winter range and I need an occasional DCFC top-up
B) No, I arrive home with electrons in the tank, but feel a bit “cheated” that the car won’t go as far now

Again, I’m genuinely interested in how much a winter range reduction affects you on the daily…

I’ll go first: B, minus the “feeling cheated” part

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[bruceski88]

Again with the “my range sucks now” ‘cause it’s winter where I live threads…

So I’m actually curious - does the range drop actually affect you?

Acceptable answers are:

1) Yes, my daily commute exceeds my winter range and I need an occasional DCFC top-up
B) No, I arrive home with electrons in the tank, but feel a bit “cheated” that the car won’t go as far now

Again, I’m genuinely interested in how much a winter range reduction affects you on the daily…

I’ll go first: B, minus the “feeling cheated” part

Seems to be very good on dry roads down to about 20. More impact from rain and snow.

 

[Blue highway]

affects me daily - no.
affects the occasional out of town trip as I'll do a charge stop where otherwise I wouldn't.

I know the actual range of the car has not changed, but seeing a few more miles in the tank after the 3.6 update does make me feel better, although it shouldn't.

 

[RickMachE]

It has no impact on me unless I'm going on a trip.

 

[awp0]

Weekend road trips (skiing) and cost-per-mile also come to mind.

 

[sotek2345]

No real impacts to me. For most of my longer trips, stops are more dictated by biological concerns than need to charge, and the battery still out ranges my bladder comfort. However, both our Mach-e and Lightning are ER. If we had standard range, the answer would likely be different.

Cost is a big higher in the winter due to lower efficiency, but still way less than gas.

 

[vortix]

Does it increase range anxiety? Yes. Is it warranted? Not really. The only time it causes a problem for me is when I need to drive 2+ hours and have to go a bit out of the way to get to a charging station.

 

[AKgrampy]

Again with the “my range sucks now” ‘cause it’s winter where I live threads…

So I’m actually curious - does the range drop actually affect you?

Acceptable answers are:

1) Yes, my daily commute exceeds my winter range and I need an occasional DCFC top-up
B) No, I arrive home with electrons in the tank, but feel a bit “cheated” that the car won’t go as far now

Again, I’m genuinely interested in how much a winter range reduction affects you on the daily…

I’ll go first: B, minus the “feeling cheated” part

Are you telling me cold weather impacts range? Now I feel cheated!

 

[Guss-E 2021]

Nah, not affected. I say F-it, blast my heat and just drive. ER battery still manages a few days worth of driving even if I didn't plug in every night.

Summer range is just an "update" to look forward to.

 

[ARK]

It has no effect on me, my work is 5 miles away and I've yet to go more than 100 miles-ish in any one direction in my Mach-E.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Are you telling me cold weather impacts range? Now I feel cheated!

They may have given you the smaller battery by mistake...check

 

[Benny’66]

I see what you did there…. First selection is “1”, next selection was “B”. Well, I’m not falling for it! So my answer is:

1. Used to affect me daily. My daily commute is far enough that I needed to plug in every night or I wouldn’t have enough juice to make the commute the next day. A few mornings last winter I had that O-S?&$ moment walking out early in the morning to see the GTPE wasn’t plugged in and having to plug for an hour, which would make me late to work and give me just enough (fingers crossed) to get back home. No fast chargers or L2s on my commute path.

Fast forward to this winter… one of the OTAs has dramatically improved my winter range calculation and last year’s winter 90% went from 140 to 206. Now plenty of juice to make 2 trips. And more importantly, I installed L2 EVSEs at my work. No more anxiety.

 

[MellowJohnny]

I see what you did there…. First selection is “1”, next selection was “B”. Well, I’m not falling for it! So my answer is:

<snip>

The two pieces of wisdom I try to give my teenage kids is Pay Attention and Don't Panic. That last one is from the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, so I can't take credit.

Beautiful '66 by the way

 

[mateo]

I don't know how far I can go in the summer since I got the car in November...

For day-to-day, it doesn't matter. But a true range of 270 miles would cover 100% of my trips that aren't multi-day vacations. For those, I wouldn't mind renting some other car.

I'd be cool with a reliable 220 miles, but I only get around 180. So just about every extended day-trip requires planning around chargers, which is definitely annoying. I'm looking forward to better winter range with future tech and more reliable and abundant public chargers.

 

[astronut325]

Daily driving, no impact.

Going across town or to the local mountains, which I do occasionally, yes it does have a fairly significant impact. Example, if the temperature is 60+, I can charge my Mach-E to 95%, go to Joshua Tree, and come back without stopping for a charge. Because of the low temperatures in Winter, I have to stop for a charge on the way back home and deal with broken chargers.

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