Winter range dropoff

[xycarp]

It’s been in the 30s around here lately and range in my ER is taking a big hit. I spent about 70% of my battery (90% to 20%) to travel 170 miles (flat land with cruise at 71). I’m getting worried for when it actually gets cold.

What are you other cold weather folks seeing?

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[sotek2345]

Yeah - that is about normal. From your numbers that is about a 25% reduction overall. Did you precondition before you left? That can help a bit a gain you a little range back. Keep in mind that you are already losing range at highway speeds. For your situation it is about half and half:

320 miles -> ~280 miles is from the speed

280 miles -> 240 miles is from the cold (what you are getting now from 100% - 0%).

Worst we saw in our Mach-e was about 40% on the super cold days without preconditioning. With preconditioning, we stayed around 25% reduction on the highway. Projected to the Lighting, that would be about 200 to 210 mile highway range.

 

[Pioneer74]

I averaged 1.8 kWh on my drive into work this morning. 50 miles, 80% highway at 74mph with climate on 68 degrees and auto. Temps in the low 30's.

 

[RickLightning]

I averaged 1.8 kWh on my drive into work this morning. 50 miles, 80% highway at 74mph with climate on 68 degrees and auto. Temps in the low 30's.

Adding some context might be helpful - did you precondition by setting a departure time?

From your prior posts, it looks like you got 1.8 when you didn't, 1.9 when you did. What was it back at the beginning of October?

 

[RickLightning]

It’s been in the 30s around here lately and range in my ER is taking a big hit. I spent about 70% of my battery (90% to 20%) to travel 170 miles (flat land with cruise at 71). I’m getting worried for when it actually gets cold.

What are you other cold weather folks seeing?

A dropoff of 20-40%, depending on the temps, is expected in the winter. Setting a departure time while plugged in will reduce the hit - but if you don't need range then you'll want to compare the energy usage of only remote starting while plugged in.

In the winter, minimize use of the heater and use the heating steering wheel (assuming it works) and the heated seats. If you need the heater, set it as cool as you are comfortable with.

 

[Pioneer74]

Adding some context might be helpful - did you precondition by setting a departure time?

From your prior posts, it looks like you got 1.8 when you didn't, 1.9 when you did. What was it back at the beginning of October?

Yes, I preconditioned. I was actually starting to average 2.0 to 2.1 mi/kWh on my commute while the weather was warmer. I don't know if there is a "breaking in" period with electric vehicles like an ICE, but my average was going up.

This trip was without preconditioning. But it was in the 50's that morning, I believe.

 

[RickLightning]

Yes, I preconditioned. I was actually starting to average 2.0 to 2.1 mi/kWh on my commute while the weather was warmer. I don't know if there is a "breaking in" period with electric vehicles like an ICE, but my average was going up.

There is not a breaking-in period. Your efficiency is of course impacted by your driving style, which may change as you go from "seeing what this baby can do" to "commuting to work".

It's also impacted pretty severely by conditions, including temperature. So if you do your commute during the week Michigan hit 60s and 70s, and then compare that to the week Michigan was 20 or more degrees cooler, you will see a clear difference.

The other thing to keep in mind is that is possible that your efficiency measurement tallies are incorrect - i.e. This Trip, Trip 1, Trip 2. And your EV history has known issues.

On a recent trip with our Mach-E, we averaged 2.7ish. Many times we were getting 2.3 - 2.4. Yet Trip 1 reported 3.0 for the entire trip, which is false. This Trip often reported 3.0, which was also false.

The other thing to keep in mind is that efficiency is display to one digit. Is 2.1 really 2.005? Or is it 2.144? Sounds funny, but that's a 7% difference. You have no idea what it is.

Also, when you look at your battery, it tells you that you have 83% left. In fact, you may have 82.46% left, or you may have 83.44% left. That's 1.28 kilowatts of uncertainty.

The key for people driving EVs in winter is to precondition, while plugged in, if range matters. Use the heater sparingly, set as low as you are comfortable with. Use the heated seats and heated steering wheel. And keep speeds as low as possible if range matters - once you get over 65 it drops, and upper 70s or higher it plummets.

 

[Pioneer74]

There is not a breaking-in period.

I don't know. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. But I drive the same route every day. I don't floor it going to work and I set the cruise to the same 74mph. I don't really go by the efficiency the truck is telling me, I use the Emporia logs to tell me the amount of energy I'm using to charge back to the truck to get to the same level I had and it was taking less. Until the temp dropped.

Anyway, OP, expect the range to get worse the colder it gets. I'm really interested to see what the numbers are in January/February. This drop is the whole reason I went with the ER battery instead of the SR. I was really concerned the SR wouldn't give me enough range for my 100 mile commute because I can't charge or precondition at work.

 

[RickLightning]

I don't know. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. But I drive the same route every day. I don't floor it going to work and I set the cruise to the same 74mph. I don't really go by the efficiency the truck is telling me, I use the Emporia logs to tell me the amount of energy I'm using to charge back to the truck to get to the same level I had and it was taking less. Until the temp dropped.

Anyway, OP, expect the range to get worse the colder it gets. I'm really interested to see what the numbers are in January/February. This drop is the whole reason I went with the ER battery instead of the SR. I was really concerned the SR wouldn't give me enough range for my 100 mile commute because I can't charge or precondition at work.

If you are calculating your efficiency by the amount of energy that the charger is delivering, you are overstating your efficiency. There is a loss from the wall to your truck. Can be as much as 15%. So, if you drove 100 miles and the charger sent 50kWh, you would say you got an efficiency of 2.0. However, if you only deliver to the truck 45kWh, your efficiency is 2.22, i.e. 11% higher.

You can use FordPass to approximate this loss by comparing what the charger says to what FordPass says, noting that you can pull the "exact" kWh by clicking on the Details button BEFORE UNPLUGGING, but after that it's just percentages.

I charged last night. FordPass says I added 12kWh. My charger tells me I added 14.422. That's a loss of 16.8%. But, remember that FordPass has no decimal places. So that 12 could be 12.44. That's a loss of 13.7%.

As I said, the charge log will only show the percentage added. So, for the previous session mine shows 7%. 91 x 7% = 6.37. Charger sent 7.371. That's a 13.6% loss. But again, could be 6.5% or 7.44%.

 

[Drillerr]

In the beginning of October I drove my wife to the Salt Lake City airport and returned back home. It's almost exactly 150 miles round trip.

30 miles at 80mph
40 miles at 75mph
80 miles at 70mph

In October it was beautiful weather and in the 60s and 70s. When I got back home I had 49% battery remaining. (I left with 100% charge)

Last Friday I made the same round-trip. It was in the low 20s when I left and the low 30s when I arrived at home. (heater set at 68º) I arrived home with 38% battery remaining. (I left with 100% charge)

 

[sotek2345]

In the beginning of October I drove my wife to the Salt Lake City airport and returned back home. It's almost exactly 150 miles round trip.

30 miles at 80mph
40 miles at 75mph
80 miles at 70mph

In October it was beautiful weather and in the 60s and 70s. When I got back home I had 49% battery remaining. (I left with 100% charge)

Last Friday I made the same round-trip. It was in the low 20s when I left and the low 30s when I arrived at home. (heater set at 68º) I arrived home with 38% battery remaining. (I left with 100% charge)

Yup - this sounds about right and shows why many make too big a deal about running the heater to stay comfortable. You took about a 20% hit, which is normal for those temperatures.

 

[F150ROD]

Remember to tell all your passengers to bundle up also because the heater will not be turned on.

I am starting to remember why I left the EV world in the first place but when I see the price per gallon the I remember why I went to one lol

 

[Firestop]

Did a 230 mi. road trip last week and I analyzed a 50 mile middle segment to get a better idea of the impact of temperature.

No appreciable wind; BlueCruise set to 74 mph, middle of trip so the battery at “operating” temp, no towing, no drafting, speed was pretty stable in both directions, minimal net elevation change.

Trip out @ 30-32 degF; cabin set to 68 degF: 1.4 mi/kWh
Return @48-50 degF; cabin set to 68 degF: 1.8 mi/kWh

…..an ~22% difference over ~18 degF.

 

[Lucky Larry]

Has anyone tried driving at 60 to 65 mph instead of 70 to 80 mph to see how much power consumption goes down and range goes up?

 

[Firestop]

Has anyone tried driving at 60 to 65 mph instead of 70 to 80 mph to see how much power consumption goes down and range goes up?

Yep. My last trip it went from ~1.8 mi./kWh @ 74 mph to ~2.1 mi./kWh @ 64 mph with BlueCruse and temperatures at ~50 degF…..anecdotal observation….

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