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beatle

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Actually, the resistance heater is a very large power draw. On the Mach-E, it's 7kW. It's recommended to set a departure time, which preheats the battery, and then use the seat warmer and the heated steering wheel, with the climate control set as low as you're comfortable with, and on the lowest speed setting.

Cold impacts the battery. Air density isn't the issue as much as the reality that cold batteries do worse than warm batteries (and by that I mean 70F+). My Mach-E displays a range of up to 277 in the summer. Right now it's about 100 miles less than that. Yes, the range displayed is not accurate, but people are getting realworld decreases of 30% or more in the cold. In other words, getting 3.0 miles per kWh in the summer, now getting in the low 2s, or even high 1s.
The heating element may be 7kw, but it is not running 100% duty cycle once it gets the cabin up to temperature, neither is the battery heater. At some point in the trip the battery heater will not be needed at all. Over the course of a long trip, this initial penalty in range from those elements is spread over a longer distance and becomes less of an impact. Sure, on short trips the car will rate your range as super low, but you also don't need the full battery capacity on short trips anyway.

I agree with your suggestion to preheat the cabin and battery before a trip, but there's little need to sacrifice comfort unless you really need to stretch your range for certain trips. This is a relevant copy/paste from another post I made elsewhere on an experiment I made on range and cold temperatures:

Similarly, people attribute poor gas mileage in the winter to the engine running richer at startup to bring the engine up to temperature - and this is true, but even on a long trip, mileage is worse. It's also true that an engine needs more fuel when getting cooler air to maintain the same air/fuel ratio, and that means more power (this is why cold air intakes are popular) but when cruising you only need as much power to overcome rolling and wind resistance to maintain your speed, so you'd just draw in less air to make the same power... unless you need more power to overcome more wind resistance in colder air (hint: you do).​
Most are familiar with losing range in the winter, but it's often blamed on the fact that the cabin and battery heating elements consume power. This is true, but when I tested this last winter by driving 2 hours with a pre-warmed battery in cold temperatures and I only used the seat heater, I found my range didn't really improve much. In reality, air temperature makes a good dent on consumption for both ICE and electric vehicles. I used these two pages to calculate the wind load on a Model S at various speeds and temperatures. I set the drag are of the S to 0.575999 square meters and atmospheric pressure to 1 bar. Note: this is amateur hour since I am not an engineer, so maybe someone can check my math.​
Wind load on surface - Wind load calculator.​
Ford F-150 Lightning Best Practices For Feeding (Charging) and Caring of Our New Lightnings qwlyierlbnnpdhkgq2fsy3vsyxrvcg-
Use the online air density calculator to find out the density of air at any given temperature and pressure.​
Temperature​
Air Density​
Wind Speed (m/s)​
Speed (mph)​
Wind load (Newtons)​
32F (dry)​
1.27537​
35​
~78​
450​
80F 60%RH​
1.15273​
35​
~78​
407​
32F (dry)​
1.27537​
27​
~60​
268​
80F 60%RH​
1.15273​
27​
~60​
242​
The load is almost 11% higher in colder temperatures. Load is also a lot lower at lower speeds.​
If you're just creeping through traffic or in complete standstill, your energy consumption will be very low. See videos from Bjorn Nyland on YT to see how much battery is consumed while maintaining cabin temperature. To the person who lost 20% in 30 minutes, you have other sources of battery loss, perhaps from the battery heater running if you started the car with a stone cold battery. I lose 20% battery in 30 minutes only when I'm driving at 70mph, and propelling the car down the highway uses way, way more energy than the cabin heater.​
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beatle

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RIGHT! :)

Regen is really just a side show. It is like I paid too much for my six pack of Buds so now I pick up my empties and get money back to recycle.

The Hypermiler will achieve Max Efficiency by slowly accelerating only as much as necessary to later slow down entirely to a stop without braking. Of course, that is perfection most of us do not have the patience to do.

But you have to use some % of that technique in your driving habits if you want efficiency. The same techniques will work in an ICE vehicle.

If you are a Space Geek think about an Ion Engine Spacecraft that accelerates at a snails pace but accelerates at a constant rate and in time reaches a % of the speed of light using very little energy.
But almost 100% of the energy used is now stored in its kinetic energy.
No need to accelerate slowly in an EV. The drivetrain is incredibly efficient compared to a gas car and does not use a disproportionately large amount of energy to accelerate hard vs. slowly. Sometimes I drive my Model S like I stole it, and my energy consumption doesn't change as long as I'm only accelerating up to the speed limit and I stay off the friction brakes.

Regen is incredible and will even out the hill climb penalty. If you can stay off the friction brakes while going down a hill, energy consumption will even go negative. On one trip I took in my Model S, I had a fair amount of range anxiety as I took the scenic route down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Climbing the mountain to get to the parkway, my car said I would not make it to the next charger, but on the way back down the mountain my energy consumption actually went full negative as I effectively charged the car at close to 50kw for several miles. It was interesting seeing the consumption graph. I made it to the next charger within a few percentage points of the car's original estimate. Hopefully the Ford navigation takes elevation changes into account as well.
 

Tony Burgh

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“ It was interesting seeing the consumption graph.“
That’s why I’ll need Blue Cruise.
 
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RickLightning

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On one trip I took in my Model S, I had a fair amount of range anxiety as I took the scenic route down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Climbing the mountain to get to the parkway, my car said I would not make it to the next charger, but on the way back down the mountain my energy consumption actually went full negative as I effectively charged the car at close to 50kw for several miles.
We drove a section with our 2018 Fusion Energi PHEV. Had used up all the electric, was running in hybrid mode. On the way downhill, we got back to close to (or at, can't recall) 100% of the electric range. Of course that battery was only 7.6kWh, but it was still impressive.
 

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jefro

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I am willing to bet that there is a sweet spot on acceleration for an EV. One is simply the current draw from battery. They don't like being tasked with a huge draw. Two is the way a motor works. If you attempt to ask too much acceleration it will allow the magnet forces to get too far apart beyond the best spot. Every motor has it's own graph.

Would be nice to see some video or web site actually show overall current/power usage from various speeds and accelerations.
 

PungoteagueDave

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For those of you considering the Platinum vs Lariat ER and wondering why the Platinum range is 280 instead of 300, the 22” wheels can absolutely account for all the difference.

I’ve been driving a Tesla Model 3 for a few years and it came with lightweight 18” wheels with the aerodynamic covers, then I bought heavier aftermarket 19” turbine style wheels with the same brand all season tires for looks. The 6lb per wheel weight difference and the aero cover makes a no joke 15-20% range difference at interstate highway speeds. (I think most “highway” fuel economy standards are measured at 60 mph, not the 75+ that’s common here in Florida.) It’s a similar story for people who have swapped all season tires with stickier summer tires.

For this reason I’m definitely sticking to the Lariat with A/S tires and would encourage everyone considering a Lightning to drive around and make sure the real world range is more than acceptable before modding the truck, because I could see A/T tires, less aerodynamic rims, leveling kit etc. taking 10-30+ percent highway range hit. I realize you take a similar mileage hit with gas trucks, but the precision of the battery and range meters in EVs makes the difference much more psychologically present. And when road-tripping the extra charging time required will add up quicker than just putting in a few extra gallons at each stop if you plan on doing frequent long distance travel in the Lighting.
For this reason I plan to get a second set of smaller wheels. I do wish the Platinum could be optioned with retracting running boards, smaller wheels, and the retractable bed cover available on other F-150 Platinums. Went with the Platinum for its larger towing capacity, a few other features. Would also like to have the option for glass roof delete.
 

sotek2345

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For this reason I plan to get a second set of smaller wheels. I do wish the Platinum could be optioned with retracting running boards, smaller wheels, and the retractable bed cover available on other F-150 Platinums. Went with the Platinum for its larger towing capacity, a few other features. Would also like to have the option for glass roof delete.
But the Platinum has a lower towing capacity than the XLT ER or Lariat ER equiped with Max Towl.
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