Best Practices For Feeding (Charging) and Caring of Our New Lightnings

[Nick Gerteis]

Actually, these people may do better with an EV. Assuming they plug in every night, they would start the day with a full charge. They wouldn't have to make a stop at a gas station at all.

You’re giving them a lot of credit here.

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[Sdctcher]

You base this claim on what exactly?

https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-range/

 

[Sdctcher]

Actually, these people may do better with an EV. Assuming they plug in every night, they would start the day with a full charge. They wouldn't have to make a stop at a gas station at all.

Respectfully:

Reminds me of that Commercial where the family is Assuming. Life is full of False Assumptions.

Actually, many of these type of people would start the day with Both a dead EV And a dead iPhone

 

[RickLightning]

What about charging the Lightning in a hot garage on a hot summer day? Maybe 110F in the garage?

Does a fully charged battery under the 110F ambient conditions have less range than a battery that was fully charged with an ambient garage temperature of say 80 or 90F? E.g. what effort should be made to keep the garage cooler? (Attic fan? Air conditioned garage?)

Both heat and cold impact the battery. As someone noted, if the truck is plugged in, then it will run cooling efforts if it needs to. Even if it's not plugged in, it will run cooling efforts if it needs to.

What you learn, is that setting a departure time before driving allows the vehicle to warm, or cool, the battery as needed to get the most efficiency out of it. Same when you're driving - it diverts heat, or cooling, as needed, to the battery.

Of course for some people, they'll have peak electric costs at some point during the day, and won't want the vehicle to pull house current. Buying an "intelligent' charger allows you to prevent the vehicle from pulling house current if you don't want it to, leaving it to either use its battery to do so, or not.

Keep in mind that you can simply "drive" an EV, and plug it in only when you want to charge it, and charge it to 100% each time. The difference in battery efficiency, and battery longevity, will be noticed at some point in the vehicle's life.

If I don't precondition and it's 20 degrees out, I get much worse miles per kWh then if I precondition.

Keep in mind that Ford's warranty says that for 8 years / 100,000 miles, they guarantee that you'll have at least 70% of the batteries capacity available. They ensure this by limiting the usable battery (on the Mach-E extended range model, the usable battery is now 91kWh, but the battery is actually 98kWh), and monitoring how you're using the vehicle. They've stated publicly that if you use it wisely, they'll give you more capacity and faster charger curves, and if you don't, they won't.

Remember that these vehicles transmit a lot of information back to Ford.

 

[p52Ranch]

https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-range/

Thanks for sharing the graph again. Two questions:
1) Does the Lightning (or MME) therefore run battery cooling when the vehicle is in use (or battery being charged) anytime the battery temperature exceeds 75F or so to keep it at maximum range?

2) The battery is fully charged in the hot garage (and the charger kept the battery cool during the charging process). Then the Lightning sits and consequently the battery heats up in the hot garage. When the Lightning is used, what range is lost while the cooling system cools the battery down to the ideal operating temperature?

 

[shutterbug]

https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-range/

Yeah. Not buying this. The chart shows 80% not 60% @104 degrees. In fact it doesn't even go down to 60%. Also my experience last summer when we hade ambient temperature over 120 degrees, didn't show a significant degradation.

 

[RickLightning]

Thanks for sharing the graph again. Two questions:
1) Does the Lightning (or MME) therefore run battery cooling when the vehicle is in use (or battery being charged) anytime the battery temperature exceeds 75F or so to keep it at maximum range?

2) The battery is fully charged in the hot garage (and the charger kept the battery cool during the charging process). Then the Lightning sits and consequently the battery heats up in the hot garage. When the Lightning is used, what range is lost while the cooling system cools the battery down to the ideal operating temperature?

1) The vehicle has features to prevent the battery from freezing or being way to hot. However, it does NOT keep it at optimum temperature. That's why your range in cold weather is severely reduced. If you pull into a high speed charger in the summer, and plug it in, when it ramps up you'll see the front louvers open and the cooling pumps kick in. It can sound like a jet aircraft ready for takeoff. In fact, it was doing this in people's garages, including mine, when charged at the 48amp level prior to Ford doing a software fix. I could hear it in the family room when it did that.

2) No one has any math to show you what range is lost to cooling or heating the battery. I can tell you that heating uses much more energy than cooling, because the Mach-E has a 7kW heater. That can use 20% or more of your energy on a trip. That heater is the same heater that heats the battery, so if you don't run the heater, the battery warms up more than if you run the heater.

You should expect a loss of 30 - 40% of range in the cold weather, possibly more if you live in Alaska or northern Canada. Mach-Es that got 3.0 - 3.5 miles per kWh in the summer are getting 2.1 - 2.5 miles per kWh now if they don't precondition.

Ford knows that ideally, the vehicle would start preconditioning the battery as you approach your next high speed charger while on a trip (and the nav knows your going there), and has heard from owners they want this feature and/or the ability to manually kick in the precondition mode while driving.

Anyone that decides to heat, or air condition, their garage for the purpose of maximizing EV range or battery life is foolish. You'll never recover that cost in your lifetime.

 

[p52Ranch]

Both heat and cold impact the battery. As someone noted, if the truck is plugged in, then it will run cooling efforts if it needs to. Even if it's not plugged in, it will run cooling efforts if it needs to.

What you learn, is that setting a departure time before driving allows the vehicle to warm, or cool, the battery as needed to get the most efficiency out of it. Same when you're driving - it diverts heat, or cooling, as needed, to the battery.

Of course for some people, they'll have peak electric costs at some point during the day, and won't want the vehicle to pull house current. Buying an "intelligent' charger allows you to prevent the vehicle from pulling house current if you don't want it to, leaving it to either use its battery to do so, or not.

Keep in mind that you can simply "drive" an EV, and plug it in only when you want to charge it, and charge it to 100% each time. The difference in battery efficiency, and battery longevity, will be noticed at some point in the vehicle's life.

If I don't precondition and it's 20 degrees out, I get much worse miles per kWh then if I precondition.

Keep in mind that Ford's warranty says that for 8 years / 100,000 miles, they guarantee that you'll have at least 70% of the batteries capacity available. They ensure this by limiting the usable battery (on the Mach-E extended range model, the usable battery is now 91kWh, but the battery is actually 98kWh), and monitoring how you're using the vehicle. They've stated publicly that if you use it wisely, they'll give you more capacity and faster charger curves, and if you don't, they won't.

Remember that these vehicles transmit a lot of information back to Ford.

Thanks for sharing. Great information in this thread. The Lightning will be my first EV and I'm trying to figure out what preparations I will need to make for my XLT SR when it arrives.

 

[sotek2345]

1) The vehicle has features to prevent the battery from freezing or being way to hot. However, it does NOT keep it at optimum temperature. That's why your range in cold weather is severely reduced. If you pull into a high speed charger in the summer, and plug it in, when it ramps up you'll see the front louvers open and the cooling pumps kick in. It can sound like a jet aircraft ready for takeoff. In fact, it was doing this in people's garages, including mine, when charged at the 48amp level prior to Ford doing a software fix. I could hear it in the family room when it did that.

2) No one has any math to show you what range is lost to cooling or heating the battery. I can tell you that heating uses much more energy than cooling, because the Mach-E has a 7kW heater. That can use 20% or more of your energy on a trip. That heater is the same heater that heats the battery, so if you don't run the heater, the battery warms up more than if you run the heater.

You should expect a loss of 30 - 40% of range in the cold weather, possibly more if you live in Alaska or northern Canada. Mach-Es that got 3.0 - 3.5 miles per kWh in the summer are getting 2.1 - 2.5 miles per kWh now if they don't precondition.

Ford knows that ideally, the vehicle would start preconditioning the battery as you approach your next high speed charger while on a trip (and the nav knows your going there), and has heard from owners they want this feature and/or the ability to manually kick in the precondition mode while driving.

Anyone that decides to heat, or air condition, their garage for the purpose of maximizing EV range or battery life is foolish. You'll never recover that cost in your lifetime.

Great post, but I will offer that we are seeing bigger hits in cold weather than you listed (in upstate NY). We are seeing 2.1-2.2 miles per kWhr when preconditioned and 1.4-1.5 when not preconditioned on our MME GT. Only had it about a month, so we can't wait for the warm weather!

For us, this is fine, we planned around this kind of range reduction so no impacts.

 

[RickLightning]

Great post, but I will offer that we are seeing bigger hits in cold weather than you listed (in upstate NY). We are seeing 2.1-2.2 miles per kWhr when preconditioned and 1.4-1.5 when not preconditioned on our MME GT. Only had it about a month, so we can't wait for the warm weather!

For us, this is fine, we planned around this kind of range reduction so no impacts.

Sorry, I should have included Northern NY state, and Northern Minnesota, North Dakota, Wyoming, ...

 

[RickLightning]

Thanks for sharing. Great information in this thread. The Lightning will be my first EV and I'm trying to figure out what preparations I will need to make for my XLT SR when it arrives.

Tip - at some point, the manual will be online at owner.ford.com. Look for it in a few months, and read it before you own the truck.

Spend time reading the Mach-E forums, and about EVs in general. You'll want to line up an electrician to install a circuit to handle your charging needs. You'll want to understand if your utility company gives you a rebate for installing a specific brand/model of charger. You'll want to think about future-proofing, for example if you decide you're going to use the included mobile charger, you may want to put in heavier wiring for the ability to use a more powerful charger later with minimal additional cost. You'll want to read about charging, and learn where chargers are in your area, both high speed and level two chargers. For example, when you go to dinner, is there a nearby charger that you can get some range while you're having a nice meal (and therefore save money). You'll want to take your first high speed charging trip somewhat locally, and try out the charging process, before you decide to do a 2,000 mile trip.

And so forth. My tip - READ, READ, and READ some more.

 

[sotek2345]

Tip - at some point, the manual will be online at owner.ford.com. Look for it in a few months, and read it before you own the truck.

Spend time reading the Mach-E forums, and about EVs in general. You'll want to line up an electrician to install a circuit to handle your charging needs. You'll want to understand if your utility company gives you a rebate for installing a specific brand/model of charger. You'll want to think about future-proofing, for example if you decide you're going to use the included mobile charger, you may want to put in heavier wiring for the ability to use a more powerful charger later with minimal additional cost. You'll want to read about charging, and learn where chargers are in your area, both high speed and level two chargers. For example, when you go to dinner, is there a nearby charger that you can get some range while you're having a nice meal (and therefore save money). You'll want to take your first high speed charging trip somewhat locally, and try out the charging process, before you decide to do a 2,000 mile trip.

And so forth. My tip - READ, READ, and READ some more.

Exactly - and get your home L2 charger installed BEFORE you get your truck so you are not scrambling to figure out charging when you get it (way to many people do that!)

 

[COrocket]

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.

 

[p52Ranch]

Exactly - and get your home L2 charger installed BEFORE you get your truck so you are not scrambling to figure out charging when you get it (way to many people do that!)

Thanks for the ideas. I've already been talking with my electrician. I've identified a 60 amp breaker in the panel that I think I can repurpose to support the 48 amp charging circuit.

What are the thoughts on multiple outlets in the garage? I have a 3 car garage and the Lightning will be dedicated to one stall. Is it useful to drop any other outlets at the same time? I don't foresee multiple EV's in my immediate future but who knows.

 

[COrocket]

What are the thoughts on multiple outlets in the garage? I have a 3 car garage and the Lightning will be dedicated to one stall. Is it useful to drop any other outlets at the same time? I don't foresee multiple EV's in my immediate future but who knows.

Assuming your main panel can handle it, there’s no downside to future proofing. I ran a pair of 50 amp circuits when I got my first EV, and now I’m all set for when the Lightning finally arrives. I would make sure the Lightning has 50-60 amps to charge with, but if your second car is smaller, you could get away with a smaller circuit since copper wire has become pretty pricy recently. A 240V 20A or 30A circuit that uses 12 or 10 gauge wire can still almost completely charge a sedan/crossover sized EV overnight.

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