Ford Focus Electric Forum

This question is for those of you with more than a few miles on your FFE: Has the efficiency gone up? Is there a point where you notice that the wHr/mile goes down?

Source of my question: The owners manual does say that the "mileage" will go up after the vehicle is "broken in" (granted an electric vehicle's "break in" is nothing compared to an ICE's break in period). Most of my ICE Ford's in recent history have gained one or two mpg around 10000 miles or so (this has been especially noticeable in the lower mpg vehicles as the 1 or 2 mpg gained is a larger percentage of 11 mpg than it is of 30 mpg).

For me its hard to tell because switching from and ICE car where I didn't pay much attention to efficiency meant I had a lot to learn about improving that part of my driving. So efficiency has definitely gone up, but I think its due to changes in driving habits more than anything else.

Part of my efficiency gain is due to change in behavior too. Most of my gain seems to be from the weather warming up. I used to average over 11.5kW for 38 miles on a 1200ft elevation gain coming home, with traffic... last night it only took 9.8kW.

Maybe someone from Florida or San Diego could chime in?

How about from Michigan? To compare to your 38-mile trip, I took a 39-mile trip last weekend when it was about 35 degrees outside. I used 10kWh. I have had the car only one week, so if there is a break-in period, I am sure I am not there yet. I expect more of a gain in efficiency to come from the weather warming up.

Dont know if this helps, Im not in FL or SD, but being in Las Vegas our temps have been nice recently. (around 70's in the daytime). Im getting alot out of my FFE because I havnt had to use AC or Heat. (at night ill hit the Heated seats, which use almost no energy up). Here is my specs from yesterday and today from myFord. Top 2 I didnt have any heat or AC on (besides Heated seats at 3), the bottom one I blasted the heat on high with seats on 5 and everything running, Nav and Stereo on high using the CD player. (all of these were from flat level driving, no hills/mountains).
As you can see my kWh almost doubled for the same distance (from 176wh/mile to 323 Wh/mile).
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8875/42167119.jpg


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I know we are getting off topic here (Break In), but, wow, how are you getting such low Wh/mile? What speeds are you driving at? When I baby the car I get around 240 Wh/mile (no climate system, speeds in the 30s and 40s).

Im doing a mix of city and highway driving, 35-40 in the city and 60-65 on the highway. Im just watching how much I can "coast" between pushing the pedal down. Coasting is overlooked I think more because your always hearing the whole Regen Braking talks all the time. (example, if I have a small hill, I gun it a little quicker before going up a hill and then let those low resistant tires spin away, when I lose acceleration I tap again on the gas. Always trying to keep my wh/ml as close to 200. For highways its a bit tricky as you have to make sure when hitting the on ramp theres not a ton of cars coming or behind you, as I dont want to be that slow dick. But slowly building up speed tapping away at the gas with a mix of coasting while watching the speeds keeps me low. I should make a video or something for youtube to show this). Its all about slowly building up speed with coasting when you can. It also makes a difference when you map at the topo of the area you live in. (vegas is a valley, so instead of going straight up a the steep hill E/W, i try to add some flatter N/S roads mixed in, that way I dont have any start/stops at lights on a steeper grade. Of course this will add time, which I have plenty of. Now if I need to be somewhere quick Ill drive it like a normal car if I have to. Ill try and figure a way to make a vid if I can driving my normal daily trip. (And maybe hit the strip here in Vegas to see what I can get there as its the flattest part of vegas).
Here's my short run to the grocery today, and what its charging at now (using 120v, just got my Leviton in the mail today).
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9057/screenshot20130310at431.jpg

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Just checked my standings in the MyFord standing, and im #2. Seems my wife is taking my keys to run errands as she always "forgets" her keys, I say forgets as I know she's trying to save cash as her car is getting 13mpg with her driving. (and she's killing my standings on the boards...lol ). I know I could beat Bill, but I dont have time to get caught up in the rankings game as the FFE is a car I use for my business. (she's not doing to bad on her own key though, she's #5)
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/6669/screenshot20130310at455.jpg

Also, its the roads that can make a difference with your milage. (here in Vegas our roads are always being worked on and repaved and even the beltways are new and smooth, especially when comparing the roads I was on in PA). As you can see in the PDF, Rolling resistance is 1 percent, smooth roads can make a 5 percent difference. (and when you add in the weather difference right now between you and I that also makes a difference. Im just wondering what our 100-115 degree temps are going to do to my milage, im not an AC type of person as having driven around in my friends Jeeps in summer you get used to the heat).

http://www.asphaltroads.org/documents/Asphalt_Smoothness_Matters_Downloadable.pdf


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