Battery Percentage

[philly_ev]

I would love it if the battery percentage would so on the dash, possibly next to the 'miles to empty'. I view the battery percentage as the amount of 'gas' in my 'tank'. I would like to look at both of these on the same display, without having to have my navigation replaced by the one screen that shows the percentage. My dad has an old Ford Ranger EV, and it shows the battery capacity as well as distance to empty in the dash.

 

[jmueller065]

It is on the dash--sort of. There is the bar graph part of the battery display--that is the % it just isn't showing a value.

 

[philly_ev]

I more heavily rely on the percentage itself - it's much easier to read and gives me a better gauge on how much 'juice' I have left.

 

[sefs]

It would be nice for it to have the miles and the percentage. Just like on the app.

 

[NightHawk]

It would be nice for it to have the miles and the percentage. Just like on the app.

Yep that would be my wish as well.
I've noticed that the displayed battery percentage left on the console charging screen doesn't appear to be accurate however compared to the miles left (range) displayed.

Last night I drove my new FFE only about 4 miles total on nearby surface streets going to a couple stores at slow speeds and yet the battery percentage showed dropped from 100% when I left the house down to 92% when I got home.
No way it should drop that much, equivalent to about 1.6KWH (8% of 19.5KWH battery)?
The car's trip display indicated I only used 1.1KWH (which should be only about 5% used of the battery) so it doesn't add up! It should have only gone down from 100% to 95%, not 92%.

Is the battery percentage estimate off compared to the energy used display and range/miles left display calculated?

 

[studio460]

A numeric percentage display would be much more helpful. I'm constantly having the visually estimate my "point-of-no-return." I may lose my ability to charge (120V) at work, so this will become more and more critical.

 

[jmueller065]

I'm constantly having the visually estimate my "point-of-no-return."

The car knows that value and will warn you--at least when you're getting to that point away from one of your value charge locations. I've received the warning several times now.

 

[michael]

It would be nice for it to have the miles and the percentage. Just like on the app.

Yep that would be my wish as well.
I've noticed that the displayed battery percentage left on the console charging screen doesn't appear to be accurate however compared to the miles left (range) displayed.

Last night I drove my new FFE only about 4 miles total on nearby surface streets going to a couple stores at slow speeds and yet the battery percentage showed dropped from 100% when I left the house down to 92% when I got home.
No way it should drop that much, equivalent to about 1.6KWH (8% of 19.5KWH battery)?
The car's trip display indicated I only used 1.1KWH (which should be only about 5% used of the battery) so it doesn't add up! It should have only gone down from 100% to 95%, not 92%.

Is the battery percentage estimate off compared to the energy used display and range/miles left display calculated?

It is a known characteristic that the reported charge level drops excessively in the first mile or so. I don't know what it means and why is it so but it consistently happens.

As far as judging whether you will reach your destination, I have found the cup of energy display to be very useful. It shows you how many Wh per mile you will need to achieve to make it

 

[hybridbear]

Perhaps it drops so quickly because there's no regen braking at the beginning.

 

[WattsUp]

As far as judging whether you will reach your destination, I have found the cup of energy display to be very useful. It shows you how many Wh per mile you will need to achieve to make it

Also useful is to enter your destination in the navigation system -- and always answer "yes" to "will you charge the battery?" there, even if you won't. Answering yes turns the "status" display into a "surplus" display (and affects the cup display too).

In this mode, perhaps more useful than the cup display, is to simply keep a positive surplus (which indicates the range you'll have remaining after reaching your destination). A positive surplus means you'll make it, negative means you won't. If the surplus starts to get low, or goes negative, don't panic! -- simply slow down just a bit (esp. easy when using cruise control) and wait for the surplus to increase. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, and see that you have surplus to spare (and perhaps will be charging at your destination), why not speed up a bit, or enjoy some A/C.

For longer trips, I find it easier to simply track the surplus, rather that watch every movement of the energy meter in or out of the cup. The cup is kinda like a "micro" indicator, and can be highly variable and "of the moment". The surplus is a "macro" indicator, and is more stable and predictable. Watching the surplus works especially well for freeway trips on fairly flat terrain. I've found it's estimation to be very accurate in that scenario and trust it to get me to my destination, even when running with a low single-digit surplus.

 

[NightHawk]

Perhaps it drops so quickly because there's no regen braking at the beginning.

Not so.
In my test case last night I was only driving 2 miles away from my house to a local Home Depot - only on surface streets with lots of coasting and braking at stop lights.
Got a lot of regenerative action, yet still the battery percentage displayed went down way more than it should have, however the total range estimate left seemed about right. Also the total energy expended value in the Trip Meter display seemed valid and would result is less drop in battery percentage if used to calculate that from the full charged value of 19.5KWH.

So it appears to me the battery percentage number calculation is just off and can't be trusted as an exact number, the true value is probably higher based on the energy expended total I get from the Trip Meter display.
In my 4 mile (round trip) test last night it should have dropped from 100% to about 95%, as opposed to the displayed 92%.
Sounds like a Ford software bug for the battery percentage calculation to me; it should correlate to the measured energy expended value - unless that is off, but that would result in a much lower total range which wouldn't be right, so I suspect its just the battery percentage display value that is off (too low)

 

[NightHawk]

Also useful is to enter your destination in the navigation system -- and always answer "yes" to "will you charge the battery?" there, even if you won't. Answering yes turns the "status" display into a "surplus" display (and affects the cup display too).

In this mode, perhaps more useful than the cup display, is to simply keep a positive surplus (which indicates the range you'll have remaining after reaching your destination). A positive surplus means you'll make it, negative means you won't. If the surplus starts to get low, or goes negative, don't panic! -- simply slow down just a bit (esp. easy when using cruise control) and wait for the surplus to increase. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, and see that you have surplus to spare (and perhaps will be charging at your destination), why not speed up a bit, or enjoy some A/C.

For longer trips, I find it easier to simply track the surplus, rather that watch every movement of the energy meter in or out of the cup. The cup is kinda like a "micro" indicator, and can be highly variable and "of the moment". The surplus is a "macro" indicator, and is more stable and predictable. Watching the surplus works especially well for freeway trips on fairly flat terrain. I've found it's estimation to be very accurate in that scenario and trust it to get me to my destination, even when running with a low single-digit surplus.

Yep I discovered that as well.
I use it to get a surplus value that is very useful, an estimated how many miles left of battery usage upon arriving at the destination.

I've had some issues with entering a new destination with a street address however.
Sometimes it won't let me enter a full address or it defaults to some city like "Irvine" that is over a hundred miles away from me and I can't change it!
Is there some secret to getting it to allow entry of a full street address including City? It appears to only allow certain letters to enter at certain points too, I don't get it.

 

[WattsUp]

Perhaps it drops so quickly because there's no regen braking at the beginning.

Not so.
In my test case last night I was only driving 2 miles away from my house to a local Home Depot - only on surface streets with lots of coasting and braking at stop lights.

Huh? Regeneration doesn't kick in for the first few miles after a full charge (what hybridbear is referring to). This can be observed by the absence of the spinner while braking, and also a slightly different feel (since the pads are temporarily handling all braking instead of regeneration motor resistance).

Was your battery not quite fully charged?

 

[NightHawk]

Huh? Regeneration doesn't kick in for the first few miles after a full charge (what hybridbear is referring to). This can be observed by the absence of the spinner while braking, and also a slightly different feel (since the pads are temporarily handling all braking instead of regeneration motor resistance).

Was your battery not quite fully charged?

It dropped a few percentage points quickly even when I was going downhill from my house last night.
I could see the spinning display when I was coasting and braking too.
In any case the total energy expended in the Trip meter display for the 4 mile round trip was 1.1KWH and that also shows in the MyFord webpage for the trip.
1.1/19.5KWH = 5.6% so the battery should have dropped from 100% to about 95%, but the display said it dropped to 92% after the 4 mile trip.

I just checked the detailed trip log on the MyFord webpage for last night's trip:
Going from my house to Home Depot shows as 2.1miles with 0.5KWH used; 1.0miles from Regen; brake score 94%
Coming from Home Depot back to my house shows as 2.0miles with 0.6KWH used; 0.4miles from Regen; brake score 96%
(Its more downhill leaving my house and more uphill returning to my house)

 

[WattsUp]

Huh? Regeneration doesn't kick in for the first few miles after a full charge (what hybridbear is referring to).

It dropped a few percentage points quickly even when I was going downhill from my house last night.
I could see the spinning display when I was coasting and braking too.

Weird, after a full charge, I usually don't see the regeneration spinner until after a few braking sessions, and I can "feel" that braking is using the pads.

 

[WattsUp]

Is there some secret to getting it to allow entry of a full street address including City?

I usually have pretty good luck just speaking the address with the city, as it instructs to do.

It appears to only allow certain letters to enter at certain points too, I don't get it.

The keyboard becomes disabled above a certain speed. Were you driving when that happened?

Other times, when stopped, I noticed the keyboard only highlights the next "valid" letters. It's also a little slow at doing so, so you just have to plod along, waiting for it to keep up. If you can't enter the street name you want, it is probably because the city is wrong and it's searching through the wrong set of street names.

 

[NightHawk]

Yesterday I had my new 240V/30A charger wiring installation done and charged the car for the first time with that morning.
The car was initially about 52% battery level and the first full charge I attempted seemed to get to 99% and not go higher.
Later in the afternoon I started the charging over and got it up to full 100%.
I then drove the car to the home depot early that evening and when I got home it displayed as 92%.
I plugged it in then and it got to 100% in 15minutes of charging according to the charge log.

 

[NightHawk]

Is there some secret to getting it to allow entry of a full street address including City?

I usually have pretty good luck just speaking the address with the city, as it instructs to do.

It appears to only allow certain letters to enter at certain points too, I don't get it.

The keyboard becomes disabled above a certain speed. Were you driving when that happened?

Other times, when stopped, I noticed the keyboard only highlights the next "valid" letters. It's also a little slow at doing so, so you just have to plod along, waiting for it to keep up. If you can't enter the street name you want, it is probably because the city is wrong and it's searching through the wrong set of street names.

No I was parked entering the destination street address.
Yep it only highlighted certain letters so I couldn't complete the full street name.
Thats when I noticed the city was wrong and I couldn't find a way to change it.
Any hints on how to set the default search city or is it figuring that out from GPS? In that case its wrong!
I haven't been using the speech feature, I prefer keyboard entry - maybe there are some bugs only with that?

 

[WattsUp]

Any hints on how to set the default search city or is it figuring that out from GPS? In that case its wrong!

Sorry, I can't say I know. The city usually comes out correct for me. But, then again, I use the voice control more where it allows me to "input" the complete address before it "processes" it.

Perhaps try entering the city first and go back to the street? In any case, I would think that the GPS would default to searching against the "current" city when entering an address.

 

[NightHawk]

Sorry, I can't say I know. The city usually comes out correct for me. But, then again, I use the voice control more where it allows me to "input" the complete address before it "processes" it.

Perhaps try entering the city first and go back to the street? In any case, I would think that the GPS would default to searching against the "current" city when entering an address.

I just played around with the nav system and discovered under Navigation settings that a feature "auto fill city/state" was on. I turned that off and now I can enter the city via the keyboard.
Then I can enter the street number and the street name, though it seems to only let me enter the first few letters of the street name and then I have to click on something to show a list of street names it found via search in that city with the first few letters I entered. But it worked that way finally. In my area I'm near the boundary of other smaller towns that are separate from the main city (San Diego) so I need to change the city a lot even for some locations only a few miles away.

I also found they had under Points of Interest "Automotive" Ford dealers were able to be listed in order of distance from my location.

I discovered for a round trip I could enter a location as a "waypoint" and specify no charging there and then enter a second location as a "destination" like my home with charging there. Then the display's surplus miles would be for the round trip, exactly what I wanted to see.

So I think I've got all that figured out now.
However, I haven't figured out how to assign a location as a special designation "WORK" like they have for "MY Home" ?