New owner of 2017 FFE

[pcph]

Hi! Just received this week my 2017 FFE after 3 months of waiting for the factory order. This is my first EV. Very thrilled and very pleased with the car so far. I understand that the 2017 MY is rare and some good improvements were made. I'll be happy to answer any questions other members might have.

 

[Jamez]

Congrats!
I'd love to know the results of a run-down test if you're willing to perform one and share with the community.

 

[EVA]

Congrats!
I'd love to know the results of a run-down test if you're willing to perform one and share with the community.

Hey Jamez - first EV, you'll have to include a link or procedure for them to even begin to understand what a run down test is.

What Jamez is trying to understand - how much real live usable battery power did Ford pack into the car? The previous FFE didn't have the full battery available - Ford kept a pretty big reserve to protect the battery. He wants to understand if Ford did the same thing with the new car.

I'm maybe a bit more curious about the trunk area. Is the battery block the same size? Did they pack in anything different besides the pump and 110V charging cable?

And have you tried CCS (high powered charging) yet? How fast does it charge - miles per hour of charging?

And how much range are you getting (generally where do you live)? First few days will be all over the map.

 

[pcph]

Congrats!
I'd love to know the results of a run-down test if you're willing to perform one and share with the community.

Hey Jamez - first EV, you'll have to include a link or procedure for them to even begin to understand what a run down test is.

What Jamez is trying to understand - how much real live usable battery power did Ford pack into the car? The previous FFE didn't have the full battery available - Ford kept a pretty big reserve to protect the battery. He wants to understand if Ford did the same thing with the new car.

I'm maybe a bit more curious about the trunk area. Is the battery block the same size? Did they pack in anything different besides the pump and 110V charging cable?

And have you tried CCS (high powered charging) yet? How fast does it charge - miles per hour of charging?

And how much range are you getting (generally where do you live)? First few days will be all over the map.

A bit early to answer most of these questions. I've done about 30 km with the car so far. The range estimate on the dashboard was originally 160 km, but as I drive it it's improving, getting up to 180 km estimate at the moment. I guess they horsed around with the car at the factory and that threw off the guess-o-meter.

The trunk is exactly the same as a 2016. Including the silly organizer.

CCS will happen in a month or so.

My understanding of a run down test is to fully deplete the battery (not sure what else is involved). I'm not comfortable with doing that at the moment since I'm only charging with the L1 convenience cord. As I've found out so far, it takes forever and a half to charge this thing.

I was hoping for more actual KW live information as I drive (e.g. Instant consumption). All I'm seeing is visual bars giving an approximate value, and some averages. The my Ford mobile application is more helpful in that regard, but only for past trips.

I drove 70 km tonight and my battery was at 63% at the final destination. Used just a little heating; climate control was off for most of the trip. MFM says I've used 10.3 kWh since my last full charge. Now I am facing a 11h (!!!) recharge time.

 

[Focused_Rob]

Now I am facing a 11h (!!!) recharge time.

I live in an apartment and have zero access to any plug 110 or 220. I have a rather short commute to work and luckily I only have to find a public charging station once or twice a week.
I have sort of turned it into personally hobby/down time I guess you could say.
I have a quadcopter that I mess around with while charging, which has really helped hone my skills on that thing. haha


Might benefit you to see if there is an available 110 outlet at work or public stations nearby.

Enjoy the car!

 

[pcph]

Might benefit you to see if there is an available 110 outlet at work or public stations nearby.

Enjoy the car!

No luck for a plug at work, I checked before even buying the car. I also have a short commute and napkin math says I should easily be able to recharge my daily commute in, at most, 8 hours of L1. But for that occasional longer trip, I'm thinking hard about getting a L2 charger installed at home. A 12 hour recharge (or 30 hours from empty, according to the new 2017 specs!) is not very practical. I don't feel very good about occasionally checking MFM and seeing that the charge level has increased by 2%...

Using public chargers sounds like a good idea, in a pinch I might look for that. But again 3-5 hours in a parking lot is not very practical.

Oh and yes, I am enjoying the car very much! Apart from slow charging...

 

[Pearl]

http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3579

It's best to re-size your pictures.

 

[pcph]

http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3579

It's best to re-size your pictures.

Done. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Pearl]

BTW, love that color.

 

[EVA]

If you are going to charge somewhere and don't like the area - just take an Uber to someplace else while the car charges. You don't really have to sit in your car or just be walking distance to something good.

 

[triangles]

I'm curious to know what kind of winter range (-10C or colder) you get with a mention of how much heat you use.

 

[pcph]

I'll have a chance to test that more thoroughly this week, as temperatures will dip below 0 for a day or 2. So far my experience with cold (0C) was that the moment I hit the auto climate control button (temp set to 20C) I lose about 40 km of range on the estimate display. During this morning's trip, it appears that I lost about 5 km of range to climate control (used heat sparingly, turning it on twice for a few minutes throughout the 30 minute trip).

I find this car's information displays lacking in regards to actual information on what uses power and how much. The Chevy Bolt has much better displays, showing the number of kWh used by the drivetrain and heating separately. I wish I could see more detailed information.

 

[user 5595]

Beautiful car. I will be interested to follow your progress.

I tend to like to make bold lifestyle changes. I live in a townhouse with underground parking, and have no access to L1 or L2 charging at home. I plan to try to exist mostly on public charging when my FFE arrives, to see how it goes. I don't typically drive to work (bike or transit have been my preference, although owning a non-fossil-fuel vehicle might change that) but I can charge there if I find it is necessary. I also have a membership with a local car co-op, so I can drive an ICE for longer trips if I really have to. (I know: Boooo!)

I also like to have excuses to slow down my life. I have scouted out some charging stations nearby that are close to businesses (mall, coffee shop, ...) that I already frequent, and my minimal driving should mean that I can get away with an hour here, an hour there. It would be nice if quick chargers weren't out in the boonies, but I suppose this will improve over time.

I am not opposed to paying for energy, of course. If I have to, I might look into getting something installed downstairs, but the rules around getting things set up with a strata are quite intimidating, and I'm not sure that the frugality of the other owners here will allow the required votes to pass.

I would prefer to put my efforts into somehow helping to improve the public infrastructure. There are a lot of people around here living in a similar living situation, and EV sales are not going to pick up if they can't keep their ride going.

 

[pcph]

Beautiful car. I will be interested to follow your progress.

Hey thanks! As I said before, charging this thing is SLOW. You better have a lot of free time if you're planning on charging a lot at public locations, like a previous poster who plays with his drone for hours. I don't particularly wish for fast DC chargers to be installed in the city, as the manual says that fast charging should be used sparingly, because that may affect the life of the battery. Read : using fast charging will quicken the degradation of the battery capacity. So definitely don't quick charge every week.

Installing a 110V outlet by your car can't be that difficult. I understand the difficulty of installing 220 hardware, but it shouldn't be that hard to get a standard wall plug! I feel that with my light usage and yours, a 110 plug might be enough, and for those cases where you need more, you use public charging. But at least that 110 plug would serve 99% of your needs. That's my situation right now, but I do feel the need to install 220 hardware at my home to remove any risk. Going to try a 220 plug at the dealer today to see how quickly it charges.

 

[jmueller065]

Going to try a 220 plug at the dealer today to see how quickly it charges.

In general using a Level 2 EVSE will charge an FFE about 4x faster than a Level 1 (120V @ 12A). It isn't exactly 4x but you can use 4x as a pretty good estimate.

 

[user 5595]

I don't particularly wish for fast DC chargers to be installed in the city, as the manual says that fast charging should be used sparingly, because that may affect the life of the battery.

Yes, I saw that. But I don't believe everything I read. I'd prefer to find out through experimentation (even if it is a very expensive end result. )

Installing a 110V outlet by your car can't be that difficult. I understand the difficulty of installing 220 hardware, but it shouldn't be that hard to get a standard wall plug!

It's not a difficulty with hardware. I'd pay for it myself anyway, and I'd probably prefer a dryer plug and a portable J1772 that I can lock up when not in use. The problem is that making changes to common property in a strata requires working with management as well as a 3/4 vote of the owners. A lot of legwork, which I hope to avoid if I can.

Besides that, there's the (fun) challenge of living off the public system. Public L2s are reasonably common around here and should be sufficient given the current level of EV adoption. (This is not unlike when I challenged myself to start taking transit twelve years ago instead of driving 20 km to work, or started biking that 20 km as much as possible for the past eight years. I think I've also challenged myself in ways not related to commuting, although I don't remember what those would be.)

As I wait for my EV to arrive, I'm putting myself into a training mode of sorts. I reset my Civic's trip meter to get a feel for how far I'm driving. When the trip meter gets too high, I have to park near an EV station long enough to clear it out.

 

[triangles]

I'll have a chance to test that more thoroughly this week, as temperatures will dip below 0 for a day or 2. So far my experience with cold (0C) was that the moment I hit the auto climate control button (temp set to 20C) I lose about 40 km of range on the estimate display. During this morning's trip, it appears that I lost about 5 km of range to climate control (used heat sparingly, turning it on twice for a few minutes throughout the 30 minute trip).

I find this car's information displays lacking in regards to actual information on what uses power and how much. The Chevy Bolt has much better displays, showing the number of kWh used by the drivetrain and heating separately. I wish I could see more detailed information.

I'm not sure if the 2017 has it but on my 2014 you can configure under one of the custom screens that the trip meter displays that will show you how many kW are being used by the climate control. Also you can configure the trip meter to show how many kWh have been used from the battery since you last reset the trip meter. Someone correct me if I am wrong but I think this takes into account regen put back in the battery from braking. I agree more info would be nice but find the kWh used on the trip meter a helpful supplement to the GOM in gauging how much range I really have left.

FYI cracking a window helps keep the windows from fogging or at least delays it. I've often wondered if cracking a window and using heat on recirculation is more efficient than having the heater heat the outside air. Seems like it would be but I can't think of an accurate way to test this.

In my 2014 last month I was able to make a 90km trip at -6C and I had about 22km left on the GOM when I got to my destination. I had used a go time to preheat the car in my heated garage. I only used the climate controls for about 3-5 minutes to help clear the windows when I could almost no longer see in front of me about 15-20min into my trip. Otherwise I had a chinesium 12 "heater" fan that I set on the dash to keep a peep hole clear on the windshield. The heating element died about 10 minutes into the trip. From the start I left the passenger window cracked about 4-6mm to help with window fogging. With the window cracked it takes about 20-30minutes for the temp/humidity to equalize enough for the windows to clear. I found that if I bundled up properly to keep warm and use a little seat heating cracking a window was enough to keep the windows clear and myself comfortable 90% of the time. But then again I ride motorcycles in winter so I guess I have a higher tolerance for cold environments than most people.

 

[pcph]

I'm not sure if the 2017 has it but on my 2014 you can configure under one of the custom screens that the trip meter displays that will show you how many kW are being used by the climate control. Also you can configure the trip meter to show how many kWh have been used from the battery since you last reset the trip meter.

Funny that you would say that. I just found that out on my way to work. The one in the trip meter is the best I have found so far to have an idea of how many kWh I am spending.

A 1 hour charge at the dealer pumped back 35 km into the battery. Much better than my L1 at home, think I'll be using this every now and then.

I also have been in "training mode" with my ICE for the past few months, preparing for the style of driving I would need to improve range.

Today I used the heated seats and it seems to barely have an effect on the range. It doesn't make an instant, visible difference on the range estimate and it also barely registers in the accessory power display, which triangles did just mention. Speaking of that display, it is also somewhat useful in telling how much power the heating takes, but it's just approximate values (with bars). I'm an engineer, damn it. I want numbers.

 

[pcph]

Quick update, I noticed that the sticker inside the door says to inflate the tires to 41 psi. I read in other posts that it used to be 38 psi. My car has the same tires as everyone else (Michelin Energy Saver A/S). It appears to be a random change on the 2017 MY???

 

[WattsUp]

It appears to be a random change on the 2017 MY???

What's the curb weight of the 2017?