Over 700 Wh/km!

[James]

I've been experience a drastic drop in range this winter and was just poking around the MyFord mobile account and noticed something that seemed unusual.

I have a daily commute of approximately 60kms (around 40 miles - I live in Atlantic Canada) which is about 60% highway, 40% city. I use the heater as sparingly as possible, set it around 65 degrees, and turn the heating system on and off just enough to keep the windshield clear. I also preheat before leaving in the morning.

With a full charge, and my 60km commute I've been arriving home with less than 20% battery remaining, and often a low battery warning. I noticed in my MyFord account that my car has been using an average of 710 Wh/km! There are only a couple of other FFEs in my region, and the others seem to be using between 210 Wh/km and 285 Wh/km.

Can the figures on the MyFord mobile be trusted, and should I be alarmed by the high Wh/km usage? Could this indicate some type of problem?

 

[michael]

See what the trip meter is showing. Reset it before a daily commute and check the values. 700 is unusually high, not plausible to me.

 

[WattsUp]

Can the figures on the MyFord mobile be trusted, and should I be alarmed by the high Wh/km usage? Could this indicate some type of problem?

I ignore the graphs. The numbers are garbage.

Some of the amounts the show seem to be doubled from what they should be. (I bet somewhere there is a silly double-counting bug.)

 

[James]

I'll reset the trip counter, thanks for the suggestion. Hopefully that will give me a true reading. This is the first winter that I've driven the car daily. I'm also using winter tires for the first time, which I expected to take a bit of a range hit on, but I didn't think it would make THAT much difference. I'd say I'd get no more than 50 miles on a full to empty charge right now - does that seem unreasonable low? I suppose I could have experienced some battery capacity loss as the car is almost 4 years old with 21,000 miles? I have to say, I'm feeling a bit paranoid about the car after receiving wire harness recall notice last week and reading about all the SSN stories.....

 

[electrons]

According to my own experience with my Focus Electric, and also http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/02/f19/fact2013fordfocus.pdf ,
you should be getting 193 Wh/km (310 Wh/mile) on average. Figure in about +/-20% variation day to day depending on how much you carry, how hard you accelerate, high or low speed driving, etc.

Check the Battery Display and energy efficiency "bucket" to the left of the battery indicator on the left side of the dash. Mine usually hovers around 193 Wh/km like its supposed to. Mine shows units of energy efficiency, but I have a 2016 model, maybe earlier ones don't.

 

[electrons]

I'll reset the trip counter, thanks for the suggestion. Hopefully that will give me a true reading. This is the first winter that I've driven the car daily. I'm also using winter tires for the first time, which I expected to take a bit of a range hit on, but I didn't think it would make THAT much difference. I'd say I'd get no more than 50 miles on a full to empty charge right now - does that seem unreasonable low? I suppose I could have experienced some battery capacity loss as the car is almost 4 years old with 21,000 miles? I have to say, I'm feeling a bit paranoid about the car after receiving wire harness recall notice last week and reading about all the SSN stories.....

I'd estimate the loss in Range from the tire types as about 1 mile (per full-charge of course). Cold weather also stiffens up the rubber for another small hit like that in range, nothing big. Your 50 miles sounds a little on the low side. Cold weather, again, does take some Range away, since the batteries warm themselves and use more energy doing so. I've seen 55 miles battery on the dash after charging to full on a very cold night outside on my new 2016 FFE.

As for the wiring harness and SSN problems, I've looked at some articles/statements on the web, and am really hoping Ford and Magna has that solved and fixes in place. Stay tuned to see if more people are still experiencing SSN problems! From all the reports, it appears like ~2% tp ~7% of all Focus Electric drivers have had it happen, just doing a rough estimate, given far from all events make it on to the internet.

 

[JTCalif]

Data on left side screen seems believable. Ours shows lifetime average around 246 Wh/mile (153 Wh/km), with a significant amount of driving on small roads, and mild climate. High speed driving (and use of heater) are the biggest negative factors that we can control (hills: necessary, and up/down tend to average out, roughly).
What model year is your car? You can check for Recall Notifications on the site http://owner.ford.com/ That can tell if you should get a modification done, e. g. to the main harness.

 

[triangles]

Can the figures on the MyFord mobile be trusted, and should I be alarmed by the high Wh/km usage? Could this indicate some type of problem?

I've never really paid much attention to what it says for power usage in MFM. I have read that the data there seems to be wildly inaccurate for many people. If you are concerned look at the Wh/km on your trip meter. If I converted from metric correctly your usage is well over 1100Wh/mi. From my experience last winter (Northern Ohio) looking at my trip meter usage my power consumption was usually about 340-440 Wh/mi converting to metric that's 211Wh/km to 273Wh/km Again converting 40-50 mi to metric you should get 65-80 km on a charge using minimal heat in the winter. Probably less with excessive heat usage. I think it's safe to say there's no way that 700+ Wh/km number is correct. Even if it counted the energy used while preheating it wouldn't be that high. If it were correct you'd be lucky to make it 25km down the road before the battery was dead.

 

[Rosebank]

Hi James. I am located just outside Saint John, NB and I am "Our FFE" in Atlantic Canada - one of the other two cars in the area.

My commute is 120 km (75 miles) a day, currently 6 days a week; about 75% highway 25% secondary roads; I watch my speed which is key to mileage. My employer has installed a Level 2 charger for me so I end up charging twice a day. Snow tires on October to March give a 5% reduction in range. I pre-warm car before starting out most days. My commute takes me very close to the coast so lots of salt air and salt on roads.

I had no issues with the car apart from two SSN's until New Years Day. A cracked lower battery case, corrosion on terminals, a local dealer who has not seen another BEV and 3.5 months later I have got my car back on road. 1600 km (1000 miles) later and so far so good. They re-programmed power unit and it appears to have make a noticeable difference. Currently running 155 Wh/km (250 Wh/mile). I currently have almost 60,000 km (36,000 miles) on car.