Real Range for 17 or 18 FFE

[vtec26]

Hi. Hoping some of the owners here can help me out. I'm in the market for an EV, and am wondering if the FFE will suit my needs with respect to range. I intend to use the car solely for work commuting. I live in Southern California and intend to park the car outside in my driveway. Some mornings are as low as 45F and some afternoons may touch triple digits. I'll also have a pretty steep hill to descend from my home and need to climb it on the way back. This is about a mile stretch of road where the max grade is 16%. I have a 40 mile one way (80 mile round trip) commute. About two thirds of the commute is freeway with speeds from 40mph up to 80mph for the HOV lane. I plan to use heat and AC as needed and not to suffer in return for range. Will I be able to make the round trip in the MY18 FFE?

Thanks!

 

[spirilis]

I get around 120mi range in warmer weather... maybe 110 if using A/C a lot.

In 45F temps it might drop to 100. What I have to deal with is 32F and below where range drops to 85 or even 75mi in 5F temps.

I bet it would work fine, considering California has the best charging infrastructure and you could stop off to DC Fast Charge if for some reason your mileage isn't cutting it on some day when you have to drive more than expected.

 

[campfamily]

I don't own a 2017 or 2018 with the larger battery, but as a point of reference.....

I also live in SoCal. I have a 2015 Focus with the smaller battery. My commute is about 54 miles round trip. My house is at about 1100 feet elevation, where I leave my car is about 100 feet. My commute is about 2/3 freeway. I use the A/C whenever I need it. I don't use the heat very often (not usually needed, can use the seat heaters on those "cold" 45 deg mornings). I consistently arrive home with 15 to 20 miles range remaining. On rainy days (need to run the defroster, plus for some reason that I haven't figured out rainy days cause higher consumption, even if I don't have the heater turned on) I might only have 10 miles remaining. This on a battery with a new range of only 73 miles.

I think you'll do just fine.

Keith

 

[vtec26]

Thanks for the responses.

Not sure If I should ask here or start a new thread in the tech section. Does anyone on the forum have either a faulty battery issue or a sever degradation issue? I'm thinking about leasing, but have seen random posts in various comments about people with some really messed up range/battery issues. I'm more worried given the warranty specifically excludes battery degradation which I assume all dealers will try to blame any range issue on. Thanks.

 

[cruxf22]

Hi. Hoping some of the owners here can help me out. I'm in the market for an EV, and am wondering if the FFE will suit my needs with respect to range. I intend to use the car solely for work commuting. I live in Southern California and intend to park the car outside in my driveway. Some mornings are as low as 45F and some afternoons may touch triple digits. I'll also have a pretty steep hill to descend from my home and need to climb it on the way back. This is about a mile stretch of road where the max grade is 16%. I have a 40 mile one way (80 mile round trip) commute. About two thirds of the commute is freeway with speeds from 40mph up to 80mph for the HOV lane. I plan to use heat and AC as needed and not to suffer in return for range. Will I be able to make the round trip in the MY18 FFE?

Thanks!

My new '17 FFE consistently gets above the EPA rating. I regularly average under 200Wh/mi in town in the midwest; I think you should be fine with your commute in SoCal. There is a great break down of real world ranges in this thread here: http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3877

Hope that helps!

 

[triangles]

My new '17 FFE consistently gets above the EPA rating. I regularly average under 200Wh/mi in town in the midwest; I think you should be fine with your commute in SoCal. There is a great break down of real world ranges in this thread here: http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3877

Hope that helps!

:shock: you must rarely exceed 35 mph!! Only once have I ever gotten below 200 with my '14 and I was trying very hard (45mph and under warm day). If I get below 250 that's a good day. Maybe they made efficiency improvements with the newer models?

 

[cruxf22]

My new '17 FFE consistently gets above the EPA rating. I regularly average under 200Wh/mi in town in the midwest; I think you should be fine with your commute in SoCal. There is a great break down of real world ranges in this thread here: http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3877

Hope that helps!

:shock: you must rarely exceed 35 mph!! Only once have I ever gotten below 200 with my '14 and I was trying very hard (45mph and under warm day). If I get below 250 that's a good day. Maybe they made efficiency improvements with the newer models?

Well it is all city driving, not sure what my average speed is! But, this is without any air on...as well as my naturally light foot haha

 

[talbert99]

I've got a 3 month old 2018 FFE - but I live in the northeast. I am told I have a battery size 33.5 KW but the best I see is between 24-26KW. My one way commute is 56.2 miles. It is 95% freeway (almost no city). I commonly get 280Wh/Mile and use 16-20KW on my way to the office. I (luckily) have a charger at work - and despite the consumption stating 17KW (example) the charge states I am adding 20KW (always about a 3KW difference). When I get to the office, the car states i've used ex: 17KW at avg 300KW / mile) but I have less than 10 miles range left. (huh?) I did the science experiment and ran it to exhaust - and full charge was 25.2KW. I've reached out to ford - they asked me to take it into service - The service guy stated (i'm within spec), and wait until I've gone 5K miles. The APP and the in car display never add up (we are not talking tough math here). I'm worried about winter, I can bear the heat - but when it's 5 degrees - will be tough. I don't think 80 miles RT is achievable in my area.
Things i've noticed
1. Driving in the rain consume 20% additional (I'm hoping that is not just windshield wipers)
2. Driving fast - consumes 40% more

If you were to use this vehicle for city driving - it seems to do MUCH better. Hoping one day Ford will come clean with an explanation.

 

[tonysbtr]

Try capturing the information from the OBD port.

Send request:
0x7E4
03-22-48-48

You should get a response from ECU 0x7EC that contains the kWh remaining. Mine says ~29kWh in my 2017. The unit of measure is 0.002 kWh per bit.

 

[triangles]

I've got a 3 month old 2018 FFE - but I live in the northeast. I am told I have a battery size 33.5 KW but the best I see is between 24-26KW. My one way commute is 56.2 miles. It is 95% freeway (almost no city). I commonly get 280Wh/Mile and use 16-20KW on my way to the office. I (luckily) have a charger at work - and despite the consumption stating 17KW (example) the charge states I am adding 20KW (always about a 3KW difference). When I get to the office, the car states i've used ex: 17KW at avg 300KW / mile) but I have less than 10 miles range left. (huh?) I did the science experiment and ran it to exhaust - and full charge was 25.2KW. I've reached out to ford - they asked me to take it into service - The service guy stated (i'm within spec), and wait until I've gone 5K miles. The APP and the in car display never add up (we are not talking tough math here). I'm worried about winter, I can bear the heat - but when it's 5 degrees - will be tough. I don't think 80 miles RT is achievable in my area.
Things i've noticed
1. Driving in the rain consume 20% additional (I'm hoping that is not just windshield wipers)
2. Driving fast - consumes 40% more

If you were to use this vehicle for city driving - it seems to do MUCH better. Hoping one day Ford will come clean with an explanation.

You are correct the way you are driving you wouldn't make an 80mi round trip on a charge in winter. It might be doable taking some efficient driving measures and reduced heat usage but you probably aren't willing to forgo heat. I already explained everything you asked about the battery capacity wise here: http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4285#p29668 The Guess-O-Meter (GOM) is just that a guess at your remaining range. It uses your recent history to try to predict your remaining range. When your driving includes a mix of inefficient and efficient driving conditions it can and most likely will be wildly inaccurate. I was able to make a 55 mile trip in my 2014 in 10F weather with 10 miles left on the GOM by taking every range extending strategy I could think of. IIRC I think I only use about 12 or 13 kWh. You will have to try real hard to not be able to make your 56mi commute even at 0F. Oh and as far as the range shown in the app, That has NEVER been accurate. Sometimes it's close but most of the time it's not. If ford hasn't fix it now that the FFE is discontinued, they never will.

 

[Twinstangs]

I don't own a 2017 or 2018 with the larger battery, but as a point of reference.....

I also live in SoCal. I have a 2015 Focus with the smaller battery. My commute is about 54 miles round trip. My house is at about 1100 feet elevation, where I leave my car is about 100 feet. My commute is about 2/3 freeway. I use the A/C whenever I need it. I don't use the heat very often (not usually needed, can use the seat heaters on those "cold" 45 deg mornings). I consistently arrive home with 15 to 20 miles range remaining. On rainy days (need to run the defroster, plus for some reason that I haven't figured out rainy days cause higher consumption, even if I don't have the heater turned on) I might only have 10 miles remaining. This on a battery with a new range of only 73 miles.

I think you'll do just fine.

Keith

In IC cars, when you turn on defrost it automaticaly runs the air conditioning, which dehumidifies the air. Probably the same in EVs.

 

[triangles]

Yep defrost runs both Heat and AC to dehumidify the air. Also should be used on recirculation and not pulling in outside air.

 

[spirilis]

Yep defrost runs both Heat and AC to dehumidify the air. Also should be used on recirculation and not pulling in outside air.

I have always experienced defrost as pulling in outside air, and I don't believe it lets you enable recirc. Focus Electric and C-Max Energi IIRC.

Incidentally my wife stumbled across a workaround - don't hit defrost, instead hit floor vent and THEN defrost, with the two active the power consumption is a little less (think it's not aggressively trying to raise the heater coolant temp) and you can enable recirc - but after a timeout period, the recirc automatically shuts off. You can re-enable it but you have to be paying attention. (My wife uses recirc almost all the time because she hates smelling exhaust or odors outside the car...)

 

[jdorff]

1. Driving in the rain consume 20% additional (I'm hoping that is not just windshield wipers)

Bjørn Nyland has discussed this on his You Tube channel. A wet road increases the rolling resistance of the tires.
There is a research paper (*) I found online with real data. A few quotes:
"At 80 km/h, 0.65-mm thick water film increases rolling resistance by over 50%,"
"The increase of rolling resistance is higher for higher speeds"
"Water film thickness has a considerable influence on rolling resistance increase"
"At low speeds (30 km/h), even very thin water film has considerable impact on rolling resistance."

* "Influence of Road Wetness on Tire-Pavement Rolling Resistance" Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture 9 (2015)

 

[kalel14]

* "Influence of Road Wetness on Tire-Pavement Rolling Resistance" Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture 9 (2015)[/quote]

Well, if you want to resort to using science, go ahead. But this is the internet and we prefer unsubstantiated theories.