True range in cold weather.

[darkball]

Hi everyone.
First of all sorry for my English, I'm from Ukraine and I don't know it well.
I just bought FFE 2013 from USA with 30 000 miles and only starting using it here in Ukraine.
Temperature here now is about from -2 to +5 degrees and if to use heater on more than 60% of driving I got a range near 50km (30 miles or something). Without heater I had 70-80km (near 50 miles). I never drives faster than 60-65mph. It was 4-5 full charges on my usage, so I don't know if it normal values or not?
The car had almost 3 month trip from USA to Ukraine so it stay for a long time, maybe it's necessary to "relive" battery by charging and discharging couple times?
Also how the temperature outside affect on range? Maybe in summer I will got more better result?
Will be glad to read any comments on this case.
Thanks!

 

[jmueller065]

Keep in mind that the displayed range is calculated based on power usage (as you've discovered you get much shorter range using the heat).

My FFE when brand new would show 100 miles of range when the temps were around 70F. When cold (0C or lower) I was getting around 50 miles.

When I turned it in at the end of the lease (30,000 miles--what color did you get? Maybe you have someone's FFE from on here?? LOL) I was getting similar numbers (my FFE was pretty gently treated during its time with me).

 

[darkball]

100 miles true drive or just displayed? And 50 miles on winter with turned on heater?
I just want to know if there are different ranges you get in summer and in winter? Without A/C and without heater, just driving.

My FFE has "555" las 3 digits of VIN. I don't remember how that color calls, but it's most popular, something like blue-gray-aqua

 

[jmueller065]

100 miles true drive or just displayed? And 50 miles on winter with turned on heater?
I just want to know if there are different ranges you get in summer and in winter? Without A/C and without heater, just driving.

Good question: It would show 100 miles after a full charge but that was for my daily commute so to get that you'd have to drive no faster than 45 mph for the 100 miles.

50 miles in winter using the heater about 1/2 the time.

To answer your question: Yes the heater consumes a lot of power (the heater can use more than 5kW when it first starts up). The A/C doesn't use nearly as much. So yes when driving in winter with the heater on you will not get nearly as far as you can get in the summer (with or without the A/C).

Your best bet is to use the preconditioning feature if you can get it to work where you are (not sure if the cars cellular modem would even be able to connect to anything). Barring that: Simply starting the car while plugged in to let the heater warm up the car will save you a lot of electricity (hit lock then hit the circle arrow button on the key fob twice for 15 minutes of run time, do that again to get another 15 minutes).

 

[darkball]

jmueller065, thanks a lot for your answers, that's explaining a lot, because I became to worry.
But also other important thing that I want to know: Is the battery discharge faster in winter, like on cell phones? Yesterday I take of my FFE from charge, it was 100% charged, GOM showed 97km of range. I had a trip for a 5,7km and left 91% of charge. Speed was low, not more than 60kph, without heater. So it's normal? Or maybe battery can't provide so good energy hold because it is was 0C temp outside?

 

[jmueller065]

Yes that is also the case: In colder weather the battery won't provide as much energy. In addition the FFE also has a coolant loop for the battery. In the cold it will also expend some energy to heat the battery (another reason to try to warm it up when still plugged in).

 

[darkball]

But I see that with using heater all the time I will get not more than 40-50km range... Not a lot if to be honest

 

[jmueller065]

Correct.

 

[darkball]

I heard that there are some diagnostic tool to ckeck battery life, but still didn't find what it's name.

 

[jmueller065]

If you get an OBD MX scanner (bluetooth for Android phones and WiFi for iPhones) and the forscan app you can read a ton of info off of the vehicle bus (the two connectors on the dash below the steering column).

 

[darkball]

https://www.scantool.net/obdlink-mxbt/ - this one?

 

[jmueller065]

Yeah that looks like the one I got for my Android phone and then use this app:
http://www.forscan.org/

 

[darkball]

thanks!

 

[darkball]

Maybe I should to create new topic, but let's save space on forum

Just saw a strange thing: my FFE is plugged in now, I sit inside and turn on the warmer, set the temp to 25C and wait for 10 minutes but the air still comes cold... I plugged it out, back inside and turn on the car and turn on heater again, after 2-3 minutes air was warm, seams like car don't want to heat the air until it plugged in... What the....??

 

[WattsUp]

Just saw a strange thing: my FFE is plugged in now, I sit inside and turn on the warmer, set the temp to 25C and wait for 10 minutes but the air still comes cold... I plugged it out, back inside and turn on the car and turn on heater again, after 2-3 minutes air was warm, seams like car don't want to heat the air until it plugged in... What the....??

Was the car ignition ON when you "ran the heater" the first time? If not, then you were just running the fan.

Before you can use the climate controls beyond simply running the fan, you must put the car in Ready-to-Drive mode (ignition ON), by holding the brake pedal while pressing the power button. This applies both to the A/C and heater, and regardless of whether the car is plugged in or not.

The heater requires the high-voltage battery (or wall power), which is only engaged when the ignition is ON. I suppose the A/C could technically run solely off the 12-volt battery, but it, too, requires ignition to be ON.

This is why the pre-heat (or pre-cool) feature is tied to the Remote Start feature. The car must be "started" (ignition ON) in order for the climate control to fully function. In many ways, the FFE systems still work they way they would if the car were a conventional gasoline car.

 

[darkball]

WattsUp, thanks a lot!!

 

[triangles]

back to the original topic. If I've done my english-metric conversions right... You can expect 70-80km in winter with minimal heat usage, just enough to keep the windows from fogging up. Cracking a window helps keep the windows from fogging. If you use a lot of heat to keep toasty warm I'd expect 65km tops. In the summer you should expect 120-130 km range. When it gets warm enough for A/C that will sap about 15km of range. When it's not too warm out I usually just set the temp control to Lo and turn the AC off. This will only run the blower and doesn't impact range much at all. You can configure the trip meter to show kWhr used. The car is about 19.5 kWhr from full charge to dead when new. at 30k miles you are probably less than that by 1-2 kWhr and as such your range will be slightly less than what I posted above.

 

[darkball]

triangles, thanks! It's good to know such digits, because before buying I read a lot of "official values" and now I see that is different with real values, so I was scared that something wrong with the car and battery.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[triangles]

darkball You're welcome. Also you can register your car on owner.ford.com it will show any recalls that are applicable to your car. There was a recall about the battery plug that is basically in the drivers side rear wheel well. Take a look and you should have a splash cover over this plug. If not your FFE may have come from a warm state where this recall wasn't applicable. The road salt had a tendency to get into the plug and corrode things which leads to the plug cracking and then more corrosion to the point of failure. The fix was to replace the plug if damaged and then grease it up and install a splash guard to keep the road spray off the plug.

 

[darkball]

triangles, thanks, I have registered there, but during registration I choose USA as my country and one of the states, but it's not a correct info, as I'm in Ukraine But I have access to some data, will try to find what all of this means.

Also I have almost the same problem with MyFordMobile app, I can't confirm that I'm a new owner of the car, because there are no any pop-ups on screen when I'm requesting an ownership. I think all this function can work properly only in USA...