What's the lowest GOM miles you've arrived home with?

[studio460]

After work today, I thought I'd visit my dad in Orange County, leaving straight from work in Burbank. It's a 48-mile drive, and I didn't leave work with a full charge due to a short-shift. I was driving 100% freeway at a "moderate" 65 MPH cruise-controlled, constant speed (even drafting behind a semi for a few miles). Until . . . without warning, the ENTIRE southbound 57 freeway was coned-off and completely CLOSED. CalTrans detoured me onto the eastbound 60, and by the time I got off the freeway, I had no idea where I was (alternate routes are tricky here because this is along a mountain range). I had to re-program my navigation to "avoid freeways" since I'm pretty unfamiliar with the area. Long-story, short, I finally found my way to the shopping area where I can charge at 240V for free near my dad's house. I arrived with about 13 miles to spare, but it was nerve-racking, especially due to the large inclines I was navigating through the pass.

Now, part two: Since I didn't have all night, I left after an hour of Level 2 charging (no restaurant respite, since thanks to the CalTrans detour everything was closed by now), got to his house and poured whatever 120V's energy I could muster during my stay. When I left his house, I had 51 miles showing on the GOM (I live 40 miles from him), but at an extremely low kWh rate. I knew I was on the edge, so I took surface streets most of the way home at a cruise-controlled 40MPH (posted limit). As I approached my house with 14 miles remaining on the GOM, I reached a hill that usually robs 4 miles off my GOM, so I thought I was going to coast home on single-digits. Even more conservative driving, and finally arrived with 12 miles remaining on the GOM. I kind of knew I would probably make it, but still, the whole night was pretty unnerving.

 

[jmueller065]

In the winter I'll frequently come home from my normal commute with < 10 miles remaining. Ok rather: last winter when we had record snowfall and record cold temps from Oct - May. That was the first winter with the FFE...we'll see how I do this year.

When I'm taking trips that I know will be close to the available range I setup the nav using the final destination as the destination (remember to tell the car you'll be charging there). That way the car will tell you if it can make it or not (the status value and the blue cup). It really takes a lot of the guesswork and stress out of using all of the battery.

 

[studio460]

Yes, I came to that realization tonight about identifying the charging destinations as such. The topography in the area I was in was pretty extreme, so I was super skeptical of the GOM's idea of what I had left. You're a much bolder man than me. Anything under 10 miles on the GOM would make me really skittish. And, of course, tonight also happened to be the night MFM was completely offline during this entire series of events.

 

[jachady]

The last couple days my wife had more outside appoinments than normal and arrived home at "0 miles remaining" both nights. She is fairly comfortable with the car though and turns things off (like heat) to make sure she has the range to get home. Yesterday though, she decided to plug into the 110 at work because she knew she wouldn't make it home on just the overnight charge.

 

[michael]

Great driving . You get your wings. But you weren't even close to the edge.

Don't get faked out by the GOM. go by battery percentage and as cwstenko pointed out the cup of energy. The GOM Is excessively influenced by short term variations in consumption

Congrats on a well executed mission!!

 

[noflipping]

Yesterday - 7 remaining after 44 mile commute. Started with 68 (nearly full charge - I'd run around for about 8 miles beforehand). Had heat on as a test for 3/4 or ride (freeway ave. 75-80MPH). 15 miles from home my GOM SURPLUS went negative. Low Bat Warning, Yellow - the whole 9 yards.

Turned off heat, made it home with 7 left. Usually get home with between 20-30 remaining.

 

[ElSupreme]

I've finished with 3 on the GOM in the FFE. Did 90 miles in a day, but some torrential rain on the last leg dropped me into the negative numbers until I was about 5 miles out. Ended up with 3 on the GOM.

The Model S I have had in single digits a handful of times. Including 1 mile remaining on my last trip to Charlotte. Which when I plugged in the car about an hour after I arrived at my brother's place was showing zero.

Still have not driven on zero in a EV.

My old ICEs I would drive past "zero to empty" on about 80% of my tanks though.

 

[WattsUp]

Once, I arrived home with 0 miles (and 0% SOC on the energy screen) and the popup message saying "battery depleted" about 200 yards before I reached my garage. Fortunately, the car had enough power and kept going long enough for me to make it inside... whew!

And... this was at the end of a trip where I was using the navigation in "surplus" mode. I knew it was going to be tight, but I hadn't expected on getting down to zero. Somehow I just ended up cutting it that close.

 

[studio460]

Wow! You guys have b*lls!

 

[GladeStorm]

I've hit zero a couple of times and reached my garage in the low singles several times, not always by choice. On a calibration run that I made running up and down my street I hit "open-contactor" about 500wh below the battery depleted warning (the amount can vary, so don't count on that much of a buffer). Interestingly, I was facing the wrong way on the hill when it happened and lost the power steering. However, letting it sit for 10 minutes allowed the battery to "rebound" enough to restart the car and make the turn so that I could coast/regen back to my house.

Yesterday my dealer gave me an ICE loaner. About the time I got to my neighborhood, the low fuel warning went off. It's GOM said that I only had 84 miles left!!!!

 

[Rogerschro]

Yesterday my dealer gave me an ICE loaner. About the time I got to my neighborhood, the low fuel warning went off. It's GOM said that I only had 84 miles left!!!!

That must have caused quite the panic!

 

[Lithium]

LOL, These conservative types need lots of heads up warning.

I was in the driveway, having driven 1 1/2 miles after I hit 0. Every light was on and dinging to say the party was over. I don't think there's much room beyond 0 in the focus. I've only tempted faith once with the GOM.
I believe keeping your speed below 25 mph will get you great mileage. Low wind drag and then lean forward and take small breadths and you could go around the planet!!! :mrgreen:

H

 

[twscrap]

I've routinely driven the three EVs we've had to the edge. Usually when I first get them I do it just to understand how far I can push the car when I absolutely need it. I can't even count the number of times I pulled in my driveway in the ActiveE with 1 or 0% SOC remaining. Amazingly, only misjudged and needed a tow in that car once. I've pushed the FFE to the edge around a dozen times and have had to coast down my street and into my driveway a few times, but have successfully avoided the need for a tow. I haven't pushed the i3 as far, but based on my experience with the ActiveE, I would have no issues pushing it to empty.

 

[v_traveller]

Aside from my first EV commute when by beloved FFE arrived home via flatbed tow truck (charge depleted), the farthest I've run it down is 3 miles left.

Lithium - I'lll have to try that lean-forward-and-take-small breaths thing next time! I did get religious, and that got me enough momentum to crawl over the top of a hill and coast down to the next freeway offramp.

 

[epaminondas]

pretty awesome guys - I hit the 10 miles remaining warning and thought I was living on the edge yesterday!

 

[hybridbear]

I ran the car down to 0 a few weeks ago just to see how it would work. We hadn't charged in a few days because of using the Energi and keeping it plugged in overnight so the Focus go home from work with my wife with about 20 miles on the GOM. I decided that I wanted to go for an evening drive to see how low I could take it. So I set home as the destination in the nav and let it keep recalculating the surplus as I drove farther and farther from home. I planned the trip so that I got back to our neighborhood with about 3 miles remaining and then I drove around the neighborhood a bit. Our apartment is at the top of a small hill and as I was nearing the bottom of the hill I got the "Battery depleted, stop safely now" message. I accelerated aggressively to get more momentum for in case the power gave out going up the hill. I made it to the top of the hill and then down into the garage under our building. I wasn't nervous until my heart started racing when I got the SSN message at the bottom of the hill.

Last weekend my wife got nervous about making it 6 miles home with about 12 miles of range on the display so she drove the wrong direction (farther away from home) so that she could charge at a Goodwill.

When we went camping in early October we made it to the campground with under 5 miles of range and home in about the same boat.

 

[BOLT]

I work 30 miles from home, and bought my FFE in February of this year (during the -20f stretch!). Luckily, I work at the dealership, so I can charge at work and home. Earlier this summer, I needed to make a trip, after work, about 30 miles away in the opposite direction. I was fully charged when I left and drove mostly 55mph, the posted limit. My drive went well in both directions, and I made it home with 14 miles to spare, so I decided to take it on an errand the following day that swallowed all of that up and arrived at the destination with "Battery depleted, stop safely now" lit up on the dash. I was able to charge with 110v travel cord for a couple of hours and return home with 0 miles left. Total trip was 97 miles!

 

[Marel13]

Once I was about 10 miles from home when it showed 0 and drove about 3-4 miles on empty but was lucky(or not I knew I would make it ) because 6 miles from home is all downhill so I could get some energy to arrive safely. Often i drive near empty at that hill
I live in Iceland and the car works good in cold weather. Just one thing that i cant get MyFord Mobile work or other apps

 

[joejoe2]

I set out on a 22 mile trip with 24 left on my GOM. I got the battery depleted message with 8 level miles left. There was no place to charge. I did make it to my destination. It made me wonder how far I can go on empty.

 

[hybridbear]

We did a little over 50 miles of driving yesterday with heat on & remote starting for cabin comfort. We used a public charger for a few minutes in the afternoon to give us a cushion. For our trip home we left with the GOM showing 11 miles to make a 6.3 mile trip. 11 was the estimate with the heat on, 15 with heat off. It had snowed during our last stop and there was about 2 inches of snow on the roads, nothing was plowed.

We turned off the heat about halfway through our drive when I started to worry about not making it. We got the "charge depleted, stop safely now" message while still 0.8 miles from home.

I hoped for no more red lights (there were still 4 more potential red lights before home) and gradually accelerated up to 40 on the slippery & snowy road. At that point it's all uphill to get home. Once I hit 40 I put the car in Neutral & we coasted home. The blue cup had completely disappeared at that point on the display. That was a scary experience & it illustrates just how much rolling resistance is added when there's snow on the pavement.