Baffled and looking for advice, range vs plans

[grange]

So I had a similar thread - got some interesting feedback but for the most part i realized i jumped too soon on this EV ride. At least you are in an environment that remains above freezing. I am seeing close to 50% loss in range in 32 degree weather - terrified what sub zero will bring. All the feedback about 'don't use heat, drive 50MPH, head winds, elevation gain, - i get it but i did not realize i would have to change everything about my driving habits - had I done this level of grainular research before buying - i'd still be driving my ICE and happily paying for fuel.

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[RickLightning]

So I had a similar thread - got some interesting feedback but for the most part i realized i jumped too soon on this EV ride. At least you are in an environment that remains above freezing. I am seeing close to 50% loss in range in 32 degree weather - terrified what sub zero will bring. All the feedback about 'don't use heat, drive 50MPH, head winds, elevation gain, - i get it but i did not realize i would have to change everything about my driving habits - had I done this level of grainular research before buying - i'd still be driving my ICE and happily paying for fuel.

You don't lose near 50% at 32 degrees.

 

[Maquis]

You don't lose near 50% at 32 degrees.

I could if I tried.

But it wouldn’t be entirely due to temperature.

 

[Ventorum94]

Hi forum members,

I have been poking around but so far I can't match reality to what I am reading. I will lean into the collective wisdom and support found here.

Background first. We have had our Lariat ER since late June and have put ~4200 miles so far. Actually my wife has had much more time in than me as she started taking some trips for business ranging in the 120-250 mile range. The trip2 log, which is still running from the dealership, shows us with a cumulative average of 2.1mi/kWh.

Using the CSP at home she will charge to 90% (or 100% recently due to the behavior I will describe). I was surprised to hear some of what she was experiencing and then saw it first hand the other day when returning from a trip to the beach.

Several times she has been dragged down to ~1% SoC in the truck with warnings starting to go off. These were on trips from Raleigh, NC to VA Beach which is a bit over 200 miles. Stopping for a partial fast charge in Emporia (110 miles) then another overnight lvl2 charge and/or some DCFC in VA Beach. She is just never getting the range that the dash says she should get. She is not an aggressive nor super speedy driver.

Then I had the chance to see some hard and fast numbers. We went to see some friends at Carolina Beach. This is 145 miles from our house. Leaving the house at 99% and 328 miles of range with highway driving in 70F air. The truck gets down there with 41% but has it only 112 miles of range. Chargers were hard to come by but we had time so just plugged it into a 120 outlet at lvl1. By Sunday we had it up to 61% and ~160 miles.

Now this should have gotten her home pretty easily (I was riding my motorcycle) but when putting in our home address it said it would need a charge! OK, not easy to find but we went together out of the way to a ChargePoint and got up to 68% @ ~190 miles. The calculated distance was only 124 miles and should have been 60 miles of margin.

Arriving home there was only 4% and 14 miles according to the truck. Less than 25% of the predicted margin!

How in the heck is it calculating some of these ranges?
Are we doing something wrong with the charging, nav, driving?
Why does it tell us to charge when we *should* have 40 miles of range margin (which we didn't I surmise later)?
Is there a remaining SoC (i.e. arrive with %) that it is calculating in? I looked in the settings and cannot find one.
We have no weight, camper etc. Mild weather, etc.

The range just seems abysmal and my wife has no confidence in how/when/where to charge since she is seldom getting anywhere close to the initial ranges being promoted. The 1% events have really scared her, as we just don't have stellar charging infra here in the NC/VA area.

OK, that is a lot to ask you to take in. I would really appreciate some things to watch out for and how to plan our drives for lower stress and better range.

Thank you!

Here’s a suggestion: monitor SOC, not “GOM” range.
(For ER pack) Read your current SOC and multiply by 3, and there’s your remaining range; subtract 10% if you’re driving over 60mph, or add 10% if you’re driving under 60mph. Easy mental math, update range in your head as often as you like, more reliable than the truck’s GOM.
Repeat the little formula often while you’re driving, and you’ll never wonder where your range went.
And, if you find your remaining distance-to-charge closing in on your remaining range, drive 5mph under the speed limit and keep repeating the formula above, until you have sufficient remaining range.

 

[FirstF150InCasco]

Hi forum members,

I have been poking around but so far I can't match reality to what I am reading. I will lean into the collective wisdom and support found here.

Background first. We have had our Lariat ER since late June and have put ~4200 miles so far. Actually my wife has had much more time in than me as she started taking some trips for business ranging in the 120-250 mile range. The trip2 log, which is still running from the dealership, shows us with a cumulative average of 2.1mi/kWh.

Using the CSP at home she will charge to 90% (or 100% recently due to the behavior I will describe). I was surprised to hear some of what she was experiencing and then saw it first hand the other day when returning from a trip to the beach.

Several times she has been dragged down to ~1% SoC in the truck with warnings starting to go off. These were on trips from Raleigh, NC to VA Beach which is a bit over 200 miles. Stopping for a partial fast charge in Emporia (110 miles) then another overnight lvl2 charge and/or some DCFC in VA Beach. She is just never getting the range that the dash says she should get. She is not an aggressive nor super speedy driver.

Then I had the chance to see some hard and fast numbers. We went to see some friends at Carolina Beach. This is 145 miles from our house. Leaving the house at 99% and 328 miles of range with highway driving in 70F air. The truck gets down there with 41% but has it only 112 miles of range. Chargers were hard to come by but we had time so just plugged it into a 120 outlet at lvl1. By Sunday we had it up to 61% and ~160 miles.

Now this should have gotten her home pretty easily (I was riding my motorcycle) but when putting in our home address it said it would need a charge! OK, not easy to find but we went together out of the way to a ChargePoint and got up to 68% @ ~190 miles. The calculated distance was only 124 miles and should have been 60 miles of margin.

Arriving home there was only 4% and 14 miles according to the truck. Less than 25% of the predicted margin!

How in the heck is it calculating some of these ranges?
Are we doing something wrong with the charging, nav, driving?
Why does it tell us to charge when we *should* have 40 miles of range margin (which we didn't I surmise later)?
Is there a remaining SoC (i.e. arrive with %) that it is calculating in? I looked in the settings and cannot find one.
We have no weight, camper etc. Mild weather, etc.

The range just seems abysmal and my wife has no confidence in how/when/where to charge since she is seldom getting anywhere close to the initial ranges being promoted. The 1% events have really scared her, as we just don't have stellar charging infra here in the NC/VA area.

OK, that is a lot to ask you to take in. I would really appreciate some things to watch out for and how to plan our drives for lower stress and better range.

Thank you!

Tell your wife to figure out in advance the miles/kWh needed to make the trip. And accept that range drops dramatically at highway speed.

I recently planned a 260-mile foliage tour in northern Maine on a route with ZERO high-speed chargers; I knew I HAD to make it back to the CSP at our camp for a recharge. I calculated in advance that I needed to get at least 2.0 m/kWh (or shorten the trip.) When I make the frequent drive from Boston to our camp in Maine I get much less than 2.0 m/kWh because it’s mostly highway. But it’s not a problem because the trip is only 140 miles, and the CSP is waiting for me!

Well, the foliage tour was all on back roads, with an average speed of 45 MPH so I was hopefu I might get the 2.0 required. I charged to 100%, and set a start time of 8 AM. The truck turned on at 7:25 AM. I reset one of the trip meters, and then watched the miles/kWh carefully throughout the day. At the non-highway speeds, the miles/kWh stayed between 2.2 on the way up into the mountains, and increased to 2.4 by the end of the trip. I got back to the camp with 50 miles to spare.

It’s all about figuring out in advance the miles/kWh needed to make the trip.

 

[chrisvitek1]

Check your tire pressure. Range drops about 20% when the temperature hits ~60. I have a regular 150M route on the highway and get between 1.7 and 2.1 M/Kw. I can hit upper 2s and low 3s when driving at 25mph on the island. As a benchmark, I only get 220M out of a tank of gas with my Carrera.

 

[Adventureboy]

Highway speeds have a SIGNIFICANT effect on range. Our trucks have a big front end that pushes lots of air and the faster you go, the more wind resistance needs to be overcome. The wind resistance is exponential on your speed and is a calculable factor in automotive, aircraft etc. The EPA range is based on a mix of 50mph and city driving. If you put any vehicle on the highway at 70-75mph you will drop a fair amount and only get 60-65% of the EPA range. If you have an ICE vehicle, you drop from 600 miles to 400 miles. The percentage is the same but your range on the Lightning drops from 320 to just over 200. Headwinds and inclination will reduce that further, although they also work to improve range when you turn around and they become tailwinds and declination. It is just more noticeable on an EV due to the lower EPA range.

 

[AmandaB]

It drives my husband crazy when the guess o meter doesn't show around 320 miles on a full 100% charge before a big trip. He always resets it. It will adjust again based on mi/kw but this may help your wife feel more confident on longer drives. I tend to watch the battery percentage and try to stay above 2.0 mi/kw. 2.4 mi/kw will get you close to 320 miles.

 

[Nikos]

I gotta say a big thank you to all the hopped in and provided such great information! This forum is awesome. I was pretty confident that I would get myself sorted out here.

Now that I have read across these answers I can see exactly what has been happening. Great math there @RickLightning and it lines up with what I was suspicious of.

Bourbon and jokes aside, I am actually a computer engineer and not shabby with the proverbial abacus. What I lacked was enough practical first hand experience. My wife wants to, and deserves to, drive the vehicle like, well, a vehicle. Calculations are not what she tends to spend her time on. Smoothing out the anxiety and explaining in practical terms what to expect will start to regain some trust. She's watching that crappy GOM thinking that Ford would not guide her so poorly.

We are learning and I think it will just get better and easier pretty soon with these learnings.

Much appreciation!

Hello forum friend.
Don't fear the truck. Don't fear the GOM.
Yes ...Ford has massaged the algorithms and has confused us a bit. It is a good thing that we talk about it here in the forum. They are listening. And when they listen to us they try couple things that might not work as expected.
I have noticed that myself lately. When I planned my recent trip to Louisiana ( you can read the thread here, 1400 trip), I let the truck plan my trip and stops, then I switched to Android Auto/Google maps for my guidance. Reasons for that.
The truck builds a history database of your driving. It stores in it's memory your driving logbook. You may be averaging 2.1 mpkw but now you are taking a trip to a destination 200 miles away. The truck knows the road profile, elevation changes, speed limits and adjust constantly for weather conditions.
Of course what you read here in this thread is true experiences. Most of deal with it and recognize the shortcomings of the truck's nav planning. Since Ford has heard about the "range anxiety syndrome", it tried to compensate by being overly conservative with the calculations. You also read that your brain is very useful. Your brain controls this technology ladden marvel of a truck.
You have to use it (brain), to look over what is doing. Most people don't use their brains when they get behind the wheel. The technological marvel that they drive would do everything for them. We are not there yet. It can be a lengthy conversation but my point is, the truck is learning from you and consequently you learn from it. We can be 10 of us in the same identical trucks, driving to the same destination, and arrive with different battery levels and mileage.
If range anxiety consumes an individual or individuals, you not going to reasonable in your expectations from the truck. My training as GA pilot has come handy to overcome the range anxiety syndrome. I will look at all my instruments in view and in short time, I will determine which one might give me inaccurate info. Put that indication on the side, and use the indications that are more correct. Your brain is your back up.
I use it all the time.
If you do this long trips with your wife, who is driving the truck more regularly, share the chores. Don't antagonize each other but work together. I found over the years of flying with my wife, to let her do the navigational chores and even manipulate the radio controls. I would manage the engine, fuel flow and consumption, fly in the desired direction and land the machine, alive. You build a lot of trust with each other and the machine.
Another thing to do also might be advantageous, is to reset the trip history memory. Open the Vehicle menu, stroll to the bottom of the page and reset vehicle history. You start with a clean slate. Now, you can teach the truck all over again your driving style to do a different set of calculations.
Ford will send OTA updates to help most of their customers range anxiety. Some of them work and some might not live up to everyone's expectations.
All of us have to analyze, scrutinize and adapt to every change.
I remember when I bought my ICE vehicles, looked at the mileage sticker and hoped that I would get 350 miles per tankful. Sure.....unless you drive at 60mph, on level road, no wind, no sudden accelerations and ideal weather conditions. What a pipedream.
You got a great truck. Rides better than anything else out there. Very comfortable, loaded with tech and you are the manager/captain of the machine.
Another thing, all the other manufacturers of trucks are talking big numbers and capabilities of their " upcoming trucks". When their products eventually become available, all of us will be able to call their bluffs/bullshit.
Until then, there is only one EV truck.
The Lightning. Enjoy.!!!

 

[ZSC100]

Since you seem to be into numbers a good little experiment I did the first day on my way home from the dealer is to use one of your trip counters and cruise control on the highway (on a no wind day) to plot out your mi/kWhr. Literally plot it on graph paper go really solidify the non-linearity in your head, or just stick the #'s in your head if you're real intuitive with math. Like others have said, wind resistance is the dominant factor by far (with towing as well). It's amazing how trying to get there a little faster coupled with a 10mph head wind will absolutely kill any improvised planning you think you've done. There will never be a GOM perfectly accurate as long as a human is behind the wheel. I drive a 60mi trip to a vacation home very often after work day/errands on a SR battery and usually make it back home with 25-50mi cushion. If I go ANY over 65mi/hr forget 2.3mi/kWhr. One day I damn nearly ran out just trying to get there, looked at my efficiency and it was 1.6mi/kWhr, I was like WTF, recalled driving 70 and realized there as a strong head wind that day. That's all it takes to zap over 25% of your range; and a perfect storm is coupling that with a super cold wintery day where you need the heater full blast In general the golden rule is SLOW DOWN.

 

[mb0220]

At the risk of echoing the sentiments of others, I will add my two cents.
Not all miles are created equal. Some miles use a lot of energy, and some use very little (and some can even ADD energy if there's a lot of downhill and regen). The guess-o-meter does its best to estimate your range based on some history, but if you take a trip with a lot of high-energy miles (like highway driving that has little opportunity for regen) then you need to be prepared to get less range than stated in the GoM.

As others have said, get to know your truck's mi/kWh in different scenarios, and then plan accordingly. I sometimes like to do the math in reverse when planning a trip. For example, if I charge to 100% and want a 10% cushion, that's 90% of my battery, multiplied by 131kWh is 118kWh of available energy. If I'm taking a trip of 180 miles I know I need to average at least 1.5 mi/kwh to make it with at least 10% left. Then during the trip I can monitor my average efficiency to make sure I'm still on track. If I'm falling behind, I'll add a charging stop.

 

[RickLightning]

It drives my husband crazy when the guess o meter doesn't show around 320 miles on a full 100% charge before a big trip. He always resets it. It will adjust again based on mi/kw but this may help your wife feel more confident on longer drives. I tend to watch the battery percentage and try to stay above 2.0 mi/kw. 2.4 mi/kw will get you close to 320 miles.

Your husband's usage of the reset makes no sense. It's using your history to predict. He then resets it to EPA range, so it's meaningless. And, it immediately adjusts when you put a destination in the navigation.

 

[AmandaB]

Your husband's usage of the reset makes no sense. It's using your history to predict. He then resets it to EPA range, so it's meaningless. And, it immediately adjusts when you put a destination in the navigation.

I know that and I've tried to explain where the GOM number comes from. He just thinks it's inaccurate.

 

[cal]

Yea GOM is a miserable failure. Funny how there is nothing like a GOM in an ICE truck. I really feel they have done more harm than good. Especially when “trailer in use“ is selected. That feature is especially harmful.

 

[invertedspear]

Funny how there is nothing like a GOM in an ICE truck.

Gas cars have had a "Distance till empty" estimations for about 20 years now. They're just as inaccurate as as the range estimation we call "GOM", just people don't care cause they can always get more gas, gas stations are everywhere.

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