I'm out after 6 months

[John Becker]

Any thoughts on how to setup a spreadsheet to calculate MPK?
I maintain one for my ICE vehicles and also calculate cost per mile after filling the tank. (Hey, I'm anal.) I'm not sure what "filling the tank" means in an EV. Charge to 90 percent every time, maybe?

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[TaxmanHog]

Any thoughts on how to setup a spreadsheet to calculate MPK?
I maintain one for my ICE vehicles and also calculate cost per mile after filling the tank. (Hey, I'm anal.) I'm not sure what "filling the tank" means in an EV. Charge to 90 percent every time, maybe?

Collect the records for how many KWH of energy you purchased over a fixed period and the miles traveled, I do it in weekly periods closing the record on Sunday, Monday is the start of a new week.

I use an Emporia Vue2 measuring device on my EVSE to collect the KWH the Lightning uses to charge & precondition while plugged in. On the rare occasion I use a DCFC service, I collect the total KWH I was sold and the cost, these are summarized on the RED highlighted line on the last Sunday of the month, for multiple events I group all the DCFC session on that final line. I capture the milage as of the close of the week & month.

From there I also determine the energy charges for the month based on recent bills for the house charging to get my weekly cost to drive and cents per mile values at the end of the month

MPK for the weekly cycles is straightforward though DCFC session put a kink in the calculation, it's better to look at the monthly summary on the red lines.

The far right columns summarize charging costs, implied Powerstroke F250 fueling costs at 15MPG at local fuel price rates, currently ranged from $4.19/g down to a recent $4.03/g, saved is the difference between the Lightning and the long gone F250.

** my MPK is based on the GROSS ENERGY value not net battery stored value, so it's somewhat lower in value to what is seen on the trucks screens.

 

[John Becker]

Wow! That's impressive.
Thanks!

 

[luebri]

Though I absolute love the nerdery going on here... I stopped calculating my electric usage from my vehicle because my Lower hanging fruit at this point is how much money I spend on coffee! Which is incredible because all our coffee is bought from Costco and brewed at home. It is honestly not worth paying attention to at this point, and I am a nerds nerd.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Though I absolute love the nerdery going on here... I stopped calculating my electric usage from my vehicle because my Lower hanging fruit at this point is how much money I spend on coffee! Which is incredible because all our coffee is bought from Costco and brewed at home. It is honestly not worth paying attention to at this point, and I am a nerds nerd.

I'm the king of nerdery, honestly being new to the BEV world I'm super interested, but it's not likely to wear off, I've been sheeting data for decades.

 

[Calvin H-C]

When we first got our Focus Electric in November 2017, the easiest way to compare the operating cost was to compare the monthly sum of our electric bill and gasoline bills.

At the time, we had a 2013 Focus SE and added the FFE. In the year prior to having both vehicles, we put about 25,000 km (15,625 miles) on the ICE Focus. For the year starting November 2017, we put that much on the FFE, while the ICE Focus use dropped to about 17,000 km (10,625 miles).

So, we went from driving 25,000 km (15,625 mi) to driving 42,000 km (35,625 mi). The higher use cost us about $60-$70 LESS per month.

This is in Canadian dollars, with 2018 gas and electrical prices. Gas is about 50% higher now and our electric rate is about 35% higher now.
We just started on an ultra-low overnight rate this month that should cut our charging cost by about 60%.

 

[itdwebman]

I have shared this elsewhere on the forum.... I put it together mainly for my amusement, but maybe it would be helpful for some people. The MPK efficiency I'm sure could be debated, but for the most part it seem to be fairly accurate. Better than relying on GOM. I would turn it off if I could. I would prefer just to see KWH remaining. Not SOC. Not miles.

I have 17k miles and driven the whole gamut from -10F to 95F in my truck.

Very helpful - how fast is the driving speed for interstate driving?

 

[FordLightningMan]

I was one of the earliest owners of a XLT SR in one of the harshest winter cities in America. I let everyone know my truck consistently got under 100 miles of range on 90% charge on the coldest days. Everyone said I was crazy, but here we are.

I thankfully drive around 80 miles at most on the majority of days and I'm not towing, so I am fine. For a lot of people, they won't be fine. The new yellow battery warning of doom this year is good to make sure people aren't stranded, but it makes my girlfriend uncomfortable every time we're down in the 20% remaining range.

 

[John Becker]

I'll be picking up my SR Lariat, Monday. Was that under 100 miles of range highway? What about preconditioning? Was that done?

 

[FordLightningMan]

I'll be picking up my SR Lariat, Monday. Was that under 100 miles of range highway? What about preconditioning? Was that done?

I leave at random times, so no preconditioning. I do get the climate going before I leave, so that might have a small benefit. Mostly highway driving, I'd say with mixed 40mph local + 65mph highway I'd be averaging 55mph. My 2022 model has no heated seats, that theoretically gets new buyers another few miles, but I can't test that. On the worst days I'm around 1 mile per kw. 98kw x 90% x 1 mile per kw = 88 miles. I always assume that's my range now, even if some days I'll hit 1.2-1.4 miles per kw if it's warmer or i'm driving more local.

Last weekend I took a 140 mile trip that was 85% highway when it was in the 30s. I charged to 98% before I left. There's no chance I would've made it home, truck said i had 30 miles of range (I was around 20%) and i was 40+ miles from home, while the GOM was dropping faster than actual miles driven. This is when your numbers all turn yellow and the truck tells you to turn off your climate control. Thankfully I live near one of those Tesla Superchargers with a magic adapter (or whatever dumb name it has), I was able to top up for 15 minutes then finish my trip home. The downside is a car full of people kept taking pictures of me charging my Lightning at the Tesla Supercharger, which was annoying.

Sorry for the edit, I know this is getting long. For a new owner, the best thing you can do when driving is go to the calm screen and look at your % charge. Then look at your trip miles per kw. SR batter is essentially 100kw, so math is easy. Add two zero after your miles per kw (i.e. - 1.5 = 150 miles), then take whatever percentage of charge and multiply by total miles (60% in this scenario = 90 miles). Doing this math is keeping my brain young at least! Each extended trip adds a pop math quiz.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

Very helpful - how fast is the driving speed for interstate driving?

...and another factor that I point out from time to time is traffic. If you are in a group of cars going 70, your consumption is about 20% lower than if you are pushing your own air going 70. Where I drive on the highway, it is wide open spaces and no traffic, and I pay dearly for it in range. The semi going the speed I want to go is my friend. Tuck in behind and increase my range 20%.

 

[John Becker]

I'm finding this thread to be full of good intel. Thank you for sharing your experiences so that I know better how to plan and what to expect.

 

[luebri]

Very helpful - how fast is the driving speed for interstate driving?

~75mph.

Obviously Wind, Elevation, Payload affect the numbers as well... and well, then their is Towing, that means you essentially divide everything in half.

I built and shared the sheet really just to set the expectation of what Temps and Speeds will do to range.

I and others cant emphasize this enough. The best & most important thing while on an actual road trip when you need the range is monitor your MPK and calculate.

For example I was on recent road trip headed back home Due East from the West side of the state. After my DCFC stop I was at 80%. I knew I needed to track at 2.0 MPK to make it home 200miles + 10 miles buffer = 210 miles. (131 x .8 (80% SOC) = 105kwh x 2.0 mpk = 210 miles)

If I dipped below 2.0, I slowed down to get the efficiency improved. If my MPK ticked up to 2.1, I sped up!

GOM was freaking out, Ford NAV was freaking out, Apple Maps was freaking out. I was not! I ignored them all and made it home just fine, because I knew the math and monitored it.

If you are really detailed regarding monitoring MPK, you can reset one of the trip meters once you get on the main stretch of road. In my example below, I was on 55mph Highways for a portion, and 70mph Interstates for a portion. I reset my trip meter #2 once I got onto the Interstate and monitored my Interstate MPK without any other data from the previous portion of the drive to pollute it.


So just to ensure I covered my bases. ********The best & most important thing while on an actual road trip when you need the range is monitor your MPK and calculate.***************

 

[MM in SouthTX]

For example I was on recent road trip headed back home Due East from the West side of the state. After my DCFC stop I was at 80%. I knew I needed to track at 2.0 MPK to make it home 200miles + 10 miles buffer = 210 miles. (131 x .8 (80% SOC) = 105kwh x 2.0 mpk = 210 miles)

If I dipped below 2.0, I slowed down to get the efficiency improved. If my MPK ticked up to 2.1, I sped up!

GOM was freaking out, Ford NAV was freaking out, Apple Maps was freaking out. I was not! I ignored them all and made it home just fine, because I knew the math and monitored it.

If you are really detailed regarding monitoring MPK, you can reset one of the trip meters once you get on the main stretch of road. In my example below, I was on 55mph Highways for a portion, and 70mph Interstates for a portion. I reset my trip meter #2 once I got onto the Interstate and monitored my Interstate MPK without any other data from the previous portion of the drive to pollute it.


So just to ensure I covered my bases. ********The best & most important thing while on an actual road trip when you need the range is monitor your MPK and calculate.***************

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Jim Lewis]

The semi going the speed I want to go is my friend. Tuck in behind and increase my range 20%.

I used to like to do that even in an ICE vehicle, but I've been dinged a time or two too many by road debris kicked up by their tires, mud flaps notwithstanding. I also liked the fact that a semi is not too likely to be able to brake faster than I can...

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