Question about motor power and efficiency

[MountainAlive]

It’s been cold in MA where I live (around 30F) and my battery SOC has hovered around 50% the past couple days due to a lot of driving. I noticed the power dial on the left dipped to 96% which is expected. But what I also noticed is that my efficiency seems slightly better as a result. Before I’d get about 1.8. With 96% power I’m getting around 2.1 mi/kwh. So my first question is, am I imagining this efficiency gain or is there something to this? My second question is, if the efficiency gain is real, why couldn’t we have a setting on the truck to run at a slightly reduced power on demand? I honestly can’t even tell a difference in driving at 96% vs 100%.

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[SpaceEVDriver]

A 16-17% increase in efficiency is a lot. I suspect you're driving slightly differently than you had been. Perhaps you're driving more slowly due to greater chance of ice on the roads or there's slower traffic or you're going on longer drives with more consistent speeds.

You do have an adjustable power profile on demand: push the go pedal more gently and not as far down. But in all seriousness, I do wish Ford would program an eco mode for when I find myself forgetting that this is a 7000 lb beast.

 

[MillieChliette]

You're overthinking it. Something else has caused the increase in efficiency. Driving style, roads you're driving on, wind speed, etc.

 

[MountainAlive]

A 16-17% increase in efficiency is a lot. I suspect you're driving slightly differently than you had been. Perhaps you're driving more slowly due to greater chance of ice on the roads or there's slower traffic or you're going on longer drives with more consistent speeds.

You do have an adjustable power profile on demand: push the go pedal more gently and not as far down. But in all seriousness, I do wish Ford would program an eco mode for when I find myself forgetting that this is a 7000 lb beast.

Yeah it’s probably not just the reduced power that’s increasing efficiency then. But I agree we should have some kind of eco mode or, like how an iPhone has a “low power” mode. I just don’t know enough about what’s happening electronically when the truck is at 96% or 91% when the temps and SOC is low. Is it simply adjusting the power applied by the accelerator pedal? Or is it doing something more behind the scenes related to gating how much power flows from the HVB to the motors? Idk.

 

[MountainAlive]

You're overthinking it. Something else has caused the increase in efficiency. Driving style, roads you're driving on, wind speed, etc.

Yeah you’re prob right. But at the time I was it felt like I had discovered something amazing and was like ..

 

[mr.Magoo]

I do wish Ford would program an eco mode for when I find myself forgetting that this is a 7000 lb beast.

Interestingly enough, my efficiency goes up when I'm hooning it. (Hard acceleration and heavy regen, vs. Egg on the throttle and coasting). This is only for 45mph surface roads, doing 100mph on the freeway would obviously not be great for anyone or anything.

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