Gkinla Posted November 16, 2019 at 12:54 AM Report Share Posted November 16, 2019 at 12:54 AM Mine has been all over the place. I purchased the vehicle in warm weather and the range was consistently 30 - 31. However as SOON as it got cold outside (20's overnight, low 40's during the day), the range dropped to 25. I am not sure why as I do not use the heater. I only use the seat heater and steering wheel warmer (and wear gloves.) The vehicle is garaged overnight.LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptjones Posted November 16, 2019 at 04:08 PM Report Share Posted November 16, 2019 at 04:08 PM I believe getting everything heated up like it would be at 70-80*F OT which includes the trans. I use oil pan heater all year around to improve mpg's. You could try an experiment if you have a garage that can be heated try heating it up to 70-80*F one morning to see how much a difference it would make. Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbort Posted November 17, 2019 at 05:30 PM Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 at 05:30 PM The heater wastes alot of energy of the battery and is harder on the battery (more stress). Use the heat if you start the engine and warm it up but not the best idea to use the heat on battery only. Heat adds like 20 to 30 amps load on the battery meaning you are discharging it at least 1 bar more than anything you step on the accelerator, in other words if you are speeding up with 1 1/2 bars of power with heat at 20 degrees out its like being at 3 bars of power on the battery. In my opinion its best to use the battery for propulsion only. You can always dress for the cold. What do you do when you walk outside? No heat right? Correct. We are not wrapping ourselves in a plastic bag with heat inside. :) -=>Raja. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptjones Posted November 17, 2019 at 08:15 PM Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 at 08:15 PM I wasn't suggesting using the HVB to heat up anything, waste of energy. I was talking about heating up the garage to 70-80*F and use pan/block heater to warm up ICE/trans to see how much MPG's would improve winter time MPG's. Paul Nestlet 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danjayh Posted October 5, 2020 at 09:14 PM Report Share Posted October 5, 2020 at 09:14 PM (edited) On 11/17/2019 at 12:30 PM, rbort said: The heater wastes alot of energy of the battery and is harder on the battery (more stress). Use the heat if you start the engine and warm it up but not the best idea to use the heat on battery only. Heat adds like 20 to 30 amps load on the battery meaning you are discharging it at least 1 bar more than anything you step on the accelerator, in other words if you are speeding up with 1 1/2 bars of power with heat at 20 degrees out its like being at 3 bars of power on the battery. In my opinion its best to use the battery for propulsion only. You can always dress for the cold. What do you do when you walk outside? No heat right? Correct. We are not wrapping ourselves in a plastic bag with heat inside. ? -=>Raja. Please don't spread incorrect information. The heater tops out at around 6KW which is about 19 amps ... MAXIMUM. Even in the coldest weather the heater doesn't draw that much after the cabin is up to temp, which it will be assuming you remote start or use go times. In that case, the heater uses maybe 2.5-3KW, which is ~9 amps. More importantly, charging the battery when it's very cold is that absolute worst thing you can do to it (discharging, on the other hand, is OK), which is why regen is so limited when the battery is cold. It's important to make sure that the battery's thermal management system has the opportunity to get it to a reasonable temperature before you plug in, which means a warm cabin, since it doesn't have a heater. Always make sure your battery is up to a reasonable (40-50 degrees) minimum temperature before charging it. if the battery is down below freezing, DON'T plug it in, just drive on gas until you get a chance to plug it in after it's been warmed up (which the thermal management system will do once the cabin is warm). Some of the recommendations that rbort posts on this board are right on (don't charge your battery when it's over ~100f), and others are totally unnecessary. The biggest thing is to keep the battery in a temperature range that it likes, which is generally anything under 100 degrees, although it's OK to let it creap a bit higher than that during discharge (but not during charge). If you don't feel like looking at in in Forscan, I've found that in general: 1) In hot weather (> 75f or so), you get on charge per day, at night. Any more than that and your battery is going to end up at angry temperature. 2) In cool to cold weather, charge to your heart's content. Once the outside temperature gets below 55 or so, the thermal management system can actually manage to cool the battery adequately during a charge. 3) Don't accelerate to highway speeds in EV mode. It adds a lot of heat to the battery. Don't cruise at highway speeds in EV mode in hot or even warm weather, the thermal management system can't keep up. If the battery started off really cold, you can get away with it, but your range will stink anyway because a cold battery doesn't have a lot of capacity. That's it. I watch my temp in forscan, and I accelerate at more than 2 bars all the time, cruise on the highway in EV mode, etc. The only real 'rule' I follow is to keep the battery below about 104 when discharging, and below 100 when charging (if it's hot out, you have to let it get below 85 or so before charging). In the 3 years and ~30k miles I've owned my car, I've lost 0.2kwh of capacity from what it had when I got it (used). Not too bad if you ask me (it was, however, pretty degraded when I got it ... it's gone from about 3.7kwh before switching to hybrid mode to about 3.5kwh). As far as range loss in the winter, cold li-ion batteries are much less efficient than warm ones. You're just going to get less kwh out of it in the winter unless you store it in a heated garage. Considering that Ford had decent thermal management on the Escape hybrid, which came out before our cars, I think the design of the thermal management system on the Energi cars is grossly negligent. All they had to do to make the car usable as it was intended would have been to run a couple of AC refrigerant lines to the back and put a chiller in the battery's cooling ducts, along with a resistance heater for the battery. Probably less than $500 worth of parts. Absolutely disgusting. The only company to do a worse cooling system is Nissan, but at least they got sued into honoring their battery warranties. I guess Ford learned their lesson, because they're going to a liquid cooled system on the mach E. Edited October 5, 2020 at 09:20 PM by danjayh jj2me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDawg Posted October 23, 2020 at 07:34 PM Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 at 07:34 PM I am still on my first tank of gas from the dealer, and I have about 2200 miles on it. I just went on a road trip and my average MPG went from 230mpg to 204.9mpg. I drive often in EV mode, but I am surprised when the engine kicks on sometimes in this mode. Popping the car into L seems to make this happen, especially with the HVB nearly full. When I turn on the car and place it into EV Later mode, it indicates that the battery is 95% charged, versus the 100% charge that the car otherwise indicates. I believe someone indicated 13-93% SOC which would seem pretty accurate. I bought the car in August. I have an almost exactly 30 mile trip to work, and would make it to work on the battery in the summer fairly easily. Now that the temperatures have fallen, I find that 25 miles is about I am getting, so I am putting it into EV Later mode for hills and areas that I have to accelerate. For this reason I picked 27 miles, which is about my average. I am about to fill the tank for the first time, and I am leaning towards Premium fuel which is recommended in the manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsamp Posted October 24, 2020 at 05:57 AM Report Share Posted October 24, 2020 at 05:57 AM 10 hours ago, CDawg said: I am still on my first tank of gas from the dealer, and I have about 2200 miles on it. I just went on a road trip and my average MPG went from 230mpg to 204.9mpg. I drive often in EV mode, but I am surprised when the engine kicks on sometimes in this mode. Popping the car into L seems to make this happen, especially with the HVB nearly full. When I turn on the car and place it into EV Later mode, it indicates that the battery is 95% charged, versus the 100% charge that the car otherwise indicates. I believe someone indicated 13-93% SOC which would seem pretty accurate. I bought the car in August. I have an almost exactly 30 mile trip to work, and would make it to work on the battery in the summer fairly easily. Now that the temperatures have fallen, I find that 25 miles is about I am getting, so I am putting it into EV Later mode for hills and areas that I have to accelerate. For this reason I picked 27 miles, which is about my average. I am about to fill the tank for the first time, and I am leaning towards Premium fuel which is recommended in the manual. Cdawg, Most of what you describe is intended functionality. Yes, when the HVB is near full, it will use the ICE as an "engine brake" to reduce speed instead of regen. This is to keep the battery from overcharging and potentially wrecking it. The 95% retained when entering EV Later at more than 95% full is for the same reason. It is programmed to leave room at the top end of the battery for regen. It will allow it to go above 95% for short spurts, but will bring it back down to 95 as soon as it can. The 13-93% is the range for the entire battery capacity. What is displayed on the screen is the % charge on the Plug-in portion of that. It is kinda confusing. Winter temps sure reduce the range, but fortunately it will come back up in the spring. I use EV Later in the same manner as you. CDawg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzicman61 Posted October 25, 2020 at 06:57 PM Report Share Posted October 25, 2020 at 06:57 PM On 10/23/2020 at 10:57 PM, jsamp said: Winter temps sure reduce the range, but fortunately it will come back up in the spring. I use EV Later in the same manner as you. Not here in Arizona! ? jsamp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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