Jim Kahle

[Jim Kahle]

I bought a 2020 fusion energi in April. This is my 3rd. At first it charged to 28 to 30 miles electric. Now only 23 miles. Why the drop.

[murphy]

Did you start using the air conditioner?

Do you drive above 60 mph in electric only mode.

 

There is no way to measure the charge in the battery.  They measure what is put in and what is taken out and calculate the range.

 

Where are you located.?  A cold (below 65 degrees F) battery is less efficient than a warm battery.

 

When it is below freezing my electric range is cut in half.

 

[Jim Kahle]

I use the ac as I live in the desert where it's been over 100 degrees.

[murphy]

Energy used to power the A/C is not available to move the car.  It appears the car tries to monitor what is going on so it can give realistic range numbers.  Try using EV Later when it is that hot out so the cooling comes from gasoline.

 

[Jim Kahle]

But how would that affect the charging. Was 30 now 23

[murphy]

The mile number created during charging is a mathematical calculation.  There is no known way to measure the charge in a Li-Ion battery.

[JATR4]

19 hours ago, Jim Kahle said:

But how would that affect the charging. Was 30 now 23

You need to ignore that number.  It only gives you an estimate of your miles based on your previous driving.  If you drive short trips with no AC or heater and never exceed 45mph, that number will steadily increase.  Since the number is now 23 you must have recently driven faster and used the AC.  Based on that driving, the computer is estimating that you will get 23 miles if you drive in a similar manner.

 

My 2003 has a degraded battery but the number was up to 17 a few days ago.  It had previously been only 14 or 15.  The difference was due to short trips at low speed versus the highway trip that I took at 68 mph. 

 

Even if the number is 23 you can still get 30 miles IF you drive short distances at a slow speed.

 

I think 23 was the max I ever saw for the mileage estimate number.

Edited June 19, 2020 at 05:14 PM by JATR4
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[jsamp]

On 6/18/2020 at 10:41 AM, Jim Kahle said:

I use the ac as I live in the desert where it's been over 100 degrees.

 

I concur with what others have said.

 

Several things probably playing together to get what you see:  

Temperature - 100+ deg will reduce your range.  Ideal temp is ~72 deg.  The farther from 72 you are the more the affect (either hotter or colder).  

Speed - if your last trip was freeway speed, the next charge will show reduced range due to more energy use to maintain higher speed.

Climate setting - the computer compensates for the amount of charge that the climate system will use and reduces the estimated range accordingly.  You can tell this by starting the car with NO climate on and check the estimated range.   Then turn on the A/C full blast (without driving anywhere) and the estimate will drop by ~3 miles instantly.  

 

I think you have a combination of all 3 of these that is adding up to a large drop in estimated range.

 

Side note - if it is 100+F I would not recommend driving in EV Now as high temps reduce the life of the battery.  Use EV Later.  I realize that means using gas instead of elect, but because of no liquid cooling, the Energi battery cannot handle the heat.

[16vjohn]

I also concur. Many call it the "guess-o-meter". Your car will do "26 miles" in ideal conditions, which means mild weather at reasonable speeds. If you have L2 charging, try preconditioning the car before you leave the house, that helps a lot.

 

In regards to heat -- I live in Utah where the temperatures over the last month have been 90-100+ degrees. I use EV mode everywhere, including driving 70mph on the highway until depleted. Only once this year have I hit the "engine enabled for system performance", indicating the battery temperature had surpassed 106F and this was on a day where I charged it fully three times with 240v L2. Last year when I was charging at work during the day in a hot parking lot, I'd get that message every day. If you can park your car in the shade most of the day, the ambient temperatures, at least for me anecdotally, don't seem to make much of a difference. Parking in the hot sun absolutely will heat soak the entire interior of the car and the battery won't get a chance to cool down, even overnight.

 

This is an unpopular opinion here and I've discussed at length in other threads, but I still get 15-20 EV miles on the highway and 20-25 miles in the city on my 7 year old battery with 140k. 

[muzicman61]

I'd call it a "wild a$$ guess-o-meter".  I'm here in Phoenix and have actually gotten that reading up to 43 with careful driving and tricks.  But by no means did I actually get 43 miles on that charge.  It was closer to 30.  After a almost 2 years in Phoenix, I am still getting 26-28.  And it's extremely hot here too.

 

But the bottom line for me is, how much have I spent on gas?  I've had one fill up this year in February for about $27.  Of course, the pandemic and working from home has helped keep that spending low.