Recent drop from 74 mi to 60 mi

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rsanders4

Active member
Joined
Apr 1, 2015
Messages
36
The past couple weeks, with temps in the 70's in Arizona, my Focus Electric has had a significant drop in range.

31,000 miles, - still a few thousand miles on the factory warranty, but I do have the platinum extended care w/electrical & battery coverage.

Usually the vehicle reports 74-82 miles. Lately, it's been around 60 without ac or heat, and what I would consider "mild" temperatures.

About 50/50 mix of in-town and city driving. Current draw seems to be a bit higher.
Usually around 230 historically during mild weather, closer to 400 in summer with AC on. Recent trips show 260.

I've had a number of problems with this car, and quite frankly, it's going to the dealer next week where I plan to tell them to replace the battery pack, or buy it back.

Anyone else experience a sharp drop in range on their FFE?
 
60 miles at 260wh/mi means your battery is around 15.6kwh which is not great.

To be fair you should find out the kwh of battery first.

now the 260 vs 230 is strange..maybe other factor like tire inflation maybe brake dragging.
 
Do a heater full-blast rundown test to determine the actual capacity of the battery.

We've discussed it here many times, but basically....

Fully charge the battery
Reset the trip meter
Run the heater full blast (maximum heat) with the windows open
Notice the total kWh when the car goes into stop safely mode (should take about three hours)


Sharp and sudden drop in actual capacity is unusual. 15.6 kWh capacity isn't impossible...mine fell to this after three years and 54,000 miles.
 
michael said:
Do a heater full-blast rundown test to determine the actual capacity of the battery.

We've discussed it here many times, but basically....

Fully charge the battery
Reset the trip meter
Run the heater full blast (maximum heat) with the windows open
Notice the total kWh when the car goes into stop safely mode (should take about three hours)


Sharp and sudden drop in actual capacity is unusual. 15.6 kWh capacity isn't impossible...mine fell to this after three years and 54,000 miles.



Has anyone taken into account for tempature while doing these run down battery tests?? When it's colder outside the battery doesn't get as much juice than if it's warmer. So, I think factoring the battery tempature (outside temp) is nessecarry when conducting battery capacity tests. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Don't think outside temperature matters. Or more importantly if the battery is cold soaked or not.

Outside or battery temperature would matter only if the amount of energy used on the trip record did NOT include energy used to heat the battery.

If the trip energy use includes all energy that comes from the battery (no matter where that energy is used), then temperature would be totally irrelevant.

You could make a case that if the battery was cold soaked, it would be slightly less efficient right at the beginning while the battery is being warmed up. That inefficiency wouldn't last long - the battery heats pretty quickly. And the difference is probably well within the variation of this test.

If a person wanted to be incredibly anal about the test - drive the car around for 10 or 15 minutes, then charge it to 100%, then start the test immediately. You would know the battery is warm by touching the coolant reservoir under the hood - if it is warm, the battery is warm.

Once the battery is warm, the outside temperature is irrelevant. There's no way the battery will get cold while this test is running.
 
Unless it's extremely cold outside and the car has soaked, a freshly charged battery will be pretty much up to normal operating temperature.

I say this based on OBD readings during charging.
 
I'll do a rundown test this weekend before I take it to the dealer.

As for tire pressure - I stay on top of tire pressure on my vehicles, seeing as how my "back up" vehicle is a motorcycle.
 
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