Los Angeles 405 vs. 110 commute: kWh usage and Wh/mi data

South Bay-to-San Fernando Valley: Sepulveda Pass (405) vs. Los Angeles Basin (110) routes.

• Home-to-work: 32.1 miles; large incline/decline; 98% freeway @ 60MPH.

First commute to work, which is mostly freeway, with one large incline/decline (Sepulveda pass). I came home last night from my dad's at 2:00AM, and plugged the 120V charger in until 2:00PM today, which left me with a 98% charge by the time I had to leave for work. I arrived to work at 3:00PM, in ambient temps of 82 degrees, and plugged into a 120V outlet.

Freeway route 1: Home-to-work via Sepulveda Pass (405N/101S)



Ad hoc 120V plug-in location at work:



These spaces aren't assigned--I just got lucky today. But I also had to run a 25' stinger from the quad-box at the corner of the fence (for use by the news vans around the corner, which are assigned). Oddly, there were two Priuses parked there today which I hadn't noticed in weeks prior (neither of which were plugged-in). However, there's an Ice Storm FFE that I just started seeing also parking there, beginning about only a week ago.

studio460 said:

• Home-to-work: 31.6 miles; large incline/decline; 98% freeway @ 60MPH.

First commute to work, which is mostly freeway, with one large incline/decline (Sepulveda pass). I came home last night from my dad's at 2:00AM, and plugged the 120V charger in until 2:00PM today, which left me with a 97% charge by the time I had to leave for work. I arrived to work at 3:00PM, in ambient temps of 82 degrees, and plugged into a 120V outlet. Here's the myfordmobile screen as shown a few minutes later:

Click to expand...

Does your trip log on MFM show the Wh/mi data? Otherwise, tracking data from the trip summary screen works quite well. On a few trips we make often I'm working to track data to get some long-term data about electricity use and comparing efficiency of the Focus Electric versus the Fusion Energi.

• Now leaving work, and am about to unplug from the 120V outlet. Here's the myfordmobile charging screen right now (10:09PM):

hybridbear said:

Does your trip log on MFM show the Wh/mi data?

Click to expand...

I've owned the car for almost exactly 48 hours now, so I'm still finding my way around the MyView displays and the MFM data, which I only just gained access to, due to the 24-hour MFM propagation/security delay. Is this the screen you mean?

Freeway route 1: Home-to-work via Sepulveda Pass (405N/101S)

• Just arrived home; however a detour ruined the work-to-home test drive: I was planning to take my alternate, all-freeway route home (134E/5S/110S/105W/405S), but the 134E-5S freeway transition was closed for construction, so I had to make a U-turn and take my in-bound route back home instead (134W/101N/405S).

1. Freeway detour (had to back-track).
2. Stopped to pick up some groceries after I got off the freeway.
3. Stopped at the post office to mail off my application to get my $2,500 state rebate.

Screen shown after arriving home:

Summary (based solely on myfordmobile charging screen data):

• 57 miles remaining after first leg of commute.
• 23 miles gained charging at 120V at work.
• 80 miles in guess-o-meter upon departure from work.
• 45 miles surplus upon arrival home.

Had I not charged at work, based solely on these data, using only a straight arithmetic calculation:

• 45-mile surplus upon arrival at home, less:
• 23 miles gained charging at work, equals:
• 22-mile surplus had I not been able to charge at work.

The reason this calculation/test is important:

• The 120V outlet isn't "officially" approved for personal EV use (but, tacitly approved by on-site management).
• The Sepulveda pass incline on the 405 incurs significant real-world range degradation.

Note that during my in-bound freeway commute, virtually no braking was applied, if any. On the freeway on the way home this evening, I didn't touch the brakes once, only decelerating or applying engine-braking to reduce speed. I even took the 101N-405S transition at full-tilt, using only 'L' to engine-brake through the 270° transition. Now, that was fun!

My main concern is that the real-world surplus at the end of my 64.2-mile, round-trip commute may probably be closer to 10 miles or less, due to the unexpected hit taken by the Los Angeles basin's topography. Also, depending on traffic conditions, and the amount of times I get cut-off, or how many times people brake for absolutely no reason (especially when going up a grade), can really wreak havoc with even the most careful drivers.

Sure, I can reduce my freeway speed to 55MPH or less to extend my range, but I feel extremely uncomfortable driving at these speeds on the freeways here. People would literally pass me doing up to 95MPH, within just a few feet of my front and rear bumpers, because I happened to be going "slow" in the "slow lane." Also, aggressive tail-gating occurred frequently, again, even if in the slow lane. A safer speed is about 60-65MPH (again, in the slow lane), and even then, most are traveling at about 70MPH on either side of me. These conditions are exacerbated during the later hours when I tend to drive.

studio460 said:

hybridbear said:

Does your trip log on MFM show the Wh/mi data?

Click to expand...

I've owned the car for almost exactly 48 hours now, so I'm still finding my way around the MyView displays and the MFM data, which I only just gained access to, due to the 24-hour MFM propagation/security delay. Is this the screen you mean?

Click to expand...

Yes. It is extremely rare for pre-2014 FFEs to show Wh/mi on this page. It seems that everyone with a 2014 has no issues. The pre-2014s don't transmit the data correctly.

hybridbear said:

The pre-2014s don't transmit the data correctly.

Click to expand...

No, my 2013 used to work fine (showing Wh/mi in the trip log on the MFM site and app). But, after the big website "migration" last year (when they combined the BEV and PHEV sites), it stopped working.

The cars are probably transmitting usable data just fine. More likely is that the app, website, and server code are absolute poo.

Freeway route 2: Work-to-home via Los Angeles basin [alternate] (134E/5S/110S/105W/405S)

• Plugged-in at work and charged to 87 miles/97%.
• Took alternate freeway route (134E/5S/110S/105W/405S).
• Slight decline for most of the way; 80% of 110S drive resulted in 192Wh/mi usage.
• Arrived home with 61 miles/64%.

Apparently the grade on the alternate freeway route going home (south) has a much more favorable decline in topography.

Freeway route 2: Work-to-home via Los Angeles basin [alternate] (134E/5S/110S/105W/405S)

hybridbear said:

Yes. It is extremely rare for pre-2014 FFEs to show Wh/mi on this page. It seems that everyone with a 2014 has no issues. The pre-2014s don't transmit the data correctly.

Click to expand...

WattsUp said:

No, my 2013 used to work fine (showing Wh/mi in the trip log on the MFM site and app). But, after the big website "migration" last year (when they combined the BEV and PHEV sites), it stopped working.

Click to expand...

Wow! That really sucks for both of you. Especially since both of you are so technically astute. I suppose neither of you have received any kind of meaningful response from Ford technical support?

Now there's two of us where I work:

The Wh/mile readings in the trip log have never worked for me. Even when I wrote some code to examine the data coming back from the ajax call on the web server--there was nothing there. Not sure if this means my car doesn't properly send it to Ford/the server and/or the server doesn't properly parse the data when it receives it. In either case it isn't working.

Wish I could sniff out what the module is sending up (either via the CAN network via a canalyzer or the cellular network).

Freeway route 1: Home-to-work via Sepulveda Pass (405N/101S)



Freeway route 2: Work-to-home via Los Angeles basin (134E/5S/110S/105W/405S)

studio460 said:

Now there's two of us where I work:

Click to expand...

It looks like you are both plugged into the same box. Am I not seeing it correctly? I'm no electrician but if it's a standard outdoor 120v box I would think it would have a 20A breaker, and you're drawing 12A each, overloading the circuit by both charging simultaneously.

dmen said:

studio460 said:

Now there's two of us where I work:

Click to expand...

It looks like you are both plugged into the same box. Am I not seeing it correctly? I'm no electrician but if it's a standard outdoor 120v box I would think it would have a 20A breaker, and you're drawing 12A each, overloading the circuit by both charging simultaneously.

Click to expand...

Excellent point! I'll have to check on that. These are designed for the news vans so they may have wired each outlet pair at 20A.

Wow! 2878 Wh/mile were you trying to go into orbit?? LOL