What's the lowest GOM miles you've arrived home with?

I had that figured out:
http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/2014/01/30/bad-battery-and-clear-roads/
An extra 800 Wh over my commute or so for slushy vs clear roads.

jmueller065 said:

I had that figured out:
http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/2014/01/30/bad-battery-and-clear-roads/
An extra 800 Wh over my commute or so for slushy vs clear roads.

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This 6.3 mile trip is usually 1.3 or 1.2 kWh in the summer and 1.4 in the winter with no heat up to about 1.7 with heat. Last night it took 2.1 kWh and almost left us stranded...

hybridbear said:

This 6.3 mile trip is usually 1.3 or 1.2 kWh in the summer and 1.4 in the winter with no heat up to about 1.7 with heat. Last night it took 2.1 kWh and almost left us stranded...

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Of course different slushes have different consistencies.

Last night we again arrived home after the SSN because of running down the charge all the way. The car took 3 hours & 57 minutes to fully charge. It was very cold yesterday and our range was negatively impacted by the cold. A number of times while driving I could tell that the car was heating the battery. We could hear the buzzing while stopped at red lights. I'm sure that the cold battery temperature decreased how many kWh we could pull from it to drive.

hybridbear said:

A number of times while driving I could tell that the car was heating the battery. We could hear the buzzing while stopped at red lights..

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The only buzzing sound I know of is the vacuum pump for the brakes.

Back in November when I got my car the temperature was in the single digits to teens. I ran a bunch of errands and while driving home The GOM was dropping like a rock (heat on). I panicked when it showed 9 mi left since I was 11 mi from home. I turned the heat off until I got to my exit and arrived home traveling 48mi with 4mi on the GOM. There are several people here who drove it down to 0 or slightly past 0 while trying to see how far they can get.

WattsUp said:

hybridbear said:

A number of times while driving I could tell that the car was heating the battery. We could hear the buzzing while stopped at red lights..

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The only buzzing sound I know of is the vacuum pump for the brakes.

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When the battery is very cold and you first plug the car in it will buzz while heating the battery & charging. This was the same noise except with the car on while driving. See this thread.

hybridbear said:

When the battery is very cold and you first plug the car in it will buzz while heating the battery & charging. This was the same noise except with the car on while driving. See this thread.

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I may be wrong but I think that noise is the coolant pump. I've observed my FFE do the same thing. It also does it occasionally when the car is still plugged in after charging. I assume to keep the battery above 50F.

triangles said:

hybridbear said:

When the battery is very cold and you first plug the car in it will buzz while heating the battery & charging. This was the same noise except with the car on while driving. See this thread.

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I may be wrong but I think that noise is the coolant pump. I've observed my FFE do the same thing. It also does it occasionally when the car is still plugged in after charging. I assume to keep the battery above 50F.

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Right. That's what I believe too.

I can consistently go 2 miles past zero on the GOM on flat roads. I've pushed it to 3 and still have gotten home. Much past that and it turns off (becomes neutral coast). We've purposely push the limits at calculated times when we can afford to be stranded, to learn where the line is so that the fear is gone. We've stranded ourselves and been towed twice. Love the adventure! It's like a game.

How many kWh consumed does it show at the end?

It use mine on the same route 5 days a week 54 miles each way so I have gotten very familiar with the power consumption. Home to work is a only a 200ft elevation difference so the power difference is almost unnoticeable. Any time below 20 degrees I would arrive with about 5 Miles left. Why? I would change me speed first then heat. With no power restrictions I would set the heat on auto at 72 and cruise set on 75-80. The colder it got I would keep slowing down until I hit 50 then I would turn the heat down to 66. I have never had to do anything more aggressive than that. Two things that I always thought I confirmed this winter. The GOM is quite accurate when you are always doing the same route and unless you lower the temp on the heat, slowing down reduces the Wh/mi only so much. Still lovin this car!

Today I went to Faribault for work. I left with a full charge and a range prediction of 101. I got home with 0 on the GOM after driving 80.1 miles according to MFM (40.0 SB, 40.1 NB). About half was 65 MPH freeway. Otherwise I drove 55-60 on the freeway to conserve range. I took county roads for about 17 miles each direction so that I could drive 40-50 to conserve range. Driving time according to MFM was 55 minutes this morning and 53 minutes in the afternoon.

Today I was hampered by strong crosswinds (25 MPH sustained out of the west when I'm driving north-south). It was also cooler today than when I made this trip once last summer and had almost 10 miles of range to spare. This morning it was about 42 and coming home now it was about 57.

I used 9.4 kWh going south and 9.5 kwh coming home. Considering that 9.4 kWh on the dash means anything from 9.40 to 9.49999999 I likely used about 19 kWh total for the trip.

Coming home I drove 65 for more miles because I knew that coming home I would benefit from a 200+ foot elevation drop. However, I ended up cutting it really close. I got off the freeway an exit early coming home because I could tell that I needed lower speeds to get home. I hit 0 miles and SSN with the navigation showing 1.1 miles to get home. Fortunately I didn't have any more stops after that point, all green lights and 4 turns where I had to slow down but not stop.

As I was coming home I considered stopping a BMW dealer I would drive near about 2 miles from home to charge for 15 mins to add range. But I decided to chance it. I figured if I was really short I could stop at a Nissan dealer about 10 miles from home to charge, but fortunately I didn't need any stops.

Today's trip was a little scary. Next time I have to go to Faribault for work I might take the Fusion instead if there are strong winds like today. This was a little too scary. My wife gets nervous anytime the range shows less than 20 or 30 miles, I usually don't get nervous until I know the cushion to get home is less than 5 miles. Today my heart was racing as I got off the freeway and watched the blue cup drop to 0 and then disappear because I knew the SSN was next.

It seems that the last few percent drop really quickly. Usually we can get about 1 mile per percent in city driving. But once the display gets down under 5% we've seen it go from 5% to SSN in less than 2 miles of city driving.

Here is my story. Wife wanted to try a new restaurant. She said it was 37 miles away. I thought, 74 miles round trip, the Focus can do that.

Problem 1: When I put the destination in the Nav, the restaurant was actually 40 miles away. Surplus listed the round trip at +3, not good. But we were already on our way.

Problem 2: It was hot, so I ran the AC on the way to dinner.

Problem 3: Mostly 65mph Highway to and from.

Problem 4 (kinda): Restaurant is a 300 foot elevation climb from my house.

Reached restaurant with 48% battery left. I was confident I could make it home. I knew that I would not need the AC on the way home AND I knew it was downhill (elevation wise) so ...

BARELY made it home. Got the battery depleted message about 1000 feet from my home, but it was downhill from there. Here is what the car reported when I got parked in the garage:



Trip log said I used 10.2 kWh on 40.9 miles getting there (251 Wh/mi) and 8.8 kWh on 39.8 getting home (223 Wh/mi), 19 kWh total on 80.7 miles (~235 Wh/mi). My JuiceBox said I used 23.11 kWh to fully charge the car (~82% efficient, not bad).

HannahWCU said:

BARELY made it home.
Trip log said I used 10.2 kWh on 40.9 miles getting there (251 Wh/mi) and 8.8 kWh on 39.8 getting home (223 Wh/mi), 19 kWh total on 80.7 miles (~235 Wh/mi). My JuiceBox said I used 23.11 kWh to fully charge the car (~82% efficient, not bad).

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Glad you made it home!

Today the GOM was going up, up, up! I did a 13 mile drive and ended with a +23 status. This means that my predicted range at the end of the 13 mile trip was 10 miles higher than the predicted range at the start of the trip!! The trip wasn't all downhill either, there's only about a 50 foot net elevation change over the 13 miles. Sometimes the GOM is just goofy.
Here is the Trip Summary from this trip:
And yes the 99% Brake Score is gray because this 99% was evidently worse than my Lifetime 99%...

Later in the day yesterday I had a trip where the GOM made up for it's earlier silliness. I drove 15 miles and ended with a -23 status. These two examples go to the point of a poster in another thread who again requested that the % charge be more prominently displayed.

I tend to view the blue amount of the battery and guess from that. Is there 10%, 20%, 25% 50% 75% of blue left?

damania said:

I tend to view the blue amount of the battery and guess from that. Is there 10%, 20%, 25% 50% 75% of blue left?

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Me too, but sometimes I find it visually misleading. I'm always surprised that what I think is 80%, isn't.

One tip... 50% is when the blue line is aligned with the dot in the "i" in "mi".

I've arrived with 3 remaining before. I wasn't even nervous about it, but I did strategically plan out the trip and did a bit of drafting behind a truck while on the freeway. I've always had no "range anxiety" though. The first weekend we had our car, we took a trip to Santa Cruz (~60 miles from our house) and back. Apps said there were plenty of public chargers, so we went for it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.