150 mile range

[davideos]

you're not a "two-footed" driver are you?

Actually, if you press the brake and accellerator at the same time, power is cut from the motor. However, the parking brake is another story.

One thing I have noted, and is worth a trying yourself, when at a stop light and you are waiting for the green, how lightly are you depressing the brake? If you are pressing only lightly, there will be a small amount of pull from the motor. If you fully depress, you can feel the "pull" disengage. I'm sure it isn't a lot of power being expended against engaged brakes, but every little bit counts, right? I haven't looked into it completely, but I can definitely feel the transition point.

 

[pjam3]

My extra key is put in a safe place in case I lose my main key. So never walking around with two keys. My condo key was once lost because half my keychain just fell off somewhere. And the extra key was inside the condo. I didn't want to bust the door or window, So my kids and I had to stay at a hotel out of town one night as we had no extra keys and it was like the first weekend we had the condo. It sucked, but the realtor was lucky enough to have an extra, but it really sucked. Ever since then I have a bunch of extra keys for everything in multiple places in case of things like that.

As far as two footed, nah, I'm a one foot person. Sitting at a light, I normally try to glide into a light as to hardly use the brake, but many times there are other cars or the light is long, so I can't do that. I try to glide into all the traffic lights or stop signs though. I haven't really checked if it were all the way down or not, I guess it is, but I've been spoiled over the years as I've driven cars where I didn't even need to put my foot on the brake once I stopped. I'd have no feet. That worked great on hills as other cars would go backwards and I just sat there without needing to put my feet on the gas or brake pedals. But I haven't really checked with the FFE to see if I'm pushing it all the way down or not, I don't think it should be that big a deal as I try to really go slow on accelerations, glide into every traffic sign or stop sign and so on.

 

[Astrand1]

Pjam3, so I'm taking the longest drive yet in my FFE. I'm dragging my wife with me down to the Anaheim convention center which is 63 miles from my house one way. They have 2 level 2 chargers there so should be fine with that. If those are both taken then I have backups of some other chargers that are close enough that we could walk if needed. It's gonna be all highway (I-5) so should be interesting to see how it goes. I'm gonna clear my trip meter so that I can see how much energy is used. Thought this might be of interest to you since your getting such low range. We are going down on Saturday so I will report after the trip.

 

[WattsUp]

Pjam3, so I'm taking the longest drive yet in my FFE. I'm dragging my wife with me down to the Anaheim convention center which is 63 miles from my house one way.

If your freeways are relatively flat, you should make it no problem. I recently made a trip (which even had some moderate hills, up and then down equally) of 70 miles. I keep the speed no higher than 60 mph, and of course used the navi to help me monitor the estimated range remaining to my destination.

Good luck!

 

[Astrand1]

Pjam3, so I'm taking the longest drive yet in my FFE. I'm dragging my wife with me down to the Anaheim convention center which is 63 miles from my house one way.

If your freeways are relatively flat, you should make it no problem. I recently made a trip (which even had some moderate hills, up and then down equally) of 70 miles. I keep the speed no higher than 60 mph, and of course used the navi to help me monitor the estimated range remaining to my destination.

Good luck!

Thank you! Yeah I'm really not too worried about it. I told the wife to bring a book just in case we had to stop and charge on the way back. Lol. I usually go about 60 or so. I hang out in the right lanes with the trucks.

 

[davideos]

If you are coming up the 5fwy and you find that for some reason, you are just shy of the mileage you need to make it, there are 2 good places to charge. Just past the 405, the next exit would be Alton.
1) Alton Pkwy exit, left turn, over the fwy, next left on Enterprise. Pass through Fortune and you may notice the charge stations on your right as you pass them. You'll have to go down to the next intersection in the parkinglot and double-back.

The second is a few more miles up the freeway off of Jamboree.
2)Exit Jamboree. Turn right heading NE. Pass through El Comino Real and turn right on West Dr. I believe that plug share is a little off, but it should be around there....took me a few minutes to find it last time I used it.

Both these stations are GE. The Jamboree stations reported an issue 20 days ago, so the Irvine Spectrum stations off of Alton may be the better choice. There are other stations in the area, but I don't think they are as reliable as these. Hopefully the two at the convention center are available. Good Luck.

 

[WattsUp]

I keep the speed no higher than 60 mph, and of course used the navi to help me monitor the estimated range remaining to my destination.
Good luck!

Thank you! Yeah I'm really not too worried about it. I told the wife to bring a book just in case we had to stop and charge on the way back. Lol. I usually go about 60 or so. I hang out in the right lanes with the trucks.

Remember to answer "yes" to the question "will you charge at this destination?" when the navi asks, because then you'll see the surplus miles (+10, etc.) in the dash displays. That way, you know you can make it to the destination, with 10 miles remaining or whatever makes you comfortable. If the surplus starts to get too low, or goes negative, just slow down until it goes positive again.

 

[Astrand1]

Thanks for the tips guys! Yeah it will be interesting to see how it goes. I can almost guarantee I'll get down just fine, I'm more interested to see the going home range because once I get into the valley it's a small almost constant uphill getting home. I will for sure report after our little adventure.

 

[Astrand1]

Ok. So the trip was a total success! Going down we went 55 miles used 9.9kw at 178wh. That was cruise set at 63mph a little stop and go but mostly traveling at speed. No a/c as it was 73. When we got to the Anaheim convention center both ChargePoint chargers were available as well as free! So this trip down and back cost me about $1.00 as my overnite charging rate is 9 cents/kWh. Not too shabby! I don't count in the $12 parking because even if we had a ice car we would have had to pay that to park. Now on the way home we went same route except for stopping to get dinner. Was 58 miles 16kw and 278wh. Same 63mph same traffic no a/c. What a difference terrain makes!

 

[dmen]

Ok. So the trip was a total success!

That's great!

Any idea on the elevation difference between end points? Your trip down is particularly impressive. On flat land, I have to drive slower than 40 mph to get efficiency under 200 Wh/mi. I'm struck that your trip back used more than 1.5 times as much energy per mile, but still 278Wh/mi for 63 mph doesn't sound bad. I think I'd get about 250 without elevation changes.
Did you have about 11 miles remaining on the range estimate? I'm also curious if you noted the battery percentage remaining after your 16 kW drive?

 

[unplugged]

Pjam3, so I'm taking the longest drive yet in my FFE. I'm dragging my wife with me down to the Anaheim convention center which is 63 miles from my house one way.

I'm happy to see that your trip worked out just fine. Living in the great OC has taught me a few lessons about the surrounding topography. Foremost is to understand that the Anaheim garage is about 130 feet above sea level. This is important, because practically all roads leading to OC are a great deal higher (unless you are traveling along the coast). Getting to Anaheim is probably not a problem at all, depending upon where you are coming from. If you are traveling from the Inland Empire (Riverside), you will get a very big surprise. If you set your cruise at 65 mph, you will have about 30 to 40 miles remaining when you arrive in Anaheim. On the other hand, driving home will be a bit dicey, but at even 65 mph, you should have about 5 to 10 miles remaining. (This is assuming a rise to about 1500 feet, your level may vary.)

So, as you see, altitude is the key in SoCal. The mountains surrounding the many valleys will play havoc with your guess-o-meter. If your over-all altitude gain is over 1600 feet, you may encounter issues with travel exceeding 65 miles. Use Google Earth and check your levels.

My furthest trip was 75 miles from Irvine to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. This was mostly flat. I stopped off to charge up 5 more miles in Vista and then charged to full at the Safari Park. I had one mile when I arrived at the Safari Park. The 600 feet rise probably took a few miles off my cruise.

 

[Astrand1]

Yes I had 12 miles left when I got home. The rise from Anaheim to Santa Clarita is just over 1000ft but most of that happens from the San Fernando valley north. On the way down when we got there I still had 46 miles left! Crazy. Lol

 

[Bloggin]

A larger capacity batter for the Focus Electric would be great.

Ford seems to be doing well with the ability to bring the price down. With the current $6,000 Cash Back on the 2014 Focus Electric, it's now $29,995. That's just $6,000 more than the ICE Focus Hatch Titanium. Which gives the indication that the current 100 EV mile battery pack, is at a $5,000 cost. Which also could mean that bringing the Focus Electric to 120 EPA miles should be doable at below $35k.

 

[jmueller065]

Also note that there are rumors of a 2015/2016 Focus Energi (an engineering no-brainer since the C-Max is just a big Focus--I bet the powertrain fits right in).

So if you want a long range...go for the Focus Energi.

 

[Bloggin]

With the reported 25 EV miles for the new Focus Energi, that would weight about the same as the C-MAX/Fusion Energi at 21 EV miles(thats expected to boost up to 25 EV miles also), it's expected that the 2015 Focus Electric will also get a 8-10 mile boost(current use is only 80%). Going from 76 to 84 to match the Leaf at 100% capacity, or to 86 to better the Leaf once again with better software management.

My money is going for Ford overtaking the Leaf.

Also it's expected that a Lincoln MKZ plug-in hybrid would offer 31 EV miles.

 

[jmueller065]

My money is going for Ford overtaking the Leaf.

Not likely: Nissan has quite a head start and a factory completely devoted for building the Leaf and only the Leaf.
The FFE is built in two plants worldwide that also build the ICE Focus, ST, and C-Max. Those two plants are pretty much running flat out (except for a period last year where they idled Michigan assembly for a week or so to reduce inventory) (The ICE Focus is the #1 selling car worldwide!). They aren't going to sacrifice production of the other high selling cars to make more FFEs.
I can see Ford doubling or even tripling FFE production (maybe even up to 500 cars/month) but I don't see it overtaking the Leaf.

 

[Bloggin]

Overtaking the Leaf in regards to range, not sales.

But as production in concerned, there are changes coming.

The lower volume Fiesta is moving from the 'duty free' Mexican plant to Thailand and importing it back to the US/North America/Canada/South East Asia. And that 'import tax free' Cuautitlan plant is being retooled to produce more higher volume C-Platform vehicles, like the next gen MY2017/18 Focus and C-MAX.

This capacity expansion for C-Segment vehicles will allow Ford to ramp up production necessary for the demand for the more aerodynamic, lighter weight, aluminum content Focus and C-MAX. Along with the launch of a new more efficient hybrid platform and drivetrain.

This first gen/current 'retrofit' version of the Focus Electric, C-MAX Hybrid and Energi, and upcoming Focus Energi, with battery packs taking up cargo space, and excessive vehicle weight were just a start. Generation 1 of Ford electrified vehicles.

With Fords massive quantities of scale, and the massive use of aluminum in the #1 selling vehicle in the US(along with Lincoln new models), enables Ford to produce an all aluminum, super lightweight hybrid, and use aluminum panels on other models at minimal increased cost.

Speculation is that Ford will either use the next gen Focus hatch as the primary 50+mpg hybrid Prius lift back killer, or it will be the next gen more aerodynamic, lighter weight aluminum based C-MAX Hybrid that will take the throne. Either way, Ford is going after the heart of the Prius line up to take it down.

We may even see an aluminum hood for the refreshed MY2015 Focus and MY2016 C-MAX to drop weight and improve mpg, since the stamping plant for those parts, has already been upgraded to handle aluminum for body parts of other Ford vehicles. Current F-150 and Navigator already use an aluminum hood.

Oh yes.....changes are coming....

 

[jmueller065]

So the upcoming announcement at Geneva is just a "refresh" of the Focus and the big redesign is coming for 2017+. Cool.

 

[paw160]

Just in time for my lease to expire. Excellent timing indeed!

 

[jstack6]

The KIA SOUL is planned this year ,2014 with a 120 mile range. We will see how they do.

Nissan is surveying LEAF owners to see if they would pay extra for a 150 mile pack. They have their new deset battery coming out in April 2014 and have also been working on a 150 mile battery for 2015.

So far Tesla is the only Electric in the World in the 200-300 mile range area. Their new Gen III will be out in late 2015 with production in 2016 with a 200 mile pack. I think they will be the top of the list for range for a long time.