range question for current FFE owners

[bullish1]

I am a brand new owner of FFE. I bought it in Oregon and towed it back to Nebraska. My first trip into work was 18 miles to work, 17 miles of errands, and 18 miles back home. Those 53 miles still left me with a range estimation of 55 miles left so instead of plugging it in, I drove it in to work again this morning 18 miles and it says I have 45 miles left. I came in at 6:30 to avoid traffic and returned home early yesterday as well. I drove it very easy and did not use the A/C on a warm, 80 degree day. About 1/2 the trip is 55 MPH and the other half is main surface streets of 45 max and some traffic lights every couple of miles. I have no idea why the range is so much higher than advertised or complained about by some here. I am a little nervous due to my decision to trust the range estimate and will probably plug it in tonight. When I look at the leader boards, I often see people exceeding 150 mile range which is about what I seem to be getting. After the full charge I am going to take the interstate for most of the trip. Max limit is 60. I will see how that affects the range and I will run the A/C as well. So far However, I am thrilled at the range and how well the car handles. I hope this feeling lasts!

 

[hybridbear]

No worries for range returning home. I took the interstate at about 65 MPH at returned home with range to spare.



Total trip stats:
83.0 miles
4.5 regen miles
17.8 kWh used
1:53 total drive time
214 Wh/mi round trip efficiency

 

[blackbeasst]

i drove my ffe into work (100 miles round trip) for the first time today. i might need to have a tow truck on standby!

left the house with 90 on the range and drove 47 miles to work and have 40 miles left. i waited to drive it till i got my semacharge card so i can throw it on the 240 at walgreens during my lunch break

hope i have enough to get back home :shock:

here's the summary from this mornings drive

 

[hybridbear]

i drove my ffe into work (100 miles round trip) for the first time today. i might need to have a tow truck on standby!

left the house with 90 on the range and drove 47 miles to work and have 40 miles left. i waited to drive it till i got my semacharge card so i can throw it on the 240 at walgreens during my lunch break

hope i have enough to get back home :shock:

Sounds like you'll need to slow down coming home. What was your Wh/mi on the way in?

 

[blackbeasst]

i drove my ffe into work (100 miles round trip) for the first time today. i might need to have a tow truck on standby!

left the house with 90 on the range and drove 47 miles to work and have 40 miles left. i waited to drive it till i got my semacharge card so i can throw it on the 240 at walgreens during my lunch break

hope i have enough to get back home :shock:

Sounds like you'll need to slow down coming home. What was your Wh/mi on the way in?

see above

worse case i wait 3 weeks till we move and knock 30 miles RT off. i know i asked before in another thread, but how many miles could i possibly pick up from an hour on the 240?

 

[hybridbear]

i drove my ffe into work (100 miles round trip) for the first time today. i might need to have a tow truck on standby!

left the house with 90 on the range and drove 47 miles to work and have 40 miles left. i waited to drive it till i got my semacharge card so i can throw it on the 240 at walgreens during my lunch break

hope i have enough to get back home :shock:

Sounds like you'll need to slow down coming home. What was your Wh/mi on the way in?

see above

worse case i wait 3 weeks till we move and knock 30 miles RT off. i know i asked before in another thread, but how many miles could i possibly pick up from an hour on the 240?

But you said you drove it today. Based on the numbers you cited for your estimated range remaining you used slightly more than half although no one can be certain unless you say how many kWh you used on the trip in or what your Wh/mi was for the trip in. Based on either or those numbers you can calculate what efficiency you'd need to make the trip home.

At 70 miles round trip you should have no issues in the summer making it even traveling 65-70 MPH.

Did you program the nav with your home as the destination and saying you'll charge there so that the car will calculate and show you what kind of efficiency you need to make it home?

240V charging speed depends on how many kW the charger is putting out. At 3.3 kW you'll get about 10 miles per hour of charging, at the full 6.6 you can get about 20.

 

[blackbeasst]

But you said you drove it today. Based on the numbers you cited for your estimated range remaining you used slightly more than half although no one can be certain unless you say how many kWh you used on the trip in or what your Wh/mi was for the trip in. Based on either or those numbers you can calculate what efficiency you'd need to make the trip home.

At 70 miles round trip you should have no issues in the summer making it even traveling 65-70 MPH.

Did you program the nav with your home as the destination and saying you'll charge there so that the car will calculate and show you what kind of efficiency you need to make it home?

240V charging speed depends on how many kW the charger is putting out. At 3.3 kW you'll get about 10 miles per hour of charging, at the full 6.6 you can get about 20.

yeah i did drive it today. i was saying worse case if i fall short i can wait 3 weeks to try again

from the trip log is shows 236 wh/mi this morning. myfordmobile doesn't show the kWh so im not sure about that. when i try to "plan a trip" on the mobile it does show my house addy as a start/end point.

not sure about the semacharge at the wags. plugshare doesn't say if its a 3.3 or 6.6

 

[blackbeasst]

i got 57 miles to play with to get home

edit: from google maps i can either......

go 47.9 miles down 316 at 65mph with random stop lights

go 51.2 miles no greater that 55ish

 

[blackbeasst]

whew! made it home with 5 miles left

 

[hybridbear]

whew! made it home with 5 miles left

Good job!!

And...your MFM site is showing your Wh/mi!! I'm so jealous!! We only get that for about 1/30 of our trips.

212 Wh/mi is significantly lower than your rate of consumption this morning. That is part of what made it possible. 51.7 miles total looks like you took the slower route. And look at all your Regen miles!! 9.9 regen miles also made it possible.

 

[v_traveller]

whew! made it home with 5 miles left

Woohoo! So are you gonna try again next week?

 

[blackbeasst]

whew! made it home with 5 miles left

Woohoo! So are you gonna try again next week?

yeah. i sold my jetta so its either chance the ffe daily, or rack up a lot in gas money with my wifes pilot

i found a good way home with slower speeds that seemed to help. although it was pretty hot out and i didn't run the air a lick

 

[jmueller065]

I'm really jealous! MFM has never shown my Wh/mile usage for any trip.

 

[xchpstang]

FWIW, I was commuting for 6 weeks from June 2 to July 10, 4 days a week from Turlock to Sacramento in California. I started with a full charge on the battery and the distance from my house to school was 85.3 miles. Basically the first 72 miles was mostly 60MPH on the right lane of the freeway and no AC (just vent fan for outside air). The last 13 miles was stop and go traffic. The average battery charge left after arriving was 10%.

From the energy use indicator on each trip I would get readings between 190-230 Wh/mi. This trip is basically flat with less than 100 ft of elevation change. The mornings were ok as they are in the 60's but coming back home at noon was tough without AC as it was in the 80's and 90's. I did save basically $336 over those 6 weeks in gas from my 10 Ford Fusion Hybrid so that softened the inconvenience. That gets about 40MPG on that same trip. ($17 in gas round trip per day on FFH vs. FFE $3 in electricity round trip per day)

 

[blackbeasst]

just out of curiosity i checked the elevation change from my home town and work town and its a difference of 430ft

 

[ElSupreme]

just out of curiosity i checked the elevation change from my home town and work town and its a difference of 430ft

Also note that driving east back to Athens is typically a tailwind. So you should also benefit on the way back from the wind as well.

 

[blackbeasst]

whew! pushing it to the limits daily. made it home with 2 miles left.

and what that, that brings me to a couple questions:

1- does running the battery that low almost daily hurt it?
2- i know on an ICE that E doesn't really mean empty as far as gas. does 0 miles mean its going to shut down on me or is that the warning and there is still a cushion?

 

[v_traveller]

whew! pushing it to the limits daily. made it home with 2 miles left.

and what that, that brings me to a couple questions:

1- does running the battery that low almost daily hurt it?
2- i know on an ICE that E doesn't really mean empty as far as gas. does 0 miles mean its going to shut down on me or is that the warning and there is still a cushion?

Clearly, you have way more hair on your chest than I do.

1- Some articles I've read say yes, collected my findings here:

http://ev-vin.blogspot.com/2013/10/prolonging-life.html

That being said, folks in the articles seem to imply that a "deep discharge" is pretty deep (i.e. 5% or less); I think folks around here have concluded that there's enough margin built into the FFE's battery management (i.e. 10% at the bottom) such that we really don't have to worry about this. Personally, I'm not worried about this on the FFE.


2 - In my case, I'm guessing that there was something around 0.5kWh left before I came to a dead stop, after gettting the "Charge Depleted" message. I don't recall how many miles (or yards) passed between the FFE saying there are 0 miles left and getting the "Charge Depleted" message, but it wasn't simultaneous. Here's my story:

http://ev-vin.blogspot.com/2013/10/charge-depleted.html

 

[blackbeasst]

Yeah I was poopin my pants there towards the end. Might let my wife drive it till we move in two weeks.

Good reads though. Love your out of charge story! Do we all get roadside assistance?

 

[v_traveller]

Yup! Comes with 5 years/60K Miles of roadside assistance. It's on the sticker, under "Warranty". Here's a sticker from a FFE in jachady's inventory (thanks jachady!):

http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae298/jachady/20140710_082646_zps7ed7b783.jpg

I believe it's transferable, too - good for those here that bought a pre-owned FFE.