Waiting to get my FFE, new to the board not to Ford

[az erik]

Hi all. I'm Erik, live down in Chandler (sub of Phoenix). Finally got to drive a FFE yesterday and I'm sold, well I'm leased when I can find a 2014. So I drove a 2013 yesterday and a Leaf a few weeks back. Other than losing some backseat area the FFE is worlds different from the Leaf. I waited until it was 107 yesterday to go for a test drive as the leaf's are pretty much crapped out at a light in the same situation. I was happy to learn the ac WORKS in the FFE.

A little info on me. The FFE is my 30th car. I've owned countless Mustangs, F150's, SVT's, SVO's etc. Well ok I can count to 30 so I guess not countless. Just sold my Lightning a couple months back. Going from 600+hp silly truck to 100hp electric car, odd step yes. But there is a reason. A 997 Porsche is calling and it costs, well, a crapload so I got to save somewhere I suppose. I currently have a IS350 as my daily and cart my 15mo old back and forth to daycare in it. 12 miles a day round trip 4 starts. My IS350 gets 17mpg and take premium so it's about $120 a month in gas. Coupled with a $400 payment the FFE in lease form ($305 w/leather) is slated to save me about $200 to $275 a month. I got my wife a RX400h for a baby cart and she gets about 27mpg out of it back and forth to work so we're covered there.

I already have plans to change the wheels, tint it and attempt to update the front bumper. Tri coat white with leather is a bit harder to find in AZ as there is all of 2 FFE's on any lot I can find so far.

I was looking for some insight on current mile to charge of the few AZ folks around as well. And if anyone has a picture of what the brakes look like so I can try to figure out what kind of wheels won't look funky.

Update: found a black 2013 with leather. It's production code puts it to Jan/2013 but it's Sept now. From the window sticker they got it in today along with another 2013 and a 2014. Going to try to get the 2014 incentives on it and hopefully have it home tomorrow.

BTW does anyone know if they leave these plugged in while lot sitting?

 

[EVA]

The brakes are identical to the Ford Focus. Silly looking to one guy is awesome to another! So it's hard to say what would look good to you.

Not head on, but the closest I could get with what I have handy:

I've heard tell of somebody using the Ford Focus summer tires and wheels on the car. I think there is something in the Ford website about not using tires other than the standards with this car - or these are special for this car. Irrespective - watch the gross vehicle weight to get the right kind of wheels.

Good luck and hope you buy one. They are wonderful cars.

 

[az erik]

Picked up a 2013 Black with leather yesterday. Working on the 3.6 update. Sadly the roof paint has a significant flaw that will probably require respraying but so far I'm more than happy. Not ecstatic about the lack of loaners. Might have to drop the EV off before I sell the IS350.

 

[georgek]

az erik,

Since you're in Phoenix (hot), you may want to reconsider the color. Others on the forum have suggested that, if you're in a hot climate, you should pick a light color... It's not so hard on the a/c, and mileage...

 

[az erik]

Garage at home garage at work so I'm not worried at all about the color. White would have taken months to get according to the closest dealer. This was there and I got it with the current 2014 incentives so the payment is exactly where I planned on being. The Windows are tinted (makes a big difference in AZ and should be a requirement haha) so far I'm getting 250kw avg and have got the range up to 71 miles with my current driving. Attempting to retrain the car from it's first 150 miles being test drives. My other cars are black as well so I'm totally used to it.

I'm not actually worried about the milage either as I pay 8 cents a kwH and am not bothered by a $30 bump in electricity. If I get a range of better than 65 miles per charge I'm happy. I did all my math at 65, once the Leaf took a dive on me 15 miles early on the guess-o-meter. I also have no plans for a level 2 charger as my peak hours are only 6 of the 24 and I would charge at night when my pool is running anyway.

 

[WattsUp]

I also have no plans for a level 2 charger as my peak hours are only 6 of the 24 and I would charge at night when my pool is running anyway.

Remember that the battery cooling system does not work at Level 1, only Level 2. This might be a consideration somewhere like AZ, even at night. Using a Level 2 charger could extend the life of your battery.

You can get a Level 2 charger for as little as $500 these days.

 

[az erik]

I also have no plans for a level 2 charger as my peak hours are only 6 of the 24 and I would charge at night when my pool is running anyway.

Remember that the battery cooling system does not work at Level 1, only Level 2. This might be a consideration somewhere like AZ, even at night. Using a Level 2 charger could extend the life of your battery.

You can get a Level 2 charger for as little as $500 these days.

Not sure if the one supplied is a level 2 but last night at 99%/100% charge there was a fan in the car running full blast in my garage. My wife swore the car was running. I went out, checked my phone checked the car and sure enough it was as if the AC was running. No dash lights no headlights. It shut off after about 3 minutes (that I heard it running). This was about 11pm and my garage was about 90+ the car said 89.

Just looked at the charger and it's 1440 watt so I think not L2. But the car is on 3.6 MFT, not sure if it's undocumented feature or not.

 

[v_traveller]

In my experience, the cooling system does operate while plugged in with the stock Level 1 charge cord, but without the fan... Mine has the coolant pump running only if fully charged, plugged in at Level 1, and ambient in the mid-80F range (I park outside). When plugged in at Level 2 at work, I've seen that cooling fan running at various times while charging, mostly during the last 20 minutes of a charge cycle when it's trying to top off the battery.

For me, it would be a relief to know that the fan would kick in if needed... perhaps this is one of the fixes what comes with the 3.5.1 or 3.6 update; still have the old 3.1.3. So I'm thinking that you're right about it being an undocumented feature.

Since I live in a hot area (been 98-105F here for the past couple of weeks) and park outside, I try to keep the state of charge at less than 85% unless I know I'll be driving somewhere immediately after unplugging. And if the ambient is over 102F and state of charge is more than 50%, I'll remote start the FFE in the afternoon. Ever since doing so I've never gotten a message from the FFE to plug it in because it's too hot.

I don't keep the FFE plugged in all day when not in use at home because (1) I really don't need 100% charge to go anywhere I need to go with the FFE (have three other ICE vehicles to accomplish longer trips), and (2) I'm on a time-of-use rate plan with SCE, so I strive for absolutely no current draw by the FFE between 6am and midnight, if at all possible. Outside of super-off-peak hours (12am-6am), my electricity costs up to 3x-5x more (!). Doing so, along with shifting the pool pump usage to super-off-peak and avoiding household electricity use (except for the fridge and freezer) during the peak hours (M-F 10am-6pm), my electric bill has actually gone down, despite my overall kWh consumption going up.

 

[unplugged]

Remember that the battery cooling system does not work at Level 1, only Level 2. This might be a consideration somewhere like AZ, even at night. Using a Level 2 charger could extend the life of your battery.

Interestingly, JimStack, over at the MFM forum recently stated the following: "I talked direct w a FORD engineer. He said the 120 will charge or cool if needed but not both at the same time! So if it's real hot you may get some cooling and not as much charge as you expected."

So the cooling does appear to exist, it is just that the 120 volt can end up being even slower than it currently is. In my opinion, the use of the 240 unit is just more efficient in many ways; for speed of charging, use of the cooling system, and limited heat to the power cords. (Try touching the 120V cord while the FFE is charging.)

 

[WattsUp]

Remember that the battery cooling system does not work at Level 1, only Level 2. This might be a consideration somewhere like AZ, even at night. Using a Level 2 charger could extend the life of your battery.

Interestingly, JimStack, over at the MFM forum recently stated the following: "I talked direct w a FORD engineer. He said the 120 will charge or cool if needed but not both at the same time! So if it's real hot you may get some cooling and not as much charge as you expected."

So the cooling does appear to exist

Thanks, interesting... the car still does weird things though. Mine was reporting "hot battery" was charging at Level 1 with Ford's unit. It was only when I unplugged the car and turned it on that, suddenly, a massive cooling effort was initiated that instant (fans running at full capacity, etc. for 10-15 minutes). The cooling effort took a couple percent off the battery level."

So, while the car may be supposed to cool at Level 1, my experience is that it doesn't, even when it is warning that the battery is hot. I have never heard the fans on when charging at Level 1, even on very hot days. Maybe the people who wrote the Value Charge software also wrote the cooling software. That said, I have not had the 3.5 update performed yet. So, perhaps something has been improved.

Anyway, regardless of what is "supposed" to happen, I would still highly recommend Level 2 charging in order to get the most robust battery management, especially in a severe environment.

 

[az erik]

Did it again last night. But I looked to see what was going on.

About 98% charged the Ring was off, the charger said "Vehicle" but not charging. Opened the car door the display said charging. MFM said 82 (Not sure if this is battery temp but temp in the garage was 85). Some fan ran like crazy for about 10 min then shut off. The ring started blinking again and so did the charger. So it appears this would be due to the 3.6 software and does appear to work to reduce battery temp as MFM then said 80, But I had opened the garage door as it was raining and nice. (Insulated garage doors work great, both ways).

 

[unplugged]

Some fan ran like crazy for about 10 min then shut off. The ring started blinking again and so did the charger.

This seems to confirm that the cooling and charging on 120V occur separately. So during cooling, it will not charge the battery. In other words, 120V does cool and charge the FFE battery, just not at the same time. This explains your car not charging while the fan was cooling the battery, but not charging.

It seems to me that if you live in a hot climate, it would be wise to have the 240V cooling AND charging, as WattsUp said.