EV discussion - hate or love?

[2kwik4u]

Looks good, what height did you end up at? Sucks about the pvc drain.

60in AFF. Matched the light switch.

 

[2kwik4u]

60in AFF. Matched the light switch.

Got to thinking about this during installation.

Once the boat goes back in, using @Thermobrett measurement, I should be able to keep the plug out of the way of the swim platform. Then I'm going to use a 14-50 RV extension cord to get the charger up closer to the garage door. In the summer time the truck lives in the driveway, and the boat in the garage. I "think" all of that will work out when the time comes.

 

[BlkGS]

Saw today that Ram's EV truck is being delayed. They're pushing the Ramcharger out first now, which I think makes a lot of sense. It makes for a great do everything vehicle.

The real question about it is going to be will they screw it up price wise. With the ICE Ram 1500 touching into the 90s now, odds are high they'll overpriced it and it will flop.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

Saw today that Ram's EV truck is being delayed. They're pushing the Ramcharger out first now, which I think makes a lot of sense. It makes for a great do everything vehicle.

The real question about it is going to be will they screw it up price wise. With the ICE Ram 1500 touching into the 90s now, odds are high they'll overpriced it and it will flop.

With Tim back in the charge it might be alright. To be fair the Tungsten is the only truck in the 90s and its touted as a Maybach version of a truck.

 

[BlkGS]

With Tim back in the charge it might be alright. To be fair the Tungsten is the only truck in the 90s and its touted as a Maybach version of a truck.

Built a Limited loaded out. It's "only" $86k, lol.

It's just hard for me to imagine them not trying to price it over the gas trucks and tout "you can save on gas costs" as a way to justify it.

 

[2kwik4u]

Thought I would hop back in and update the thread on my EV journey. Couple interesting things over the last month or so.

Airport parking
I've parked the truck at the airport a couple times now. Losing about 1-2% a day, depending on temperature and where I park. Keeping the cameras on, and checking the truck often speeds the loss, but temps don't seem to bother it as bad.

240V in the garage (L2 charging on premise)
This is a game changer. I'm leaving the house each morning with a "full tank", and it's all buy killed range anxiety. Even with the crap efficiency in the cold up here, it's a non-issue. Had a couple days with over 150mi of driving, and the premise of not having enough range to get around never even crossed my mind. I'm really surprised how much this had made range anxiety just completely go away. I'm no longer paying much of any attention to how much energy I'm using, because it'll just be full again in a couple hours.

I setup the outlet to handle 48A continuous, however I'm only pulling 32A (all that the portable charger will supply), and it's more than enough. Saturday it charged me back from ~20% to 85% in just over 8hrs. An easy overnight "refill". I'm sure if I was setup with an EVSE that would shove 48A into the truck it would be even faster. The big test will come this summer when we start towing. I'll schedule to start the morning at 100%, then go to the lake and back, and if we decide to do it again the next day, we'll see if I can get back to 100% a second day in a row. I suspect that won't be a thing but a few times a year, but we'll see.

Winter Range reduction
Yesterday mornings commute has been the worst yet. I used 54mi of range to go 29mi. That's a stupid way to look at it, as an engineer, but most people seem to get the premise better. Range in the truck is listed based on EPA ratings. 2.33mi/kWh. Yesterday morning I got 1.23mi/kWh. Ambient temps were 8degF, I didn't preheat or condition at all, and the battery and motors were under 15degF when I left. Motor got into the low 50's and the battery never broke 20degF. At this rate, my range at 100% is cut from 305mi to 165mi.

With that said, it's only in the morning/first start. Our road trip home form Louisville through the snow around Thanksgiving was in the low 32degF range, and we got closer to 1.95mi/kWh, so the hit to range only happens on the first part of the drive while it's warming up. Takes longer to warm the EV than the ICE, so the reduction is more pronounced on the first leg of the trip, then it slowly gets back closer to normal. I'll be really interested to see if I can get that 2.33 number this summer.

Overall, still really happy with the decision.

 

[buckbuck]

Thanks for the update from the mind of an engineer. Far more informative than a journalist.

 

[Coult45]

Thought I would hop back in and update the thread on my EV journey. Couple interesting things over the last month or so.

Airport parking
I've parked the truck at the airport a couple times now. Losing about 1-2% a day, depending on temperature and where I park. Keeping the cameras on, and checking the truck often speeds the loss, but temps don't seem to bother it as bad.

240V in the garage (L2 charging on premise)
This is a game changer. I'm leaving the house each morning with a "full tank", and it's all buy killed range anxiety. Even with the crap efficiency in the cold up here, it's a non-issue. Had a couple days with over 150mi of driving, and the premise of not having enough range to get around never even crossed my mind. I'm really surprised how much this had made range anxiety just completely go away. I'm no longer paying much of any attention to how much energy I'm using, because it'll just be full again in a couple hours.

I setup the outlet to handle 48A continuous, however I'm only pulling 32A (all that the portable charger will supply), and it's more than enough. Saturday it charged me back from ~20% to 85% in just over 8hrs. An easy overnight "refill". I'm sure if I was setup with an EVSE that would shove 48A into the truck it would be even faster. The big test will come this summer when we start towing. I'll schedule to start the morning at 100%, then go to the lake and back, and if we decide to do it again the next day, we'll see if I can get back to 100% a second day in a row. I suspect that won't be a thing but a few times a year, but we'll see.

Winter Range reduction
Yesterday mornings commute has been the worst yet. I used 54mi of range to go 29mi. That's a stupid way to look at it, as an engineer, but most people seem to get the premise better. Range in the truck is listed based on EPA ratings. 2.33mi/kWh. Yesterday morning I got 1.23mi/kWh. Ambient temps were 8degF, I didn't preheat or condition at all, and the battery and motors were under 15degF when I left. Motor got into the low 50's and the battery never broke 20degF. At this rate, my range at 100% is cut from 305mi to 165mi.

With that said, it's only in the morning/first start. Our road trip home form Louisville through the snow around Thanksgiving was in the low 32degF range, and we got closer to 1.95mi/kWh, so the hit to range only happens on the first part of the drive while it's warming up. Takes longer to warm the EV than the ICE, so the reduction is more pronounced on the first leg of the trip, then it slowly gets back closer to normal. I'll be really interested to see if I can get that 2.33 number this summer.

Overall, still really happy with the decision.

my garage is mostly below grade, so the temp in there never drops below 45 or so even when it's below zero outside - so I've never bothered to try preheating. I'll be interested to see how that impacts you if you do some testing on that process. I will, however, kick on the heated wheel and seats five minutes before we head out. Nice option via the app, to just kick on environmental systems.

 

[2kwik4u]

my garage is mostly below grade, so the temp in there never drops below 45 or so even when it's below zero outside - so I've never bothered to try preheating. I'll be interested to see how that impacts you if you do some testing on that process. I will, however, kick on the heated wheel and seats five minutes before we head out. Nice option via the app, to just kick on environmental systems.

I have "started" the truck a few truck a few times before leaving just so it's not cold when I get in. Maybe 5-10 ahead of departure. Nice to get in with the seats and HVAC warm. The app interface for that is pretty nice.

Speaking of app interface.......I've been using the phone as a key exclusively for the last several weeks. It's not nerly as bad as I thought it would be. I get the convenience now that I've used it, and it's working acceptably. About 90% of the time it works perfectly as expected. About 7% of the time it takes me waking the phone for it to wake up. Just unlocking the phone with a fingerprint gets it going. Then there's the 3% of the time that it is absolutely infuriatingly NOT working. Of course this only happens when the wife and kids are standing in the snow in a parking lot and I can't get the damn thing unlocked.

Another thought.....I bought running boards. Haven't installed them yet, but we need them. The truck doesn't have a handle to "pull" yourself up into the truck, and even when "kneeled" it's a big jump to get into for the wife/kids. I'll post some pics/review when I get them on.

 

[2kwik4u]

Was poking around in ElectraFi this morning looking at data for some cost estimating going into the new year. Found this neat graph.


Pretty interesting to see what kind of range loss I'm getting, as compared to the temperature. Nice that it has the "miles recorded" at those temperatures as well so you can get an idea of how much data there is to pull from.

So far range loss because of winter temps hasn't really been an issue. We even took a multi-day trip over towards Utica earlier this month and it was no big deal. I'm finding EV chargers are, almost, everywhere now. Lots of them aren't listed in the NAV on the truck, but are very much available and work well. So the 20-30% reduction in range I'm seeing, hasn't really been an issue.

We took a trip to Rochester on Saturday to visit the kids museum up there. It was on the cusp of "making it" on a single charge when I did the math with the 30% reduction in range. I bumped the truck to 100% the night before, and it was ready in the morning. We drove up there, drove around a little, and then came home. Had 81mi remaining on the dash when I get home. Made the trip without issue, and was just a "regular truck" for the day.

 

[Coult45]

Was poking around in ElectraFi this morning looking at data for some cost estimating going into the new year. Found this neat graph.

View attachment 230043
Pretty interesting to see what kind of range loss I'm getting, as compared to the temperature. Nice that it has the "miles recorded" at those temperatures as well so you can get an idea of how much data there is to pull from.

So far range loss because of winter temps hasn't really been an issue. We even took a multi-day trip over towards Utica earlier this month and it was no big deal. I'm finding EV chargers are, almost, everywhere now. Lots of them aren't listed in the NAV on the truck, but are very much available and work well. So the 20-30% reduction in range I'm seeing, hasn't really been an issue.

We took a trip to Rochester on Saturday to visit the kids museum up there. It was on the cusp of "making it" on a single charge when I did the math with the 30% reduction in range. I bumped the truck to 100% the night before, and it was ready in the morning. We drove up there, drove around a little, and then came home. Had 81mi remaining on the dash when I get home. Made the trip without issue, and was just a "regular truck" for the day.

I wonder what different EVs do when they hit "empty"...wife came home a few weeks ago after a longish trip to a funeral, and had 6 miles of range remaining on the MachE. Car was giving her some panicky messages once she passed the last of the available chargers on the route, since it doesn't know we have one at home. I know people have gone past E for more than a few miles. Not sure if there's any material impact on the battery, or how long the car will push itself after you get below the manufacturer's recommended low point. I'll have to hit the MachE forums, since I'm sure it's been talked to death over there.

We continue to have mild enough weather that we haven't seen a big drop in estimated or actual range yet this winter. Past two winters, we've dropped from 220-ish down to 180 or so, which is a near-zero impact on our daily habits.

 

[Bottom Bracket]

The doors lock and you can't get out, bring warm blankets.
The upside is used batteries are getting easy to find.

 

[2kwik4u]

I wonder what different EVs do when they hit "empty"...wife came home a few weeks ago after a longish trip to a funeral, and had 6 miles of range remaining on the MachE. Car was giving her some panicky messages once she passed the last of the available chargers on the route, since it doesn't know we have one at home. I know people have gone past E for more than a few miles. Not sure if there's any material impact on the battery, or how long the car will push itself after you get below the manufacturer's recommended low point. I'll have to hit the MachE forums, since I'm sure it's been talked to death over there.

We continue to have mild enough weather that we haven't seen a big drop in estimated or actual range yet this winter. Past two winters, we've dropped from 220-ish down to 180 or so, which is a near-zero impact on our daily habits.

Have a look at Out Of Spec Reviews on youtube. Kyle, the main presenter, does a lot of "run them to empty" style tests to see what happens. I know he's run a Lightning until it stopped moving, you could likely expect similar behavior from your Mach-E under similar circumstances.

 

[Bottom Bracket]

Unsubstantiated Ai generated answer to a Google question, EV doors lock when battery dead.

"If your Ford Mustang Mach-E has a dead battery, the doors will lock automatically due to its electronic locking system, and you will need to use the emergency key located within your key fob to manually unlock them and access the vehicle; this key can be inserted into a small slot on the door handle to open it. "

 

[2kwik4u]

Unsubstantiated Ai generated answer to a Google question, EV doors lock when battery dead.

"If your Ford Mustang Mach-E has a dead battery, the doors will lock automatically due to its electronic locking system, and you will need to use the emergency key located within your key fob to manually unlock them and access the vehicle; this key can be inserted into a small slot on the door handle to open it. "

Says in this video around 1:30, you just pull the release "All the way" if you are stuck inside with a dead battery.

Guessing MachE has a mechanical backup.

I will admit that I don't understand the need or desire to change stuff like this. EVs, in general, trend to change random shit just for the sake of change and I've yet to find good reasons for a lot of it. Electronic door latches, electric vent adjustments (which I loathe in my Rivian), back in)pull up charging straps and no driver display/gauge cluster are examples of this trend. The industry, collectively, spent decades ironing out the general form factor and accepted functionality and for some reason, because it's electric, there exists this need to change.

Maybe I'm more luddite than I think, but I don't get it.

 

[Coult45]

Says in this video around 1:30, you just pull the release "All the way" if you are stuck inside with a dead battery.

Guessing MachE has a mechanical backup.

I will admit that I don't understand the need or desire to change stuff like this. EVs, in general, trend to change random shit just for the sake of change and I've yet to find good reasons for a lot of it. Electronic door latches, electric vent adjustments (which I loathe in my Rivian), back in)pull up charging straps and no driver display/gauge cluster are examples of this trend. The industry, collectively, spent decades ironing out the general form factor and accepted functionality and for some reason, because it's electric, there exists this need to change.

Maybe I'm more luddite than I think, but I don't get it.

we love the car, but touch screen vent adjustments and temp controls are the worst.

 

[2kwik4u]

@Bottom Bracket @Coult45

Interestingly enough, this came across my feed on Reddit this morning.

Woman had a child trapped in a MachE with a dead 12V battery.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MachE/s/Oz01ZETfvl

This post appears to confirm the extra mechanical release inside, however the child couldn't reach or otherwise activate it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MachE/s/IKy7UNpDFF

Here's a recent follow up. Ford initially didn't do the right thing here, owner put them on blast, now they're working with her.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MachE/s/v1KliwvWp9

Another example of changing some mundane, already solved engineering problem either for some small unknown benefit, or for the sake of change itself; then generating these unintended consequences like trapped kids in cars.

 

[Bottom Bracket]

R&D regression testing, performed and paid for by the consumer.

 

[Bluewater272]

Tesla has the emergency latch right on the handle under the button. Should be a more important part of the orientation, for sure - I only learned about it from Reddit comments.

 

[2kwik4u]

Tesla has the emergency latch right on the handle under the button. Should be a more important part of the orientation, for sure - I only learned about it from Reddit comments.

That works.....IF....the person is aware of it, and they are capable of using it. Doesn't help a kid in the back strapped into a car seat.

I'm fortunate both of my boys are self sufficient now, so the concern is lower for me. The Gen1 Rivians have mechanical door releases. Gen2's move to electronic, but the mechanical backup remains and is just as obvious as the Gen1 handles. I still don't like the premise of hiding door handles and no mechanical access from outside.