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Electric cars... the cons

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TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,530
5,247
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
76
115
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Cumming, Georgia
About Winter driving and the Range...

The company that helped Ford to electrify the Focus is called Magna and is based Aurora, Ontario, Canada. As a good Canadian engineering company they did their best to make sure the car was usable in the winter. One thing they did is install a liquid battery cooling and heating system, a feature that was absent on both the Japanese EV's and even the Tesla's at the time. The other guys batteries were air cooled. (Tesla has it since 2019, )

Even with the clever liquid temperature management, cold weather was a double doozie on reduced range. The car easily got 30-40% reduced range in the winter. I say colder because we don't get real cold weather in Georgia, it rarely goes below 25 - 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Anyway, the double doozie:

1) The heater was a simple heating element, basically a glorified short, very power hungry. A sharp contrast with the A/C which was based on a heat pump and hardly affected the range. We used the heated seats a lot in winter on the "longer" trips.

2) The battery temperature conditioning system heated the batteries in cold weather. While it kept the battery in an ideal temp range to hold a good charge, That also took some juice out.

I don't think the road salt and other external factors would affect the batteries as they were fully enclosed in the car. The cold weather certainly reduced the range significantly in Georgia and would likely reduce it more in the Great White North.
 
1,104
1,704
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Huntsville, AL
Paraphrasing here...”motor, batteries, and software performed very well”...🤣🤣🤣. The truck didn’t make it 40 miles. WTF? How can they truthfully make that claim? Performing very well would have been making it to the 200 mile mark (or whatever the range was) when it died in the terrain due to lack of charge.
 
76
115
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Cumming, Georgia
It's going to be a long long while before anything battery powered can go 200 miles on rough terrain / full throttle competitive environment. The current EV's that claim 300 miles range is on city streets at 35 mph or below, with lots of braking regen / very little aero drag range penalty. I'll bet you couldn't get a "300 miles" Tesla to go 100 miles at full throttle. Truth is they can't even make a fast lap around VIR at full throttle without going in limp mode from overheated batteries / powertrain stuff. LOL.

Just the aero drag of going a constant 80+ mph can cut the range of current EV's by 35-40% and that's still part throttle. Since I could recharge at the Airport for free, I used to peg my Focus on the way home as much as I could. It was electronically limited to 83 MPH so even if the pedal was on the floor, the powertrain was far from 100% output. Doing that took the normal 80 or so miles range and turned it into about 40-45 miles. At least it never faltered from the go pedal being matted for 35 or so miles. LOL.
 
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TymeSlayer

Tramps like us, Baby we were born to run...
3,787
2,740
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Brighton, Colorado
...because it's only words Patrick. Seems like these days you can throw around these "words" to reflect what benefits one's agenda. Like MSNBC see a protest and FOX a riot. Two different things from the same event.
Paraphrasing here...”motor, batteries, and software performed very well”...🤣🤣🤣. The truck didn’t make it 40 miles. WTF? How can they truthfully make that claim? Performing very well would have been making it to the 200 mile mark (or whatever the range was) when it died in the terrain due to lack of charge.
 
1,289
1,113
Exp. Type
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5-10 Years
Philly Metro Area
On the flip side, Ford seems to be doing better than most.

InsideEVs : Ford Mustang Mach-E Crushes It In Our 70 MPH Highway Range Test.
ievs-70-mph-vs-epa-highway-range-20210421.png
 
1,289
1,113
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Philly Metro Area

carver

breaker of wrenches
445
598
ontario
Still don't see one in my future. Yet. But it does seem inevitable. I just don't see how our creaky old power grid can possibly handle the phenomenal amount of increased electricity consumption this will cause.
Exactly , "creaky old power grid" . Back in 1998 when eastern Ont. got hammered with the winter Ice Storm , our power was off for 14 days. The grid was flattened all over this area. You had to drive over cables across the road to go and get supplies ( very dicey ). To there credit, Hydro worked there butts off to restore power, but the grid was just spliced back together enough to get it working. They have never come through to replace any of the old damaged cable/wires and all the old splices are still the same 23 years later. Everytime we get a snow storm or wind or big rain you can bet the power will go out !!! I can't see how the extra demand will hold up !

1619872723245.png
 
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TymeSlayer

Tramps like us, Baby we were born to run...
3,787
2,740
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Brighton, Colorado
Funny how I dislike EVs for the most part but I've gone DeWalt 20V/60V of nearly all my power tools. Chainsaw, Weedwhacker, Trimmer, Leaf Blower, Heat Gun, Impact Wrenches, Circular Saw, Jig Saw, Sawzall, Drills, Sanders and others I can't recall. I have six batteries so recharging is not an issue.

Yes, call me a hypocrite but I do love my cordless tools. I certainly don't miss yanking the cord on that chainsaw.
 

JDee

Ancient Racer
1,797
2,001
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
5 miles from Mosport
Except chainsaw. I had 100 acres of hardwood bush and heated a 3400 sq. ft house and an 1800 sq. ft shop with an outside wood burner. No way an electric tool was going to handle those 3 foot wide at the butt maples and oaks. No effin' way. Nice big Husqvarna or Stihl saw was the only way forward. Those days are in the rearview mirror, now I just turn the thermostat up and the nice gas man does the rest. Sweet.
 

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