All-electric Mustang Mach-E provides charging ease of mind

For electric vehicle owners, Ford understands that taking the guesswork out of when and where to re-charge helps build trust and provide peace of mind. So the all-new Mustang Mach-E comes equipped with a feature to help more accurately predict how much range drivers have left, becoming more precise over time.

Mustang Mach-E’s Intelligent Range can accurately estimate how much range the all-electric SUV has left, helping reduce anxiety about when and where customers can re-charge.

 

Trust in estimates

“Electric vehicle customers need to be able to trust their range estimates,” said Darren Palmer, Ford global director for battery electric vehicles. “People want to be confident they’re going to make it where they need to go, whether they’re on a road trip or coming home from work. Our new Intelligent Range feature helps ensure Mustang Mach-E owners around the globe know where they stand ahead of time, freeing them up to enjoy the ride.”

Intelligent Range will calculate range based on past driver behaviour and forecasted weather conditions – taking advantage of the cloud to predict how much energy will be used in future driving. The vehicle battery system reports how much energy is available, while the powertrain module tracks how much energy is being used. Warmer or colder weather can impact range, so Intelligent Range takes that into consideration, too, updating estimated range along the way.

 

Crowdsourced data from other connected Ford electric vehicles who choose to share information on the road can improve estimates considerably. The all-electric SUV can track how much energy is used in different circumstances, including varying speed, terrain and climate conditions, so it can use fleet averages across all Mustang Mach-Es to improve range estimates – even for routes and conditions an individual customer has never driven before.

If range is impacted notably by any number of factors at the start of a trip, customers will receive a notification in their cluster highlighting the new range estimate and details about why the estimate has changed.

 

Roadside assistance

In case a Mustang Mach-E does run out of charge, the BEV Roadside Assistance programme will tow customers to their nearest charging point, which can be a FordPass Charging Network location, EV-certified Ford Dealership, customer residence or the nearest public charger.

Ford will upgrade Intelligent Range through over-the-air updates, designed to deliver even more accurate prediction capabilities for connected Mustang Mach-E, keeping their fully electric SUVs at the forefront of technology. A future update will allow Mustang Mach-E to take even more advantage of cloud-connected capabilities, enabling it to factor in real-time traffic conditions, road slope, the terrain and elevation of a given route, and even the temperature at their final destination.

“Changes in driver behaviour and the environment can often impact range, which is the reason other electric vehicles often experience significant range adjustments,” said Mark Poll, electric vehicle charging user experience manager, Ford Motor Company. “Ford is tapping the power of the cloud to make estimates even more accurate – reducing the need for surprise charging stops and to help reduce customers’ anxiety.”

The all-electric Mustang Mach-E – with a targeted pure-electric driving range of up to more than 370 miles according to the World Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) – spearheads a rapidly expanding Ford electrified vehicle range and is one of 18 new electrified vehicles the company is introducing to Europe before the end of 2021.