Recently, Ford dealers overseas received a software update for the Mustang Mach-E with version code 21P22. This update will be pushed through offline upgrades, and overseas car owners must go to their local dealers to install the upgrade. In version 21P22, the issue of a precipitous decline in charging power after SoC reaches 80% has been fixed.
(Image source: insideevs)
As shown in the picture, when the Mach-E reaches an SoC of 80%, the charging power of this foreign Mach-E drops directly from about 75 kW to about 11-12 kW. After the software update, the issue of low power in the 80%-90% SoC range has been resolved. Foreign media discovered in testing that with the update, the Mach-E can still maintain a charging power of around 45 kW when the SoC is at 85%, which is much more reasonable than before.
(Image source: insideevs)
The same issue is not limited to the overseas version of the Mach-E, as the locally-produced version of the Mach-E sold by Changan Ford also experienced the same problem. Last month, we received a trial version of the Mustang Mach-E GT FE, and we also conducted a charging test when the battery SoC was near 0%.
From our test data, the domestic version of Mach-E also experienced a cliff-like drop in charging power when the SoC was around 80%. We used a charging pile with a rated output power of a single gun of 180 kW. When the SoC just reached 80%, the charging power was 49.5 kW.
Just one minute later, the charging power dropped directly to 11.2 kW, which is almost the level of AC slow charging piles.
Therefore, there was a significant extension in the charging time. In our test, it took us 40 minutes to charge from 5% to 80%, and almost doubled the time needed to charge from 80% to 95%, directly to 76 minutes. When using fast charging, if you are in a hurry, you basically need to unplug the gun when it reaches 80%. Charing power after 80% will take much time.
In fact, we can understand the practice of reducing the power to ensure safety when the battery is about to be fully charged. It’s like pouring water into a cup. We also turn off the faucet a little when the water is about to overflow, to avoid overflow. However, 80% is not a reasonable limit. The improvement of the overseas version is more reasonable and more humane. Since the Mach-E we received is not the final delivery version, we also hope that Changan Ford can catch up and further optimize the charging strategy. At the same time, since the overseas version is upgraded offline, if the domestic version can be upgraded through OTA, would it be a step ahead of the overseas version?
🔗Source: insideevs
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.