stevedebi

I would like to have both in my 2014 C-Max, but on the other hand, I can view raw MPG in the car, and MPGe on the MFM site.

Raja, The battery compartment air intakes are inside the car, at least on the C-Max Energi. The external intakes are only used when plugged in for charging.

HB, You have to charge sometime. I am choosing to charge overnight by plugging in during the evening, allowing the fan to cool the battery, and then charging at night using value charging. The other option would be to start charging when I plug it in, which would mean charging an already hot battery. Which method is best for an L1 charger?

Yes, but you would use up the ICE getting back up to speed.

Well, if I really want to, I have found that I can play the Google Maps audio over the car speakers, while using the phone for the screen (but the audio prompts are really enough to navigate by).

I got my A6 card for about 85 bucks on Ebay a couple of months ago. Works fine.

The ScanGuage II can read the battery temperature, I believe. I don't use mine anymore, but I've seen the posts either here or over on the C-Max forum.

Having the HOV stickers was a factor in my decision to purchase last fall. I expect to need the HOV lane for my commute. As to purpose, I personally believe the purpose of the HOV lane is to encourage drivers to carpool, but in practice what it does is punish those who dont (provided the lanes are any faster). If they really wanted to reduce pollution or save gas, they would put the gas hogs over there, and make the hybrids use the slow lanes, because the gas hog SUVs and such are more efficient when moving, and the hybrids are more efficient in stop and go. That would be totally counterproductive for encouraging saving gas, I know. I believe here in LA the Feds have complained because the HOV lanes are not moving fast enough, or are too packed. Evidently there are rules about this stuff and in impact Fed funding for the freeways.

I couldn't agree more, but I don't think anyone is listening. I'm thinking that Ford removed it so people could not easily tell what the MPGe and actualy mileage are - that is the only reason I can see for removing the gallons consumed. Additionally, as the HVB degrades over time, it would be obvious because of the mileage on the HVB meter getting less. All of this is dumb, because anyone can simply track their statistics in a spreadsheet and know (with even more precision) how the car is doing. I do it, and it takes only a minute to fill in on my phone while I fill up the car. My belief is that this is all related to the dust up over the C-Max not achieving the MPG claimed at product launch. They went through the menus and removed things that could provide data to the customers. I realize that the FFE was not impacted, but from what I can tell the software has a common baseline, with only a few changes between the C-Max Energi and FFE.

Apparently they took that out for 2015. It used to be in the trip meter enhanced mode. It looks like there is no enhanced mode for 2015.

Well, the driver is one of the biggest factors in hypermiling...

2008 AWD. Lifetime was about 29.5 MPG. I was very pleased with it, considering the all wheel drive and the size of the car, compared with a normal small SUV at 22 or so. FWIW, Gary over in the C-Max Energi forum had a 2009 FEH, with somewhat better characteristics and FWD, and I think his lifetime was around 55 MPG.

Maybe he meant stock 18" tires?

Might be interesting to know, since it would make the car more expensive to run, and the extra electricity would probably not show up in the car displays. You'd have to use a kill-a-what meter or something like that.

I had a full spreadsheet over 6 years with my Escape hybrid. It never got boring! I expect that there will be some reflection over time of the battery losing capacity as well.

I figured the shorter term loan. That would be about right for a three year loan. Depends on what model and options he got. Most folks don't include insurance costs in their numbers, or at least I don't.

The Focus Electric has active cooling for the battery. Is that used during charging?

My spreadsheet is not as complex. All I do is record the energy used when I fill up, and then add that (using the DOT energy to gallons formula) to the gas pumped to achieve MPGe (which is not reported by the 2014 C-Max Energi). I do account for L1 energy wastage of around 22% inefficiency when figuring how much energy was actually used. I also figure the cost per mile with gas and with MPGe (two top left columns), and note which pump I filled up at. The "E-Cost" is a special figure I use to calculate what it would have cost to pump the same amount of gas for the electricity used, based on the cost of gas at the time. Not a number most folks would care about, I suppose, but it represents my estimate of what I would have spent if I didn't have an Energi. I have a long trip I take twice a month, which I started in October of 2014, which has impacted my mileage a lot. I didn't realize I should be using the trip meter 2 KWH to figure the MPGe until my 4th fill up, so the first few lines are estimated KW used. My wife has a 2014 VW Passat TDI, which is used for mostly highway commute. She gets a little over 41 MPG on average, and her cost per mile is about 8.5 cents per mile, as a comparison. $0.0633 10602 12 Kwh Pump $401.97 $269.33 82.00 60.92 $0.0379 Miles Gal # Cost E Cost MPG MPGe 9 oct 14 1073.70 10.46 S8 $37.00 $30.12 102.69 66.27 25-Oct-14 726.20 10.40 tban $36.40 $20.37 69.80 58.59 10 Nov 14 839.30 11.74 s2 $36.39 $23.54 71.47 61.48 6-Dec-14 977.40 10.22 126 S8 $29.85 $27.42 95.64 65.14 29-Dec-14 933.80 10.55 114 S2 $27.20 $24.81 88.55 62.77 23-Jan-15 868.50 10.26 113 S8 $24.21 $24.59 84.63 59.67 7-Feb-15 860.90 12.27 77 S2 $31.65 $16.69 70.16 56.70 1-Mar-15 992.70 11.30 110 S12 $38.41 $23.94 87.84 64.13 26-Mar-15 873.00 8.87 120 S8 $27.49 $26.11 98.43 65.02 4-Apr-15 673.30 12.03 44 S8 $36.06 $9.49 55.99 49.21 24-Apr-15 778.70 8.36 94 S8 $27.26 $20.50 93.11 65.21 17-May-15 1004.90 12.84 100 S12 $50.05 $21.76 78.29 60.41 EDIT: Man, this forum really messes up a cut and paste! I don't think I'll post that again...

$850 a month? Ouch. I think that is the highest payment I've seen. The stickers expire anyway in 2019, I think in June but I'm not postive. Of course, they could extend the period as well; they did it for the original Prius yellow stickers. However, here in CA, I think they won't do it. There are already plenty of folks who are sold on "green" cars. The HOV access is an incentive to buy cars that people already want here. It is true that the cars are worth more if resold, if they have the HOV access. But I'm not sure they will command the 4K that the Prius did several years ago. There are already so many cars that can use the HOV that it is less important.

The battery probably got too hot. 102 outside temp is a lot hotter in the car. I believe the battery stops being used at either 109 or 113, I've seen both temperatures reported on these forums.

That is precisely how I run my E-Max Energi on longer trips. I reserve the HVB while in EV Later, then for a larger uphill I kick into EV Auto so the battery can assist. I pick up charge on long downhill slopes. Good to see someone else doing similar stuff.

Bear, Actually, I did that just this last weekend. I no longer charge during the day. Electricity here is not less expensive at night, but I've set my home location up to charge only between midnight and 0600 hours. That way, when I get home and plug in my car, the fans run to cool the battery, but all charging occurs at night when it is cooler. I would sometimes charge during the day on weekends, but no more. If I have to kick into the ICE, so be it. I have also decided that any time it is hot in the car (basically all the time during the day here in LA, except winter), I'm going to run the A/C. I think that Ford designed the battery without supplemental cooling specifically because they expected the cabin occupants to turn on the A/C when it got hot. So for maximum longevity I'm going to cool that battery. It is interesting that the 2005-2008 Escape Hybrids had A/C ducted to the rear battery, but Ford did away with that during the 2009 model year. So they have some experience with non-cooled batteries.

Well, hopefully I phrased my post well - no disrespect meant. There is less power available in EV Later or after the HVB is depeleted, simply because the "hybrid" portion of the battery is pretty small (I've read about .7). So there will be more capacity to supplement the ICE in EV AUTO. I use that capacity all the time on trips, when I know there are hills to climb. I switch to EV AUTO to increase MPG on the uphills.

I'm afraid that is not quite true. In hybrid mode, the car will use a portion of the HVB to enable "standard hybrid" operation. In this mode, the HVB is used, then recharged, almost continuously, in an attempt to maximize fuel effeciency. If you need the extra power, for example to pass, it will be there - and then the car will recharge the battery back up. This is also the way the car operates in EV Later mode. The only time you will not have battery assist is if you are going up a long slope. In that case, the battery will deplete, and there won't be excess ICE energy to recharge. This is the time when the FFE (and the C-Max, and most any other hybrid) will be forced to use only the ICE to run the vehicle, and it will have less power in those situations.

My 2014 C-Max Energi also locks in EV Auto when the HVB is expended.