Rhynri

That was my thought too Lars, that somehow your battery isn't being properly cooled, so the charging stops to wait for it to cool down.

I find it amazing he managed to go through 3 transmissions on a vehicle that doesn't technically have a "transmission" in the traditional sense.  You'd think with a vehicle that doesn't shift the drive train would be more robust than usual.

It's also on their FAQ page:

 

Plugless is ~12% less efficient than corded L2 30amp 240V charging systems and ~7% less efficient than corded Level 1 charging systems.

https://www.pluglesspower.com/plugless-questions/

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who asked.  They added this since my email.  Very nice!

I've only done the oil changes every 5k because Ford is footing the bill.  Even the service manager says if it wasn't for that he'd never change the oil as often as I do.  He says "wait for the car to tell you".

Totally random, but I kept bumping the OK button on the wheel backing out of the driveway after putting the car in EV Now mode, which switches it to that stupid screen where bumping the OK turns the engine on.   Ooops.

 

There are a lot of features in the Energi that are missing from the Tesla.

Like what?  (No snark, just curious.)

Wireless losses on that system are around 12% @ 3300kW  I emailed them with that exact question.  

Well.  Let me put it this way.  We've stopped using the OnStar app because it is so bad it takes less time to walk to the car and check out the charge state manually.  If MFM is Windows 8, OnStar is Windows ME.  It is terrible.  Terrible terrible terrible.

Absolutely it can - if it's big and heavy enough, it can go right through the floorpan.

 

There's 2 samples out there of Tesla Model S's getting the battery pack punctured by road debris (one I believe was a trailer hitch).  Both of them had caught fire because of it.

 

Tesla, as a result, increased the ride height of their cars to try to reduce those types of damages.

They also introduced extra armor to the bottom of the car (titanium and aluminum plates) that they then retrofitted on all Model S vehicles free of cost.  After that was done, they patched the ride height back to normal.  The new armor can crush an alternator, a cinder-block and will eject a trailer hitch harmlessly. 

Lots of fun to watch: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-adds-titanium-underbody-shield-and-aluminum-deflector-plates-model-s

And you can see the changes they made here: http://www.teslarati.com/reviewing-tesla-model-s-titanium-battery-shield/

Hybrid - I think was talking about the Tesla Roadster, not any Model S.  That said, the Model S 70kWh models have less cells in them.  You can tell because they can't supercharge quite as fast due to the lower pack volts(?).  Lots of fun info at this page on Tesla Tap:  http://teslatap.com/undocumented/- According to that page, the 40kWh version was the only one software limited.

jeff_h - I can confirm Gen1 Volt has location (For 2012 MY with Nav, anyway).  But the OnStar app is a slow piece of garbage.  I don't need to know my remaining gallons of fuel or my tire pressure, Chevy, just update the charge state and location in less than 3 minutes, please.

The FFE is the far superior car for any sort of distance driving.  If you can keep it on the electrons, the Volt is fun for short town trips.  It doesn't hold a candle to Ford anything in comfort, quality, and features, though.  Even the backup camera on my wife's Volt is trash.  And the Volt never shut the @#$* up.  They are always beeping, booping, or dinging at you.  That said, I wish the Fusion had a warble button on the stalk like the Volt does.  It's too much fun to do that at people to say hi.  It's not a sound a car usually makes.  (For those not in the know, it makes the horn sound about 6 times really fast at about half volume.)

My CSM interactions have gone well.  Of course, I've had some really odd issues with my car, none of which have been EV/Hybrid component related, and none of which have impaired drivability, I should note.  First interaction got me a bunch of free services.  Second got me a 75k bumper to bumper Ford ESP (on my 3yr/18.5k lease, nonetheless).  Sorry you guys haven't had as much luck.

As for my local Ford dealership, they are completely top notch.  I'm the only Energi (or PHEV or EV) they've ever sold.  It's a very small dealer.  I also like the free Windshield washer fluid refills, especially in winter.  Not sure if that is always a thing.  The shop guys who actually work on the cars greet me around town when they are off work, as well.  Super nice people.  The techs have fixed several things that would take a lot of convincing at the local Chevy place, like a woofer they replaced on my say-so, the tech couldn't hear the rattle I could.

The local Chevy dealer is populated entirely by assholes... it pisses me off even thinking about that place.  Grr.

As you've probably noticed, if you swap between modes, you can actually eek out a lot of useful miles out of the pack.  On long road trips I tend to do exactly that: lots of button pushing to use the pack to my advantage, as it's vastly more efficient at 30-40 mph than burning it off at 60-70.  Sometimes, if there are hills, I can actually charge the pack over the course of the trip by regen down the hill then cycling through to EV Later at this higher level.  Lots of fun, and you can try to beat your old scores!

Blastphemy - I must say I have no problem accelerating at 60 in EV only mode in my FFE.  It easily hits 70 (sometimes over, oops) on my relatively steep Minnesotan on-ramps around here and hitting the juice is still noticeable even at 70.  With engine assist, I've actually had it yank the steering wheel on me with the sudden burst of acceleration/torque steer.  Mine is quite fast, I wonder if it's atypical.

The other thing I've noticed compared to my wife's volt is that the FFE is much more efficient in city driving with me driving both identically (miles/kWh), even though I have a dragging brake on the rear the dealer is fixing when they do the steering bolt recall.  I can easily get 4.5 miles/kWh, even with my admittedly lead-footed tendencies. 

Also, the sound system sounds vastly better once it breaks in than it does initially.

Yes, but this is much less than the waste heat from an ICE.

Well, yes.  But it's still free!

The other side of that is that if you really need, it you can generally think of enabling it when you start.  And then you don't have the extra information if you don't desire it.

I'd buy one - if it made sense to.  When I bought my MacBook Pro in 2011, it was the only solid metal computer with good battery life (4hrs) and a decent Dedicated GPU (ATI/AMD 6770) and a trackpad and keyboard that didn't suck.  They are (still) only producer of 16:10 displays in laptops that aren't bespoke.  That laptop has since survived accidents that would destroy computers with lower build quality (as I know from experience), and the case has the dents and dings to show it.  The headphone jack once took so much force from a fall with headphones plugged in it physically deformed the case around the jack base.  It still works.   If they can build a car that tough with insane battery life and great power, in a form factor almost no one else does (say Jetta Sportwagen style) .  Then sure, I'd buy it. 

Unless I'm mistaken, doesn't the Tesla also use waste heat from the motor(s) to keep the battery warm in cold weather?  That would help save considerably on the energy to keep the battery warm. 

Ah, fun times.  I'll just live with it for now then.  Looks like some developer working for Ford needs an education on last state saving.  Thanks for the link.

Anyone else having a problem keeping the stereo in "Surround" mode in the Sound Settings?  Mine variably switches itself back to Stereo, and I have no idea why.  I can turn the car off, open the door (so the stereo shuts off), unplug my phone, come back, plug it back in, hit start.. and one day it'll stay in surround, the next it'll turn itself back to stereo.  Even if I make sure to plug the phone back in before I turn the car on and I haven't used the phone since the car shut off.  It's very curious.

Here's another question:  where are you experiencing this at?  It's a known problem that a Kwiktrip (gas station) in my town has a security system that scrambles the key sensors and makes it impossible to lock the car using the touch surfaces, and occasionally results in the car not being able to see the key on the inside of the car if there is a window or door open.  Something to consider.

meyersnole - the comments on that article just disgust me.  I keep forgetting my "never read the comments on the internet" rule.

You know, you're all asking the wrong question.  This is the right one to ask: 

All the awesome in the car is shorting out the circuits.  :hysterical:  That's all.  Too much awesome.  In all seriousness, though, good luck with that issue at the dealer! 

It's nice it's so easy to get into Engineering Mode.