larryh

It may keep the 12 V battery charged, if the car happens to wake up for some reason and decides to charge the 12 V battery. It is not guaranteed though.

You generally need a permit to install an EVSE. If they check for the UL listing in the inspection, then there will be a problem. I know of inspections that have failed because the EVSE was lacking the label "No Ventilation Required" for an indoor installation.

I have my GO times set for 5:30 am. Preconditioning stops right at 5:30 am.

I haven't had any further incidents since Friday afternoon. It happened after I washed the car. I am going to assume that water vapor condensed on cold wire or circuits causing the car to temporarily malfunction. There is a lot of steam in the car wash when it is cold--it is hard to see.

Any frequent destination (regardless of whether you charge there or not) results in EV+ mode.

See this thread: http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/6503-scangauge-ii-x-gauge-codes/ There are a some errors in the x codes.

The internal charger provides about 3 kW of power to the HVB. The heater core then draws its energy directly from the HVB.

Preconditioning starts before the GO time. It stops at the GO time. If it is not too cold, preconditioning starts 15 minutes ahead of time. If it is very cold, it starts up to an hour ahead of time.

You have to use My Ford Mobile to precondition the car. Create a GO time and set the desired temperature. The car will then use electricity from the wall outlet to warm up the car. You need a 240 V charger for this to work well. It will begin preconditioning the car up to an hour before the scheduled GO time if it is really cold. If it is not that cold, preconditioning starts about 15 minutes before the GO time.

I suspect that RCM module in my car is faulty. Today the airbag light came on and I received several failure warnings from the driver assist features such as the backup sensor, BLIS, and cross traffic alerts. Regen did not always work along with cruise control. The warning for the backup sensors was very persistent, it kept blocking the left display during the entire trip. After pressing OK, it came right back. Hopefully a module will be available to replace the current one.

It is assumed climate is off in the above table. The table only provides a rough estimate of when the ICE will start. There are other factors that come into play. If the ICE did not start, then the ICE temperature was most likely above the turn-on threshold which is about 15 F. It takes several hours for the ICE to cool down. You would have to monitor the ICE temperature. The car does not provide that temperature.

The best advice for winter is to keep the ICE warm. Using the EBH in the morning allows me to make the commute to work in the morning entirely in EV using EV now mode (as long as the outside temperature is not much below -7 F). Even parking the car in an open garage is significantly better than leaving it outside. The HVB temperature drops much more quickly when the car is left unprotected outside in the cold.

Tire pressure varies greatly here in the Winter. At -10 F, the pressure is less than 35 lbs. At 40 F, the pressure is over 40 lbs. So I set the pressure for the lowest expected temperature.

The following chart shows the HVB Energy Capacity vs. HVB Temperature. When the HVB temperature is around 100 F, the HVB can store approximately 7.2 kWh of energy. When the HVB temperature is around 0 F, the HVB can store approximately 6.1 kWh of energy. That represents a 15% loss of energy capacity when the HVB temperature falls from 100 F to 0 F. Normally, the HVB temperature remains above 10 F (unless you leave the car outside overnight when the outside temperature falls well below 0 F). At 10 F, the capacity loss is about 8%. However, normally you can get at most about 6 kWh of energy out of the HVB before the ICE will come on. The car does not allow the HVB energy to fall below about 1 kWh. When the HVB temperature falls to 0 F, you will only be able to get 6 - 1.1 = 4.9 kWh of energy out of the HVB before the ICE starts. Thus the useable energy from the HVB has dropped about 20%. And thus EV range drops by more than 20%. EV range will drop by far more than 20% because it requires about 50% more energy to propel the car when the temperature is below 0 F (even if you do not use climate control to heat the car's interior).

This morning my commute to work was very similar to yesterday, except it was -7 F. The car remained in EV Auto mode for the entire commute. Based on my observations, the following table is my best guess for the car's behavior in cold weather: Outside Temp ICE Temp Mode at Startup Mode Change ICE Starts < -10 F < unknown EV Auto N/A Immediately < -10 F > 60 F EV Now EV Auto after 2 miles After 2 miles when ICE temp falls below 60 F > -10 F < unknown EV Override N/A Immediately (0 F?) > -10 F unknown EV Now EV Override after 2 After 2 miles (0 F?) to miles 15 F > -10 F > 15 F EV Now EV Override if ICE When ICE temp falls below 15 F temp falls below 15 F EV Override refers to the mode in this post: http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1446-cold-weather-observations/?p=17751. So when it is below -10 F and the ICE temperature is above 60 F, the car will remain in EV Now mode for the first two miles. After that, it will switch to EV Auto mode. The ICE will then come on as soon as the ICE temperature falls below 60 F. It is desirable to keep the car in EV Now or EV Override mode. When in this mode, the ICE generally does not come on until the ICE temp falls below 15 F. In EV Auto mode, the ICE comes on when the ICE temp falls below 60 F, so it comes on sooner.

The BCM (body control module) is responsible for TPMS. APIM communicates with the BCM over the CAN bus. APIM is the module responsible for displaying any TPMS alerts.

APIM is the Accessory Protocol Interface Module. It's the computer that runs SYNC.

This morning, after two miles, rather than disabling EV Mode and showing a yellow EV icon (Locked Electric Mode Override by Driver), the car changed the mode to EV Auto and disabled the EV Now and EV Later modes completely. The display showed the three icons EV Auto, EV Now, and EV Later with EV Now and EV Later crossed out. The car would not allow me enter EV Now or EV Later modes. The outside temperature was -11 F. I had used the EBH, so the ICE temperature ranged from 82 F to 72 F during the first two miles. The HVB temperature ranged from 32 F to 36 F. So I am guessing that this occurs when the outside temperature is below 0 F. The ICE eventually turned on when the ICE temperature fell below 60 F. For the commute home, the outside temperature was -2 F. The car immediately turned on the ICE and displayed the yellow EV icon. The engine temperature was 0 F and the HVB temperature was 10 F. So the outside temperature threshold that determines whether the EV modes are completely disabled must be between -2 F and -11 F. The internal car temperatures were much colder during the commute home, so I would have expected that it would be much more likely for the car to completely disable the EV modes.

Note that cold weather reduces both EV range and mpg. So for a fair comparison, the mpg should be less than 42 mpg.

It requires about 7 kWh to charge the HVB using a 240 V charger. You can save 1 kWh using a 240 V charger vs. the 120 V charger. My electric company offers EV discounts if you have a separately metered circuit for charging the car. The program rates vary from $0.04 to $0.10 / kWh depending on the program and time of day.

You can use grade assist (button on the shifter) to charge the HVB going downhill. Note Engine Braking does not charge the HVB. The energy is dissipated in the engine.

It takes about 7 kWh of electricity to fully charge the HVB at a cost of about $0.70 at 10 cents / kWh. It would require 24/42 = 0.57 gallons of gas to go 24 miles (the range of the HVB). The price of gas would have to drop below $0.70/0.57 = $1.23 / gallon for gas to be cheaper. In my case, the electric cost is 6 cents / kWh and gas would have to drop to $0.74 / gallon.

Also, it is impossible to predict the amount of energy that you will obtain from the HVB. The actual amount of energy that can be obtained from the HVB varies based on many different factors external to the battery. You can only estimate the energy that you will obtain based on the current state of the HVB and on past driving history, assuming that future driving conditions will be similar. If you drive faster, you will get less energy from the HVB than if you drive slower. The HVB cannot deliver as much energy at high power levels as it can at low power levels. That's the way all batteries work. If the battery is colder, you will get less energy than if it were warmer. There is no way to predict the future, so there is no way to accurately take these factors (and the other factors that affect the amount of energy that can be obtained from the HVB) into account to come up with the precise amount of the energy that will be obtained the HVB. The reported SOC and energy in the HVB is only an estimate. The actual energy that you will obtain from the HVB will differ.

This is an example of what I see letting the car sit for nine hours at work. Time Outdoor Temp HVB Temp HVB SOC HVB Energy Arrive 59 F 88 F 77.0% 5.46 kWh at Work Leave 63 F 72 F 73.8% 5.24 kWh Work As the temperature of the HVB falls, so does the SOC and Energy. I see about one less mile of range when leaving work than when I arrived. The HVB conditions have changed during the nine hours that the car sat at work, so the car is going to come up with a different estimate of the SOC and Energy in the HVB. In addition, the values computed for SOC and energy are only estimates, and as such, have errors associated with them. Note that, in general, the chemical reactions in the HVB slow down as it cools and energy capacity is reduced.

The range is only an estimate based on the outside temperature, how warmed up the car is, the HVB temperature, and many other factors. It takes a lot more energy to propel the car when it is cold vs. when it is warm. In addition, the HVB cannot provide as much energy when it is cooler vs. when it was warmer. So as the car cools down or the outside temperature falls, the range should decrease. You should monitor the state of charge of the HVB using MyFord Touch But that too is only an estimate based on HVB temperature, voltage, how much energy you have used from the HVB, and many other factors. The estimate will change as conditions vary. The accuracy of the estimate is at best 5%.