larryh

The 110 volt outlet in the car is only rated for 150 watts.

Note that the FFH has a 1.4 kWh battery. The Energi reserves 1.1 kWh for hybrid operation. I wonder what impact this has on hybrid MPG for the FFH vs. the FFE.

The C-Max Energi was used to determine the EPA ratings for the FFE. The FFE is more aerodynamic than the C-Max Energi. That is the main reason for the lower MPG for the FFE vs. the FFH. There are many variables that affect MPG: wind direction and speed, temperature, tire pressure, etc. You will need data collected over a period of time to determine the difference in efficiency of the FFE vs. the FFH.

The Intelligent Access Key did not work again this morning at -10 F. I could not open the trunk with the pushbutton either. I will have to visit the dealer.

If you disconnect the electric heating element, then you won't be able to precondition the car. I find preconditioning the car with a 240 V charger in the Winter to be one of the most useful features of the car. With preconditioning, I don't need to use climate control much during my 8 mile commute to work, only to defrost the windows once in a while. It also helps warm up the coolant so when the ICE comes on, it doesn't have to run as long. The ICE generally runs during my commute when it is below 0 F to heat up the coolant to around 105 F. I haven't found a way to stop the ICE from running, but preheating the coolant with the EBH and via preconditioning shortens the time it runs.

Yes, it is confusing. It states that EV Now is not available, yet it runs in EV mode anyway and now there is no way to stop it from running in EV mode until the HVB is depleted. I don't think it matters what mode I select, I believe the mode selection screen with the EV Now and EV Later selections crossed out pops up in all modes. And it pops up at anytime throughout the trip, not necessarily at the beginning. Sometimes it happens near the end of the trip when the HVB and ICE are all warmed up. Why didn't it do it at the beginning when everything was cold? I haven't figured out what causes the car to do that other than the outside temperature is below 0 F, plus some other unknown criteria.

Note that when it is below 0 F, generally after the first couple of miles, the EV mode selection menu pops up with the EV Now and EV later icons crossed out. I can no longer select EV Now or EV Later modes. The car now gives preference to using energy from the battery over using the ICE. That is fine for my 8 mile commutes when I have adequate EV range from the battery for the trip to work and home. However, it is not fine for my 60 mile commute on the freeway. Normally, I reserve the battery for EV mode later when I get off the freeway. But when it is below 0 F, EV Later (as well as EV Now) is disabled. I am forced to use up the HVB energy on the freeway. The car wanted to run entirely in EV mode on the freeway with the ICE coming on periodically just to warm the coolant backup up. It is generally more efficient to use the ICE on the freeway and reserve EV mode for slower speeds. It did warm up the HVB from about 23 F to 57 F. Even after the HVB temperature warmed up to 57 F and the ICE warmed the coolant to 120 F, I was still not able to select EV Now or EV Later. The HVB was depleted after 21 miles. The first six were on city streets.

Today, driving in hybrid mode on the freeway at a constant 65 mph, I observed the ICE rpm to be a constant 2090 rpm with a constant 69% load. Again, the SOC of the HVB remained constant and there was very little charging or discharging of the HVB. The temperature was -3 F. So it appears to behave the same in EV Later mode as it does in hybrid mode (when the HVB is depleted). The car was powered entirely by the ICE. The MPG on the freeway was 39.5.

The following plot shows the voltage of the 12 V battery when the car is started, but not charging the 12 V battery (that is not supposed to happen, but occurs because of an apparent software error when the car is plugged into a charger and the charger is turned off or not plugged in). At 9 Volts, MFM issued the notification that the 12 V battery is low. I didn't notice that the battery was not being charged until the voltage reached 6 V and things started to shut down.

I would not recommend automating remote start. You can't guarantee where the vehicle will be parked when the script executes (you might forget to disable the script when you don't want to remote start the car). The ICE may turn on using remote start, even when the car is plugged into the charger. If the script executes when the vehicle is in an enclosed area, then carbon monoxide poisoning could result. Although, I would hope it would require the ICE to run longer than 10 minutes for carbon monoxide poisoning to occur, the length of time the car runs with remote start.

The 120 V charger is not going to do much to precondition the car when it is cold. You need the 240 volt charger when it is cold.

I think the car has two priorities when its cold, i.e. below about 10 F. It wants to keep the HVB and the ICE warm. 1. The HVB needs to be warm to supply adequate power. See the following post which shows the maximum power output of the battery vs. temperature: "http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1683-obd-ii-data-for-hvb/?p=11084". 2. The ICE needs to stay warm. Presumably because the Ford engineers assume that you want to be warm and the ICE is required to to run to warm the coolant needed to heat the cabin. The electric heater is not adequate for really cold temperatures. If climate control is turned off or the temperature is set to LO, then the ICE runs until the coolant reaches about 105 F. When the temperature drops below about 60 F after the ICE turns off, the ICE runs again to warm the coolant back up to 105 F. If the climate control temperature is set to 60 F or higher, then the turn on and turn off thresholds are much higher. So the ICE will run longer. If you use EV Now mode and start from a frequent destination, such as your home or work, and the HVB is not too cold, you should be able to drive the first couple of miles in EV mode before the ICE turns on for the first reason above (to keep the coolant warm). So to minimize the ICE from running in the Winter, you need to keep both the ICE and the HVB warm. You can do this by parking in a heated garage, or an attached garage which is generally warmer than the outside temperature. You can use an engine block heater to pre-warm the ICE coolant. Then the ICE will turn on when the coolant temperature drops to around 60 F to warm it back up to 105 F. That is better than the ICE coming on right away and having to warm the coolant from 0 F to 105 F. You can precondition the car. That warms up the HVB by about 4 - 5 F and reduces the need to use heat to warm the cabin, i.e. you can set the climate control temperature to LO. Ford should have provided a battery heater to warm up the HVB.

Preconditioning the car when it is around 0 F will takes up to 3 kWh of electricity. The blower for my furnace consumes a lot more than that on a cold day.

You can find some more discussion of OMM here: http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/topic/2258-oil-maintenance-mode-4-months-and-4000-miles-1100-ice/?p=17536

From the following post, it appears the purpose of the mode in which the engine runs at a constant 1500 rpm is to warm up the engine faster and reduce emissions: http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/topic/2255-city-vs-hwy-commute-using-mfm-data/?p=17519

The charger will continue to provide about 70 watts of power to the car after HVB charging has completed on occasion, apparently to charge the 12 V battery. See these posts: http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1446-cold-weather-observations/?p=10744 http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/topic/1824-winter-driving-strategy/?p=16381

Note that the car was running with the headlights on (since it is dark in the garage). The initial 12 V battery voltage under this load was 11.6 V. If the car is not plugged in, or the car is plugged in with the charger turned on, then the 12 V battery voltage is 14.8 V (with the car running and the headlights on). I plug my car in at night when I arrive home from work. The timer does not supply power to the charger until 10:00 pm after peak hours. So I will have to remember to unplug the car if I want to turn it on (so I can explore various features of the car). I had to switch to the 120 V charger on a different circuit to recharge the battery and avoid the peak hour electric rates.

They should provide a battery heater to warm up the HVB while preconditioning the car. In lieu of that, the Sun works well.

The IAK does not work when I am up North, outside the cities, where it is much colder. I haven't had a problem when I am in the city. I don't know what would happen in EV+ is turned off. I would have to experiment.

Don't leave the car running when it is plugged into the Charger and the Charger is turned off or not plugged in. It does not charge the 12 V battery under these conditions. When the 12 V battery voltage drops to 9 V, MFM sends out the notification that states that the 12 V battery is low.

The following chart shows the maximum power output from the HVB (Maximum Discharge Power Limit) vs. HVB Temperature. The HVB appears to be able to provide a maximum output of 35 kW at 30 F and above. When the HVB temperature is below 0 F, it can't provide much power (probably less than 6 kW). So if the HVB gets too cold, the ICE is going to have to run to provide the power.

The Fusion Energi starts immediately no matter what temperature it is. Cars with normal batteries take some effort to get started. Many have to be jump started.

It has to be sitting out in the cold overnight when the temperature falls to -15 F or lower. The lock/unlock buttons do not work on the IAK. Touching the door handle does not work. You have to use the keypad to unlock the door. When it doesn't get above -15 F during the day at work, I haven't had a problem. It probably hasn't been sitting long enough in the cold. MFM connects with the car just fine and updates the EV range. I assume I could remote start the car and unlock the doors via MFM. I wonder where the transceiver is located inside the car. I take the IAK out of my pocket and moved it around within the car to see if that would help for better reception. But it didn't. I will try locking the car and see if the transceiver for the trunk works. There will be plenty of more cold nights this winter.