Chango99

2013 owner here. Moved from Sunny San Diego to Upstate NY a few years ago which then started giving me battery troubles. I went from mild weather, 40 mile each way commutes to less than a mile, a lot of sitting since I just walked my commute most of the time, winters with low temps. I had to eventually replace my battery once at a ford dealership, but still suffer 2 years later, every winter. It dies in less than a week. The voltage after a jumpstart is still "healthy" right now though. Some tips and things I noticed over the years Tie a rope to the trunk handle and bring it to your rear seat, like others have mentioned Your 12V needs to be functioning for your HVB to be charged. Why? Because physics. When your HVB is fully charged, then your 12V is allowed to charge. Thus, if you leave your car plugged in using your charging cable, your car battery should theoretically be able to be topped off If you are locked out with car not functioning, the driver door handle can be opened basically using your key to pry it open. A piece of plastic pops off. That kind of chipped/break off a piece with cold weather Your battery is in your trunk. The hood has connections to it but if you can access your trunk, use that, it's an easier terminal to use The older units had I think a deprecated 3G antenna or something that got deprecated. It's used with MyFordMobile and other remote connections for your car. Anyway, how I understand it is that, with less towers to ping, it was constantly reaching out and thus draining the battery. They had a recall for an update and I noticed an improvement. So if you got the notice, get that updated to what I believe is the 4G model now. I still don't know how the 12V outlets in the car work. I have a dash cam that sometimes auto shuts off when I turn the car off, and sometimes it just stays on. I notice the camera one when I check my car like an hour later. I would have thought power to those ports would be killed but I'm not sure. I do see my voltmeter drops voltage immediately after I power off, but not completely. I got a car alarm notification to my phone from MyFordMobile somehow when I got into my car with a dead 12V battery... so the cell unit in the car was still powered but the rest of the car wasn't. Hope that helps. I know this forum goes months/years with people not replying but people use this as reference so I'll put in my 2c

I did not mean at all that I would fiddle with the battery in the trunk. So I should invest in a 12v battery charger in my case. I drive my car about every other day, but again, it's usually short 5-10 minute trips.

When you say charger, you mean the 120v charger to charge the plug-in 7.6kWh battery, or a separate 12v charger for the under the hood? Would I be able to sufficiently charge my 12v if I'm able to get my 7.6kWh battery charged and leaving my car to drive engine only all the time, recharge once per week? Thanks again, this information is very insightful.

Yes the rope thing... it's honestly silly that we have to do this but oh well I guess? I am going to jump my car and have to take it in somewhere today to check the battery. On the 12v DC to DC converter charge, when is it determined that it needs to charged though after the HVB, Why would it charge the HVB first if the 12v is needed to start the car? How do I prevent it from dying? Looking at plugshare, very limited few parking garages that charge for parking... no high power stations anywhere, so doesn't look like a viable option. I have not taken my car in to replace it to the 3G, though I did receive that letter I just have not had the chance. Thank you

Hi all, I got a 2013 SE back in March 2014 new from the dealer (was sitting for a while) in Southern California, where I was able to park the car in the garage and charge. I commuted an hour or so away to work so the plug in battery didn't keep me for very long... I moved across the country to upstate NY and now the weather is bitter cold in the winter. I have been driving regularly very short stints as I live close to all of what I need. I live in an apt complex so I can't charge, and I park outside under a car port. My driving is <10 minutes driving 30-35MPH. I was reluctant to drive my car for about a week when the snow came (stock tires) and when I finally went to try after maybe 5 days. Turns out my battery was dead. I had my GF jump me and rode around for 15 minutes or so to get it to charge. I'm not sure how the car even handles the charging 12v because of the plug in hybrid engine and how it turns off occasionally. That was about a month ago. I went on a trip for Christmas for five days and came back fine. This past Friday, I drove again maybe 5 minutes to and from work, then tried to start it up today, Sunday. It unlocked and briefly blinked before I saw all the lights fade away. I couldn't start it in time before everything died. So it's dead again now until I can jump it tomorrow. The things I have gathered: I don't ever use the plug-in portion HVB because I don't have a reliable area to charge it without risk of theft of my cable. If I was able to charge it, would the HVB and 12v be fine? HVB charges before the 12v, correct?My car is sitting in freezing temperatures 10-20F at the moment, which could affect the batteryTelecommunications unit in my car draining battery? I unplugged my accessory dashcam because of the drain and don't know what else could be drainingMy drives are short, thus not giving my car enough time to charge the 12vMy battery might be faulty?It's really annoying not being able to open my trunk and gather my things when my battery is dead It's difficult finding answers because this is such a niche car model. I feel like auto places don't deal with plug in hybrids enough.