meyersnole

Get the range to 200-300 miles (like Tesla and GM) and charging in public is not nearly as important. Even with my ~20 mile range I love not having to plan a trip to the gas station or charger every x days. It is very convenient to charge at home overnight, but the public is very unaware of what a PH/EV car really is, let alone their advantages. I am really hoping that the Bolt makes a splash and that Ford and Nissan have good response. Not sure yet if Tesla will be able to ramp up to anything more than a niche player... or if they do if it will be sold off to one of the major producers. As successful as Tesla is (they sell everything they make and maintain a waiting list) they simply can not ramp their production fast enough.

I honestly have not spent anytime to troubleshoot why it does not work sometime. I did work today, sometime last week I heard my phone receive a msg and the car did not notify me. Not sure why. Today I had to reboot my phone just to get it to link to the car (that was a first for me). For the most part the system works well, at times it seems to have Grimlins. iPhone 6 on Verizon, btw. But I also had issues with my iPhone 5 on Sprint.

Hi openair... I too have experienced similar issues with text msgs. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. I am not a huge texter, and don't mind waiting until I get to my destination to handle my texts. The whole thing is a little gimmicky anyway as there is no easy way to respond through the system.

Another head scratcher from Toyota. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098145_toyota-prius-plug-in-production-to-end-in-june-new-one-coming-next-year The author seems to imply the body design is the problem with the Toyota plug-in, I would argue its the limited range as to why it is not selling. Yes, the folks that are buying the plug in just for the car pool lane sticker might like this... but it is not practical. 11 miles, 6 miles continuous? This prompted California to rewrite the spec to 10 continuous miles to qualify... Toyota's reaction... build one at 10 miles continuous EPA. (Face palm!) No wonder they are sitting on the lot and only sell about 300/month (according to this article). What do they see that Ford, GM, Nissan, et al do not? Everyone else is looking at more range and better batteries -- and increasing their PHEV lineup.

I would follow GregKet1's advice, run it around to the fuses. If you tap into the mirror then you just gave Ford an out if anything goes wrong with any of those expensive systems tied into the wiring behind the mirror.

I use this thing (PowerGen 2.4Amps / 12W Dual USB Car charger Designed for Apple) in the car. The bluetooth streaming seems to work a bit better than the usb for me. Worked with my iPhone 5 and now 6, $10.

I saw this today and thought of this thread. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098003_electric-car-do-not-unplug-notices-public-education-at-its-best?fbfanpage

Agreed!

Anything north of 25 miles for me means that I was very lucky/careful with the traffic lights and speeds were kept in the 30s/low 40s. 28 is the highest I can remember on just EV. A trip though the mountains left me with a projected range of 43 the next day... of course I got no where near that.

I got my figure by plugging my L1 charger into a killawatt, hitting reset, and checking what it said in the morning when I unplugged the car. Did this a few times after draining the battery to the point the engine came on. Each time it came within a few pennies of 75 cents. Not very scientific... and was done right around the time that I got the car. I was going to link the post but I think that the content has dropped off as I could not find it anymore.

I have also changed my batteries. I wonder if Ford bought a bad batch of batteries. Take your time pulling the fob apart, it was not exactly easy to replace the batteries. Noticed an improvement right away on the responsiveness of the doors. (I was also having an issue where the car would complain there was no key even though it was in the car). I replaced them after about a year.

I cross shopped the Avalon as well, it is a nice car. Also ran into a dealer that I did not like but fortunately for me there were several more dealerships in my area.

My $0.75 calculation to fill my battery was with a Level 1 charger, I really do not have anyway to measure it today.. but I assume it is with in a few cents. I was also being generous I thought with the mileage (allowing for 50mpg on the highway for hybrid use with out charging). I honestly do not give it much thought as it is not a financial decision for me, if it was I would have never bought this car. I enjoy riding around in EV mode, so I do. My power comes from Sharon Harris nuclear plant , so I feel good about a little less carbon ending up in the air. Duke energy is also investing in solar projects in our state and others -- but wish they were doing more. But others in the community, like SAS, are also investing.

I am confused by your statement. I also live in North Carolina and I think that my electrical rates are around 11 cents. I can fully charge my battery for right around $0.75 and drive ~25 miles. Had to look up the gas prices (been months since I have been to a gas station) and they are around $2.30 in my area. So if I get 50mpg that is $1.15 vs $0.75 to plug it in... unless I am thinking about this wrong or your rates are much higher than mine? Now when I drive highway speeds I go into EV Later as it just seems to be more efficient, but I do very little of this type driving unless I am traveling. Maybe you do more? Then I guess the math would be closer to break even as the range would drop to about 15-18 miles. Split the difference, 16.5 miles for $0.045 cents per mile and $0.0575 per mile for gas at $2.30. I don't drive highway speeds on electric so I really don't know the range. Given the above I would still think that charging would still have benefit, although slight. I was just in California and was shocked by their rates... looking at your tables and see how this solution would be a harder sell in Alaska, Hawaii (wow!), and parts of the Northeast (gas is also more expensive in some of those places).

That is an interesting thought, but if that is there stance I would hate to play poker with them as every quote I see from Toyota on the topic seem to be anti PHEV as a solution -- instead dumping their money into hydrogen. Maybe there will be a breakthrough in that arena that will make them look smart down the road, but all the development money seems to be in battery. This last quote seems to have them second guessing a bit with the acknowledgement they may make a BEV. They do have a lot of experience with hybrid and are dipping their toe in the water with the Prius. The tax credit scenario is an interesting thought, but if the republicans take the presidency in 2016 I would think that the credit is toast. And if CAFE standards are reduced then it could all collapse. The hope will be squarely on Tesla pulling the market forward by making a truly competitive car that is affordable to the masses. As long as Tesla stays somewhat competitive it looks like GM will compete and that should drag the rest. The Bolt will also be very interesting... but will be interesting at $40K ($37.5K) as it would at $30K? When does new battery technology push the price to a point where we do not need incentives?

That is the other thing that crossed my mind, once you try driving all electric (highway driving aside) you really crave it (or I do) even driving efficiently to extend it as long as you can. Stealth driving! :shift:

Lexus Bypassing Plug-In Hybrids, Looking At Fuel Cells, Maybe EVs Interesting argument about why they are not investing in plug in technology, it just adds weight if you don't plug them in and people are just buying them for the tax incentives and carpool access. While I know of many examples of buying the car for carpool access, I have not heard of people not plugging them in. I would guess if you lived in an urban setting and charging was problematic (street parking or assigned space in a garage) this probably happens. Never thought of how much of an issue this is though being spoiled with my two car garage with the L2 charger mounted on the wall. How common do you think the above scenario is? I am sure it happens, but would not think it prevalent.

This was a known issue and the president wanted to fix this in his budget proposal for 2014, but of course congress was unable to make it happen. http://insideevs.com/2014-budget-proposal-ups-ev-credit-to-10000-point-of-sale-rebate-thru-2018/

I am afraid it will only be by TSB and therefor only available if you complain about it (and you know about it). There are small issues like saving the state of stereo vs surround that have been around forever... Overall the Sync system is largely much better than my previous car. The only thing I really prefer on my old system is the NAV (this system drives me nuts) and wish I had physical buttons for the seat warmers -- also wish it wasn't so complicated to just have vents in the car (turn the compressor off). Overall I like the system, even with its little faults. Too many positives to get too caught up in the nit picks.

More good news on the battery front. This should continue to make in roads to market share for BEV and PHEV cars. Electric-Car Battery Costs Fell 8 Percent A Year For Market Leaders: Study

With lots of experience in software development I can say pretty definitively say it is due to time and money. They didn't spend the time to to develop and they didn't want to support it. Only have to google tesla daylight savings to see even they had issues http://my.teslamotors.com/de_AT/forum/forums/daylight-savings-time-bug but at least the car did the change (eventually). At this point I would just like them to fix the known issues in MFT, but seeing that they have moved on to a new OS I have little hope seeing the car is a couple years old and still has problems that have not been addressed. I really like Tesla's model here and hope that this new level of service starts to catch on to the rest of the manufacturers. Updates should just be pushed to the cars (if you want them).

Are you getting that much more on a trade in than if you went by CarMax and got an offer? Don't they all basically give you wholesale?

I also cycle through the screens to gain what ever information I am looking for. I usually leave it on the one that they let you customize which has the mini coach screen with the engine/battery tach like graph. I agree with Rexracer the software for the dash was designed so much better than the MFT and is quite easy to use, a huge step up from my Acura TL. If they only would have had the same group of programmers tackle MFT! For the trip meters I just use them for trips as I rarely burn any gas locally (once or twice a month and fractions of a gal when I do). To keep track of miles per tank I have a spread sheet an fuely. In my previous car I would use the trip meter to see what kind of mileage I got on that tank... it is just so long between tanks most of the time that I don't bother. I have already driven over 600 miles on this tank and have no trips planned for months... It really is nice not remembering the last time you went to the gas station or where. For stretching the battery I like the coaching screens. Maximize your scores, maximize your range. Also set the NAV system to shortest or ECO mode (basically avoid highways), keep the speeds down and enjoy the ride. However, no matter what I do in this car I am still way better off than my previous car which got about 21 mpg combined normal driving on premium fuel. It was a little more exciting to drive, but this one can be just as fun. There is also a range screen that will tell you how many miles you have left on battery and gas, but I am not sure how that is any better than the battery gauge on the right that guesses how many miles range you have on the battery.

I drove a TL previously (2006) and cross shopped my Fusion with the Avalon hybrid. The Toyota was nice but I thought the Ford just felt more comfortable. I also liked all the technology in this car. I got one of the first Fusion Energi's off the assembly line and have not had any major issues. Minor problems include some buggy software in the My Ford Touch system (still liked it better than the system in the Toyota) and a bit of fit and finish. Two years into this car, I would still buy the Ford again (although I would have waited a year given they dropped the price $4,000 the next model year. Also would have been nice to have the heated steering wheel. I also have a fully loaded titanium. I don't use the self park, but like the front sensors that that feature gives you. I will also find it difficult to ever buy a car that does not have adaptive cruise, one of the best features on the car.

My 2006 Acura TL was aware and adjusted. Of course, when they changed the dates I had to get a NAV update to account for the change.