FormerFF

I'll use it to make an extra car payment.

Don't get the 12 foot cord, that's too short. The Clipper Creek comes with a 25 foot cord and a separate holster. I have the unit mounted on the wall where it's out of the way, and the holster near the car's charge port. If anyone needs the separate holster Clipper Creek sells it for $19, I think.

You do realize that the EVSE has some rather extensive safety precautions built into it to prevent anyone from getting a shock?

Yeah, I'm not getting it. Those few trips I've done in hybrid mode only in town I've seen right at 45 mpg, and on my only highway trip, I got 42 mpg, going 70-75 with a little A/C. Last week I set a new personal best of 24.9 miles on battery only on a round trip to work. This is the only car I've ever had that beat the EPA numbers, and now they're revising it down.

My commute consists of a mixture of 25 mph neighborhood streets, 35 mph two lane roads, and 45 mph four lane roads, all with lots of traffic lights and traffic, which is pretty much perfect for a plug in hybrid. It's between 12 and 14 miles each way depending on how I go, with the longer routes having less traffic. Since school's out for spring break, I thought I'd try to make the round trip on battery yesterday. It was close, but I was able to complete the trip, a total of 24.3 miles, without the engine coming on. I didn't use climate control, which at this time of year is normal anyway. The only concession I made to hypermiling I made was to try to not exceed the 45 mph speed limit in the part of the commute where traffic was going more like 50 - 55. I may have been driving a bit more gently than usual, but not significantly so. About a half mile from home, the range meter went to zero, then disappeared and the car was in regular hybrid mode, but the engine never came on. That may have been EV plus recognizing I was almost home and deciding there was no need to start the engine for that little bit of driving. Normally I charge overnight, but yesterday I plugged in for 15 minutes after I got home to get the battery level up a bit. i don't know if that was all that important, but it seemed like a good idea to me. I'm very impressed. When I bought the car I figured I could get maybe 18 miles at most out of the battery. What I've started doing is starting my morning commute on battery for the first five miles, then go to EV Later for the middle part where the traffic moves faster, then back to Auto for the last mile. On those days where I can go straight home, I don't need the engine at all in the afternoon.

Unless you have need to charge in the middle of the day, the 120 volt EVSE that comes with the car is plenty good, with one exception: if you are going to set a Go Time and will be heating the car a significant amount, the 120 volt EVSE won't be able to keep the battery charged. If you live in a mild climate this won't be an issue. Me, I get home after work with a nearly depleted battery and then need to make an 11 mile round trip to pick up my daughters in a couple of hours, so I can put the 240 volt EVSE to good use.

Most likely, the low mpg while the car was at the dealership was cold starts and very short trips. That's the sort of mission that the battery is brilliant at. My daughter decided to clean the guinea pig enclosure this evening, so we had to make a run to Petsmart. I was down to 1 mile on the battery, so I asked her to go do something else for a half hour while I finished something up. I plugged the car in for 30 minutes, and we made the 5.6 mile round drip on about 18 cents worth of electricity.

It is my understanding that gasoline is much more chemically stable than it used to be, and when stored in a sealed container (like the FFE's fuel system) it is good for years. The same is not true of the gallon can in your garage, so you might want to use that up quickly.

I've heard people say that, but the two times I've driven my car with a depleted battery, the trip computer showed 43 and 47 mpg, and I just cleared 500 miles. I've now realized it's going to be very difficult to get an around town gas mileage figure on this car, seeing that it looks like I'll be filling up every six or seven weeks.

All the manual says is to "just unwrap the charge cable and plug the charge coupler firmly into the vehicle's charge port." I didn't construe this to mean that the cable had to be completely unwound. I would think that the extra cable would be a tripping hazard.

I decided to go with the Clipper Creek LCS-25. Here it is on the wall: I was kicking around the idea of going with the HCS, which would have entailed getting a 50 amp circuit rather than the 30 amp one that the LCS needs. I didn't, for a couple of reasons. First, the Fusion Energi can't take advantage of the additional wattage. Since I just bought this car, and it was fairly expensive, i will be keeping it a minimum of eight years, and my crystal ball can't really tell me what I'll be driving after that. Even if I get an EV only vehicle at that time, my electric supplier has a generous off peak window of eight hours, and I can't see where I would need to do a fast charge in the middle of the day. Considering that the LCS have been shown to add 16 miles worth of range per hour to a Nissan Leaf, the LCS should meet my needs pretty much as long as I live here.

If you are able to use the tax credit, the cost difference between the Hybrid and the Energi is negligible, and you'd use the battery for the many short trips you'd mentioned. However, because you'd be hauling around the extra weight on your highway trips, you'd be using a bit more gasoline there, but would be using less on your local trips. Sounds to me like you really want the Energi, but having a hard time justifying it. Here's the way I look at it: First, you've chosen to spend more money on a nicer car than you'd absolutely have to by getting a Fusion. Something cheaper would do the job as well. Lots of people get cars with things on them that they can't economically justify. For years and years, US cars came standard with inline six cylinder engines and three speed manual transmissions, yet practically all of them went out the door with V8 engines and automatic transmissions, and no one ever tried to calculate the payback period of the larger engine. If you want to drive around town in electric mode, there's no need to try to justify it economically. If you really want the Energi, get it. If you need some more justifications, let me know, I have a number of them.

Even when I'm driving the Energi in "EV Later" mode, it seems like the engine is seldom on. If I'm going down a hill or mostly off the accelerator, the engine is off. Is this normal behavior for non-plug in hybrids? The Energi is the only hybrid I've ever driven or ridden in, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I was under the assumption that the engine stayed on until the car was approaching a stop, and that it started back up once the car got past a few mph in speed.

I bought it from Cherokee, as they had the exact car I wanted (Meteor Grey, Titanium trim level, sunroof and nav) and we were able to come to what I think was a fair price, eventually. I have a Clipper Creek LCS-25 coming next week. I spoke with an electrician, and he said we could put some slimine breakers in the existing electrical box rather than having to run a subpanel, so I think I'm going to stick with the 30 amp wiring for now. My wife has a six month old Explorer, and since we keep cars for eight or so years (my old car was a 2002 Focus) she wont be needing a plug anytime soon. I do have a daughter who will be needing a car in about two years, and we might wind up getting one of those off lease LEAFs that will be available around that time, but it's too soon to tell. I'm mounting my EVSE on the side wall not far from the door, so with that long cord that Clipper Creek gives you, we'd be able to charge a car that's outside should that be needed.

I've only had mine for a day, but I can see myself becoming kind of smug about the whole EV thing. I need to be careful about that.

Just arrived at work. The MPG indicator shows 64, and I probably used about a quarter of the battery as well. So far, I'm very impressed.

I just (like six hours ago) picked up my Energi, a Meteor Grey Titanium. It's replacing a 2002 Focus that's served me well, but is getting a little worn. It's the perfect car for me, since my commute consists of three or four very slow miles, then seven or eight miles at 45 - 50 mph with a few stoplights, then a couple of more slow miles. Everyone in the family is thrilled. My wife is happy because I'm no longer driving a two door hatchback in a loud color, and because she'll be able to drive the Fusion. My daughters are happy because they each get their own door, and I'm happy because I get all the envirotech goodies. Because our energy supplier has a super good overnight rate and because there's not outlet on my side of the garage, I'm planning on installing a Clipper Creek EVSE, most likely the 4.8 KW model. I'm trying to decide whether I should ask for a 50 amp circuit or a 30 amp one. I don't need the 50 amp one now, but who knows what the future will bring. I plan on keeping the car for eight years or so, but will be in the house longer, and if I get a battery electric at that time, I might just want a 7.2 KW EVSE.