Gigi Posted December 8, 2013 at 06:27 AM Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 at 06:27 AM According to the manual, EV+ mode turns on 1/8 of a mile from a frequent destination. I am thinking that there is a lot of charge left in the hybrid battery when I get home. Is there a way to change the setting so that it turns on at a longer distance? A related question: When charging, does the hybrid battery also charge or only the high voltage battery? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryh Posted December 8, 2013 at 11:06 AM Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 at 11:06 AM (edited) There is no way, that I know of, to adjust the EV+ settings (other than turning it off). To use more charge from the hybrid battery, I choose a route with slower speeds, requiring less power, as I near my destination. If you set the left console to display the Empower screen, you can see the threshold at which the ICE will turn on. You can then adjust how you apply the accelerator to prevent the ICE from turning on. The hybrid battery and high voltage battery are the same battery. The car reserves 1.1 kWh of the entire 7.6 kWh capacity of the high voltage battery for hybrid mode. The remaining 6.5 kWh are used for EV operation. After the first 6.5 kWh are used during EV operation, the car now has the full 1.1 kWh of energy for the hybrid battery. So yes, the car charges the entire high voltage battery, including the portion reserved for hybrid mode. Edited December 8, 2013 at 11:55 AM by larryh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy Posted December 8, 2013 at 11:28 AM Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 at 11:28 AM A related question: When charging, does the hybrid battery also charge or only the high voltage battery?There is only one HVB. A portion of the HVB is reserved for hybrid operation (about 1.1 kWh I think). When the HVB is fully charged that includes the hybrid portion since it is the same battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigi Posted December 8, 2013 at 08:28 PM Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 at 08:28 PM Help me with a little math here. From a full charge, I see the battery deplete to zero on MyFord Mobile, but each time, it tells me that I have expended 5.5 kWh to do that. That should leave me 2.1 kWh in what I am assuming is the part of the battery reserved for hybrid mode. If 1.1 kWh is the portion of the battery reserved for hybrid mode, that must mean that there is another 1 kWh reserved for another purpose. I wonder why Ford doesn't have the car go into EV+ mode sooner once the car learns where it will be charged in order to use up as much of this capacity as possible. They've got a great idea, but I think it could be more effective. On my drive home, EV+ kicks in when I am at the bottom of a steep hill after I have regenerated as much as a mile's worth of electricity. Going up the hill once I cross the creek, the engine often kicks in because there isn't quite enough juice to pull me up the grade. By the time I'm at the top, I'm on relatively flat ground and nearly home. It's probably small potatoes, but I'd like to get every watt of power out of the battery I can before I plug it in to charge. I'm sure that Ford wants to avoid customers creating tweaking nightmares, but it would be nice if the system were a little more open to users to tweak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryh Posted December 8, 2013 at 08:43 PM Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 at 08:43 PM (edited) The energy shown on the console is the energy, in kWh, consumed by the car for climate, accessories, and propulsion. The extraction of energy from the high voltage battery is not 100% efficient. Perhaps, 10% is lost as heat. So you will not get the full 7.6 kWh of energy stored in the battery back. Also, discharging the battery completely will shorten its lifetime. You don't want to extract all the energy from the battery. EV+ mode is also not as effective when your destination is off a highway. Slowing down to turn into the destination significantly recharges the battery. And it is impossible to maintain speed without the ICE coming on. When I near the destination, I generally pulse the accelerator to force the ICE to bring the car up to speed and then let off on the accelerator. Then I use as much power as possible to maintain speed while keeping the power below the threshold that the ICE turns on. I may repeat this several times. I will be below the speed limit by the time I am at the destination. However, I am able to park with significantly less charge left in the hybrid battery than if it just drove normally. Edited December 8, 2013 at 09:34 PM by larryh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigi Posted December 9, 2013 at 05:01 AM Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 at 05:01 AM Okay. This evening, climbing the hill just before my street, I used the Empower display and kept the blue power bar within the blue box and stayed in battery power while climbing 80 feet in about 800 feet distance, a 10% grade. The car slowed toward the top, but it was all battery. I guess this is about the best I can do for depleting the battery before charging. Thanks, guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russael Posted December 9, 2013 at 03:44 PM Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 at 03:44 PM That reserved 1.1kwh in the battery is probably mostly for starting the ICE once you deplete the pack in hybrid mode. Ford also controls how much charge goes in to and comes out of the battery, and they do not use its full capacity on purpose (it extends the life of the pack by doing that). I have no idea how far it will actually go if the ICE actually has a problem starting, or how long it'll crank it for. EV+ mode from what I've seen just extends the threshold for when the ICE would normally start. I've been in hybrid mode 3 or 4 times and was just able to make it home without running the ICE, and some of that was because EV+ mode kicked in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FusionEnergi Posted December 9, 2013 at 07:31 PM Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 at 07:31 PM Help me ... Going up the hill once I cross the creek, the engine often kicks in because there isn't quite enough juice to pull me up the grade. By the time I'm at the top, I'm on relatively flat ground and nearly home. It's probably small potatoes, but I'd like to get every watt of power out of the battery I can before I plug it in to charge.... If you are in EV auto, the engine will kick on during heavy acceeleratio, if u were to switch (at the bottom of the hill) into EV now the engine should not come on.Hope that helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryh Posted December 9, 2013 at 09:52 PM Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 at 09:52 PM What would really be nice is if the car would remember your frequent routes and globally optimize energy consumption over the entire route. At the moment, it only optimizes consumption based on the current conditions. It doesn't know what is coming up next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigi Posted December 30, 2013 at 12:41 AM Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2013 at 12:41 AM Thanks again, guys. I was out for two short trips today, 17.7 and 19.8 miles. It was in the 40s and I had the climate on 68. I was in EV all the way until the last 3 tenths of a mile when I started up the hill to my house and the ICE kicked in - just not enough juice to make the steep grade. That's what I get for living on top of a ridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud Posted August 19, 2015 at 04:36 AM Report Share Posted August 19, 2015 at 04:36 AM A bit late to the party here :hysterical: One thing I've noticed .. for me, turning off the EV+ extends the battery range quite a bit. The reason: the last mile to my home - regardless of the route, is uphill (a range killer.) So, if the last portion of your trip home is 'inefficient' in electric mode, turn off the EV+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_h Posted August 19, 2015 at 11:19 AM Report Share Posted August 19, 2015 at 11:19 AM How does one turn off EV+? EV+ is for remembered destinations... do you mean EV-Now/EV-Later/Auto? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonzo71 Posted August 19, 2015 at 12:57 PM Report Share Posted August 19, 2015 at 12:57 PM isnt it in the options, left side, ...I thought I saw it there when I was mess'n around with the settings of things so i could reduce the power load, which I figured out that no matter what I turned off, it still drew the same amount of power...but its been awhile Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_h Posted August 19, 2015 at 04:23 PM Report Share Posted August 19, 2015 at 04:23 PM isnt it in the options, left side, ...I thought I saw it there when I was mess'n around with the settings of things so i could reduce the power load, which I figured out that no matter what I turned off, it still drew the same amount of power...but its been awhile Oh yeah I believe there is a setting in the setup menu, forgot about it since I just leave it on all the time. Hybridbear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybridbear Posted August 19, 2015 at 04:51 PM Report Share Posted August 19, 2015 at 04:51 PM A bit late to the party here :hysterical: One thing I've noticed .. for me, turning off the EV+ extends the battery range quite a bit. The reason: the last mile to my home - regardless of the route, is uphill (a range killer.) So, if the last portion of your trip home is 'inefficient' in electric mode, turn off the EV+Wouldn't you want EV+ on so that you can deplete the HVB as low as possible since once you arrive home you're going to plug in & charge? That's the point of EV+, to drain the HVB as low as possible when arriving home (or at another frequent destination) since you're going to charge the car. Thus you use less gas by allowing the HVB to discharge a little deeper than normal. I just wish that EV+ in the Energi worked with any saved charging location, rather than frequent destinations. It would be more useful if it did EV+ when you were nearing any location where you can charge the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud Posted August 20, 2015 at 02:11 AM Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 at 02:11 AM (edited) ^^ I live in an apartment with no access to a charger/110 volt socket. I charge at work when needed for $1 per hour. It's about $2.50 to fully charge the HVB Edited August 20, 2015 at 02:12 AM by Bud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybridbear Posted August 20, 2015 at 12:33 PM Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^^ I live in an apartment with no access to a charger/110 volt socket. I charge at work when needed for $1 per hour. It's about $2.50 to fully charge the HVBIsn't $2.50/20 miles more expensive than driving on gas? There's not a single 120V outlet at your apartment? Our apartment installed a 240V charger for us. They also allowed us to use a 120V outlet in the interim while waiting for them to install the L2 charger. lonzo71 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
openair Posted August 23, 2015 at 03:28 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 at 03:28 PM (edited) $2.5 for 20 miles of ev driving is equivalent to paying $5.25/g at an average of 42mpg. Even if it's all city driving and you manage 30 ev miles for that $2.5 you're still paying the equivalent of $3.5/g at an average of 42mpg. Edited August 23, 2015 at 03:48 PM by openair Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud Posted August 25, 2015 at 05:52 AM Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 at 05:52 AM (edited) I think it's a wash at $2.50 for a full charge as gas here was around 4.70 per gallon the last time I filled up (5 weeks ago in my Focus before trading it in). I seem to get about 25 miles from a charge as I drive like an old lady in this car :) I also charge up at Whole Foods a couple of times per week for free. I'm approaching 600 miles on the original tank from the dealer (purchases July 31, 2015) and I've put in about $9 in electricity. I've got just under a quarter tank of gas left. My overall mileage is 62 mpg, currently. Bottom line - I'm loving this ride! :happy feet: Edited August 25, 2015 at 05:54 AM by Bud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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