Hardp Posted September 22, 2014 at 10:19 AM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 10:19 AM Recently, while in the highlands of Nova Scotia, not having plugged in my energi for about 2 weeks, we were coming down off a mountain. I rode the brake and it charged the battery in hybrid mode but after another minute, it switched over to plug in mode and I charged it enough for 8 EV miles. This happened a 2nd time about an hour later. I thought plug-in EV miles can only be achieved via a wall outlet, bit apparently not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy Posted September 22, 2014 at 10:37 AM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 10:37 AM The HVB can be fully recharged using regen but it takes a lot of elevation drop to do it. One person reported fully charging the HVB coming down from the top of Pike's Peak which is over 14,000 feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexracer Posted September 22, 2014 at 03:34 PM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 03:34 PM Didn't someone calculate that Regen charging could actually charge the battery faster then a 110 outlet as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russael Posted September 22, 2014 at 03:44 PM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 03:44 PM Didn't someone calculate that Regen charging could actually charge the battery faster then a 110 outlet as well? Regen charges faster than 240... I think Larryh calculated regen to be >20kw, so if you applied that amount of energy going downhill from a mountain, you could charge the pack really quick... like 20 - 30 minutes quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_h Posted September 22, 2014 at 03:51 PM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 03:51 PM Yeah definitely... I got mine from hybrid mode up to 9 miles in the HVB, by going down a mountain about 25-30 MPH (lots of twists/turns) for about 10 minutes, 15 minutes tops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryh Posted September 22, 2014 at 08:57 PM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 08:57 PM (edited) Max regen is 35 kW. The 120 V charger only supplies 1 kW. You need about 5.8 kWh of energy to charge a depleted battery. If the car and contents weigh 1870 Kg, that would mean a descent of at least 1138 meters, or 0.7 miles. But regen isn't 100% efficient, so you will need more energy than that. Depending on how fast you go down the hill, you might capture 60%. That would mean a descent of at least 1.2 miles. I'm not sure if the car can accept a sustained regen of 35 kW for a long period of time. Edited September 24, 2014 at 01:36 AM by larryh Hybridbear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexracer Posted September 22, 2014 at 10:54 PM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 10:54 PM My old commute had a 3 mile down hill stretch at ~30mph, I would consistently get 2-3 miles of EV out of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybridbear Posted September 23, 2014 at 04:39 PM Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 at 04:39 PM I'm not sure if the car can accept a sustained regen of 35 kW for a long period of time. I imagine that at that level of charging the HVB would heat up very quickly. Once it gets too hot it will reduce the max charge rate. Next time we do a road trip through the mountains I'll be able to find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbort Posted October 2, 2014 at 03:23 AM Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 at 03:23 AM (edited) I agree, with the charge rate so much higher, the battery temp might rise to a point where the engine would get started to hold the car back down the hill but its just a guess. If the battery cells are 25ah, and the nominal voltage is around 310.8v, then going down a hill charging at 30-35kw would mean you're charging the pack at around 4C or 97-113 amps. 4C is generally high by industry standards for Li-ion packs, so due to this while I would love to recharge my car's pack in 20 minutes going down MT. Washington, I'm not sure its the best exercise for it. Ford limited the L2 charge to 3300w for a reason, as they could have easily made it accept 6600w like the Focus for example and have it charge in 1 hour instead of 2, but then again it was most likely done for the longer life of the battery. -=>Raja. Edited October 2, 2014 at 03:25 AM by rbort Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy Posted October 2, 2014 at 08:56 AM Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 at 08:56 AM I think that I read that the Focus battery is liquid cooled while the Energi battery is air cooled. shaggy314 and Hybridbear 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbort Posted October 2, 2014 at 02:59 PM Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 at 02:59 PM The Focus battery is bigger also, so hence a higher charge rate won't raise the C rate charging as much. -=>Raja. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybridbear Posted October 7, 2014 at 05:58 PM Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 at 05:58 PM murphy, on 02 Oct 2014 - 03:56 AM, said:I think that I read that the Focus battery is liquid cooled while the Energi battery is air cooled.That is correct. The Focus appears to not let the battery get hotter than 98F with its thermal management. The Energi battery gets hotter than that quite frequently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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