How to prolong life and charging capacity of HVB in Ford Fusion Energi

[jsamp]

Covid sure changed my driving habits.  Pre-covid I was clearing 10k miles every 9 months or so.  I am now at 90k miles a full 18 months since my last battery test at 80k.  I'm finally starting to see some degradation.  Temp today was a little hotter than previous tests: 87 deg average.  That may have had some effect.  Results:

 

5.2kWh from 100% charge to the switch to Hybrid mode.  27.8 miles  Same route as previous tests (though a little shorter this time).

 

That route has an elevation gain of 400' so at the end I came back down the hill and it went back into EV mode.  When it finally emptied again, it was 30.9 miles.  (still 5.2kWh since the Energi accounts for what you put back in).

 

Then I ran until the engine fired up: 33.2 miles and 5.5kWh.

 

So I seem to have lost ~.2kWh and ~1 mile in the last 10k miles.  With covid and working from home, I've been doing a lot higher percentage of my driving on EV, so more of that 10k was electric driving than previously.

Edited October 6, 2021 at 05:27 AM by jsamp

[EVtanknerd]

My 2014 FFE is at 142,000 and I get about 10-13 miles per charge.  I’ve had to replace the small battery once and soon a second time as I am getting the “shutting down to save battery” message as soon as I turn off the car.

 

what I find that seems to be working:

I try to always have some EV range when I start the car.  Not always possible if I forgot to switch while driving.

 

I tap the EV button to save the remaining range at about 7-8 miles every time I’m driving. 

 

I try to run the vehicle with least amount of energy draining mechanisms.  It’s counterintuitive to has so many base things that are awesome but drain the EV and the battery like the seat warmers, phone chargers, and AC.

the last one I do not know if it matters but I am getting the oil changed more often than the oil indicator calls for. 
 

I drive around 90 miles a day for work.  

 

 

[jsamp]

Leaving miles EV miles on the gauge isn't doing anything for your 12V battery.  When off, the HVB is completely disconnected from the system.  Only the 12V is active.  It won't draw anything from the HVB until you turn on the car, when the contactors close.  If you are driving 90 miles a day, your 12V should be getting plenty of charge.  If it is killing even new batteries (assuming that new one was indeed "new" and hadn't been sitting on the shelf for a year or two) then there is something else going on with your car, including maybe the internal charger for the 12V has issues.

[bdginmo]

2015 MY and 104000 miles now. I did another test. 4.8 kWH to the switch hybrid mode. The temperature was 60F. 

 

My last test was right at about 1 year ago. It was also 4.8 kWH. So even though I'm down to 85% capacity I haven't seen it drop in a year. That is good news.

 

85% for a 7 year old vehicle with 104k miles isn't bad. I still like the car and we're charging it often multiple times per day now with the high gas prices.

Edited April 30, 2022 at 09:10 PM by bdginmo

[jsamp]

I'm now at 100,000 miles on my '15, so I ran the test again.  Started with a full charge and the guess-o-meter saying 35 miles (no way was that accurate).  74°F day

 

From 100% to the switch to hybrid mode: 5.1 kWh and 27.3 miles.  That's .1kWh and .5 miles less than at 90k miles.  So a slow degradation, but not bad.

 

I continued on 'til the gas engine fired up and got 5.3 kwh and 32.6 miles.  Again a little less than last time.

 

So at 100k miles, my battery has lost ~7% depending on which values you use for calculation.  I bought mine used at 43k miles and got 5.5kWh at the time.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 at 12:44 AM by jsamp
added photo

[theterminator93]

Pretty darn good! Our '17, when we got it with 44k 2 years ago, had already degraded down to 5 kWh. In the 2 years since then it seems to have degraded further to about 4.5, worth 23-24 miles in ideal conditions before it switches to hybrid mode and 26 before the ICE kicks on.

 

How frequently do you use EV mode and charge the battery? Looking at our fuel/charge records over the last 18 months, we've put 202.56 gallons into the car and used 2382.2 kWh (per the trip odometer) to go 17,371.7 miles. Assuming an average of about 38 MPG from hybrid mode that means it's gone 10,000 EV miles in the last 18 months.

 

Doing some more number crunching I see the average price per gallon paid in that time was $3.11/gal, or 12.22 cents per mile (at 38 MPG hybrid). Our electric rate is 10 cents/kWh - and 2382.2 kWh out of the battery is about 3100 kWh in (estimating efficiency since we recently got a L2 charger), or 3.1 cents per mile. That means we've saved $900 on gas in 18 months by using EV mode as much as we have.

[jsamp]

I don't keep super accurate records of how much EV driving, but based on my long term MPG it is somewhere around 35-40% EV miles. 

Several things I do to help the battery life:

• RARELY charge to 100%, and if I do it is because I'm using it immediately after charging.  Typically charge to 50-75% for around town use.  I charge not every day, but most days, though only 25% here, 50% there depending on need.
• Most EV driving is city driving.
• Any time I'm getting on the freeway I switch to EV-Later about 30 seconds before getting on the onramp.  It takes that long for the engine to warm up enough that the car will use the ICE instead of EV for accelerating.
• I try to limit my EV demand to the first bar on the Engage display.  That is just under a 2C rate by my calculations which is the safe limit for NCM batteries like ours.
• accelerating and braking like a granny ?
• I only use EV when above 50MPH if I'm on a flat freeway and not accelerating.  I'd rather not use it at all above 50MPH but I live blocks from the freeway, so many trips utilize it. 

The biggest benefit I had was that I bought it used at 43k miles but it had a near-new battery.  I suspect the 1st owner only drove on gas and bought it for the HOV sticker on L.A. freeways.  5.5kWh at 43k miles is almost unbelievable.  It took another 30k miles before I started seeing appreciable degradation. 

 

[theterminator93]

I'm not quite that conservative, though I'm not outright abusive either. ?

 

Whenever the car is out of the garage we try to park it in shade, and use solar shades on the front and rear windshields at all times (unless it's cold out).

My charging habits are using L1 charging only when it's over 70 degrees in the garage, and I have it on a thermostat to stop charging if the temperature exceeds 85. When it's cooler I'll use the L2 charger.

Whenever I use EV mode it's in town - never on the highway.

I abhor letting the engine run when the vehicle isn't moving, so I usually switch to EV later when I'm "guaranteed" to not have to stop before getting on the on ramp. Most often the ICE hasn't started for acceleration to speed - but the freeways here have a relatively low speed limit and I restrict acceleration to about the 2nd bar (of 5) on the meter. Not sure if the '15 is set up the same way as the '17.

My acceleration and braking habits are such that the "driving coach" gives me 100% scores

 

I know the battery has dead cells in it, so who knows - maybe the manufacturer of the mine had lower standards than the manufacturer of yours!

[bdginmo]

I'm up to 126,000 miles on my 2015. It is 8.5 years old now. Conditions were not ideal, but I did a test anyway. I made one extended stop and had the HVAC on. I got 4.3 kWh before it transitioned to hybrid mode. That is 77% of the usable EV mode capacity.  I stopped keeping track of trips and total kWh usage at around 90,000 miles. At the time I had I had 4100 kWh discharged from the battery. I bet I'm over 5000 kWh now which means I'm close to if not exceeded 1000 charge-discharge cycles. 

 

The only big repair I had to do was only 1 month past my extended service plan warranty. The radiator sprang a leak. It was a $1600 repair. I had to get it repaired at an independent shop that had hybrid certified techs because the dealer was backed up for 3 months. I think the radiator itself was $800 and the labor was pretty intensive.

 

I'm taking it into the dealer to get the transmission fluid changed this month. The manual says 150,000 miles but I like to do things early. 

 

Ya know...it's interesting...with all the paranoia about EVs and their batteries I'm more worried about 3.5L ecoboost on our Explorer. It has an internal water pump that can catastrophically fail with literally no warning that will destroy the engine. That is a $10K risk and the only way to mitigate it is to pay $4K to have the water pump replaced as a preventative step.

 

 

[jsamp]

Just got to 110K miles this week so time for a battery test on my 2015 Energi. 

 

Temp was a perfect 72°F  Same route as always.  A bit less this time:

 

24.5 miles and 4.9kWh to hybrid mode.  I did have three quick stops with bad brake scores due to red lights and someone turning left in front of me, so I'm guessing the loss of regen braking is what killed the miles so bad.  Just from the loss of .2kWh I would expect a loss of ~1 mile, not 3 compared to last time.

 

I came back down the hill as usual gaining back charge and continued on until the gas engine fired up.  30.6 miles and 5.2kWh.  

 

A slow loss of capacity and range, but still a lot of life left in this battery.

[Spiffster]

Here's mine at 126k. Original battery. This is the most I can eek out of it now. Got around 25 miles when new (See my only other post from six years ago) Still LOVE this car, its a TANK. Other than battery degradation, after new struts, drives / rides like new.

This battery has been abused though. I used to Uber on the weekends with it. There were some days where I would L2 charge it to full 3-4 times in a day. Commutes to work are exactly 19.4 miles (see pic) and I typically roll in on electric fumes, if red lights didnt cooperate I would be in hybrid mode for the last mile! Full charge at work and head home. Id estimate the battery has over 2500 full charge cycles on it, easy. Thats not counting charge (regen) discharge in hybrid mode, Im talking 2500 of actual charging and in full EV mode. Who knows what the actual battery cycle number is...

 

Edited October 26, 2023 at 12:50 PM by Spiffster

[jj2me]

Re-tested today, ~73°, windows rolled up, no accessories running.

 

Oct. 2023, 34K miles, 5.4 kWh, 25.7 miles

June 2021, 27K miles: 5.5 kWh, 27.4 miles
June 2017, 10.5K miles: 5.5 kWh, 26.3 miles

 

I'm a L1 charger (about to change, as I installed a L2 at the house I'm moving to) who aims for an 80% charge, and I never drive in EV or Auto above ~50 mph.

[jsamp]

Keep treating that battery right and it will continue to treat you right.  I'm an L1 charger as well and try to keep under 80% but forget to unplug sometimes.  I also do some fwy driving in EV but that is only cruising, not accelerating.  I always use ICE to get up to speed when entering a freeway.

 

I bought mine used at 2 yrs old and 43k miles, and was getting about the same as you (5.4-5.5kWh).

[jsamp]

On 10/26/2023 at 5:46 AM, Spiffster said:

Here's mine at 126k. Original battery. This is the most I can eek out of it now. Got around 25 miles when new (See my only other post from six years ago) Still LOVE this car, its a TANK. Other than battery degradation, after new struts, drives / rides like new.

This battery has been abused though. I used to Uber on the weekends with it. There were some days where I would L2 charge it to full 3-4 times in a day. Commutes to work are exactly 19.4 miles (see pic) and I typically roll in on electric fumes, if red lights didnt cooperate I would be in hybrid mode for the last mile! Full charge at work and head home. Id estimate the battery has over 2500 full charge cycles on it, easy. Thats not counting charge (regen) discharge in hybrid mode, Im talking 2500 of actual charging and in full EV mode. Who knows what the actual battery cycle number is...

 

Wow that is a lot of charging.  Your battery is doing surprisingly well considering that.  I estimate ~45k of my 110k miles is electric.  Sounds like yours is much higher.

 

[bdginmo]

I only check this site periodically these days so I'm going to be late joining the discussion here. But 4.0 kWH after 2500 cycles on the battery is incredible.

I got the transmission fluid changed at 125k and recently did the steering gear assembly bolt corrosion recall. The recall didn't go well. It totally screwed the steering gear assembly. The dealer ended up replacing the whole assembly at the tune of $2500 which they ate. I'll do the timing chain at 150k.

 

I'm passing my vehicle down to my son at 130k miles. He had been charging it a lot in the fall, but with the colder weather and upon my advice he stopped over the winter. For his trips it's better to use the ICE since since he need cabin heat. The electric heater will suck the juice out of the HVB fast so charging in the winter isn't as advantageous. Anyway, I'm hoping this will get through college.

 

I have my 2024 Ford Ranger on order. I wasn't opposed to another EV, but I really wanted a truck that would fit in the garage. The F150 won't fit in my garage so the Ranger it will be.