Beginner Tips and tricks

[ruseacow12]

I recently purchased a 2016 ford fusion energi. I purchased this car because I routinely ( 3 days a week)  travel 100 miles round trip for work.  I've read some information but I need a basic kindergarten style explanation of the best way to drive for highway purposes and how to maintain the battery life.

 

In addition to  beginner basics, I have a question about parking with no charging option. We are traveling approximately 200 miles for vacation, once we arrive we will have to leave the car parked in a ferry lot for one week with no charging station. Is this ok?  Before I park the car, should I assure the battery  is at a certain level ?

 

 Thanks in advance !

 

 

[jsamp]

For highway driving, it is recommended to use EV-later above 50MPH.  This is for 2 reasons: more efficient use of electricity at lower speeds (you get more miles from a charge) and longer battery life.  In my 30k miles I have found you can use EV at 65MPH without damaging the battery, but only for cruising on flat terrain with no quick acceleration.  Basically trying to keep the load on the battery as low as possible.  This also means not using the heater while on EV.

 

As far as parking it for a week, there is no need to keep a certain charge in the HVB.  These cars have been for months or even years in the hybrid range of the battery with no ill-effects.  A week will be fine.  The only worry for a week is will the 12V battery keep it's charge.  Some years had a pretty bad phantom drain issue where a week would leave them unable to unlock the doors because the 12V battery was dead.

Edited July 20, 2019 at 04:01 PM by jsamp

[murphy]

There is only only one high voltage battery.  It is divided up as follows:

0.5 kWh for battery protection.  This is not available to you.

1.5 kWh for use in hybrid mode.  In this mode the car tries to keep the battery gauge at the 50% level.

5.6 kWh for use in EV now mode.  The engine is not used in this mode.

 

That adds up to 7.6 kWh for the whole battery. 

 

Running the EV now portion of the battery down to zero is not a problem.  That is the point where the car switches from EV now mode to hybrid mode.  In hybrid mode the car works the same as a Fusion Hybrid.  You can leave the car parked in either mode for as long as you want.  It will not hurt the battery.

 

You didn't indicate if you have a traditional key or a key fob with push button start.  If the latter:

Learn how to unlock the car when the 12 volt battery is dead.  It's in the owner's manual  Basically you remove a cap on the rear of the driver's door handle.  Then you open the key fob and remove the metal key you will find there and use it to unlock the door.  That gets you access to the handle to open the hood.

 

The 12 volt battery on the other hand can go dead if parked for a long time.  It is in the trunk which can't be opened if the 12 volt battery is dead.  There are jumper terminals under the hood that can be used to jump start the car.  They are on the driver's side of the engine compartment.  The + terminal is covered by a flexible red cover.  The - terminal is a bolt that sticks up out of the shock tower directly behind the red cover.  Any 12 volt battery that can provide 10 amps can be used to jump start the car.  This does not mean that the engine will start.  The car will turn on with the green icon in the lower right side of the dash display.  When the car is on the 12 volt battery is charged by the DC to DC converter using energy from the HVB.

 

One of those small jump start devices can be useful but don't store it in the trunk because you need it to open the trunk.

 

Another way to provide access to the trunk is to tie a small cord to the emergency access handle in the trunk and route the other end behind the right rear seat back which folds down.  Once in the car, folding the seat back down and pulling the cord will open the trunk.