Battery Life and degradation

[Kdaporcupine]

Hello everyone,

I recently purchase a used 2017 Ford Fusion Energi Platinum

i bought it in December 2021 from Galpin Ford

i love it and honestly I’ve been happy with almost everything

im just worried about my batteries degradation. I’ve read that cold weather reduces range and obviously driving style reduces range. But even when I don’t use the heater or AC, and when I get the “driving style” bar alll the way to the right. Most I’ve gotten was 18 miles per charge

weather right now is about 50F

 

My two questions:

Is the trip summary accurate?

At 48k miles is 3.6kwh too low for the range and age?

I tried using the battery on the highway to see how many kwh my battery still has. From 100%-0, I only got 3.6kwh

And to be clear I don’t mind driving slow for the longer range. I just want to know whether I should go warranty the battery because it’s too degraded.

[theterminator93]

It's hard to truly put a thumb on battery condition in the winter, but I would say it's a bit lower than expected for the age and mileage.

 

Our 17 Titanium has 57k on it; I can get 15-18 miles (no heat or accessories) in the 20s; up in the 50s it's about 19-22 miles. The dash usually reads out the mid 4s for kWh used (4.5-4.6). Best I got was 26 miles at about 70 last year on almost exactly 5.0 kWh (new would have been 5.6 kWh).

 

If you're only seeing 3.6 kWh used around 50 degrees, that would seem to indicate a full charge capacity of under 4 kWh, 1.6 kWh less than full design capacity. That's 21% degradation (battery pack full capacity is 7.6 kWh - 2 kWh is reserved for hybrid use and battery undervoltage protection).

 

One thing that I have noticed with our FFE is that if the battery has a moderate or low charge (e.g. if I park it with a 25% SoC) and leave it for 20-30 minutes or more, when I come back to it the battery SoC is 10-15% less! I strongly suspect that I have a few dead cells in the HVB, but I'm afraid that taking it in for warranty service will yield only frustration and lost time/effort/money trying to get Ford to replace batteries.

[muzicman61]

My 17 Titanium with 54k is getting around 10-11.  Still below freezing temps here. But before I left Arizona last year, I was getting 22-25.  Cold weather really takes a beating on battery range.

[jsamp]

3.6 is pretty low.  The highway is probably not the best way to check it though, and like t93 said 50deg isn't helping you either.  That said, you are probably no better than 4.0kWh, which means your 18 miles is pretty good!

 

Don't bother with the warranty claim.  It will just lead to frustration.  I've only heard of one successful replacement claim, and that was years ago.  Ford has a pretty (legally) tight claim as to what doesn't count, and that is pretty much anything other than complete battery failure.  Many people with 3-3.5 kWh batteries were rejected for replacement.  Sorry to pop that bubble, but if you search these forums you'll see the pain and trouble others have gone through for naught.

 

Enjoy your Energi while it lasts.  If you want the battery to last longest, drive EV only at city speeds and soft acceleration.  Use the ICE when you need heat.

[testriderchuck]

So, I've a '14 energi. I take it the battery is good for about 5kwh max? I wouldn't mind replacing it with more capacity, if one could be crammed into the trunk space (what trunk space, right?) without breaking the bank. then again, I've put 120K+ miles in the last 22 months (I do long distance delivery) I run mostly in EVLater, saving the battery for in-town area's.

 

So far it's running like it did @ 83K when I bought it. haven't had any problem except the wrench light because the HVB fan wire chafed, shorted. been fixed.

 

any idea's when this vehicle may crap out/die/blow up? Just so I have a chance to be prepared for when it does, I'll probably keep driving it till it needs something major.

[theterminator93]

I don't know if anyone has tried retrofitting the '19-'20 9 kWh battery in place of the 7.6 kWh battery found in the '13-'18s. Presumably the BECM is what keeps track of full charge capacity (?) so if the entire assembly is replaced, it's theoretically possible to extend the range by installing a larger battery pack.

[jsamp]

On 3/26/2022 at 8:23 PM, testriderchuck said:

 

any idea's when this vehicle may crap out/die/blow up? Just so I have a chance to be prepared for when it does, I'll probably keep driving it till it needs something major.

 

From the sound of it, you are more likely to have your ICE die than your battery with all the miles you are racking up driving that far each day.  Hard to say how long a 200k+ mile car has left, but it probably isn't a whole lot more, especially at your current rate of ~60k/year.

[jagplates]

I have a 2013 Fusion Energi with only 32,500 miles.  This winter, the indicated range (after a full charge) dropped to 13 (it had previously been about 15 or 16 in winter). Now it is only showing 11.  Has anyone out there experienced complete failure of the high voltage battery in their Fusion?  What is their failure mode? I.E. do they fail while driving or is it more likely you come out one morning and the car won't run? I suspect mine is coming to the end of its life. I don't want to be on the road, 200 miles away and have the car just die, but I don't want to buy a battery until I need one.  My plan is to buy a new battery when I have to. I realize that will be about $8,000, and that's about what the car is worth, but this car has been trouble free and I can't expect to buy a nice 32,000 mile car for $8,000.  Since "reconditioned" HV batteries are nothing more than old battery assemblies with the bad cells replaced, it is probably better to bite the bullet and get one that is actually new before they get discontinued.

[jsamp]

Is that 11 miles with the heater turned on or not?  Just turning on the heater/defroster will instantly drop the estimated range 3-6 miles.  That measure is just a guess anyway.  The best way to know the health of your battery is do the kWh test (best done on a nice 70 deg day).

• Charge to 100%, set trip odometer to zero
• Drive <50MPH until battery reaches 0% and car locks you out of EV mode
• read kWh from Trip odometer.

Results(for a 7.6kWh battery like your 2013):

5.0kWh+ is great shape

4.5-4.9 is good shape

4.0-4.4 is mediocre shape

3.5-3.9 is poor shape

<3.5 is awful.

 

None of this indicates how close your battery is to giving up the ghost.  That's anybody's guess.  I've not heard of any reports of a fully dead HVB so the failure mode is unknown.