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Remember, the guess-o-meter is based on your recent driving. If you have a lead foot, it might think that you only have eight miles of juice. Follow cr08's instructions, that will get to what you really have available.

I'd first start by getting the actual capacity of the battery currently. The estimated range is practically useless as a health indicator as a lot of factors can impact the numbers. Here's the test you need to do: 1) Fully charge the car 2) Drive it in EV mode ONLY (avoid things that can cause the ICE to start, ie: No highway driving, no cabin heat, as few active accessories as possible) 3) Drive until the plug-in charge is depleted. 4) Once the plug-in charge is used and it falls back to hybrid operation, safely stop somewhere and shut off the car. The trip summary on the left screen will list the kwh used. This is the number you need. 5.5kwh is the brand new plug-in capacity from the factory. Anything above 4.0 is still in good territory.

It's normal for there to be more noise when the engine turns on vs running on the battery only. You can post a recording here of the noise if you think it's a problem.

8 miles seems a little low for 34k miles on the car. Maybe there is a problem with the battery pack. I would get it diagnosed before getting it replaced. Or just drive it as is, a new battery would not add a lot of value.

Hello, thanks for the approval. I got my first hybrid a couple of months ago, a 2014 C-Max SEL, after I had to give up my beloved Fiesta because Mrs. H won't drive a stick and Mom H. had trouble getting in and out of it. Love the C-Max, it's a funky little contraption and great for the commute. Now officially christened the "Possum Hybrid" in memory of Red Green's Possum Van. Wonder how he would have built a hybrid?

I have a ridiculously low mileage 2013 CMax Energi (34,000 miles). Really. I am the original owner, purchased the car new in December 2013. Love it. I live in an excellent climate for this car, never freezes here, temps over 75° for just a few days a year. The battery is now just charging to 8 miles. Is it time to replace the batteries? I am 77 years old, would like this to keep this as my toes-up car and not buy a new one.

nogoodbum - i believe the air intake for the HVB comes from the passenger side rear wheel well. so, if very hot outside, that could be a problem for cooling. we have a 2016 energi. i was curious about the recharge on hills after reading some conflicting and confusing information on the internet. i took the car skiing, and on the way back down the hill it managed to charge the HVB to nearly a 1/4 charge. i did not need to pull over or turn anything on or off, i just went down hill gently using the brake. (i didn't know about the hill mode then). we plan on driving half way across canada this summer. some of those mountains are really long climbs/descents. i'm interested to see how full the HVB can get. in any respect, i was pleasantly surprised to see that the HVB does indeed charge up on hills. cr08 - i'm curious to know how the battery gets stressed by being charged/discharged on the highway - do you mean heat, or something else? i was hoping to drive on the highway in EV auto mode, trying to keep it in that sweet spot of a bit of gas, a bit of electric power at the same time. i'd at least like to get some cruising along for free after we come down a large mountian.

before i dont have problem when press on gas paddle , run so smooth and accelerate so fast no hear any sound , (i believe it run on electric ) now when i press on ga paddle , make a lot of sound , ev mode switch to engine mode, gas MPG dropped to 45 to 40.1 car still running ok, but make alot of sound on engine mode, when it back to electric mode no sound, when back to engie mode hear loud noise., Did anyone have this kind of problem? really appreciate any info

From my research the remote start fob is also a different frequency. 433 MHZ for the non remote start model and 315 MHZ for the remote start key. I have used Forscan and enabled the remote start in the IC but have not updated the antenna with the remote start model. I was a senior master Ford tech for 26 years and in theory it should be able to be done with software but I haven't made it there yet.

Thanks for posting this, a great start for some of the stuff I'd like to do. Had a 2015 Hybrid for the last year and am upgrading to a 2017 Energi. Adaptive Cruise is the only thing I wish it had.

Just bought a 2017 Energi! Have owned a 2015 Hybrid for the last year and a half and my only complaint was that I couldn't plug the thing in. 😄

I put some 19" land rover rims

Ford did a very poor job of explaining the different modes of the HVB programming via the owner's manual for average drivers. If anyone has figured it completely please post. One thing to keep in mind as you travel. the HVB performs best & last longest at the same temps as humans do [60-80 F] I you travel to an area of the country with high temps & low humidity, you may be comfortable at 85F+ & a light breeze but your HVB won't be. As I understand it, most of the cooling air for the HVB comes from inside the car cabin to keep cool. May want to keep the AC on in spite of what little gas you may save with it off.

Is your C Max a plug in hybrid? Could you forward me a copy of the email?

That detail furthers my suspicion that Ford shot themselves in the ass by omitting the transmission fluid circulation pump on the otherwise-identical Hybrid transmission. I wonder if hyper-milers with the longest periods of battery-only use have seen the most failures?

Additionally, slowing down from highways speeds can generate a few percent of charge. My son went to college in Vermont, and it was really fun to climb the hills with gas, then charge the battery rolling downhill. You can get out of Hybrid mode this way: charge it going downhill, park it, turn it off, and when you turn it back on, it might have enough charge to go into EV Later mode, from which you can recharge as you go. I generally arrived with a fully-charged battery, even after driving in EV mode on the flats. "Recharge as you go": watch the battery percent in the Settings screen, remember what it was when you last hit EV Later. If it's higher than that, cycle the mode button three times to reset the target charge level.

I'll note that I'm >10 years in (only about 100k miles though) and my battery still seems to be doing fine (HEV_BAT_VAR_V, max variation in voltage between batteries, reads 0.01V, the minimum non-zero possible). I don't know the statistics, but I haven't heard about any abnormally frequent problems with the high-voltage battery pack.

On long trips with lots of downhills, try pressing the downhill regen button on the shift lever; that will help regen charging of the HVB. Able to significantly recharge m wife's energi HVB in some downhill parts of the Shenandoah mountains. Greg

Also in case you haven't caught the reply I made in your other thread, you really should avoid using EV mode (Auto with EV charge available or EV Now) on the highway as it really stresses the battery. If you have charge available, switch to EV Later. If the plug-in charge is depleted, EV Auto (it won't let you switch out of it in this case) will operate in the 'safer' hybrid operation. Other than that, the other comments here are correct. The battery still has some level of charge internally like 10-15% or thereabouts for that fallback hybrid operation that it constantly cycles up and down as you drive.

May be able to charge overnight at motel otherwise no worries.

Not to worry. The car will operate in normal hybrid mode. Cheers

We are traveling quite a ways for several days with our 2014 Energi. Obviously, the battery ran down on the first 20 miles. Is it OK to just keep driving all the way, without charging up the battery off and on, or can we just skip the battery charge and keep driving on the engine. Is it bad to leave the large battery at 0%? Thanks Marty

Mike, were you able to find out if the pump was bad or was your break fluid low?

A lot to unpack here: First off, Ford's original 'up to 20 miles' was optimistic and considered the most efficient driving scenario which would be in town stop and go driving. All EVs (PHEV's like the Energi included) are going to be less efficient and have less range in highway driving. In fact it is highly recommended not to drive EV mode on the highway because it stresses the battery and accelerates degradation. Switch to EV Later and save the battery for in town driving/roads under 45-50mph. The range estimate is also just a guess by the system and often referred to as the 'guess-o-meter'. There's many factors that can impact what range it shows and as such is not a reliable indicator of overall battery health. If you want to check the current health, the procedure below is the best way to do so: 1) Fully charge the vehicle 2) Drive in EV mode ONLY, avoiding scenarios that can cause the ICE/engine to start. This means no highway driving, avoid cabin heat/defrost as much as possible. The fewer running accessories the better. 3) Drive until the plug-in charge is depleted and it drops back to hybrid operation. Safely stop the car and shut it off. 4) Upon shutting off the car, you will have a trip summary screen show on the dash. the Kwh used number is what you're looking for. 5.5kwh is what is expected brand new from the factory. 4.0 or higher is still in good territory. Doing this will also give you more reasonable 'EV miles driven' in that summary that will be a bit more accurate than your highway driving test. The car is perfect for long distance driving IMHO and I've taken mine on plenty of cross country road trips and love it. But some expectations have to be tempered here. Using EV on the highway is not advisable and you really should run it as a hybrid in those cases. It's also not going to be as efficient as a Prius in hybrid mode. That said in my first hand experience I can easily average 37-40mpg highway with cruise set and following posted speed limits +5mph or so depending on the traffic. Lowering speed will definitely improve that and other owners have documented notable mileage increases doing so.

I share the wet driver's side floor. I did notice that it looks as though water should run down the side of the windshield and drain essentially in the wheel well. It looks as though, some putty type material might be missing - saw it on the passenger side. I used some plumbers putty to try to divert the water to the outside edge. I'm just not sure it helped. I'll post results. There are some other posts/subjects on this site - search wet floor or footwell (I think).