Leaderboard

This is correct. If the battery or hybrid system completely fails, the vehicle will no longer drive. At bare minimum the starter/generator motor in the transmission is necessary for starting the engine as well as facilitating the operation of the 'continuously variable' aspect of the eCVT and allowing the engine to properly transmit power to the wheels. This starter/generator motor is powered by the high voltage battery. That all said, there are plenty of failure modes up to the point of complete failure where the vehicle will see the battery is worn/degraded and may not be reliable to use for EV operation or higher loads but will gracefully fall back to hybrid operation or full time ICE operation and still be drivable but with reduced functionality. With how most dealers are clueless on these cars, I'd always go for a second opinion when they call for costly repairs like this. At the very least, getting any codes read and posting to a forum like this with more experienced owners who can hopefully narrow things down or confirm/deny the dealer's findings.

Our 2013 C-Max Hybrid showed the Wrench warning light, twice. The manual suggests that multiple appearances should be checked. We took it in to Stevens Creek Ford and they diagnosed the battery control module as defective. We were under warranty, which surprised me. They replaced the unit and we picked it up the next day. Everything seems to be running fine. Thank you Ford! My wife likes the car a lot and doesn't want to change right now; I have been arguing for a year that we should get a new car for her. At least for the next few months, I am not going to bring up the subject. John