stevedebi

Can't speak to the BMW, but the Tesla does activate the brake lights when the regen kicks in, from my reading.

If that is true, someone at Ford copied the original 2013 C-Max specs into the 2016 year page.

Well, Ford doesn't particularly care about cutting edge. Their constant concern with the hybrids, for 10 years now, is to make sure they perform for the lifetime of the car, and they carefully control all possible parameters to make that happen. But that system is simply engaging more regen when you lift off the pedal. I think that our "L" mode basically does that to some extent - when you let off the accelerator, the car starts regen. The Bolt also uses active cooling for the battery, which allows for more flexibility in regen. Reminds me of the "go carts" I used when I was a child; they had only one pedal and you were either going or stopping.

They basically reflash the entire system every year; the updates are fixes and do not necessarily upgrade the entire system to the newest standard. The 2013 is quite different from my 2014, or the 2016. It will be interesting to see if someone actually has this happen on their new 2016.

On the manual regen control: Oh no, never going to happen. Ford has to predict how the battery is going to be charged/discharged. They won't allow that much control by design. For the Energi (doesn't apply to the hybrid, of course), I've often wished for control of the EV setting on the sifter, there is room for another triangle button above the grade assist button. But Ford doesn't want folks playing around with that either. The car is designed to go into one mode and stay there. They don't want to encourage folks to "game" the system in any way. They want to control how the battery, eCVT, and engine interact.

The update will happen while you drive. I did mine that way.

Did you go through the settings menus to see if there is an option for this?

The 2015 page isn't loading right now. However, I note that the Energi is still showing 85 MPH. It seems strange, considering that the Energi basically becomes a hybrid under highway conditions. But the larger battery does allow for more storage on hills and etc. It is possible they simply decided to try and save the battery for the hybrid models. I go into EV all the time at 70 MPH, which is typical speeds here in SoCal.

It cannot happen unless the car is in motion. You will notice the engine running longer if it happens, while it charges up - and it won't stop the ICE if you stop the vehicle (unless you power off the car). If you were driving on the highway it would not be that noticeable because the ICE is probably running a lot anyway. I suspect they do it; this is the only way to make sure the electronics are calibrated to the current charge capability of the batteries. But who knows, maybe Ford decided it wasn't worth it on the C-Max? Or it could be that LiIon doesn't need as much recalibration, and it happens much more seldom. On the Escape Hybrid it was about every 33K miles, but that had NiMh batteries instead of LiIon.

Oh, it will affect all vehicles, you just have to use it right and patiently learn what works. Wayne Gerdes is famous in the hypermiler world. He got in the mid 40's with the big Acura MDX.

I get around 40 at 68 - 70 MPH on fairly flat terrain. At 75 - 80, I get 36. I think your C-Max is about right. High speed will kill the mileage due to the high profile. Hybrids perform best in town, even the Prius is like that. Note that I have an Energi, with a slightly worse final drive ratio.

It's on my 2014 as well. Energi here.

If one can live with less cargo room, the Energi is definitely the way to go. When I bought mine in 2014, prices were within a couple of hundred between the base Energi and the SEL. So long as the Feds keep providing the rebate, and with state rebates in a lot of places, I think the Energi is going to keep up. It really evens out the prices. If the rebates end, I think both EVs and PEV are going to start plummeting unless gas goes up significantly. According to my spreadsheet, I'm still saving about $11 per fill up by driving the Energi vs driving in Hybrid mode, factoring in the cost of my electricity vs the estimated hybrid mileage and current gas prices. I fill up about once every thousand miles or so. If I were driving hybrid, I'd be filling up twice as often, and the difference would be only $5 per fill up. Some, but not really a lot, equivalent to 1.5 gallons of gas.

It is definitely more efficient to coast; all the best hypermilers do it. It just isn't legal in some states.

Thanks for the info, it won't affect my 2014, which was built in July 14.

When going downhill, the car will use regenerative braking for as long as possible. In this mode, the excess energy of going downhill is returned to the battery. Once the battery is full, it will spin up the engine, but use no gas. This is done to help keep speed as constant as possible. When you step on the brake, it uses the brake pads to absorb the downhill energy, and thus the engine slowed down. This is all entirely normal behavior. You most likely had the cruise control on - otherwise the car would simply go faster. As Plus 3 noted, this is more common with downhill assist engaged. There is a switch on the shift lever that engages downhill assist. This causes the car to attempt to use a bit more regen during downhill operations. But it has no effect if the battery is fully charged. When engaged, there is a small yellow icon on the dash that looks like a car going downhill.

Could be a wheel lost traction and the ABS kicked in, or you got very slow and the physical brake pads engaged, and burned off some rust. Never had that sort of thing happen on mine. But it won't hurt to have Ford check it out if you are under warranty.

I generally use the L instead. The hill I regularly drive is pretty steep and the grade assist does very little. I can feel some effect when using either mode, as the regen kicks in. But I've not seen the RPM gauge come on (i.e., indicate the engine is spinning) during these events. I know it can activate, it just never has for me. It happened all the time on my Escape hybrid. But as I said, the Energi might be different due to the larger HVB and capability to absorb charge.

I've not had this happen in my Energi. My speed simply increases. To date, I've not had the ICE come on during a downhill at all. But maybe the Energi is programmed differently.

Do you have the build dates for the changes?

Good to know. That press release was way off...

They reported it wrong. Ford is adding 13 "electrified" vehicles to the line up. That would include hybrids. Nothing has been announced beyond an update to the Focus electric. https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2015/12/10/ford-investing-4-5-billion-in-electrified-vehicle-solutions.html That is pretty funny, they are hyping their adding the "brake coach" to the Focus Electric. It has been on the C-Max and Fusion Energi since 2013. I did not realize it wasn't in the Focus Electric.

I see Plus 3 beat me to it. The Energi model has a coolant temperature sensor used for the heating system when running in EV power. When the ICE is warmed up (at highway speeds or when the HVB is depleted and the Energi is in hybrid mode), the engine heat is used instead.

Just curious why this is on a C-Max hybrid forum. Did you mean to post in the Energi Forum?

A missing seat belt is a safety item. The dealer should replace it for free. I know that our 2002 Civic had seatbelt problems long after the warranty ran out, and they fixed it free of charge. I would at least go to the dealer and ask.