hybridbear

From the Workshop Manual: Summary: friction brakes are only used when needed. Rear brake pads are used first since regen happens only on front axle. When braking & turning the regen brake force is reduced & the pads are engaged. This is because regen braking can only brake at the axle. When turning you need to brake the inside wheels differently than the outside wheels. Thus, regen braking is drastically reduced when braking & turning. The transition when braking & turning from regen to friction brake pads should be imperceptible.

I'd definitely look at the Energi based on your description.

Perhaps you should try a different dealer?

I didn't realize this had changed. Is there a thread somewhere that describes the differences and includes pictures?

Is the car still covered by the 3/36 bumper-to-bumper warranty? If it is, look at Flood Ford or Anderson-Koch Ford for ESP pricing. Their prices are much lower than what your dealer will charge.

Have you considered reducing the mileage interval to the next oil change to see if anything changes? Maybe changing oil at 8000 miles instead of 10,000? I wonder if the dealer would save me a sample. I did the first oil change in our Energi at 10,000 odometer miles. We had about 6000 miles with the ICE running at this point. We currently have about 14,000 miles on the odometer and 7400 miles with the ICE on according to the Lifetime Summary.

Once cars get old enough, Ford stops providing incentives to dealerships for the prior model year. Instead, they give the dealership a certain quantity of money to cover the discount the dealer will have to provide in order to move the old car. Suppose Ford gave the dealers $5000 for the old C-Maxes. If a dealer can see the car with only a $4000 discount they pocket the extra $1000. So the dealers will still try to make the car as expensive as possible. When we bought our 2013 Fusion Energi in September 2014 this is how our deal worked. The dealer knocked the price down from $45k to $33k. They told us that they got $8000 from Ford after the car had sat on their lot for so long that Ford was discontinuing all incentives on the 2013s. They originally wanted about $3k more, but I talked them down by $3,000 in order to make a deal. We traded in our 2013 Fusion Hybrid and after the federal tax credit we paid nothing for the Energi except sales tax on the $4000 difference between our trade in ($29k for a 2013 FFH SE with ~11,000 miles) & the slightly higher yearly registration fees for an Energi compared to the hybrid. We only paid $31.5k for the 2013 FFH so we only got hit for $2500 in depreciation in 11 months & 11,000 miles. I have no idea how the dealership could have made money on selling us the Energi...

I bet you could. We exceed the EPA estimates in our Focus Electric. The EPA MPGe numbers translate to ~256 Wh/mi. Wh/mi is the way the Focus Electric reports energy efficiency. Our Lifetime average, 13 months, is 236 Wh/mi. At the end of winter our YTD Wh/mi average was up over 250, but with the summer weather & increased efficiency it has come back down. The only maintenance we do with the FFE is a tire rotation every ~8000 miles. It has been to the dealer once for a bunch of warranty work & will go back again before winter for more warranty work. The Fiat doesn't have any way to track electricity use or energy efficiency on the in-car displays? Our apartment also charges us a fixed rate per month of $40 for the Focus Electric & Fusion Energi combined. We track our monthly electricity use via the car's displays of kWh used on the trip meters. After 1 year with the cars I sent them a report of how many kWh we had used according to cars plus a 20% charging loss/preconditioning factor. At $0.11/kWh the amount we paid & what we used almost exactly matches. Since their power is three-phase commercial their electric rate is lower, closer to $0.08/kWh is what they estimated when we got our Focus Electric.

My parents checked their Energi. No cracking. They've had it about 26 months now.

Does the sound change if you shift to Neutral & then brake? When in N you get no regen, just friction brakes. This may help determine if the noise is related to friction brakes or regen.

The grille shutters will open when the ICE temp exceeds 210-215 F. This can happen when stopped or even when driving at freeway speeds in EV mode. I believe this is because the hot coolant naturally floats to the top & the sensor is at the top. I recorded TFT on a ~13 mile trip last night. Most of the drive is on the freeway at speeds of 55-60. The TFT rose slowly in city driving before reaching the freeway. The TFT rose at a pretty steady pace while driving on the freeway. A couple times I had to brake for cloverleaf ramps. There was a decrease in the slope of the TFT increase with the regen & acceleration. Once I exited the freeway and drove the last 1.5 miles on city streets to home the TFT stayed steady at 103 F and then began to fall, stopping at 101 F when arriving home. The TFT started at 72 F and the ambient temp was in the low 60s with rain.

Correct. The planetary carrier is connected to the ICE. Anytime the ICE turns the planetary carrier turns. What kind of rise do you see in the hybrid during regen braking? Does the TFT rise every time you brake & stop with the ICE off? Most of the rise I observe in the Energi is when driving freeway speeds in EV mode. I will need to log some more data, though. Are you able to log your TFT using Torque Pro? I think I'll log MPH & TFT in the Energi. Any other PIDs that would relate to TFT temp that I should track?

I discovered something interesting regarding the TFT pump in the Workshop Manual yesterday.

I think it is even more hilarious when someone changes lanes & accelerates past me just to end up behind me after the red light since I timed it so that I never had to stop while they stopped and then have to accelerate again.

Do you have an Energi? The Energi will show the vehicle location in the MyFord Mobile app.

There are a few factors at play here. The car can only estimate the charge level based on measuring the HVB voltage. When driving the HVB is charged & discharged. This leads to more inaccuracy since the car has to estimate how much charging & discharging happened. When the car is off & the HVB rests the BECM can more accurately estimate the SOC The HVB temperate may have increased or decreased while parked. Changes in HVB temp result in changes in capacity & thus SOC

This is not normal. We normally see TFT in the 160-175 range on long highway trips. The 220 F TFT was when descending the mountains down toward Phoenix. Regen seems to cause the temps of the hybrid components to rise more than any other activity (which isn't surprising). In the hybrid you probably wouldn't see such an increase because you get less regen. We were able to regen about 3.5 kWh of electricity into the pack of our Energi. Once we got back on flat ground the TFT dropped back to the 160-175 F range fairly quickly.

Does anyone on here have this issue?

Was your parking brake on when you ran the report? This can cause the report to show a brake issue because the light is turned on to indicate that the parking brake is on.

The article loses all credibility when it says: A system that so easily allows cars to be hacked is not an industry benchmark...

The Fusion Hybrid should get better MPG for you since it's more aerodynamic. It also has more advanced technologies such as Lake Keep Assist & Adaptive Cruise Control. Have you considered it? Otherwise, a diesel is the best bet for long highway drives.

Is there a reason why you don't just plug in immediately when you arrive home & use Value Charging to delay the start of charging?

There is... dealerrater.com

For someone with a 1.33 hour commute for 17 miles the Energi is ideal. For someone with a 50 mile & 50 minute commute on the freeway then a diesel may be better. As Steve said, the OP has a freeway commute.

50 miles one-way? In this case there is a big aerodynamic penalty for going with either C-Max compared to the smaller (lower) Focus or a sedan (Fusion). Have you looked at a diesel car? Diesels generally exceed their EPA rating on freeway trips. A diesel may be your most cost effective option. Are you driving across any large hills on your commute? Mountains would favor the Energi since it can recapture a lot more energy on downhill stretches.