hybridbear

My parents have a similar ratio of EV to ICE miles on their Energi which has about 14,000 miles now. It's odd that something would go wrong so quickly. Do you hear the noise when in EV Now? Or is it only when the ICE first turns on when cold? Does the howling happen more in winter when the eCVT fluid is much colder & thicker or more in summer where the eCVT fluid is now warmer?

The howling is definitely not normal. You may need a new eCVT. You can contact user FordService to get help at the dealer. How many miles are on your Energi? The eCVT is covered under the 8/100 hybrid components warranty.

I guess you know now why the first owner got rid of it so quickly now... Do you keep the Energi plugged in when at home? The Energi can charge the 12V battery when connected to your EVSE and thus most Energi models do not have 12V issues like the hybrid models do. It is not uncommon for the dealer to not provide you documentation until they close the ticket. It's possible that your ticket is still open if they haven't resolved the issue.

The winter decline at a different slope is probably a combination of: winter gas blendincreased rolling resistance due to snow/ice on roadThe increased air density should be factored into the slope of the warmer temp calculations as should the changes in ICE warm up time at different temperatures.

EV+ is designed to cause you to end at a low SOC at a frequent destination, like home. However, based on your description of where home is you may want to try to end with a high SOC at home. If you arrive home with a high SOC you can leave with the ICE staying off until you reach the long, steep decline. If you arrive home with a nearly full HVB icon then you should be able to make it that first mile to the hill with the ICE off as long as you're gentle on the throttle. Then you could reach the start of the descent with a relatively discharged HVB and charge it up going downhill. Note: leaving the HVAC on when you shut down the vehicle can cause the ICE to start immediately when you turn it on again due to the demands of the HVAC system for heat from the ICE or for lots of current from the HVB for the A/C. Turning off the HVAC before turning off the car will allow you to more often start the car in EV mode without the ICE starting right away. We kept EV+ turned off for most of the time we owned the Fusion Hybrid because I also wanted to leave home with a relatively high SOC because there are two lights that are pretty much always red within the first half mile of leaving home. I wanted to arrive home with a high enough SOC that I could drive without the ICE coming on until I got through those traffic lights. Then I'd press hard enough on the accelerator to turn the ICE on where I knew it could run during a longer stretch of acceleration until it reached the temp threshold to turn off again. It allowed me to make better use of the ICE. Back in 2012 when these cars were first introduced the Ford engineers responded to the question of why doesn't the C-Max/Fusion Hybrid have an EV button like hybrids from Toyota. Their answer was that they viewed it as a gimmick and not something that owners wanted. The EV button in a Toyota hybrid is no better than accelerating gently in a Ford hybrid by watching the Empower screen. In fact, the Toyota hybrids will not allow you to press the EV button if you're going faster than 25 MPH and if you press it while going more slowly and then exceed 25 MPH the ICE kicks on automatically. I think that the Ford design is actually a superior overall design.

I believe the fluid pump serves to circulate fluid through the radiator to cool the TFT. The eCVT should circulate the fluid as the gears turn.

Is the back-up behavior different when the car is first started versus other times?

This is a setting configurable via the left dash screen.

This sounds like S0 of the warm up stages. I'm not sure exactly where that is posted here but I'm pretty sure it is.

This confirms what a 2010 FFH driver estimated when the 2013 hybrids were announced.

This isn't true. Insurance companies make mistakes too. I'd bet that right now the ESP for the Ford hybrids is a good deal. It may increase significantly in price soon if Ford is paying out too many claims under the ESP on these cars. A local insurance company badly miscalculated their costs when entering the Obamacare Exchange and They hopefully had reinsurance to protect them from their actuarial mistake.

Be sure to shop around for the ESP too. Check out Anderson-Koch Ford & Flood Ford. Both of those dealers sell the Ford ESP online for much less than most dealers. Most dealers double or triple the cost when they sell it to you. Don't get ripped off.

I'm not sure you're correct. The attached documents from Ford say: This indicates that when the ICE is off the pump is off and is not providing lubrication to the transmission. TFT pump HEV.pdfTFT pump PHEV.pdf The biggest TFT increase I've observed is when doing lots of regen braking when descending out of the mountains. Even with the auxiliary pump in the Energi I watched our TFT rise from 140 F to 220 F when descending down toward Phoenix in January. We were able to regen about 3.5 kWh into the HVB during this stretch. Outside temps were in the 50s in the mountains and around 70 in Phoenix and I had removed my grille blocking to cool the transmission better during the descent.

I see similar EV+ behavior. My office is 1.3 miles from home. I don't drive to work often but I did enough this winter than it shows EV+ for work and home. But usually driving from work to home won't show EV+, only if taking a longer drive and driving near work and then near home will I see EV+ twice.

A number of Fusion owners have had failed transmissions. The hybrids don't have an auxiliary TFT pump which means fluid only circulates in the transmission when the ICE is on. The Energi has two transmission pumps, one for when the ICE is on & one for when the ICE is off. Paul is right that the transmission fluid temp gets hotter on highway drives than city drives. This is because of increased friction at higher speeds. Allowing the ICE to turn off at highway speeds might create a lubrication issue. The first gen FFH doesn't have issues because it has a lower maximum EV speed which keeps the transmission lubricated at high speeds. Ford might have a big issue on their hands here.

The Fusion shows the cruise control speed. The C-Max doesn't.

Motor size may be based on the efficiency curve of the motors. The Tesla 85D has more power than the single motor version but can also have lower energy consumption since it has two electric motors which can be tuned for different scenarios. It's possible that Ford's choice in motor size was also focused on having maximum efficiency at the range where the motor is used, <35 kW regen and <65 kW when outputting power.

A friend of ours has had a 2nd gen Prius since the first year they came out. She has told us about doing this many times. It's understandable.

The hybrid has a maximum charge/discharge limit for the HVB of 35 kW under ideal conditions. When the HVB is very cold or very hot this number will be reduced. Thus the maximum power for acceleration or deceleration in EV mode is 35 kW. The Energi has a 35 kW maximum charge limit but a higher maximum discharge limit. I've seen the max discharge limit as high as 68 kW with a fully charged HVB. As the HVB SOC falls the max discharge limit drops as well. If your HVB is nearly depleted it drops to around 50-55 kW. Once the car goes into hybrid mode with a depleted battery the max discharge limit is usually 35 kW, just like in the hybrid.

Very interesting! I would be concerned about putting keys in the freezer though like the NYT writer is doing because the cold could damage other components of the keys. I wonder how far the range can be amplified with one of those devices and if it would allow thieves to start the car or just unlock it.

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

I agree about safety being another factor. Your probability of dying in a crash increases exponentially as your speed increases. We've found 65 MPH to be a good balance between speed, time & MPG. We usually keep to 65 MPH if the speed limit is 65 MPH or higher. I'll speed up going down hills to improve efficiency, sometimes as much as a 10 MPH increase.

We drove the i3 and liked it. But it'll probably be beyond our budget when the lease ends on our Focus Electric next summer. I'm hoping the Kia Soul EV will be sold in all 50 states. It seems like a real winner. I'd highly recommend any EV. We love driving around and using no gas. We spend about $35 on electricity to drive 1000 miles monthly.

I experimented with this during our road trip. The car adjusts the spark based on octane & air entering the engine. You can find my observations about how the car behaves with different octanes of fuel and while at different elevations in this thread: http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/9689-road-trip-observations-with-torque-pro/ Unfortunately from my iPhone I can't figure out how to link to a specific post for you. But the octane observations are on pages 1 & 2 I think.

Flood Ford and Anderson Koch Ford sell the Ford ESP online cheaper. Buy it there. An extended warranty is an insurance policy, they wouldn't sell it if they can't make money on it. Overall the consumer loses. It's all about your risk tolerance.