Jus-A-CMax Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 (edited) Is it my Max or does this happen to your Max as well? With a full or near full battery, when I engage the ICE from EV, say 35mph to 45mph or higher, I notice the ICE sounds and feels like its in high gear. It does not have characteristic "whirl" ICE sound - but it still goes and responds. Also, I am noting that at 90%+, using the acceleration to recharge stops working. Only way to bring in more charge is to pulse and let the coasting do the charging. Anyone else notice these characteristics? Edited February 16, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhackwyatt Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 Is it my Max or does this happen to your Max as well? With a full or near full battery, when I engage the ICE from EV, say 35mph to 45mph or higher, I notice the ICE sounds and feels like its in high gear. It does not have characteristic "whirl" ICE sound - but it still goes and responds. Also, I am noting that at 90%+, using the acceleration to recharge stops working. Only way to bring in more charge is to pulse and let the coasting do the charging. Anyone else notice these characteristics?I'm not sure on your first point, but have noticed the recharge stops working on a full battery. Usually when that happens, I'm getting around 50mpg on the ice anywhere from 65 to 75 mph. My theory is that all the energy from the engine is moving the wheels, not recharging the battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus-A-CMax Posted February 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 I'm not sure on your first point, but have noticed the recharge stops working on a full battery. Usually when that happens, I'm getting around 50mpg on the ice anywhere from 65 to 75 mph. My theory is that all the energy from the engine is moving the wheels, not recharging the battery.Yep, that the ICE high mpg mode and that is beautiful indeed :) My 1st point was whether what I was hearing and feeling is just a gearing issue, or maybe it's some sort of ICE/EV combo - to me it just sounds and feels "odd". If you take a manual shift car, from stop, put it into 1st, pick up speed to say 10mph and throw it to the 3rd gear - that's what it feels like except with the Max, it will go like it was OK. Next time you've got a full or > 95% battery, bring the speed to say 35mph and let the car fall into EV and then press the pedal to kick in the ICE to accelerate to say 50mph. Just curious that was all.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asb Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 (edited) I think I've noticed what you're talking about. I've only heard it a couple of times. What I've noticed is that my battery is rarely fully charged. It's generally around 50%. Edited February 16, 2013 by asb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 Guys, switch to the Engage(?) mode on your display, the one that shows both ICE and EV bars at the same time. I think what you'll notice is that you are getting an EV assist most of the time, even if the ICE hasn't cut off entirely. This is probably better than EV mode, since the computer has more options to blend electric and gas power to find an optimum balance point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaners Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 (edited) I agree with MikeB. I think the ICE is not required to propel the car as much because the electric assist is doing most of the work. I notice this quite often when I am driving in town on a cold day. The ICE runs to create heat for the cabin and eventually the battery becomes fully charged. At that point the car drives much differently, because 90% of the engine use is for creating heat. Since the ICE is operating the transmission is engaged but there is very little tractive effort going through it. Edited February 16, 2013 by shaners Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhackwyatt Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 There are times when I'm driving that is 100% pure ICE on the freeway, no electric assist. Due to Engage mode and no down arrow below the battery. That was what I was referring to earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaners Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 I was driving the car today and it was cold out. I set the my view to the tach and while it was charging it was running 1500-2000 rpm. Once the battery was charged the engine continued to run to create heat for the cabin but the tach stayed right around 1000 rpm. I would notice the down arrow on the battery when I would take off from a stop sign or while getting up to cruising speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adair Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 Is it my Max or does this happen to your Max as well? With a full or near full battery, when I engage the ICE from EV, say 35mph to 45mph or higher, I notice the ICE sounds and feels like its in high gear. It does not have characteristic "whirl" ICE sound - but it still goes and responds. I've noticed the sound and feel that you are referring to Jus. But I didn't know if it was my imagination, or an artifact of driving in ridiculous cold weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus-A-CMax Posted February 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 It is the EV kicking in to help the ICE, you can clearly see this in the ENGAGE mode, however, the sound takes a while to get use to and coming from a manual aka stick shift cars in the past, its disconcerting to my ears. The batts are so high, even if I want to use the ICE only at speeds < 63, it will always engage the battery so just pulse it to the speed that you need and just let it coast to recharge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C-MaxSea Posted February 19, 2013 Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 (edited) Jus, Zhack, I'm not understanding the second half of the question (that's fine), but are you suggesting that we can get better MPG somewhere between 65 and 75 mph (50+-), than at 55 to 62mph? That sounds counter intuitive, but If it is so, then wonderful. Nick Edited February 19, 2013 by C-MaxSeattle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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