HVB and EV+ Mode: What is the relationship?

[ptjones]

What I have been doing with longer substantial hills is speed up a little before the hill and then a 2 bar burn up the hill which means slowing down.  My sense which I have not proved is that it is better to burn a little extra wind resistance going down to get the hill over quicker, rather than lug up a long hill at a slower speed.  This allows for more "slowing down."

 

Your thoughts on speed and ICE are interesting and I will have to think about them.   Perhaps you can expand on that.

 

I tend to tap the "gas" pedal when I first start out to kind of warm the engine up, but go slowly so to be accelerating on EV. (at start up a tap starts engine but is moved with the HVB and electric motor) For if the first pedal push requires good acceleration it seems very costly.  

 

You waste heat that way unfortunately , the longer it takes to get to 128*F WT the more heat energy is loss from cooling the ICE.   That's why I said the best approach is to EV up to 35 mph then the ICE will turn on automatically to lube the trans and also heat the ICE at the same time.  It takes more energy to go 45 mph then 35 or 25 mph and less time.  Just another reason to use Grill Covers. :)

​

 

In the morning your HVB is cold which causes it be able to drain quicker = more power.  Next time when HVB is cool and has 50%+ SOC accelerate at the maximum power in the blue(around two bars)on the Smart Gauge Empower Display, just to see how quick the CMAX is in EV. :)

 

Paul

[plus 3 golfer]

I finally found the article I read years ago on using GPS data to control the power train.  Here's the link.  In case the link gets broken,  I copied and pasted it below.

I think it is clear that the future goal is to use location data to employ fuel savings techniques and enhance safety.  I highlighted the Ford comments and other salient points in red.

 

Automakers are beginning to leverage integrated GPS receivers, using positional data much like input from other sensors. Integrating GPS with electric powertrain controls can conserve energy, while locational data can also enhance telematics services and apps.

 

Ford Motor Co. and General Motors recently detailed some of the benefits of integrating GPS with other systems. Ford’s Fusion and C-Max Hybrid and Energi use GPS data to run longer on batteries when vehicles are near the home or office. That’s possible because it’s likely the EV’s batteries will be charged there or that the hybrid will use its internal combustion engine for a cold start later on.

 

“Cabin, engine, and catalyst warming can be done most energy efficiently while putting energy back into the battery,” said Thomas Gee, Hybrid Controls and Strategy Implementation Manager for Ford. “This is Ford’s first use of GPS information to modify the operating mode of the powertrain.”

 

When GM touted the sophistication of sensors used on its Cadillac XTS earlier this year, the company said it plans to augment vehicle sensors with GPS satellite input.

 

“Any time you’re dealing with position, GPS can be very important,” said Bakhtiar Litkouhi, GM Research and Development Lab Group Manager for Vehicle Control Systems. “Combined with map information, it tells you where you are, whether the road’s curving, and whether the speed limit goes up or down.”

 

GM noted that GPS data can also help improve safety by eliminating some of the false positives that can occur with electronic stability control (ESC) systems. Yaw-rate sensors in ESC systems can sometimes detect skids when the vehicle is going around a sharp curve.

 

“If the system understands where the vehicle is on a curved road and knows its position on the road, it can account for curves and changes in grading,” Litkouhi said.

 

The growing number of vehicles employing telematics and apps will further expand the role of GPS data. Many prognosticators feel that location-based services will be an important element in telematics services. Most apps are also expected to use positional data.

 

“Location is an enabler for a wide set of applications,” said Dominique Bonte, Vice President at ABI Research. “It’s almost hard to think of apps that won’t use location data.”

 

Bonte said that factory installed navigation systems should surpass portable navigation device shipments by 2015. The total in-car navigation market should grow at 25.9% over the next five years, ABI predicts.

 

Bonte noted that, for fuel-saving techniques like anticipating turns and hills, map quality must be improved. Tier One suppliers who are developing systems that fuse GPS positioning information with map-based data also note that the accuracy of maps and GPS data must be high for many functions.

 

“In this context, the actual availability of detailed maps is a major challenge, even for maps provided on-the-fly over the air,” said Alois Seewald, Global Research and Development Director for TRW Cognitive Safety Integration. “Selecting relevant data to be included in such maps and defining a standard to handle this data is the next substantial task.”

 

Seewald added that once these goals are accomplished, little additional effort is required to leverage GPS and maps installed for navigation to provide information for adaptive cruise control or curve lighting systems.

 

 

[jestevens]

Yes, it more or less -has- to prove the engine and warm up the catalytic converter on start up most times anyway so why not use more battery at the end of a trip and use the next warm up cycle to charge the battery since the engine is going to have to run regardless?  That's one reason EV+ is on the hybrid I'm sure. 

 

There are pure electric cars but the C-MAX is not one of them, I still like it a lot.

Edited August 29, 2016 by jestevens

[HotPotato]

It would appear you are incapable of understanding what I'm saying... 

 

Frank, what's going on? When you first joined the forum, you were so friendly and constructive that it was a real treat to read anything you had to say. But gradually your manner grew disdainful toward anyone whose perspective didn't mirror yours. That doesn't benefit understanding or camaraderie.

 

When you feel like the other person's an idiot--maybe they are. Or maybe you didn't explain yourself clearly. Or maybe you're mistaken and they're correct. Or maybe the two of you aren't quite having the same conversation---maybe it's idle chit-chat and nobody needs to be right. A little humility can't hurt. Just my 2 cents. Carry on. :-)

[livesmith]

I probably should have said hybrid mode rather than EV later, although they are similar. The Energi is programmed as if the remaining "hybrid" battery is all there is. In fact there is a lot more HVB capacity available. You can see the effect after the HVB is out of EV and you are running hybrid. The battery attempts to leave room for regen when engaging EV. This is better for the hybrid, which has no extra battery - when you slow down, it has room in the HVB for energy capture. But with the Energi, it does not have to worry about leaving extra capacity to use for regen - it could theoretically perform differently, and not try and leave capacity in the battery. It changes the way the car uses EV. I don't know if it could be improved much, but I've noticed it tries to keep capacity available when the Energi is in "hybrid" mode - just like the C-Max Hybrid does. I doubt that a hybrid owner would notice, but to this Energi owner, I think it could be done better. Anyway, that is how I see that Ford duplicated the code instead of customizing it for the Energi. I think they took the hybrid code and basically tacked on the Energi modes (which were custom made for the plug in models).

 

It is the same in EV+, but you can't monitor it like you can when the "hybrid" battery is showing - that is, after EV Only and EV Later modes are disabled. In EV Later mode, you still have the mileage estimate on the battery (at least up until the mid 2015 model year, not sure about 2016 and later) - and other than showing range going up and down, you can't really tell what the car is doing with the "hybrid" reserved portion of the battery.

 

Still not entirely sure I'm following you, but if I'm close to what you're saying, to my knowledge yes EV Later is strictly intended as switching to "hybrid mode" at a given set point of SOC.  It will tell you when you select EV Later what the battery set point is.  The only place where it's a bit different is that like you said it wants to leave room for regen so it won't hold a set point of more than 95%.  If you have the car charged at 100% and you hit EV Later it will set it to 95% and you'll generally drive however many miles before the ICE starts up when the charge gets around 95% and how much power you're asking for.

You can bring up the SOC on the leaf screen and see the charge level go up and down.  It's usually only a few percent difference in either direction, but I think I saw it drop as much as 7% below the set point at one time up a good hill.  And you can still see the battery charge and discharge with the usual arrows.

 

It will still regen as much as you can though.  If you're in hybrid mode it can regen back into EV mode and if you have it on EV Later and set to 0% you can regen back up to 100% if you have enough opportunity.

 

That's also the only trick I know of getting the battery to recharge back up while driving.  If you're starting at something like 5% and set EV Later you can drive either normally or learn the right accelerator position and the charge level will go up to like 6% then you click through the auto, ev and back to EV Later again and you now have the set point at 6%.  It's a lot of messing around for debatably any benefit at all, but it's the only way I know of if you want to.

[livesmith]

It sounds like you can use up NRG portion of HVB and then keep going EV in Hybrid part of HVB.  How much extra range is that? :)

 

Paul

I'd bet it's about the same as your hybrid if it starts with a full battery.  Range all depends on how it's driven.  Going up my hills I'm lucky if it's very far at all. Could maybe be a few miles if you babied it under great flat conditions.

[livesmith]

So how much range do you have combining the two? :)

 

Paul

I'm guessing you're talking about EV only range...  Between about 10-35 miles.  Depends HUGELY on the conditions.  If you don't need any climate control, you set the cruise at 25mph and go on nice flat roads you could probably clear 35 miles.  Go out in the winter with the heater on, up a hill or try to get on the highway, etc and you could get less than 10 miles.

 

If you mean with the ICE as well, I think the tank is like a half gallon larger than the hybrid version but the final drive ratio is a bit lower.  With my Energi in hybrid mode I've seen about 57MPG with setting the cruise at 25mph and babying/playing around the hills.  But on my trip home from the dealer in January with the cruise around 70mph it showed just over 27MPG.  For some reason my Energi seems to be getting a bit lower MPG than other Energi's I've heard from.

[livesmith]

Does it help to switch between the EV later, EV now and EV auto modes while driving to essentially extend EV range by trying to use ICE more at perhaps at higher speeds (higher power requirements) and save EV for lower speeds (lower power requirements) and so forth? 

 

I doubt Ford uses different parts of the HVB for HEV operation and a different part for EV operation to spread the load around. That's counter to operating batteries in general when cycling but it could be done.  It seems that would highly complicate equalizing the charge on the individual cells which is one of the most important functions for battery long life - making sure all cells are balanced and have an equal charge.  I would envision one battery for control operations and that the control algorithm simply apportions a slice of the entire HVB to Hybrid operation based on the control mode (EV later, now, and auto) as the HVB is being discharged. The slice would then not be a fixed portion of the HVB but in essence "move" depending on the SOC.  Of course once one depletes the HVB near it's lower limit, the bottom portion of the HVB would then be operated just like the Hybrid.

 

One more point on this thread in general to get back on topic of the thread.  If I calculate the savings from using EV+ vs not using EV plus for Energi owners, it seems it would likely be less than a $10 bill annually. Of course it is highly dependent on electricity vs gas prices.  But the amount of gas that would be saved for the last 1/2 mile or so say 365 times a year is not much (maybe 4-5 gallons) and the amount of electricity used (maybe 50 kWh) make the difference rather insignificant in the operation of EV+.  Also, I doubt for Hybrid owners that use EV+ saves much fuel, if any, as fuel is the only source of energy.  ICE must run on cold startup to reach the operating temperature for closed loop operation anyways.  Again I'll bet the fuel saved, if any, is less than a $10 a year.

 

IMO, EV+ as it currently exists is marketing hype by Ford.  Now expand EV+ for say the last 5 miles with many intermediate locations along the route including the controls to optimize the use of EV and ICE over those last 5 miles, and one may achieve meaningful economic benefits.  We can argue as to whether use of EV+ extends the life of the HVB, but IMO the real benefit of the EV+ algorithm is yet to come.

 

Depending on circumstances you can "play" with the system to gain a bit.  I mean if you're only driving 10 miles and you've got a full EV battery then it's definitely going to be the best to just stay in EV mode and never start the ICE at all.  I can easily clear 160MPGe that way on my way to work in the morning and I've cleared 200MPGe when trying a bit more.

 

But if you're taking a longer trip where you're going to need to start the ICE at some time it depends.  For my usual commute I'll keep it in EV for 13 miles to work.  Then for the most part just leave it in EV mode until it runs out and use the ICE/hybrid for the last half-ish part of the trip.  Though I do tend to try to hit EV Later a bit earlier than I need it to get the ICE warmed up so I'm not either pulling max amps from the battery to go up a hill and/or having the ICE start up cold and then immediately hitting high revs.

 

 

So... Yeah, if you're talking about longer trips, it might better to leave the ICE off entirely if it's going to cool off during a work day anyway, or as a general rule otherwise I'll aim for the most efficient/long term use which is generally along the lines of using EV mode for speed limits around <45mph and EV later for the highways and/or up hills.

 

 

I agree there's no indication that there's any different parts used for EV vs hybrid portions on the Energi.  It's just software.

 

I agree with you on EV+ as well. I think it's like Eco cruise.  It's a nice little feature that has a slight little benefit, but not really anything noticeable in real world dollars.

[SnowStorm]

Wow, who would have thought EV+ could create so much buzz - and here's a bit more (sorry for any repetition):

 

Ford's Reasons For Having EV+:  The link from +3 (another link and another) says it is for increased efficiency and to give the customer what they want (more EV operation).

1. Increased efficiency.  Some may argue that it doesn't help them but remember that Ford doesn't know your specific operating scenario, just that of the "average" driver.  I could easily believe that the algorithm helps in that case.
2. More Of What We Want.  Don't you love how marketing people like to tell you what you want?  However, they seem to be right - you read endlessly how we should maximize EV operation.  You can agree or not but Ford believes it is good marketing to say we want more EV operation.
3. Ongoing research.  Ford has patent(s) associated with this feature that appear quite broad.  They will want to collect both technical and marketing data on how well it works in the real world so they can better develop the application of their patents.  A number of features related to safety and efficiency discussed in the links are not in today's cars.  Data will be needed to create these new features.
4. Extended Battery Life.  I tend to agree that it is good for battery life but don't know if it is a reason Ford included it or not.  Ford doesn't seem to be worried about the battery lasting the "life of the car" but they sure don't want a bunch of early failures either.  I'm glad EV+ is there on this account as I plan to go 250k miles.

Ford's Reasons For Telling Us Why They Included EV+:  Lets assume all the above are reasons - here's why Ford might tell (or NOT tell) you about them"

1. Increased efficiency.  Sounds great - we'll tell you about it!
2. More EV Operation.  Ford knows what we want so its safe to tell us so!
3. Ongoing research.  Ford said there is more efficiency to come - sounds great.
4. Extended Battery Life.  Should sound great but wait!  The "urban legend" says electric/hybrid batteries "die" after 100k miles and leave the car "worthless".  Once that idea is stuck in someones head you can just forget about talking them out of it - its simply "true".  So, why would Ford "admit" there is a problem with battery life by telling you how they are trying to extend it!  Marketing suicide.

Other Reasons To Like EV+ 

1. Transmission Lubrication.  "Forcing" the ICE to start earlier in the morning seems good so the transmission gets lubricated right away.  I often kick on the ICE when leaving the house for this reason.  I'm past 100k miles so there's no more warranty.
2. Cooler car/ICE when you park.  Might be trivial but should keep some heat out of the garage in the summer.
3. Creates lots of forum discussion!

[stevedebi]

Wow, this has been active the past few days. I'll try and answer here instead of quoting.

 

I never thought about how much I get out of the entire battery. I'd say 25 in winter and around 34 in summer, the winter is without heat.

 

As others have noted, EV Later sets aside a portion of the battery equal to the size of the C-Max Hybrid, and then runs that portion up and down, just like the hybrid does.

[agilix]

When posting the original question, I never expected to generate such a lengthy discussion on EV+ either :) Thanks for all the insights and revelations!

 

I am seriously NOT a car expert at all. From what I can summarize by reading this forum and online materials, if you are a Ford marketing person, what do you think the average C-Max buyers are concerned about? I can think of three topics:

 

(1) How much gas do I save? (Thus so many discussions of MPG, 600-mile club, cover of the engine chambers, drifting behind big truck, avoid acceleration or hilly route, etc.)

(2) How long can the HVB last? (Thus so many discussions on warranty and consumer confusion of 12V battery and large HVB, replacement cost, etc.)

(3) I can't find a No.3 here. (Most other issues are related to 1 or 2, or not significant in comparison, or lesser a factor you considered when buying a C-max., perhaps power or comfort?......Again, sorry for my ignorance since I am not a car expert.)

 

So for me, the EV+ mode appears to serve the top two interests here (regardless whether Ford is promoting it this way). By using more HVB, you can drive a little longer on EV, and get higher MPG overall; also reduce the HVB level for (potential) long time storage. That is also my concern that when the HVB is too low, the next start will lead to ICE kicking in right away, and may lead to less gas saving and lower MPG

 

It is quite clear now that the HVB indicator is not accurate and the small difference is hardly significant or meaningful for topic 2. One way I can think of avoiding an "ultra-low" HVB storage level (if that were even possible!) is to avoid aggressively prolong EV driving just BEFORE EV+ comes up. This way, you expect a higher level of HVB before EV+, and thus a little higher level of HVB once you park the car. My current rule of thumb is observing the triangles more tentatively for the battery use or charge, and to maintain half or above HVB level before EV+ coming on (less than 0.4 miles in my case). Make sense?

 

Enjoy the long weekend!

[Bill-N]

It's my understanding that the HVB works best at about 70 degrees F.  If this is true, then, especially in colder climates, the engine will start in the morning just to warm up the HVB.  EV+ thus makes sense to me.  If the engine is going to start anyway, why not use some of the HVB before hand and later use the running engine to both warm up and recharge the battery.

[obob]

Wow, this has been active the past few days. I'll try and answer here instead of quoting.

 

I never thought about how much I get out of the entire battery. I'd say 25 in winter and around 34 in summer, the winter is without heat.

 

As others have noted, EV Later sets aside a portion of the battery equal to the size of the C-Max Hybrid, and then runs that portion up and down, just like the hybrid does.

 

So it seems like the energi could be better than the hybrid in the winter because the extra battery can be used for heating which is very inefficient for the ICE to do, unless on the highway.

 

That could be the good reason for me to have an energi.  A warm car in the winter.  In the winter I usually keep the car on the cool side to avoid the agony of lower mpg.

[raadsel]

It's my understanding that the HVB works best at about 70 degrees F.  If this is true, then, especially in colder climates, the engine will start in the morning just to warm up the HVB.  EV+ thus makes sense to me.  If the engine is going to start anyway, why not use some of the HVB before hand and later use the running engine to both warm up and recharge the battery.

 

The engine does not start to warm the HVB -- at least partially because the engine is in the front of the car and the battery in the back. The engine starts to warm the engine and get it up to normal operating temps -- so that it runs efficiently. Beyond that, the engine will also run to heat up for the cabin heater (but only if you have it turned on), which has the side benefit of helping to warm the battery. As for the battery, it will warm up all by itself without the engine, as charging and discharging the battery creates some heat (kind of like how a cell phone can heat up while charging).

Edited September 4, 2016 by raadsel

[SnowStorm]

Why would starting ICE later in the morning be a good thing?

1. Ford says its better economy to start right away and get everything warmed up as the battery charges - seems to make sense.  Its going to start at some point - all the energy comes from the ICE (NRGs excepted - that's another forum!).  Someone may have a driving scenario that leads to better MPG with a late start but think it would be a very special case - and hard to prove.
2. The transmission gets lubricated sooner.
3. You get heat sooner (if that's what you want).
4. You are more likely to be driving with a low power requirement soon after leaving home, which means you will be using less power during those first few seconds after ICE starts - while the car is in that mode where ICE is running but the HVB is still driving the car.  You don't want to go out your neighborhood in EV then "floor it" pulling onto a busy road with ICE starting at the same time!  Bad for both the ICE and battery.
5. The HVB is "stored" at a lower SOC.

I don't see why there is any possibility of getting the HVB to an "ultra-low" SOC.  Remember, the SOC bar graph only shows a limited range of the actual internal battery SOC.  The car will always start the ICE when the bar gets near the bottom (but the real SOC is still like 40%).  Ford has loads of data that we don't have and I can believe they new what they were doing in setting the various limits for SOC and power levels in various situations.

[ptjones]

The lowest SOC of charge is 32% (when the HVB is cool) without starting ICE automatically, normally it is 38% SOC when the HVB is warmed up.  When the HVB is cool in the morning if you accelerate with the ICE, the HVB will assist until you get down to 32% SOC, so under hard acceleration there isn't a chance of only ICE pushing the car without EV helping  until the SOC is down to 32%. :)  I believe from mine and others testing it is wasteful, poor MPG's to run the ICE at slow speeds, under 30 mph, because EV Motors are substantially more efficient at those speeds. Where as the ICE gets more efficient  at higher speeds.

 

I wouldn't worry about how low your HVB is when you get home, it will be very rare the ICE will start until you get going, +20mph.  It does help to keep the car in the garage. :) 

 

Paul

 

P.S. I do have a block and oil pan heaters which really shortens or eliminates the ICE warm up time. 

[livesmith]

So it seems like the energi could be better than the hybrid in the winter because the extra battery can be used for heating which is very inefficient for the ICE to do, unless on the highway.

 

That could be the good reason for me to have an energi.  A warm car in the winter.  In the winter I usually keep the car on the cool side to avoid the agony of lower mpg.

 

It all depends on the circumstances.  Generally speaking the Energi is always going to be better if you drive in a range that stays within the EV battery range(or close to it) and you don't need the extra cargo space.

 

As far as heating goes that's also pretty much the largest factor on range...  So you might get 20 miles on a nice 60F day, but then if you head out on a 30F day and turn on the heat, well your range may only be 10 miles on EV.  But even with a 50% EV reduction you still might be getting 50-100+ MPGe...

[fbov]

 

...Other Reasons To Like EV+

1. Transmission Lubrication.  "Forcing" the ICE to start earlier in the morning seems good so the transmission gets lubricated right away. ...

Just for accuracy, EV+ has nothing to do with start behavior; the timing's off. Only a long term owner would notice. 

- EV+ was present at purchase, 10/2012 

- current start behavior first observed after 14E02, the second PCM reprogramming, 12/2014. 

 

Start behavior since 14E02 (Where to look)

- EV until ICE threshold crossed (Empower display)

- ICE on but all power EV for a short time (Engage display)

- then ICE RPM rises to take over propulsion load. (MyView with tachometer & coolant temp)

 

And it remains odd to me that Energi users are so interested in EV+, when they have an EV button. "Hybrid EV+" does not satiate button-envy. 

 

Have fun,

Frank

[stevedebi]

It's my understanding that the HVB works best at about 70 degrees F.  If this is true, then, especially in colder climates, the engine will start in the morning just to warm up the HVB.  EV+ thus makes sense to me.  If the engine is going to start anyway, why not use some of the HVB before hand and later use the running engine to both warm up and recharge the battery.

The engine runs in the Hybrid because of EPA rules. It has to warm up the catalytic converter.

[SnowStorm]

Certainly agree with wanting a button to control charge/discharge - really need it for mountain driving.

I've also noticed that getting the most from EV+ requires driver attention (just like so many other scenarios).  The last 1.5 miles to our house can be done in EV / EV+ with some care - and I can end up with a very low SOC.  But its easy to end up with 50-70% indicated SOC if you pay no attention to it.

[stevedebi]

...

 

And it remains odd to me that Energi users are so interested in EV+, when they have an EV button. "Hybrid EV+" does not satiate button-envy. 

 

Have fun,

Frank

Just a note for Hybrid users (ignore if you are not interested in the Energi). The EV button has nothing to do with EV+. Other than turning the entire capability off, there is no control over EV+. The EV button is used to switch between EV Later (identical to the C-Max Hybrid), EV Now (electric only while the battery lasts), and EV Auto (uses the HVB primarily, and is the default mode once you've used up the EV portion of the battery). Many folks never use EV Now, since EV Auto will have the same functionality until the HVB is depleted. On the highway, EV Later is recommended, because running EV above 40 MPH really drains the battery.

 

I'm interested because EV+ is one tool I use and consider when I try and get home with zero HVB, but not to have used the gas engine yet. This is the goal of Energi driving - use up as much HVB as possible, but don't use the ICE if you can avoid it.

 

From what I've read, the C-Max Hybrid will attempt to use EV when it can. It is just that the battery is so much smaller.

[livesmith]

 

And it remains odd to me that Energi users are so interested in EV+, when they have an EV button. "Hybrid EV+" does not satiate button-envy. 

 

Have fun,

Frank

 

I think you're under the assumption that either:

A) Energi owners always return home before they've exhausted the "EV Portion" of the battery

or

B) Energi owners can force the car into EV mode even when we're in "hybrid mode."

 

Just FYI, Assuming you start out with a full charge on an Energi you've basically got maybe 10-30 miles of "EV" range which for the most part you can use now or later(this is EV Later mode, it just allows you to say "OK, use my current 90% SOC as the mid point for hybrid mode) as you choose.

 

But once you've used up that portion of the battery and it drops below 0% you are dumped into "hybrid mode" which I believe works just like the hybrid model.  At that point there is no EV button anymore("Not available" is what it tells you).  The only way out of that mode is pretty much managing to find at least several miles of downhill to recharge and bump you back into the EV portion of the battery.

 

So, for people like myself who drive 13 miles to work on EV, don't have a place to recharge and then head back and maybe 5 miles in I run out of battery I'm back into hybrid mode just like you and EV+ kicks in for that last bit home.  Though given my house is about midpoint on a hill it doesn't really work very well.  I usually just end up with a mostly full hybrid portion before I plug it in.  Or coming from the other direction it's still too much of a hill for it to keep from starting the ICE.

[ptjones]

Just curious does plugging in charge Hybrid portion too? :) 

 

Paul 

[stevedebi]

Just curious does plugging in charge Hybrid portion too? :)

 

Paul 

Yes, as well as the 12v battery. The HVB is one big battery, not divided. When you go to EV Later, it "reserves" a portion of the HVB with the same amount of KWh as the standard Hybrid - at whatever level the HVB happens to be.

 

Another thing it does while plugged in is that it balances the battery cells. I don't know if it has been reported for the C-Max, but my Escape Hybrid use to go into a state where it charged up to around 90% SOC, then discharged to 30%. This was to allow the computer to determine the current capability of the HVB. It happened three times in the 80K I had my FEH.

 

EDIT: now that I think of it, I think it went to 30%, then up to 90%, then back to normal. It has been a couple of years...

 

Not sure if that is still happening with the C-Max hybrid - it would not be necessary with the Energy, because it can determine the charge levels easily any time it wants.

 

If it happens on the road you probably wouldn't notice it. It was quite obvious when monitoring the FEH with a ScanGuage II on city streets.

Edited September 6, 2016 by stevedebi

[livesmith]

Just curious does plugging in charge Hybrid portion too? :)

 

Paul 

 

Yeah, it's just one big battery that's split in software.

 

So, on an Energi if you're down in hybrid mode, you might be around 15% actual SOC on the battery. You plug in and you'll fill up the hybrid battery and maybe be at 20% actual SOC, and the car will then show you as having reached 0% of the EV portion of the battery.  Then it continues until it gets to 100% which is about 95% actual SOC.