sgcole Posted August 17, 2014 at 11:02 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2014 at 11:02 PM Just installed the Siemens Versacharger in my garage to charge my TWO (yes two) brand new Fusion Energis. I noted similar things: Cars are 'fully charged' yet charger still says charging. I'll have to investigate this 12V battery drawdown issue. Also, my charge from Amazon was $599 (approx. $645 w/tax) and install was $650. No tax credits per se, but there are other 'green car' rebates from CA Air quality board and US IRS. I will keep you posted on the Versacharger operations. At first blush, seems like a well made unit, and I must say I do like the neon leds in the dark garage at 1am...I've seen it once. Note that charger prices are dropping. Expect this unit and its competition to be in the $450-$500 range by Christmas. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_h Posted August 17, 2014 at 11:51 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2014 at 11:51 PM Just installed the Siemens Versacharger in my garage to charge my TWO (yes two) brand new Fusion Energis. I noted similar things: Cars are 'fully charged' yet charger still says charging. I'll have to investigate this 12V battery drawdown issue. Also, my charge from Amazon was $599 (approx. $645 w/tax) and install was $650. No tax credits per se, but there are other 'green car' rebates from CA Air quality board and US IRS. I will keep you posted on the Versacharger operations. At first blush, seems like a well made unit, and I must say I do like the neon leds in the dark garage at 1am...I've seen it once. Congrats on the additions.... based on my observations, it seems that driving behavior such as short trips may have a larger effect on the 12V battery than I first thought -- the reason I say that is that our two cars are the same year Energi Titanium and only built 5 weeks apart, so except for the outside color and a couple more options on hers, they are exactly the same. But where the difference comes in is with the normal driving patterns, where my car has about a 60 mile commute each way and when I get home it charges all the way and then once the HVB is finished the charging might continue for the 12V for maybe 5-10 minutes tops. However her daily routine consists of several small trips in town during the day and running around after school for this/that/etc... and when her car gets charged it finishes the HVB and then in most cases it will keep charging for maybe 30 minutes or so, however there have been several times where her car will keep charging for 2-3 hours after the HVB is done -- and since we have virtually the exact same cars and mine does not do that, I have to assume it's due to the many short trips (with the HVAC running in most cases) and that it takes more out of the 12V with that behavior. But as long as it charges as long as it wants and every time I run a VHR is says all good and her car has never had any issue, I don't consider it a big deal even though it's quite a difference from my car's routine behavior. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybridbear Posted September 10, 2014 at 02:46 PM Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 at 02:46 PM Congrats on the additions.... based on my observations, it seems that driving behavior such as short trips may have a larger effect on the 12V battery than I first thought -- the reason I say that is that our two cars are the same year Energi Titanium and only built 5 weeks apart, so except for the outside color and a couple more options on hers, they are exactly the same. But where the difference comes in is with the normal driving patterns, where my car has about a 60 mile commute each way and when I get home it charges all the way and then once the HVB is finished the charging might continue for the 12V for maybe 5-10 minutes tops. However her daily routine consists of several small trips in town during the day and running around after school for this/that/etc... and when her car gets charged it finishes the HVB and then in most cases it will keep charging for maybe 30 minutes or so, however there have been several times where her car will keep charging for 2-3 hours after the HVB is done -- and since we have virtually the exact same cars and mine does not do that, I have to assume it's due to the many short trips (with the HVAC running in most cases) and that it takes more out of the 12V with that behavior. But as long as it charges as long as it wants and every time I run a VHR is says all good and her car has never had any issue, I don't consider it a big deal even though it's quite a difference from my car's routine behavior.It's too bad you don't have a Bluetooth/wifi scanner to pair with an Android tablet & Torque Pro to see the data. Since our Energi had been sitting for so long the 12V showed only 60% when we left the dealer. It showed over 90% as of last night. I can also see how the car charges the 12V when it is running. When the 12V SOC is less than 80% the car puts about a 6 amp charge to the 12V from the DCDC converter. As the 12V SOC rises the charging rate drops. I've only checked my parents' C-Max Energi a handful of times but its 12V SOC has always been 98, 99 or 100%. Their car is used for a lot of short trips as well, rarely being driven more than 20 miles in one day and it is only used about 4 days per week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_h Posted September 10, 2014 at 03:03 PM Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 at 03:03 PM It's too bad you don't have a Bluetooth/wifi scanner to pair with an Android tablet & Torque Pro to see the data. Nah, I don't get too excited over it, as some days it "after-charges" for only a few minutes and sometimes for longer, we've never seen a 12V battery low message on her car (only once on mine when the HVB fan went bad), so I don't need to dig too deep into it -- that's why we have you. :) Hybridbear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryh Posted October 17, 2014 at 01:14 AM Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 at 01:14 AM (edited) It's too bad you don't have a Bluetooth/wifi scanner to pair with an Android tablet & Torque Pro to see the data. Since our Energi had been sitting for so long the 12V showed only 60% when we left the dealer. It showed over 90% as of last night. I can also see how the car charges the 12V when it is running. When the 12V SOC is less than 80% the car puts about a 6 amp charge to the 12V from the DCDC converter. As the 12V SOC rises the charging rate drops. I've only checked my parents' C-Max Energi a handful of times but its 12V SOC has always been 98, 99 or 100%. Their car is used for a lot of short trips as well, rarely being driven more than 20 miles in one day and it is only used about 4 days per week. Prior to this week, the average SOC of 12 V battery reported by the BCM was about 85%. The highest SOC reported was 94%. For some unknown reason, this week my car has been reporting the SOC to be between 96% and 97%. This seems very strange. Edited October 17, 2014 at 01:14 AM by larryh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybridbear Posted October 19, 2014 at 06:53 PM Report Share Posted October 19, 2014 at 06:53 PM Have your driving patterns changed? Last week we used the Energi every day and the nightly charging brought the 12V SOC up to 95+. When we only drive the Energi a couple times a week and thus only charge it a couple times a week the 12V SOC is in the 80s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryh Posted October 19, 2014 at 08:24 PM Report Share Posted October 19, 2014 at 08:24 PM I use the car every day as usual. I am not driving any differently than before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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