Jump to content
Ford Fusion Energi Forum

Energi EV auto, advantages of charging


spirilis
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi folks-

 

Newbie here looking to buy a 2017 Energi possibly to replace one of our old beaters.  I have just begun wrapping my head around the Energi and what it has to offer and I'm curious, for someone who does predominantly highway driving (say 44 miles each way with option to charge at home and at the destination), what advantages do charging the HVB have to offer over using a standard Fusion Hybrid?

 

I'm assuming a charged HVB can supplement the gasoline motor well enough that it improves the average fuel economy (so does it lean on the electric motor more than the Hybrid version does?), but are there other tangible improvements such as increase in available torque/horsepower with a charged HVB vs. a depleted (hybrid-mode-only) HVB?

 

I noticed the official specs from Ford ( http://www.ford.com/cars/fusion/2017/models/fusion-energi-se/) mention "  188 (195 in Charge-Depletion Mode) " and is the 195HP figure only available when the HVB is charged up?

 

I'm also aware that you can run the heater or A/C with the car plugged in, that seems like an obvious advantage of the Energi model.

 

Thank you for your time & thoughts!

-Eric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eric,

 

Let's say your commute was 40 miles, and let's say you can get 20 miles on electric only (mine is saying 22 now). You charge the car at home, then when you drive to work, it goes half way on electric only. Then you do the reverse, charging at work, driving home, half way on electric only again. Say the gas only (hybrid) gets 40 mpg, you will have gone 80 miles, and have gotten 80 mpg (used one gallon of gas). (In your real case, the number might be ~75 mpg.) Electric costs something, depending where you charge, but generally much less than gas (and sometimes free to you).

 

My 2017, with me now for most of a month, is not used to commute. I do a lot of short trips, and most of my charging is at the parking deck at my gym, at a free high speed charger. I'm getting about 120 mpg - so for about 500 miles, I've used about 4 gallons of gas. It was 230 mpg until I took it on a couple of longer drives.

 

One downside of the car which does not matter to me, since my wife has a car with an excellent trunk for trips: The trunk is very small. I can fit my golf clubs though, but nothing more, for instance. Or one suitcase. Otherwise, the fit and finish is generally very good, although I've found one small 'defect' which I doubt anyone else would see. It is very attractive, it handles well, and it is very quiet.

 

Mark

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eric,

 

I drive about 100 miles round trip a day, 4 days a week.  I plug in every night.  Our average cost of electricity per KWH is about 2 cents.  So it costs me roughly 12 cents to charge up and that gets me about 21 miles.  Actually, with regen braking I get about 25.  I do not have an option to charge at work.  On the weekends (Fri/Sat/Sun), I generally drive short trips and use EV only.  I went from filling up every three days in my Focus with about 11 gallons of gas, which got around 32mpg to filling up every two weeks and taking about 13 gallons of gas.  With the FFTE I'm averaging about 55 combined mpg.  So do the math anyway you like it but the FFTE was well worth it.  And once I retire it will be even more cost effective.

 

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Eric,

  I don't know if you've bought yet, but it sounds to me like you would do better with a Hybrid rather than an Energi.  You say your commute is 44 miles and mostly Highway speeds.  Charging twice a day and driving at highway speeds is a fast way to degrade the HV battery on an Energi.  Check out some of the posts in the Battery/Charging Forum. 

  You can still get 40-45 MPG in a Hybrid which will cost you about a gallon of gas each way on your commute.

 

My 2¢.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eric,

I possibly have a similar drive so here is my data:

43 miles commute each way, start with full charge at both home and work.

Some elevation gain on the way to work.

Maintain 76 mph for about 3/4 of the trip, some slowdowns along the way.

About 2 miles of 40mph at end of both home and work until I get to the highway.

Drive conservatively but not hypermiling.

Currently getting 72mpg with 4,000 miles on the odometer.

Average about 23 miles of EV (including regen).

Jason

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not true. Driving highway speeds with zero HVB and just hybrid result in around 38 mpg, the same exact drive with the extra 19/20 miles of EV gets me 63 mpg. Who keeps a Fusion for more than 4-5 years anyway. These Energi's are a disposable car.

"Not true" for you.  I keep my cars for a long time.  I get 43-46 when my HVB is empty.  The 2017 Fusion Hybrid is rated 43/41/42 combined.  Your situation doesn't apply to everyone.  I was basing my input on his situation.  Yes, you can always get better mileage with an Energi using the HVB, but there are drawbacks to that as well (cost, battery life).

Edited by jsamp
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

How in the world does anybody get 22 miles, or even better, on a charge? The most I see these days is 17, and that's by driving extremely conservative while switching the A/C on and off at regular intervals. I've brought it into Ford twice and each time the report is that all systems are functioning perfectly. Also, I live in FLA where there's not a hill or incline anywhere for several hundred miles.

 

What are your secrets?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How in the world does anybody get 22 miles, or even better, on a charge? The most I see these days is 17, and that's by driving extremely conservative while switching the A/C on and off at regular intervals. I've brought it into Ford twice and each time the report is that all systems are functioning perfectly. Also, I live in FLA where there's not a hill or incline anywhere for several hundred miles.

 

What are your secrets?

Mikieg,

 

The first question you need to answer is not how many miles it says, but how many kWh it takes to fill your battery from empty to full (or how many it burns going from full to when the engine fires up using EV mode)  That will tell you how much your battery has degraded from new.  New batteries take ~5.7kWh to reach that point.  Your degradation is (5.7-your kWh)/5.7.  Some people on here have 30% degradation on their batteries after a few years and Ford's tests always come back "normal".

 

Once you have determined your kWh, you can approximate** how many miles "should" get from a full charge.  (your kWh/5.7*20= your miles)  If what your car tells you is less than that calculation, then improved driving can get your mileage up.  Use the right screen driving coach to improve that.  If that calculation says 17, that is all you're going to get out of your battery because it has lost some of it's capacity.

 

** please note that this calculation is not a guarantee because "your mileage may vary" depending on your driving style. 

Edited by jsamp
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Mikieg,

 

The first question you need to answer is not how many miles it says, but how many kWh it takes to fill your battery from empty to full (or how many it burns going from full to when the engine fires up using EV mode)  That will tell you how much your battery has degraded from new.  New batteries take ~5.7kWh to reach that point.  Your degradation is (5.7-your kWh)/5.7.  Some people on here have 30% degradation on their batteries after a few years and Ford's tests always come back "normal".

 

Once you have determined your kWh, you can approximate** how many miles "should" get from a full charge.  (your kWh/5.7*20= your miles)  If what your car tells you is less than that calculation, then improved driving can get your mileage up.  Use the right screen driving coach to improve that.  If that calculation says 17, that is all you're going to get out of your battery because it has lost some of it's capacity.

 

** please note that this calculation is not a guarantee because "your mileage may vary" depending on your driving style.

I have a question on the 5.7  KWr as full.  MyFordMobil says I use 4.7 on drive where I go down to 0 battery.  However, ChargePoint says it takes 5.7 to recharge.  That is with no use of the 12 volt battery.  I know there is not a 20 percent loss of efficiency in the ChargePoint charger.  Thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The charger is in the car.  The Chargepoint box is a big relay and circuitry to make sure the correct current is supplied to the car.  The AC voltage has to be rectified to DC and multiplied up to over 350 volts to charge the battery.  There is loss in that process.  The loss is higher if a 120 volt EVSE is being used since the multiplication is now from 120 volts AC to over 350 volts DC.  20% loss is in the ball park.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a question on the 5.7  KWr as full.  MyFordMobil says I use 4.7 on drive where I go down to 0 battery.  However, ChargePoint says it takes 5.7 to recharge.  That is with no use of the 12 volt battery.  I know there is not a 20 percent loss of efficiency in the ChargePoint charger.  Thoughts?

 

That's spot on. I see about 82% charge efficiency on 240v and 72% charge efficiency on 120v.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...