pevfan

I agree with LarryH, that the small battery size leads to many deep discharges- and subsequent full recharges. That being said losing 15% to 25% of capacity in the first 30K miles is very concerning. Prior to purchasing my Energi I saw an article from someone in leadership for electrification from Ford who stated they were confident in their battery technology because they had seen very minimal degradation in testing. My thought at the time was they set the max SOC with enough buffer, and the max temp threshold for ICE turning on at set points that were very protective. My thought now is they did not set them protective enough. Frankly from day one I had concerns about draining the battery 2x's most days, with 2 full recharges most days. I was aware of the how functional SOC and Heat interact on battery health. From day one I had wished there was a mechanism to only charge to a specific % of full usable. If available I definitely would have set the default at 90% in the winter (cold weather protective, battery likely never gets to 100 degrees in winter),85% for the hottest summer months.Ford tried to hard to simplify things for the masses with their messaging of just plug it in whenever you can and treat it like a normal car. I think all of us, as prospective Energi owners could have handled this simply message: Plug it in whenever you can to get the best MPG, and drive it like a normal car. Your battery will last the life of your car, but you can further optimize battery health long term with these simple tips. Not charging to 100% full usable capacity all the time, but this is key- then offer a feature that allows owners to set an adjustable charge limit.Tell customers if their drive cycles permit to only charging to 85 to 90 percent further optimizes the capacity of battery long term.Explain, Batteries don't like extreme heat, and the more full a battery is, the more damaging heat can be.That being said, don't leave your car parked in high heat for days,or weeks at a full charge.I dare say, virtually all of us could have handled this, and still would have bought our cars. I would even speculate that people on the fence who didn't purchase may have ultimately purchased if they were empowered with this information and knew they could personally impact the health of the battery as opposed to a pure leap of faith. To prove my point this very message board is filled with this questions like "What can I do to help with the longevity my battery?" Ford's answer, just plug it in and enjoy the ride. The problem is we could have done something, but ford wouldn't help us with a feature to set a charge limit. Other manufacturers have this feature, explain it's utility in aiding battery longevity, and it hasn't hurt their sales relative to Fords strategy. Ford basically tied the hands of the very people who would have happily help them protect the batteries in their Energi cars, because Ford thought the general population would be overwhelmed with this info. The flaw in Fords thinking is it isn't the general population who bought Energi's the past 3 years. It is we the EV early adopter class mentioned above. Now they have created a situation where people will be complaining about batteries losing greater than 30% functional capacity at only 60 K miles. This will reflect poorly on ford technology because Chevy Volt with bigger battery, bigger buffer, and liquid cooled see virtually zero loss at 60 K . It isn't Ford technology that is the problem. Ford struck a balance between cost point and the robustness of thermal Management. With that balancing act it was even more important to engage it's early adopters with helping to optimize our own Battery health. Primarily via a mechanism to only charge to a specified charge limit. I don't think Ford did anything malicious. I just think they strategically miscalculated. The Energi Platform are great cars, but they certainly are not mass sellers. They could have sold the same exact amount, while putting out some techno info that would inform early adopter class, and put mechanisms to help consumers protect the battery. At this point this isn't opinion is is fact based on the # of Energi's sold. If this were available I suspect my batteries capacity would be much better despite all the full cycle recharges due to small battery size. That all being said, I am not totally soured by this. I hope Ford treats us early adopters who took the EV leap of faith risk with Ford fairly. A starting point would be having some clarity on what an acceptable degradation rate is. Everything I've read technically about batteries seems to be a min of 70% usable remaining very long term. Please Ford give us that much! Not quantifying it does not speak well to to the type of company you want to be. Working in Fords favor to facilitate doing the right thing. GM states they can now get batteries at $145 per Kw. That means a 10 KW battery would cost $1,450. GM also stated the Volt has 20% more kw per volume. This being said Ford should soon be able to offer at 10KW battery replacement the same exact size as the current Energi Battery. If Ford offered me a battery trade in / upgrade for $1500 that gave me a 10KW battery, maybe 7KW usable 28 mile range I would probably do it in a year or two if my current battery was down to below 4KW usable which it is currently trending towards. If this upgrade also had a software update that allowed me to set a max charge level I would definitely do the upgrade, and set it to 85% and feel real confident that the battery would last a long time. Under this same type program they could also offer the 7.6 KW battery in the same box, just missing few cells for very disgruntled owners with large capacity loss. They could sell these at a prorated discount based the degree of capacity loss. Essentially lots of suggestions / options for Ford to do the right thing. Costs are dynamically decreasing. My hope is Ford will soon at least signal their intention to offer some program like this in the future, even if there were not specifics right away,. I think this is a ticking time Bomb Ford could easily get in front of, and come out smelling like Roses. If they don't get in front of it, it could really backfire on them. I suspect future models will have bigger batteries, and liquid cooling eliminating this issue. This is likely a one time issue for them with a limited amount of Energi's. To the bean counters at Ford. Keep in mind we early adopters would likely be interested in such a plan. What makes us tick is different form the general public. Trust in a manufacturer is hard to quantify in beans counted. I will be an EV buyer for the rest of my life because I know batteries can last long term with correct engineering. Every Energi owner is predisposed to continuing to buy Ford Ev's if you let them. Treat us Early adapters who did a leap of Faith with Ford fairly. We are currently in it together, but we as consumers can switch teams. We are likely to stick with you moving forward if you invest in us, as we invested in you with our leap of faith. I suspect by 2020 Electrification will be much more main stream, Batteries more energy dense and 15 + KW capacities common. Every manufacturer will have better protected batteries. Don't risk your EV reputation by not standing behind your early adopters. I know Ford Reps monitor this site. Please email me, I am reasonable. Let's partner in the Ford EV revolution.

I believe my battery is also losing capacity at a somewhat alarming rate. I don't think it is cold weather related, or do to use of the heater. As I can extrapolate out those variables. ON a 70 degree day when new the Car would use 5.4 KW before ICE turned on. When new the car took about 2 hrs and 15 min to charge the battery on 240 volt. Now the car has 25K miles On a 70 degree day the car uses 4.5 KW before the Ice turns on The car charges from empty to full in 1 hour and 45 min The battery isn't accepting as many electrons. Usable battery loss 4.5/5.3 = a 15% decrease in usable battery in 25K miles. Not a very reassuring trend! Starting to think not having liquid cooling was a mistake. Maybe the software should be more conservative. I believe the ICE turns on if the battery temp gets to 113 to protect the battery. Maybe they should rethink that threshold and set it lower. I would rather burn a little gas and protect to the battery. One thing that also concerns me about my battery is when I got the car it had sat on the dealers lot for almost a full year. If the battery was at full charge, sitting in the sun all summer long this could be damaging to the battery. Lithium batteries don't like heat, and they more susceptible to heat damage while at a high state of charge.