Hybrider Report post Posted June 9, 2014 Now that we have reached summer temperatures (85°-110° for the daily range) here in the desert in Arizona, I have seen my HVB performance (and MPGs) go way down hill from what it was before. But now that the ambient temps are mostly above 90° from the get-go early in the morning and right around 105°-110° for my commute home, I can see my HVB takes much longer to charge and loses its charge much faster now at the same consistent highway speeds of 65 MPH that I always drive on the highway (speed limit of 65) during my commute. I have seen comments in this forum about the MPG decrease at increased temps for the FFHs being due to the A/C running, but I have previously easily achieved 47-49 MPG (mostly freeway) when running the A/C at the lowest fan level when the daily temps were in the 65°-90° range. I am still able to run the A/C at the lowest fan level most of the time even when the temps are between 100° and even 110°, so that doesn't seem to be cause of my decreased MPG. Whereas I was getting 47-49 MPG previously with the A/C running, I am getting more like 43-45 MPG, a dramatic drop to me, seemingly due to just the increased temps here in AZ. I don't even want to see what happens to my FE when we start getting up to the 115°-119° highs that we get frequently here in the hottest part of the summer. The Tesla website has a really cool range calculator where you can input your typical driving conditions. And if you input the summer temps we typically see in AZ in the summer, you will see their single-charge range drops dramatically with desert summer temps, probably more of a drop in range than if I were to drive their car at 75 or 80 MPH instead of my now-typical 65 MPH. Also another thing I have noticed here in Arizona, due to having warmer temps than everywhere else in the country, is that the EV+ mode is basically useless for me, since my car just about always starts up in EV (silent) mode. In fact, it wasn't until recently when we reached summer temps here that my FFH would ever start up with the ICE immediately, and that seems to be mostly due to my HVB discharging so rapidly on the road and even discharging some while the car is off, seemingly due to the temperatures hovering around 100°-110° for most of the day. I was wondering if anyone in the Southwest desert region of the country has ever tried using the ScanGauge to confirm this gut-feel that I have about the HVB performance at temps above 100° having such an impact on the HVB performance at these extremely high summer temps. And summer in AZ sucks for a FFH owner, but so far not nearly as bad as it seemed to suck for those in the cold, cold winter up North this past winter, and I'm hoping it stays that way for the rest of the summer here. I know, I know...I shouldn't worry about this small percentage decrease in MPGs, since I am still getting super MPGs and loving every minute of it. But I just wanted to share my experiences about high temps affecting my HVB performance, and whine a little bit about it since I was getting such great fuel economy before the high temps hit, and with very little effort on my part (as I was already driving my previous 2004 Buick Century like a granny). And it is a bit depressing to see my lifetime MPG average starting to go down for the very first time ever in the 3500 miles (4 months of ownership) I have put on my glorious, fabulous FFH. I love it when others on this forum gleam and gloat about the goodness of the FFHs, and I have no choice but to do so too. Sometimes I really feel like Ford designed my SE configuration of the FFH specifically targeted at me, since it is a top-of-the-line, full hybrid, packed into a luxuriously-comfortable mid-size sedan, and that looks so totally sporty and awesome on top of all of that techy greatness. Whoo-hoo for FFHs and FFH owners!!! :yahoo: :worship: 3 SaveSomeGreen, GrySql and hybridbear reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites