Search the Community

On the C-Max Forum they have threads to post tanks of 600+ miles and 700+ miles so I'm stealing their idea for here. Let's see how we do. There are a ton of 600+ mile tanks over there and even quite a few 700+ mile tanks. My best tank was 671.1 miles. I hope to get a 700 mile tank before winter comes and challenge everyone else to try too.

We all know that our hybrids are more efficient than a gas only car, but have we really thought about why? I believe that understanding why will make all of us more efficient drivers. There are 3 main ways that our hybrids increase efficiency over a gas only car: Driving in EV modeTurning off the ICE when not neededRegenerative BrakingI will examine each method and how it increases the efficiency of the car. Driving in EV mode Given that all of our energy comes from gasoline, why is driving in EV mode better than driving with an ICE only? The answer can be found from examining the EPA ratings for PHEVs or BEVs. The MPGe ratings of these vehicles are often around 100 MPGe combined, with numbers as high as 120 MPGe in city driving. So, what is MPGe? Saying that the Fusion Energi gets an EPA rated 108 MPGe city means that on 33.7 kWh of electricity a Fusion Energi can go 108 miles on the city test cycle. 33.7 kWh is the amount of energy contained in a gallon of gasoline as measured in kWh. Each gallon of gas contains 125,000 BTUs, or approximately 31,000 calories if we think about it as a source of energy like we measure food. 125,000 BTUs equals 33.7 kWh of electrical energy. Why are the MPGe ratings so high? Electric motors are much more efficient than gasoline engines. According to the Dept of Energy (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml) only about 15% of the energy in each gallon of gas is converted into kinetic energy in city driving and about 26% in highway driving. Using an electric motor to provide propulsion means that about 60% of the energy is converted into kinetic energy according to the Dept of Energy (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/evtech.shtml). This is why driving in EV mode is better and why PHEVs and BEVs can drive much farther on a lesser amount of energy. The battery pack of the Nissan Leaf stores less energy than is found in a gallon of gasoline and can still carry that car almost 100 miles between charges. The C-Max Energi and Fusion Energi store 6.5 kWh of energy in the battery to drive about 20 miles; that is equivalent amount of energy to 1/5 of a gallon or 24.7 ounces of gasoline. With that tiny amount of electrical energy those cars can go farther because an electric motor is much more efficient. Electric motors do not waste as much energy as heat losses compared to an ICE. They are also not affected by varying atmospheric conditions since they are not using air to initiate combustion. Since as much as 75% of the energy in a gallon of gas is converted to heat energy by the ICE this is a big advantage for the electric motor. What does this have to do with a hybrid? Our cars do not plug in to an outlet to charge and get EV only driving, but they do run for upwards of 50% of the miles in the city using only the energy stored in the battery. This means that when we are running in EV mode we are seeing much higher efficiency than if we were driving an ICE only car. When designing a vehicle the ICE must be large enough to provide sufficient power for maximum acceleration conditions. This means that the ICE is much too big for everyday driving and that there is a lot of inefficiency when running an ICE with a low power demand. The hybrid turns the ICE into an electric generator by artificially increasing the power demand when driving with the ICE to a level where the ICE is more efficient. Hybrids also include a smaller ICE that is able to more often run at its peak efficiency. This means that the car is most efficient in EV mode at lower power demands, and more efficient running the ICE under higher power demands. For us to maximize our EV mode driving and our fuel economy we want to use EV mode as much as possible when the power demand is low, and use the ICE when the power demand is higher. Turning off the ICE when not needed Since our cars can turn off the ICE when it is not needed we don’t waste fuel idling unnecessarily. When decelerating there is no need for the ICE to run and burn gas, yet in gas only cars it does. When stopped there is no need for the ICE to run and burn gas, yet it does in gas only cars. This doesn’t mean that we can sit and leave our cars turned on for long periods while stopped because this will use up the hybrid battery and make the ICE come on to generate electricity. Regenerative Braking Another big inefficiency with gas only cars is braking. Brake pads and rotors turn momentum into heat energy, effectively wasting that energy. The regenerative braking system in our cars seems to recover about 70-80% of the kinetic energy the car has when we begin braking. That is a huge improvement over the 0% recovered by traditional friction brakes. This helps our efficiency in city driving. Driving conditions for peak efficiency Based on the above information we see that for peak efficiency we want to accelerate using the ICE, then back off once reaching cruising speed and use the electric motor to maintain our cruising speed. Since the electric motor’s efficiency advantage over the ICE is highest at lower power demands we see the highest results at lower speeds in the city. At 25 MPH the power drawn from the battery to maintain that speed is minimal. I’ve cruised for miles without using the ICE when cruising at 25 MPH without stopping. This is the logic behind the hypermiling technique known as DWB (driving without brakes). The DWB technique involves trying to drive in a manner than you brake and stop as little as possible. While braking is much more efficient in our cars than in a gas only vehicle, it’s still better to brake as little as possible since an electric motor only converts 60% of the electrical energy stored in the battery into kinetic energy and regenerative braking only converts 70% of the kinetic energy back into electrical energy. For example, 1 kWh of electrical energy pulled from the battery would only get you 0.6 kWh of kinetic energy and the 0.6 kWh of kinetic energy would be converted into 0.42 kWh of electrical energy back into the battery through regenerative braking. It is much better to use that 1 kWh to drive 5+ miles without stopping than it is to stop and only recover 0.42 kWh of electrical energy. There are certain routes I have found where I can consistently get better than 60 MPG because I don’t have to stop very often and I can maintain a constant rate of speed. Such routes are the pinnacle of efficiency for a hybrid. I imagine that on those same routes I could get 75 MPG out of a Prius and over 130 MPGe in a C-Max Energi or Fusion Energi.

I have a 2013 fusion hybrid that I bought new. I have 50,000 miles on the car with a new set of tires. We had the latest factory upgrades completed in June. Before the upgrade I was averaging 42-45 mpg.. it was great. I drive about 65 mpg and mostly hwy miles. after the upgrade my mpg dropped instantly to 35-38 mpg. my engine runs more and the battery indicator never goes above 3/4. I took it back to the dealer and they said it was nothing they could do and to call Ford. I called Ford and they said to take it back to the dealer and said they would document my call. Anyone have these issues?

Hello, I am wondering if anyone knows how the rear spoiler affects fuel economy? i ask because i watched this video: 2013 Ford Fusion Wind Tunnel Test specifically at 6:53 it seems like a spoiler may negatively impact the overall aerodynamics. Any info would be greatly appreciated -Thanks!

Amazed with the fuel economy on the highway averaging 4.0L per 100km on the highway which is impressive. Not so happy with the economy in the city, is there anything I Can do to change the settings in the vehicle to be able to get better economy in the city? Or could it be due to the small battery causing issues which isn't allowing my vehicle to get the optimum fuel economy? Let me know what you guys think?

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:

I bought a used 2010 Ford Fusion recently. We have had a wicked winter in Illinois. The car has 87,000 miles on it or so. WHY am I only getting 28 mpg? I'm not an aggressive driver. My tires are good, the engine is good, I get regular oil changes. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!!

I recently bought and installed a ScanGauge II in our FFH. After driving a 100+ miles with in installed over the past few days I have a number of observations and a number of questions... Observations Horsepower - the generator can place about a 15 horsepower load on the ICE when the battery is low and the ICE is doing maximum recharging. This is good for about 18 amps of current flowing into the HVB. In other situations it seems that each hp of ICE output to spin the generator is good for slightly more than 1 amp of current flowing into the HVB.Amps - the maximum regen braking charge seems to be about 30-35 amps. I've never seen the regen braking charge go above 35 amps while still getting 100% brake score. That seems to be the limit for the generator. When driving in EV 1 bar on the Empower screen is about 20 amps of current flowing out of the battery. The max current I have seen flowing out of the battery has been about 50 amps. This happened when I was accelerating in EV at 1.5 or 1.75 bars and then it kicked over to the ICE. Since one motor/generator must spin the ICE up to speed (like a starter motor in a conventional car) there is a momentary spike in amps flowing out of the battery to start the ICE.Recharging - The computer likes to charge the battery with a 15 amp current flow when the battery SOC is low to maybe about 75% of the display. This seems to be in the most efficient range of the ICE as well as the LOD will often be 85+ when this load is placed on the ICE by the generator while accelerating. When the battery SOC is higher than 75% of the battery icon the amps from the ICE generator drops to 5-8 amps. If the battery is almost full the current flow drops to about 3 amps.Coasting - when coasting with your foot off the gas pedal the generator places about a 3-5 amp load to gradually slow the car down.Idling - when idling the current draw to run the computers and charge the 12V battery is about 0.55-0.60 amps. This amount of current is drawn whether the car is in Park, Reverse, Neutral or Drive as long as you are not moving. The brake lights pull a minimal amount of current, but enough to make this range 0.59-0.64 amps when you are stepping on the brake.Lights - the headlights/taillights draw about 0.25 amps. The park lights and fog lights draw the same amperage as the headlights. If you combine headlights and fog lights the current draw is about 0.40 amps.HVB temps - the HVB temp quickly increases when driving from the current flow in and out of the battery. The past few days each morning the HVB temp showed the same as the exterior temp when first starting off (between 75 & 80 F) but quickly warmed up about 10 degrees within the first few miles of driving. Only on Friday where we did a lot of driving in the city in 95 F outside temps did the HVB temp go above 100 F. The HVB fans ran non-stop on Friday. Other days I noticed that at about 85 F HVB temp the fans would kick on at a low RPM (about 750-1000 showing on the display). On Friday I saw the HVB Fan RPMs as high as 2000. Even when running at that speed I still couldn't hear the fan when I got out of the car to listen with it "running" and with the SGII indicating a fan speed of 2000. I imagine that when we hear the fan running from outside the car after the car is off it must be running much faster than 2000 RPM.Current draw when off - after turning off the car in the few seconds before the SGII turns off the power draw shows 0.04 amps. This is likely to run whatever computers are still active to display the Trip Summary and Lifetime Summary screens.AC amp draw - the AC will draw 15-20 amps from the HVB when first turned on with a hot car. Once the car has cooled down the AC continues to draw an extra 2-3 amps minimum that we observed. This puts some numbers to the effect of AC on gas mileage. That is a lot of current that must be replaced by burning gasoline.Battery display on dash without charge/discharge arrows - It is very hard to get the battery display to show no arrows for charging or discharging. It appears that while moving the car displays no arrows when the current flow is less than 1 amp in or out of the HVB. However, sometimes the current flow will be less than 1 amp and the dash will still display arrows for charging or discharging. Also, when stopped a current flow of less than 1 amp displays as the HVB is discharging. No matter how hard I've tried I have never been able to get the display to show 0.00 amps as the current flow. With steady pedal pressure it is possible to keep the amp flow steady for many seconds though while driving as long as the slope of the road doesn't change.Warm up stages - when the ICE is in S1a the power demand on the ICE is very low, less than 10 hp and a LOD less than 60, this is quite inefficient and shows why skipping stage S1a improves fuel economy so much as discussed hereQuestions :headscratch: What exactly is LOD (Load)? The car often shows 95-99 when accelerating slightly more aggressively such as accelerating onto the freeway, when accelerating in the city it often shows only 80-85. When the ICE is idling in warm up the LOD is as low as 50. Is this the % of maximum power output of the ICE at the current RPM?How do I understand the ignition timing screen (IGN)? When the ICE is off it shows -10. When the ICE is on I've seen values anywhere from 5-8 (when ICE is under load accelerating) to 30+ (mostly when the ICE is under a light load but still on such as freeway driving where the Empower screen shows the power demand being just above the EV threshold.Why does the car show 1.2 horsepower when the ICE is off? I tried using the adjustment in the setup but even decreasing the reading by 10% only lowered the display when the ICE is off to say 1.0 horsepower. What does the default value of 1.2 hp when the ICE is off mean for the numbers that the SGII displays for hp while I'm driving?As I think of more items I'll continue to add to this thread. As it stands now I hope that my observations will be of benefit to others and that those with more experience and knowledge than I will be able to shed some light on my questions. Thanks in advance for that help! :worship:

There are a number of postings on fuel economy on the 2013 Fusion Hybrid, but most are "spot" or "trend" reports with no indication of rate of change. I am seeking information on improvement over break-in, mileage, etc in that I am not pleased with my fuel economy on my second Hybrid. Off the lot, I got 36 mph and am up to 38.3 over 2000 miles and one month. Any insights as to probability of getting 43+, or at least over 40? On our first '13 Hybrid, we got 40 off the lot and it quickly improved to 43.2 (was in an accident at 4 months and 4200 miles, so ended that history). Otherwise, am extremely pleased with the Hybrid, including walking away with no injuries from the accident in which we were rear ended and our car was a total loss.

Fuelly has now broken out the FFH as a separate model per requests from members of this Forum. To update your vehicle click on the vehicle in your garage. Then click the "EDIT CAR" option. Then click on "change type". Then in the drop down box where it says "Fusion" you can now select "Fusion Energi" or "Fusion Hybrid". Once you select "Fusion Hybrid" you an click the button "Update Car" and your FFH will now show up correctly on Fuelly.

Thursday leaving work in Owatonna I got into a very hot car that had been sitting in the sun all day. The outside temperature was 93 degrees. When I got in and started the car the temp display showed 100 as seen below, I had to take a pic of that because it looked neat. I also can see in the picture that I need to get out my California Duster and dust again lol Anyhow...I had a mile or so to get on the freeway from our factory in Owatonna so I drove that stretch with all the windows down to help get the hot air out of the car. Once I started accelerating onto the freeway I turned on the AC. Check out the graph below. You can see that the first 2 bars (12 minutes) of driving have lower fuel economy because of the electricity being used by the AC to initially cool the car. Once the car was cooled down the electricity required to maintain that temp is much less and the subsequent bars are much higher. My MPG results for the whole trip at 65-70 MPH on the interstate are below, not bad for running AC at that temp. Those first two bars show what happens when using the AC on short distance trips. When you're getting into a hot car and driving only a few miles you don't drive long enough at the lower power draw to make up for the high initial power draw of the AC. If the first 10 minutes or so come at lower fuel economy while the car is cooling down you'll need to drive many minutes more to bring the trip efficiency back up or else your trip MPGs will be very low. When it comes to hot weather here are some observations I've made about how to be comfortable while using the AC efficiently. When the car is hot and you first turn on the AC set it to a higher temp and make sure that recirculate is on - we usually have the AC set at 72 or 73 to be comfortable while driving, but when first turning it on in a hot car I'll set it to 76 or 77 until the auto climate control drops the fan speed, once the fan speed starts dropping I gradually decrease the temp one degree at a time over the next few minutes until it is down to 72, doing this gets you to the lower power draw state more quickly because then decreasing the temp one degree at a time doesn't increase the load or fan speedTry to do without the AC on short city trips - even in the hot humid weather we've been trying to do without the AC on short trips, if you're only driving for 5 minutes the AC isn't going to do a whole lot anyway and will really hurt your fuel economy, it's better to have the windows downIf you're driving a short city stretch and then on the highway don't turn on the AC until you reach the highway - often times leaving our house we are driving a couple miles and then getting on the freeway, we'll leave the AC off until getting onto the freeway and then turn it on for the highway portion of the journeyIf you're using AC it's better to drive the freeway rather than take the city route - we can view AC power consumption as a rate over time, as long as the AC is running it will draw x kWh from the HVB, when using the AC it's better to take the highway route because then your total driving time is shorter and thus your kW consumed by the AC is less and thus your MPG is higher. For example: to one of our frequent destinations we usually get 55-65 MPG over 6.6 miles depending on the lights taking the city route with no AC, taking the city route with AC drops that to 40-45 MPG, or we can take the highway route using AC as mentioned above only on the miles spent on the highway and get 50-55 MPG (since discovering this over the weekend we won't be driving the city route anymore unless the weather is cool and there's no need for AC)Hoepfully these tips will help all of us to keep cool in the summer while still getting the most efficiency out of our cars. Please feel free to add additional tips below to maximize efficiency while using AC

I'm curious how much correlation there is between fuel economy and EV miles. Highway driving obviously leads to less EV miles but not necessarily poor fuel economy. Mostly I'm curious about some of the users with poor MPGs, like MXGOLF, and how many EV miles they're getting. Please post your odometer info and Lifetime Summary EV miles, assuming that your Lifetime Summary matches the odometer. If you have trip odometer info available as well of your proportion of EV miles to ICE miles over an extended period of time please include that too along with a description of driving patterns

Ok I want to see what others do and how it might be affecting fuel economy. I use my remote start pretty much every day in the morning but not in the afternoon. I have not seen any real difference in fuel economy even when the ICE runs in the morning to warm up. I am curious as to how others use it and if you have seen any fuel economy difference.

How accurate have you found your Lifetime Summary MPG to be in comparison with fuelly? Mine so far has been very accurate. Fuelly calculates 41.8 and my Lifetime Summary says 41.8 as of today. Have others found the same thing?