Accelerating in the 2013

[B25Nut]

I think that is another way it works, but I haven't verified it. Enter the store and you can be the one to verify.

[Riggo]

Oops, posted in the wrong place, sorry.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Riggo

[neod192]

I have not posted the results yet. I am still learning how to drive the car. I am getting good results except on short trips where the engine warm up eats into the mileage. Wish it had a way to keep it in electric for short trips to the grocery store. It is about a half a mile from my house. I wonder if I could set it as a destination for EV+. Some have said if you add it to nav as an address that would work. Anyone verified that?

During the lunch date with an Engineer last Thursday Ford explained that EV+ learns up to 10 locations using the car's GPS (whether you have nav or not), based on where the car is parked the most. It does not use the nav system to determine if EV+ should be used or not (would be a great enhancement).

[acdii]

Well that explains why the dealer shows up as EV+. Been parked there as much as at my house.

[hybridbear]

I have not posted the results yet. I am still learning how to drive the car. I am getting good results except on short trips where the engine warm up eats into the mileage. Wish it had a way to keep it in electric for short trips to the grocery store. It is about a half a mile from my house. I wonder if I could set it as a destination for EV+. Some have said if you add it to nav as an address that would work. Anyone verified that?

 

We've found that EV+ doesn't work on short drives. For example, when we go to Target which is .7 miles from home the car doesn't recognize EV+ leaving Target until we are in the parking lot of our apartment building. Same thing when I drive to work or when my wife picks me up. Work is 1.3 miles away, and the car doesn't recognize EV+ until pulling into the parking lot of our apartment. It seems that if you start within a certain radius of an EV+ location it doesn't go into EV+ mode because it doesn't know where you are going, if you're going to that EV+ destination or somewhere else. It will also go into EV+ mode as you drive by a frequent destination.

 

We've also found that it will forget destinations. After being away from MN for 2 weeks on vacation in January the car had forgotten all the local EV+ destinations except our apartment.

[Riggo]

We've found that EV+ doesn't work on short drives. For example, when we go to Target which is .7 miles from home the car doesn't recognize EV+ leaving Target until we are in the parking lot of our apartment building. Same thing when I drive to work or when my wife picks me up. Work is 1.3 miles away, and the car doesn't recognize EV+ until pulling into the parking lot of our apartment. It seems that if you start within a certain radius of an EV+ location it doesn't go into EV+ mode because it doesn't know where you are going, if you're going to that EV+ destination or somewhere else. It will also go into EV+ mode as you drive by a frequent destination.

 

We've also found that it will forget destinations. After being away from MN for 2 weeks on vacation in January the car had forgotten all the local EV+ destinations except our apartment.

 

It seems really strange to me you can't plug you "home" and "work" locations into the Nav system and have the EV+ work off of that.

[neod192]

It seems really strange to me you can't plug you "home" and "work" locations into the Nav system and have the EV+ work off of that.

Not really. If you think about it, not all cars have navigation. EV+ has to work with all cars, so they designed it to use the Sync GPS, and they didn't tie it to the navigation system. SYNC is the lowest denominator (low hanging fruit) for all Fusions, so they went with that. It costs more to link EV+ with the navigation system and it would've increased the cost of the nav system.

[shaggy314]

It seems really strange to me you can't plug you "home" and "work" locations into the Nav system and have the EV+ work off of that.

 

I concur, at least be able to set at least one home and work, or set two common destinations should I not want to use those labels.

[Kaleido]

During the lunch date with an Engineer last Thursday Ford explained that EV+ learns up to 10 locations using the car's GPS (whether you have nav or not), based on where the car is parked the most. It does not use the nav system to determine if EV+ should be used or not (would be a great enhancement).

Is there a way I can see my EV+ learned locations since I don't have the nav system?

[terryb]

The only way you can detect the system using EV+ is when you see EV+ in the Hybrid Electric Vehicle symbol at the bottom of the system power monitoring display. Empower, Engage, Inform etc.

[Kaleido]

Thanks! That explains it to me, I couldn't find that answer anywhere. I thought I had to access a special screen. Now I get it.

[Steve Collins]

On my daily commutes to work I have found it takes about 7-8 miles to overcome the gas burned warming up the engine to reach 47 mpg. Any trip shorter than that will end up posting mpg shorter than 47 unless EV+ kicks in as you approach your destination. I wonder what a daily commute of about 1 - 5 miles would consistently generate. My guess is it would be low until EV+ learned the destination. It would be nice to be able to put in some of the locations yourself. It Would help on short trips. Anyone else seeing similar results.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Steve Collins

[MXGOLF]

My daily commute to work is 4 miles or so. I am averaging 33 mpg due to short drives to work and back, short lunch commutes, short commutes to the gym ect. Also we have crappy gas here in Oregon. Why then do they or did they say 47 MPG highway, city and all the time? Misleading to say the least. Now they say up to 47 mpg. My EV+ seems to work good for my home and work locations. Doesn't help my mileage at all however.

[acdii]

My daily commute to work is 4 miles or so. I am averaging 33 mpg due to short drives to work and back, short lunch commutes, short commutes to the gym ect. Also we have crappy gas here in Oregon. Why then do they or did they say 47 MPG highway, city and all the time? Misleading to say the least. Now they say up to 47 mpg. My EV+ seems to work good for my home and work locations. Doesn't help my mileage at all however.

You are a perfect candidate for the Energi model. They are designed for drives like yours!

[expresspotato]

I've actually disabled EV+... If I am going to be keeping the car long term - the battery will last longer with EV+ disabled.

[DrewFM]

This is purely my own experimenting with my new toy.

 

1.) Enter engineering mode.
2.) Vehicle in park, key in 'run' position.
3.) Force to HVB to 100% by pushing the accelerator almost all the down. (turns on the ICE, and warms up the engine to normal operating temp)
4.) Once the HVB is at 100%, let off the accelerator.
5.) Put the shifter in drive.
6.) Push the accelerator down as close as you can to the position you had it when you force charged the HVB. don't floor it, or your INST MPG bar graph display will flutter when you exit engineering mode, I don't know why... If if does this, just do it all again without pushing down so far on the accelerator. (If you've been watching the ICE/EV display in engage mode in the past, you know the EV will kick in 100% until the ICE catches up. (You are trying to 'set' this 100% state, just before the ICE r.p.m. passes the EV by). This is the crucial point from what I have observed. ;)
7.) You have roughly 3-4 sec to hold down the O.K button on your steering wheel to exit engineering mode and 'save' the new setting, so starting holding the button just before you accelerate. (you can try it from a full stop, or slow rolling start. see which way works best for yours.)
8.) Now take it out on the freeway, set your cruise between 65 and 70 mph and watch how much more the EV 'helps' the ICE out. I no longer see the inst mpg get sucked down to below 20 when climbing a gentle incline...and if your driving around town, in those spots where the ICE kicks in below 62, you will notice that the EV will also help out more, even if the HVB is at a lower SOC. Don't worry, they have made it so it won't discharge the HVB below a certain point. its apparently hard set from the factory. (It will do everything it can to help ICE not work as hard, which is basically what this experiment is all about.)

 

If you try this, let me know if you also noticed an improvement. I drive mostly highway miles, so it helped for my driving style.

 

I am not going to be blamed for your trips to the dealer, so don't even go there with me. ((at YOUR own risk) (I don't know what issues you may or may not have had with your car)) So far, so good for me, is all I can say after 6,700 miles. no warranty issues at all, which is a first ever for me. I love this car!

 

Now it took me quite a bit of playing around to get to this point where I was happy, (i'm a perfectionist) so pictures of 100mpg long term you won't see yet, but I do regularly get between 42-47 mpg on the highway at 65-70 mph.

Edited May 12, 2013 by DrewFM

[DrewFM]

Oh, and BTW, After you do this succesfully...hang on when you accelerate from now on because you are going to get the FULL output of both motors. MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA! Goodbye, girlfriend's 3800V6 2006 Grandprix off the line. lmao

[lolder]

If you have changed programming by this method, that is undesirable. Hybrids are very carefully designed compromises. The objective is that the HVB never fails in the life of the car. At higher speeds, you do not want EV being used much as it is less efficient than the ICE. EV is for transient acceleration, regen braking and ICE-EV cycling at low speeds where that is more efficient than ICE only. EV should be avoided in all but the slowest acceleration or when the HVB is significantly above average in charge level.

[DrewFM]

You can go back to all factory default parameters by disconnecting both batteries for a while and then reconnecting. Keep in mind it will have to 'learn' everything all over again, as if you just bought it. This is in addition to having to re-program all your Nav destinations, radio stations, etc. etc.

[alpha754293]

Here is what I found the car likes, even with the crappy MPG mine has, I still net OK with this one, which seems to get me the most out of it, which isnt saying much, got 38 this morning.

 

Set your MyView to RPM tach on the left side, on the right you can put what ever you want, but instant works good. One up from that is Empower.

 

When you accelerate if on EV do it gently until the ICE kicks in, once on ICE, keep it under 2K on the Tach, now switch to the next screen and note where the bar is, then switch back to verify you are under 2K. Once you memorize where the bar is on the other screens, keep it at or below that mark.

 

Now after driving for a while, go to the fuel economy screen and look at the coach bars. You should see acceleration full blue if you did it right. This is how ford intends the car to be accelerated according to the coach.

 

Now that you have that, experiment, leave it on the coach and do some quick launches up to speed, and switch to EV. The bar should drop to yellow pretty fast. Drive like you normally drive it and look at that bar and compare where it is to when you drove it under 2K RPM.

 

Downside of this technique, it takes forever to get up to highway speeds! It will also get you the usual chorus of horns, lights and fingers.

 

Actually, I drive like this all the time, normally, or at much as I can, so long as it's safe to do so.

 

If you're going to Michigan highway speeds (70 mph is the limit here) - there's almost no point. You're going to exceed the EV mode max speed anyways, so it's better to just accelerate like you normally would, get up to cruising speed in a decent amount of time (not too fast, but not too slow so that it's unsafe either) and then I just set my cruise on at 69 mph (eco cruise mode on) and relax. The highest average I've been able to get with this is 36.8 mpg over a distance of 70 miles).

 

In terms of the power meter, (kW) it's about 40% (second notch up).

[fusionTX]

Oh, and BTW, After you do this succesfully...hang on when you accelerate from now on because you are going to get the FULL output of both motors. MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA! Goodbye, girlfriend's 3800V6 2006 Grandprix off the line. lmao

This is very interesting. Where did you learn about this?

Are there other possible settings? Does this lower your city mileage?

 

Would be nice it is was a variable setting that an owner could set depending on if he's doing mostly city driving or if he is about to embark on a cross country trip.

[Twinkle]

I'm a brand new FFH owner of one week. It has really calmed down my driving. I use to drive in the fast lane here in So Cal and would go 80 mph. Now I drive in the slow lanes and if possible (rare), I can go 62 on EV. But 62 mph is real slow here!.

[alpha754293]

I'm a brand new FFH owner of one week. It has really calmed down my driving. I use to drive in the fast lane here in So Cal and would go 80 mph. Now I drive in the slow lanes and if possible (rare), I can go 62 on EV. But 62 mph is real slow here!.

 

Welcome.

 

Ford has announced that there's going to be a software update where one of the things is raising the electric motor's speed limit from it's current 62 mph to 85 mph.

 

http://www.dailytech.com/Ford+Tries+to+Improve+Disappointing+Hybrid+Fuel+Efficiency+with+New+Software+Update/article31984.htm

 

I'm sorta trying to find out what impact that might have on the battery life, but no surprise, no one really wants to say anything about it or make any claims, etc. (Please see my disclaimer below. I'm on here not as a company rep, but because I own one. Because I drive a lot (like 40k miles/year). And because I quite literally floored my old car (smacked the oil pan, poked a hole, killed the engine.))

 

(My Fusion Titanium Hybrid just rolled over 8000 miles in 12 weeks, and I'm currently averaging 37.4 mpg although the heatwave up here in the Midwest last week really killed the fuel economy cuz I had to keep the A/C running at or near full blast whenever I was driving last week.)

 

Be safe out there.

[kuzzi]

I decided to have some fun yesterday and drive live a crazy Houstonian (which is only slightly more erratic than a standard Houstonian). By the time I made it home after a LOT of hard acceleration and braking, the car had a completely full SOC but would not kick into EV or EV+. The slightest pedal pressure would send it out of coasting mode and straight into ICE mode. Still got 33 mpgs btw, muahaha. I took the dog to the park about 20 minutes later (which is where I can get some good mpgs, 50+ normally on a 5 mile trip) but again the car would not go into EV mode. I had ECO cruise set at 38 mph and the SOC kept climbing and climbing even thought it looked maxed out, I thought the pack was about to explode. On a bright note, I was getting just over 60 mpg with the ICE alone at 35 mph while the battery was charging and nearing its full capacity.

 

Finally when leaving the park, it ran normal again, but it seems like the car learns your immediate driving style and matches engine operation to that. So if you're a heavy accelerator, it would take some time to get it to run normal (what I consider normal) again.

 

So I think hybridbear experienced this when he was on his road trip coming off of a high speed highway and saw his RPMs were higher than normal. I think this is the engine prediction your immediate driving style.

[jerseyjim53]

Got my 2013 FFHybrid in March. I have just over 7k miles now (Aug). Winter mpg was bad; like between 35 and 42 mpg or so. However, since early July, I've been taking weekends from North Jersey down south to the Jersey Shore (150 mile trip each way). After years of driving my 2007 Prius I found it to "hum" at 57 miles per hour (at 57 mph I was geting 57 miles per gallon) for the trip "down the shore". So with my new FFH, I did the same thing: cruise control at 57 mph, all straight highway, while the rest of my fellow Jersians flew over the 65 mpg limit somewhere in the upper to mid 70's mph. Anyway, I was not getting great mpg for those weekly trips down/back - like maybe 42 mpg or so. So on the past few trips I figured, if you can't beat 'em... and I stuck to a solid 68 mpg cruise control for the trips down/back. To my surprise I got 46 mpg once; then 47 mpg a couple other times. Sure, ICE was on, but the battery was obviously helping out. My lifetime mpg is only 43.0 now (due to crummy mpg from the winter till now). I know we're all unhappy with mpg - being unable to consistently hit the advertized 47 mpg. But this 68 mph cruise control on highway thing is, for me, promising to see my mpg's in the upper 40's. Anyone else finding things anything like this when driving + or - 65 mph giving very good mpg's?

Edited August 14, 2013 by jerseyjim53