Setting Up Your Hybrid

[garymkrieg]

As a frequent reader of this forum I notice that many of the things that make the car special have to enabled, ie turned on. For example ECO cruise and EV+. What other settings should a new owner be looking at to get the most out of the car?

 

Gary

[Griswald]

ECO cruise for sure. EV+ seems to me to be wasteful. I'd rather have extra power available for leaving home or work than heving extra power for arriving at home or work.

[tr7driver]

Set up the key fobs to remember the seat/mirror positions when you open the drivers door, set the time for the headlight delay when you exit the car

[SteveB_TX]

Set up the key fobs to remember the seat/mirror positions when you open the drivers door, set the time for the headlight delay when you exit the car

I have yet to get the MKZhs key fobs to program. I gave up!

[Nick P]

EV+ is not wasteful. The purpose is to leave the car at the end of the day with as low a charge level as possible. This is because when you start the car the next day the engine is going to run to warm itself up. Since it will run no matter how you drive it you want the charge low so the engine can recharge it while warming up. If the battery is full you're wasting the energy while the engine warms.

[Texasota]

EV+ is not wasteful. The purpose is to leave the car at the end of the day with as low a charge level as possible. This is because when you start the car the next day the engine is going to run to warm itself up. Since it will run no matter how you drive it you want the charge low so the engine can recharge it while warming up. If the battery is full you're wasting the energy while the engine warms.

Does it go through this warm up cycle even in the summer time with warm temperatures?

[hybridbear]

Does it go through this warm up cycle even in the summer time with warm temperatures?

Yes. It's shorter because of warmer temps but the car still won't turn off the ICE until the coolant temp is > 40 Celsius.

[Hybrider]

Here in the AZ desert temps, from March, when I picked up my FFH, until now, my car never, ever starts up with the ICE running, unless my HVB SOC is almost to zero on the gauge. And that has only happened on one or two startups. So I disabled the EV+ option since it doesn't really do me any good.

 

BTW, the EV+ was enabled by default on my car.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Hybrider

[Hybrider]

And now that I think about it, those one or two times my car did start up with the ICE on, was probably because I had the EV+ enabled and it ran my SOC into the ground. To me the FFH does not seem to be very efficient when the SOC is that low.

[Griswald]

Mine does not start up when I leave for work in the morning or when I leaave from work in the evening. That's why I think EV+ is wasteful.

[Easy Rider]

Quote seems to have stopped working.........but I've been screwing with a lot of settings lately...............

 

I think when I looked into and asked about the FOBs being linked to the seat memory, the answer was "They aren't and can't be".

 

Different entry codes on the door post keypad can be but not the FOBs.

 

If you often switch drivers, you just need to get into the habit of pushing "your" button on the door BEFORE the car starts moving.

 

 

[Easy Rider]

I think EV+ is mostly a gimmick but I wouldn't call it wasteful necessarily.

Almost all of the energy going into the battery comes from the gas engine but you would need to know the programming parameters for recharging the battery to know if it is any more wasteful than other normal battery cycles or not.

 

I suspect that it doesn't change the overall efficiency one way or the other enough to worry about.

 

What it DOES do is inflate that final trip MPG number; especially on short trips.

[hybridbear]

Quote seems to have stopped working.........but I've been screwing with a lot of settings lately...............

 

I think when I looked into and asked about the FOBs being linked to the seat memory, the answer was "They aren't and can't be".

 

Different entry codes on the door post keypad can be but not the FOBs.

 

If you often switch drivers, you just need to get into the habit of pushing "your" button on the door BEFORE the car starts moving.

 

 

Our car is an SE & yours is a Titanium but on our car they are. We had to program them in a specific order though:

1. Program memory seat settings
2. Program custom door codes
3. Link key fob to door code

The OM describes how to link a key fob to a door code.

 

However, the Ti has "intelligent access" where you just touch the handle to lock/unlock. This may change some of the behavior. For example, touching the handle does not trigger memory seats. I would think that using the key fob still would if it's programmed correctly.

[murphy]

My keyfob is linked to my seat and mirrors.

The seat has to be enabled in the left screen setup.

[acdii]

EV+ is OK for city dwellers, but where I live, I try to get a full HVB when I get home, this way in the morning when I leave, the ICE can just move the car without having to also charge the HVB, I also kick it out of stage 1 as soon as the ICE comes on so its propelling the car and not the HVB. I make a turn out of my drive and accelerate to 55-60 so EV is useless for me, but a full HVB is almost 40 MPG right from the start. I am seeing 49 MPG on may way in to work every morning now. I should probably turn EV+ off, but I find that when I go to lunch I get 70 MPG on the way back since the last 1/2 mile is EV+ in 30 MPH traffic.

 

Oh also with a full HVB in the summer the ICE doesn't kick in unless you call for it. Gentle acceleration up to 25 MPH will stay in EV until SOC drops to recharge level. I usually go about a mile before I need ICE.

[corncobs]

EV+ is not wasteful. The purpose is to leave the car at the end of the day with as low a charge level as possible. This is because when you start the car the next day the engine is going to run to warm itself up. Since it will run no matter how you drive it you want the charge low so the engine can recharge it while warming up. If the battery is full you're wasting the energy while the engine warms.

I agree with Nick and that's how it works for me.

 

Coming home I can almost fully deplete the HVB and in morning the ICE kicks in charges the HVB and it's ready to use when I can make the best use of it.

[B25Nut]

If Ford sets up the FFH in the future so that the HVB can be trickle charged (and the coolant heated) at home, then EV+ will have a lot of value. I get about 8 mpg better mileage on morning commutes that start with a 80%+ SOC. The shorter your commute, the more advantage this would have.

[acdii]

Each drive is unique, for some starting with low SOC works, for others high SOC works. For me its a difference of about 2 MPG if I leave with a high SOC vs low.

[corncobs]

Each drive is unique, for some starting with low SOC works, for others high SOC works. For me its a difference of about 2 MPG if I leave with a high SOC vs low.

Remember we are talking about 47 vs. 49 MPG and not 13 vs. 15 MPG

 

The difference in our FFH FE range is about 0.1 gal/100miles for the gas guzzler FE it's 1 gal/100miles.

 

Hopefully my quick calculation isn't that far off ;)

[acdii]

No, your right, but it is still better to see ABOVE 47 than to see 47, at least when the cars were rated at 47. Now when I see 47 I think HAH better than EPA! Last night I hit 47 on the way home. What a car!

[corncobs]

No, your right, but it is still better to see ABOVE 47 than to see 47, at least when the cars were rated at 47. Now when I see 47 I think HAH better than EPA! Last night I hit 47 on the way home. What a car!

What a car! You correct I had a 240 mile round trip thru WI yesterday. Speed limit was 55 MPH with small towns few and far in between and the trip total showed about 50.2 MPG. I waved at Havard Ford when I drove by ;)

 

Sorry now we getting way of topic.

[Easy Rider]

, at least when the cars were rated at 47.

 

The car is not "rated at" anything.

The published MPG numbers are ESTIMATES.

There is a BIG difference.

[acdii]

Sorry bubba but they are called epa ratings.

 

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ratings2008.shtml

 

 

The car is rated at 42 MPG, it was rated at 47 MPG.

[Texasota]

The EPA uses both terms but on web page where they describe the different portions of the EPA window sticker (see link below)) they use the term "estimates". Mouse over the different portions of the EPA sticker to see the EPA's descriptions:

 

http://www.epa.gov/carlabel/gaslabel.htm

Edited August 9, 2014 by Texasota

[thavil]

As a frequent reader of this forum I notice that many of the things that make the car special have to enabled, ie turned on. For example ECO cruise and EV+. What other settings should a new owner be looking at to get the most out of the car?

 

Gary

Another suggestion on setting up your car is to play around with your tires psi. A lot of us get better mpg's running 40 psi versus the suggested 35 psi.