EVA
Well-known member
I'm driving a Fusion Energi while my FFE is in the shop. A bunch of questions came to mind today while I was driving that car. Mostly around battery life and cycling the battery on the FFE to low levels and fully charging the battery.
This is a guess since I don't know exactly which batteries they put where in the Energi. It looks like Ford used the same or very similar Lithium battery pack to the FFE (or half of the packs). The intrusion in the trunk looks exactly like the one in my FFE. It would also seem logical that Ford would use the same part - why carry multiple battery packs?
From the dashboard, it also seems like there are two batteries in that car, one for the plug in part and the other for the gasoline engine / hybrid part. When the car is in EV mode running off the plug in battery (what I'm calling the Lithium battery here) there is one graph or battery represenation that looks very similar to our FFE battery display. When the Lithium battery is dead, a new display appears that represents a hybrid battery (there is no range estimate on that graph).
Here's where I got to wondering about the FFE battery pack.
On the Energi - that pack in the trunk is going to cycle through fully charged to fully empty a lot. Way more than the FFE. The car only gets 27 miles on a full charge. More than likely people with that car will run that battery down to 0 every day and charge it back up to 100% at night - or twice a day (charge it at work and then at home).
Is there something different about the Energi battery pack? There seems to be concern about cycling the FFE battery pack all the way to 0 miles and 100% charge because that isn't good for Lithium batteries. Aren't the Energi cars going to see much worse effects?
By the way, the plug in battery range estimate is just as bad in the Energi as it is in the FFE. That's a good thing, if Ford comes up with an improvement, they will probably apply it to both cars. Also, when the car got down to 0 miles left in the battery, I was able to drive a couple more miles before the whole Hybrid display took over or the engine started. I've seen people mention the FFE does something similar, goes miles past 0 range.
And then I got to thinking about the hybrid battery - probably the same issue for Prius or any other hybrid. That battery cycles through empty to full and almost constant charging way more than the Lithium battery pack. While I was driving today I noticed the hybrid battery level go from 0 to almost 100% a dozen times. I remember driving a Prius that did the same thing.
What about the life of the battery for the hybrid drive? Isn't that battery being beat to heck, or incredibly mistreated?
Once the plug in pack is dead, the never goes back to that display. In other words the gas engine doesn't appear to charge that battery - doesn't put range in that battery.
This is a guess since I don't know exactly which batteries they put where in the Energi. It looks like Ford used the same or very similar Lithium battery pack to the FFE (or half of the packs). The intrusion in the trunk looks exactly like the one in my FFE. It would also seem logical that Ford would use the same part - why carry multiple battery packs?
From the dashboard, it also seems like there are two batteries in that car, one for the plug in part and the other for the gasoline engine / hybrid part. When the car is in EV mode running off the plug in battery (what I'm calling the Lithium battery here) there is one graph or battery represenation that looks very similar to our FFE battery display. When the Lithium battery is dead, a new display appears that represents a hybrid battery (there is no range estimate on that graph).
Here's where I got to wondering about the FFE battery pack.
On the Energi - that pack in the trunk is going to cycle through fully charged to fully empty a lot. Way more than the FFE. The car only gets 27 miles on a full charge. More than likely people with that car will run that battery down to 0 every day and charge it back up to 100% at night - or twice a day (charge it at work and then at home).
Is there something different about the Energi battery pack? There seems to be concern about cycling the FFE battery pack all the way to 0 miles and 100% charge because that isn't good for Lithium batteries. Aren't the Energi cars going to see much worse effects?
By the way, the plug in battery range estimate is just as bad in the Energi as it is in the FFE. That's a good thing, if Ford comes up with an improvement, they will probably apply it to both cars. Also, when the car got down to 0 miles left in the battery, I was able to drive a couple more miles before the whole Hybrid display took over or the engine started. I've seen people mention the FFE does something similar, goes miles past 0 range.
And then I got to thinking about the hybrid battery - probably the same issue for Prius or any other hybrid. That battery cycles through empty to full and almost constant charging way more than the Lithium battery pack. While I was driving today I noticed the hybrid battery level go from 0 to almost 100% a dozen times. I remember driving a Prius that did the same thing.
What about the life of the battery for the hybrid drive? Isn't that battery being beat to heck, or incredibly mistreated?
Once the plug in pack is dead, the never goes back to that display. In other words the gas engine doesn't appear to charge that battery - doesn't put range in that battery.