Cooler weather

Now that we have cooler weather in the northeast I've been noticing that the electric motor does not appear to come on as quickly or as often. I called the Ford dealer. The service guru said that whenever the heater is turned on, and it has been cool enough to use it and I have, then the gas engine is going to run and the motor will not. Hmmm. I decided to test this on the FusionH. Went for a run, electric switched over, I then hit the heater. . .still in electric. Continued in electric. What gives? OK, maybe I have to hit defrost, that will probably kick on the A/C, no way it will stay in electric with the A/C. Tried it and still the Fusion stayed in electric, didn't miss a beat didn't even seem to notice. So that doesn't seem to quite be it.

Has anyone else had this experience with gas mileage dropping now that the temps are lower?

The interesting thing is this, once I am out on the road for 10 minutes everything seems to be exactly the way it was in summer. The engine comes on and goes off very easily. I just did a 20 mile errand on suburban streets and returned home with a mileage of 59.8 (I was trying to get 60!). Which is still remarkable, nearly an increase of 50% over EPA. And I had traffic behind me frequently so I was keeping or exceeding the speed limit. Seems like I always have a BMW SUV in my mirror just 2 car lengths back and itching to get by for that rush trip to buy a head of lettuce.

Anyway, has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Short engine use

I couldn't really figure out quite how to title this one. "Short engine use" is my best shot. I was reading in some review that one of the things that makes the FusionH unique is that the engine cuts on and cuts off with much greater frequency then other hybrids. Although I don't know exactly where I read this. So I tried to figure out how short a time one can actually get the engine to run for. I was going up a short hill on electric but knew I couldn't make it to the top, needed a burst of engine for a short while. So I pressed the accelerator and the engine came on briefly, I counted off mentally, let up on the accelerator and the engine switched right off. 3 seconds I figured. Pretty short. Then I coasted for a third of a mile after cresting the hill (had a good charge in the battery).

Then I began to wonder if the engine would come on for only 2 seconds. Seemed unlikely to me but tried the same thing on a little hill when I needed a little more power then the batt could deliver. No problem, engine cut in and then right back out after 2 seconds. I tried this several times to verify and by counting off the seconds it was clear that it will come on for only 2 seconds.

Taking it one step further I checked out 1 second. This is a little harder to do simply because the time is so short, but indeed the engine will actually come on for just a second if needed. Rather amazing. But it's an amazing car.

Give me five (5)

As I was driving today CalCars crossed my mind. That's the company that came out with a retrofit for the Prius a couple years ago. Basically they make a super battery that you add to the Prius turning it into a plug-in hybrid. I checked the web to see how much one of the kits costs and one source stated they were about $12,000. So, they don't make alot (or any) economic sense but if you want to get like 100 mpg then here is a way to do it. If you have a Prius that is. Nothing available for the Fusion yet.

So I got to thinking, wouldn't it be cool to have a bigger battery. As we know, you can get about a mile out of the FusionH in the flat just on juice. About a mile and that's all she wrote. How about if we had something like what CalCars makes for the aforementioned Prius. A plug-in Fusion. Then I got to thinking what would be the minimum drivable-under-electric-distance that I would settle for. I figured if I could get 5 miles just on a super battery that would do pretty well. That would take me far enough for most of my trips which are errands in nature. I could run down to the store, go out to lunch, all on electric. Come back and plug it up for the next trip. When I needed a longer then 5 mile run, it would go right back to being the wonderful Fusion Hybrid which is pretty terrific.

So, how many miles would you want for a minimum plug-in and what would you pay for it?

Any Ford engineers out there?

Charging while drifting downhill

As you drive the FusionH you will notice that the charge arrow (the bright blue triangle at the top of the battery charge gauge) comes on intermittently and frequently. One of the things that I have found intriguing is that this arrow always comes on over, say, 20 mph or so, when you are going downhill. This happens whether you are pressing on the accelerator to maintain speed, or, if you are simply driving down a hill and the accelerator is not depressed at all.

In the latter case, the question that occurs is what is actually happening with the generator system. If the charge arrow is on and the generator is charging the battery, that would mean that the generator must be engaged. So as you are proceeding downhill under power, the generator is actually engaged. This also means that some amount of "drag" must be occurring because the generator is engaged. It is subtle, and I have not noticed any drag, there is nothing perceptible here. But it must be occurring in order for that arrow to indicating active charging.

If anyone knows the answer to this one, please enlighten me.