Ask the Car People.SM


2013 C-Max

44 messages,  Last post on May 23, 2013 at 10:07 AM

You are in the Ford C-Max Hybrid Forum.

What is this discussion about? Ford C-Max, Car Buying, SUV

Messages Page 3 of 6

#13 of 44 Re: Apps for C-Max and Charger Locations for C-Max Energi [cshelley] by rrollntdi

Jan 07, 2013 (10:29 am)

Replying to: cshelley (Dec 01, 2012 11:21 am)
I ordered a C-Max Energi in December. My salesman said it was built last week, so it should be in any time now. I'm in the process of selling my Jetta TDI, hopefully it will be gone tomorrow. There aren't a lot of charging stations in this area yet, so I figure that I'll have to use gas for over half my commute. I'm still skeptical about the MPGe claims, but I'm jumping in. I'm investigating a DTE Energy provided Level2 charger for the house. The savings sound great and DTE pays up to $2500 to have it installed (if your one of the first 2500).

#14 of 44 Re: Apps for C-Max and Charger Locations for C-Max Energi [rrollntdi] by greenroger

Jan 07, 2013 (12:47 pm)

Replying to: rrollntdi (Jan 07, 2013 10:29 am)
We get about 20 mi all electric. The gauge has been as high as 23 and as low as 16 after a full charge.
 
My Wife only drives 15mi a day during the week so it does not bother us what the gauge says.
 
I purchased a GE charger at HomeDepot for 800.00 and had it installed for less than $200 but we hardly ever use it. We only do if we plan to go out after we get home, we will plug it in for a quick 1 or 2 hr boost and then we go out.
 
The 120v adapter that comes with the Energi works fine over night it gets a full charge in about 4hrs since we rarely get it out of electric mode or "EV mode" (except on the weekends).
 
In Auto EV mode after the Hybrid battery is empty it will work just like a normal Hybrid: ICE off at stop lights, regenerative braking will keep the battery charged enough that it will usually get to 35 mph or so before the ICE kicks back on. It is hard to know when the ICE kicks on so we keep it on the "Engage" display so you can see when it is running (the ICE shows as a white graph, battery as green).
 
I have calculated a little over 40mpg with just the ICE. Combined we get about 90 to 100 until the weekends when we get it down to 70 to 80.
 
I have used a charging station at Walgreen's (most all have one).
If you can plug it in to 120v at work that might be an option.
 
Our Electric bill has gone up $10 a month.
 
We finally used the 1st tank of gas after 30 days of ownership and over 1000 miles.
I still cannot believe we bought a Ford, it's funny how many Ford drivers come up to us and ask "What is that?" and lots of OO's and AW's after explaining it to them.
 
Enjoy your new C-Max Energi.

#15 of 44 MPGs Low so far??? by rrollntdi

Jan 29, 2013 (7:37 am)

Replying to: greenroger (Jan 07, 2013 12:47 pm)
I took delivery of my C-Max Energi on Friday evening. On Sunday the battery gage showed about 15 miles on battery available. We drove it a few miles to church and to a decorating show 36 miles each way and only got 36 mpg. I found out EV Now mode wasn't available and it was running on EV Auto. Sunday evening I changed the settings to allow EV Now. This morning I started out with about 12 miles available on a full charge. I got about 41 mpg on the 23 mile one way trip to work this morning. That's better, but it's not even between the 43 and 100 mpge advertised . No charging facility here at work so I'm sure it will only get about 36 mpg on the way home. I love the ride and comfort of the vehicle and it's so much nicer than a Prius. Only about 112 miles on the car so far. Anyone have any tips or advise for me to increase the observed fuel economy?

#16 of 44 Re: MPGs Low so far??? [rrollntdi] by sliu777

Jan 29, 2013 (8:39 am)

Replying to: rrollntdi (Jan 29, 2013 7:37 am)
Once a while my battery shows 15-23 miles when I left it charged overnight on the 110V charger cable. For a whole week it was showing 18 miles. My Energi is in the garage (50 degrees) so its not the cold weather affecting the low miles on the battery. I started using the "extra charge" button next to the shifter when I'm going downhill or need to stop quickly then I noticed my battery would show 20-23 miles when I charge overnight.
Also use the Empower Gauge mode so it will show when the gas engine will kick in so you can easy up on the accelerator.
Right now I'm on my 2nd tank of gas (bought it on 11/18/2012) and my lifetime MPG is about 72 and my MPG for my 2nd tank is about 70 MPG.

#17 of 44 Re: MPGs Low so far??? [rrollntdi] by greenroger

Jan 29, 2013 (10:14 am)

Replying to: rrollntdi (Jan 29, 2013 7:37 am)
One tip that I have found is ECO Cruise.
It had to be set on ours (it was not the default when we got it).
 
With all the complaints about the hybrid model not getting the MPG people wanted I decided to do a test on our Energi it is a little heavier than the hybrid but all I had to test with.
 
I drove 50 interstate miles on ECO cruise and got 48mpg.
Simple test I know but it gave me piece of mind about the MPG issues.
It was 64o when I tryed this (I don't know if temp makes any difference at all).
 
Try it yourself if you can:
Put the EV mode (mode cannot be changed if the Battery has been depleted) in EV later (if you have a full charge it will go 2 miles in full EV mode to burn off the charge, I guess it is to prevent over charging the battery?) after 2 miles (when it kicked out of EV mode and the ICE kicked on) I pulled over and shut if off / restarted and check that it was still in EV later mode, accelerated to 62 MPH and set the cruise, I had to use the + and - buttons a little with some traffic I did not use the brakes and after 50 miles I pulled over and shut it off and it showed 48 MPG for the trip.
 
My wife let me drive it two weeks on my commute (40 miles each way) 80 miles per day (I can and did charge 110 at work) I used the ECO cruise as much as I could but it did finally go below 80 MPG.
 
3000 miles now on it used 42 gallons of gas (about 3 tank fulls) and a little better than 70mpg. It will start going up now since the wife has it back, she drives 15 miles all electric per day.
 
My Focus Electric will be here Feb 26th!

#18 of 44 Re: MPGs Low so far??? [greenroger] by bobw3

Jan 31, 2013 (10:12 am)

Replying to: greenroger (Jan 29, 2013 10:14 am)
You said you drove 3000 miles on 42 gal of gas. Have you factored in the cost of electricity for those 3000 miles. If for example this 3000 miles was over three months and your electric bill went up by $10/month to charge the car, then you'd have to figure in that $30. Plus if you factored in the "free" charging at Walgreens or other locations at $$20 for example, then you have a total of $50 in electricity cost. At $3.50 in gas, the $50 would pay for a little more than 14 gal. Add that to your 42 gal used would equal 56 gal for the 3000 miles driven, which would be a more accurate MPG figure of 53.5MPG.
 
Still good of course, but only a couple of MPGs better than what a regular Prius will get. My main issue with plug-in type hybrids is that I don't trust that their batteries will last as long as a regular Prius hybrid battery, which has proven itself to last hundreds of thousands of miles.
 
Of course it really depends on how a person travels. If it's a lot of short trips, then a plug in would be more efficient, but if person takes a lot of long trips, then probably not. And again the different battery type on plug-ins makes me nervous until they have a longer track record.
 
Just my opinion...

#19 of 44 Re: MPGs Low so far??? [bobw3] by greenroger

Jan 31, 2013 (1:57 pm)

Replying to: bobw3 (Jan 31, 2013 10:12 am)
bobw3, You are right and I see your point about adding it to the total mileage. But since the free charges are "free" I will not add that to my cost to drive.
 
I don't worry about the battery it has an 8 year warranty, I will not have the car that long.
 
Toyota's are nice, but the Ford seems to be a much better fit for our use.
 
The Energi was been in full EV mode all this week since the wife is driving it (15 mi a day) and creeping back to 80 mpg again...

#20 of 44 Where is the SAVINGS??? by rrollntdi

Feb 04, 2013 (11:30 am)

After driving just 444 miles, I refilled the gas tank with 10.629 gallons of gas. The lifetime summary says I have driven 191 electric miles. That is about 252 gas powered miles or only about 23 mpg on gas!!! Overall the car computes that it is getting about 43 mpg. I'm in the Detroit area and it has been cold, between 11 and 30 degrees. I have enabled EV Now and ECO Cruise. I have used the remote start sparingly. I can't find an 'Extra Charge' button near the gear shift. Is this car that affected by cold weather ??? I must be doing something wrong for it to only be getting 43 mpg. Can anyone tell me why I'm not getting somewhere between 43 and 100 mpg as advertised? This is much worse than the Diesel I was driving where I averaged about 40 mpg. I'm starting to get really frustrated .

#21 of 44 Re: MPGs Low so far??? [greenroger] by bobw3

Feb 04, 2013 (11:55 am)

Replying to: greenroger (Jan 31, 2013 1:57 pm)
So that makes sense for you personally, but I guess for others the caveat is that you'll only get 80mpg if you get your charging for free!

#22 of 44 Re: MPGs Low so far??? [bobw3] by rrollntdi

Feb 04, 2013 (7:10 pm)

Replying to: bobw3 (Feb 04, 2013 11:55 am)
greenroger - Electricity isn't free at my house and I assume you are spending something to charge the battery overnight at home, even if it's free at work. So your 80 mpg number is a fallacy, unless it's down hill with a 50 mph tail wind in both directions.
 
My on board fuel economy calculator has never shown an average of more than 45 mpg.... Even when it is running in EV Now. I reset it once too.... No affect. This number is some sort of estimate based purely on the gasoline you've consumed. According to the EPA testing Ford did, this car was supposed to get 43 mpg in ICE mode after the battery is used up. I barely get that with the battery miles included.
 
BTW... The manual says that it runs the ICE for a short time to warm up the emissions system. The heat for the cabin temp is nice too.

Messages Page 3 of 6

To POST a message, please Sign In.

Advertisement

Browse by Category

Browse by Vehicle
   View All Vehicles

Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
View All Topics

Edmunds Community

Advertisement