Charging the Energi battery from gas-engine in hybrid mode

[Fusion-SarasotaBay]

On a 2014 Fusion Energi Is it possible to charge the high-voltage Energi (7.6 kWh Lithium-ion) battery from excess electrical energy generated by the gas-powered engine and/or regen braking system when in hybrid power mode?

 

The left-side multi-function display seems to indicate that more power is going into the battery while in hybrid mode, but the EV battery level never seems to increase.

 

Or is there a separate EV mode battery from the hybrid mode battery?

 

Anyone know the details on how the hybrid charging works and whether it is charging the same battery used in EV mode?

 

Thanks.

[drolds1]

You might be better served in the Fusion Energi Forum.

[Waldo]

The goal of the Energi's computer is to keep the battery low, because it never knows when you are going to be finished driving and plug in. If it burns gas to charge the battery, then that will give you less benefit to charging by plugging in. So it works to optimize the amount of gas you burn, it will certainly charge the battery with regen and in hybrid mode, but the % of the battery that is charged in those conditions is so small that you would never see it on the display. It will then try to use the battery power as soon as it can, so the net effect would be that you would not see it noticeably charge. That's the whole point of the Energi vs the regular Hybrid.

[expresspotato]

A little disappointed in Ford here. A little bit of machine learning and you can guess people's drives / charge opportunities. Why drain the battery in the first 15 minutes heating and propelling if you if driver's off to work. Every MFT fusion hybrid & energi have GPS regardless of Navigation or not.

 

My favorite mode is on the highway when it will do half gas and half electricity after stepping on it to get onto the highway. But the instant I let off at even 100KM/h it just goes back into EV, even using 5KW for heating even though the engine will be hot in no time.

[Waldo]

A little disappointed in Ford here. A little bit of machine learning and you can guess people's drives / charge opportunities. Why drain the battery in the first 15 minutes heating and propelling if you if driver's off to work. Every MFT fusion hybrid & energi have GPS regardless of Navigation or not.

 

My favorite mode is on the highway when it will do half gas and half electricity after stepping on it to get onto the highway. But the instant I let off at even 100KM/h it just goes back into EV, even using 5KW for heating even though the engine will be hot in no time.

 

You're right, that certainly could be done, but it takes a bit of time and some extra hardware/software. Since it would make no difference on the EPA cycle, and since the Energi volumes are so low, it's just not a priority for Ford's limited amount of resources. But it will be coming relatively soon.

[MDSeltzer]

The goal of the Energi's computer is to keep the battery low, because it never knows when you are going to be finished driving and plug in. If it burns gas to charge the battery, then that will give you less benefit to charging by plugging in. So it works to optimize the amount of gas you burn, it will certainly charge the battery with regen and in hybrid mode, but the % of the battery that is charged in those conditions is so small that you would never see it on the display. It will then try to use the battery power as soon as it can, so the net effect would be that you would not see it noticeably charge. That's the whole point of the Energi vs the regular Hybrid.

In fact, if you compare the battery capacity in the Fusion Hybrid (1.4 kWh) with that of the Fusion Hybrid Energi (7.46 kWh), you can see that the hybrid function uses relatively little battery capacity.