I know sometimes I must sound like that person who repeats themself because they don't believe what they're saying, but this afternoon, on an 85 degree day (which is almost perfect optimum temperature for the HV battery) I decided to take a mileage snapshot in mixed-use driving. The trip was about 7-8 miles on an interstate highway, mostly flat at 70-75 MPH, followed by a descending off-ramp to a restaurant where I waited in the drive-thru in EV mode for about 10 minutes, then the ride back home over surface streets through a town at around 35-40 (most of which was accomplished in EV mode.) Finally, about 6 more miles up a relatively large hill and then through some twists and turns and minor ups and downs back to the destination. Total trip length was about 18 miles.

A/C, temp set to 73, recirc mode on Fan Level 1 (which was cold enough coming out of the dash) the sun was not that bright. Outside temp. 84-86 depending on elevation.

Here was the result when I parked the car:


Mileage short hop ~18 miles, mixed driving, 2010 FEH Limited 2WD

EPA estimate was "Up to 34 city / 31 highway" so this car is not far from where it was new, despite 11+ years of service and more than 62,000 miles. It's also a significant (~20%) improvement over the winter short-hop behavior, as the car starts in EV mode and makes the most of it the whole time. And the A/C was on for the duration.

I admit to "nursing" it a little through town, coming off the stoplights gently, not enough to get beeped at, but the hill was pretty big and steep and driven over the posted limit, entailing at least 250 feet of elevation change. That's where the average mileage drops precipitously and then gradually rebounds when you descend. I wasn't babying it on the highway, just driving normally with the flow of traffic. The car seems to be making good, appropriate use of every mode of the Hybrid system. I can't wait to run the FORScan battery balance function. I have a new laptop arriving soon and that will be the next thing I do.

If anyone's getting tired of these threads let me know and I'll can them for the time being. I did notice some interesting behavior: if you set the cruise at "exactly" 45 MPH, the hybrid system tends to "hunt" more as it tries to run the car in cruise control and balance the EV mode versus ICE w/regenerative braking, etc. That seems to be the "critical point" where the computer has to make a "go/no go" decision to either spin up the ICE or turn it off. It's really the only place where you can feel any telltale "hitches" that this is a Hybrid.

I really like this car. I wish Ford had kept making them on the same platform for several more years.

 

My car still has not once started in EV mode. No matter how hot it was. It always runs the ICE to warm up the catalyst, etc. 34 on A/C I speculate if you ran without it you could get close to 40.

 

I'm wondering if the computer is automatically forcing your A/C compressor (thus the ICE) on every time you start the car, no matter what?

Maybe you should get a helper and watch the compressor clutch on a cold start, after previously shutting the climate control off and letting it completely cool down? Can you monitor the compressor clutch in FORScan?

I will say that my mileage with the electric compressor on the '10 is a paradox. It doesn't seem to improve much even with the A/C off. I wasn't running in MAX or AUTO, but it's still weird, but the A/C was definitely ON. Rationally, I know the compressor is taking a non-negligible amount of power directly from the HV system and the energy for those electrons has to come from gasoline and/or regeneration, but it's almost as though the computer has a separate control strategy or something. I will have to take the same trip on a similar day with the A/C off the whole time.

 

I can feel when the compressor is on and it's definitely not on as far as I can tell. Could also be the missing FW update or something else like that battery code. I'd love to see the update change logs between versions. It's also possible that non electric A/C cars don't start in EV mode.

I do forget that your compressor isn't belt driven. I definitely take a decent mileage hit from mine. Maybe the power loss isn't much compared to the traction motor and the battery can keep up.