Hello all,

Just running a little battery science by you for some thoughts. For a 14.4kWh lithium-ion to only charge 10.3kWh means that Ford's battery management is only allowing roughly 75% of the battery to be utilized. Industry averages of 85% - 90% are becoming the industry average.. So why does Ford limit the range of the PHEV's to roughly 10 miles less than their competition?As we know Escape lineup also includes a conventional hybrid, but the PHEV brings that “something extra.” Once its 14.4-kWh lithium-ion battery is fully charged by plugging into a charger or wall outlet, the Escape PHEV gives you an EPA estimate of up to 38 miles on electricity alone. Once that depletes, the Escape automatically switches over to conventional hybrid operation. As long as you have gas in the tank, you’ll get where you’re going. It takes about 3.5 hours to fully recharge on a 240-volt Level 2 charger. It’s about 10 hours on a regular household plug with the included cord, but if you plan to mainly charge up overnight, it could quickly make up for the cost of buying and installing a home charger.

Looking at the Charging history of the last month - 55-65 degree weather - average charging about 37-48 mpg, it is charging about 10.5 kWh to recharge to that level. Ford Engineering, as all PHEV and BEV have Battery Management - continues to keep the limit on utilization of the Lithium kWh outputs of your battery. Although tested by Tesla.

That leaves me with a few observations of discovery due to Fords conservative approach to battery management:
1. The Escape is holding back almost 4.2 kWh's for its internal systems and technology.
2. We should be able to software update the system so we can tap into the approximately - 4.2 kWh

Here is my question for all of us. Why can't in 2023 - we tap into the battery more than 75% of the current capacity when the science backs things up.

I know all of us would love to get between 50-60 miles on a charge..

So what are your thoughts, thinking and dreaming to get to this and how can we proposition Ford to open the levels - as Tesla has done, to get better eMpg for our newer vehicles.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

Speaking of science, you should look into the science of traction lithium batteries. Use more capacity per cycle, get less cycles. If you were to utilize 100% of your battery capacity on a daily basis, you would see 20% battery capacity loss in 3-4 years. There is no conspiracy here.

The primary reason to restrict depth of discharge is increased cycle life. It has nothing to do with "controlling mpg" in any way.

Reduced depth of discharge can have an exponential effect on increased cycle life. Greater depth of discharge decreases battery life. It's that simple. They're utilizing a reduced depth of discharge based on cell manufacturer specifications, safety, and desired reliability.

Keep in mind that Ford has has the Fusion and C-max Energi models with 7.6kWh batteries and a 20mi range for ~10 years. There are LOTS of cases where these cars experience dramatically reduced range due to battery degradation. I have personally tested several hundred of the Panasonic cells from those packs and see substantial deterioration even at only 50K miles. Ford is likely applying some lessons learned.