I've been researching to find out when Ford was going to the a Lithium Ion battery. A month or so ago, I read an article that talked about Ford going to the Lithium battery, but was only going to decrease the size, not the amount of power. Ford indicated that a longer lasting battery was not designed for the motors in the eCVT. Ford was concerned with cost because they were losing money on the FEH. I took it that Ford was not going to modify the FEH eCVT to handle longer EV.

Let face it, you would be crazy to modify the FEH under warranty. If there is a chance to get better mileage after the warranty, would you risk having to pay for a new eCVT? Ford replaces the eCVT as a unit, so forget about it being repaired.

My recommendation is to kept it stock, and buy something else if you want better mileage.

GaryG

 

I would have to agree with Gary.....the economics of this would not pay out for a normal individual.

It's an interesting push of the technology, and I would seriously consider a vehicle built (and warranted) to perform this way. I suspect, as you imply, that the battery and EV driving time is linked to how well other components will hold up as well. Clearly Ford knew that no one was going to be driving very far in EV mode, so if a motor failed because someone was driving 15 miles to work and back in all EV, I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to fix it. And I'm sure they would not.

 

But those who would consider upgrading the battery are also people who tend to "baby" their FEH and would take care to prevent damage, and would heed all warnings such as motor over temperatures, etc., should they occur. These people are not the kind who would be pushing the limits... not by a longshot.

And this is an economical choice, IF one can find cheap used / surplus batteries... such as batteries from commercial aircraft that must be tossed out due to age ( I think every 2 years ) that may in fact still be in quite good shape.