Ford Further Improving On-Road Hybrid Fuel Economy

Mmmmmm not sure I am ready for a Ford yet, I want something proven

 

But are these updates available for current-gen owners? Or will they have to buy the next model year?

 

The Other Cars really does get no love. I posted cleanmpg.com's article off this in the Ford hybrid section.

These are software updates for the cars on the road.

 

Ford offers fix after hybrid mileage comes up short - Houston Chronicle
They will be given as free software upgrades for current owners that want them.

I think it would also be a good idea for Ford to redo the EPA tests with the new software and all 5 cycles and report each of the 5 cycles. We don't know how much improvement the software will have. It will primarily help in cold conditions and with air conditioning.

pre upgrade c-max fuelly is 39.8mpg
Ford C-Max MPG Reports | Fuelly

2013 prius fuelly is 48.3 mpg

 

might some of these 'updates' lead to shorter battery life and increased emissions?

 

Great. I'm all for improvement.

But my gut reaction for a "calibration" update that is pretty all encompassing.

Seems like Ford did NOT do it right the first time. Nothing against Ford or the product, but I have to wonder why at least some of these seemingly somewhat obvious improvements weren't that way when the vehicle rolled off the assembly line.

 

Given our Prius don't have 'vanes', it begs the question. In 2009, I spoke with the Chief Engineer and suggested 'air inlet blocks' . . . that was four years ago.

Bob Wilson

 

Opening and closing a shutter, and speeding up and down a fan are not that complicated. I wonder if the intern who set these things initially is related to the guy who posted the "names" of the Asiana flight crew on KTVU TV ?

 

The EPA cycles do not turn on A/C or heat.
It should make not difference, but real live driving will be affected.

 

It is possible now that they have more real world data on the batteries, that they might be happy up to 84 mph Since warranty claims cost money, it wouldn't be in ford's best interest to shorten it with those crazy 10 year warranties. This is the opposite of what honda did. It is possible that their engineers, or the ones at the supplier (panasonic) goofed, but it will take years to know.

For emissions we have the fine regulators at CARB and the EPA to make sure they get reported.

The rest of the software, was probably a matter of improvements they missed. Missing efficiency is a lot more minor than putting a defect in braking software. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

perhaps toyota is studying the ford automatic vanes to see if such a scheme will work on the gen IV. They are making them on more and more cars.

 

Of the 5 cycle tests there is one for airconditioning/hot temperatures and one for cold temperatures
Detailed Test Information

Car and Driver had the conjecture that the c-max only did the 2 cycle test and estimated the other ones. It could not get ford or the epa to confirm or deny that conjecture, but it was an option.

Consumer Reports does not at all test in real life driving! They also don't test in hot and cold, they simply do some calculation based on some formula that likely doesn't work to extrapolate. In the houston chronicle article, they tarred the prius with the same "real world" brush as the c-max.

We do have car and driver, fuelly, and clean mpg all saying that they couldn't get the c-max to hit the numbers.

 

There are 5 EPA test cycles; city, highway, high speed, A/C, and cold. The city and highway are the original two test cycles, and they have to be performed. The other three are the ones introduced in 2008 to try to bring the EPA results in line with real world numbers. However, they aren't required to be done. A manufacturer can choose to only run the city and highway tests, and come up with an adjustment as was done for pre-2008 models.

Which is fine for the traditional ICE car, but might give hybrids with a high EV speed bloated numbers. I haven't read anything that says this is what Ford did, but it is suspected.

 

I disagree with those statements.

When you are building and selling a "Hybrid" or any vehicle that's primary benefit is increased efficiency- "Missing Efficiency" is huge.

I'm looking at that rather long laundry list of calibration updates and I have to think that it is somewhat unforgiveable that Ford didn't have those efficiency calibrations onboard when the product was released. Or at least most of them.

And also the whole statement "Putting a defect in braking software" is IMO not correct. If you are referencing Toyota's braking software update for the Gen 3? There never was a "defect" with the original software. First of all NO manufacturer would "put a defect in braking software"....and Toyota never did. The update came in the wake of the mainstream popularity of the Gen 3 Prius, and was designed to give the brakes a more conventional feel and reaction. But I would never call either the update or the original software a "defect" in the braking software....any more than I would call Fords sudden almost total reboot and update of their software in numerous areas a defect.

It's updating the software to make the driving experience better. In Toyota's case it was a singular update of the brakes. In Fords it appears they woke up one day and discovered almost all of their software could be a lot better....

Hmm...Advantage Toyota. They got a lot more right...the first time than it appears Ford did.

 

I experienced the braking bug. I do not think it was minor. Not optimising how long to keep grill shutters closed in to the cold is pretty minor. The prius doesn't even have automatic shutters.

I think we all would rather have had ford advertising more realistic mileage maybe 40 mpg than the 47 that no one seems to be able to get unless going really slow. As clean mpg says these cars do get very good mileage, but we can be mad at ford for claiming in advertisements numbers that they don't get.

Wow as opposed to honda that had the software wrong and reduced battery life, then put in a software that reduced gas mileage, and gave customers coupons? I think this is a little bit of an exageration that it is unforgivable. There was the pinto and the explorer. These were damaging to ford. Non optimized software that gets improved in less than a year. That is progress.

Of course there was a defect. I experienced it, as did many others. Toyota Lied about it, and told us it didn't exist, then the Japanese government pressured them to admit to it. They had known about it and had been working on it before the government pressure. Don't believe that Toyota was telling the truth then, and is lying about the defect now. That makes no sense, they were caught with the documents. They didn't put a defect in on purpose. I have not experienced it since they corrected it.

 

The A/C and cold cycles are set to a specific heat load, the smart software may not be able to override the settings to provide better efficiency.

 

Perhaps that is so, but these updates aren't to increase the 47mpg rating they have now. Ford is putting these updates out in order to improve the real world fuel economy of its customers. Many of which that have been complaining that the EPA numbers are too high, or something is wrong with the car. Ford is facing multiple class action suites over this, and this should help them on that front.

If the C-max and Fusion hybrid were to be tested on all 5 cycles without the updates, chances are they wouldn't return the 47mpg on the window sticker. They still might not do so with the updates, but they should do better than they do now. Beyond keeping customers happy, releasing these updates might be a way of avoiding being forced to retest the cars with all 5 cycles by the EPA.

 

I can't see how updates would get fuelly mpg up from 40 up to 47, its probably around a mile per gallon, but every little bit helps.


I understand that the sticker is confusing enough and it might get worse with all 5 tests, but there is not a good reason they aren't posted on fueleconomy.gov. I think if the high speed and cold weather tests were there people might understand the cars better. If manufacturers are using the calculations to go from 2 cycles to 5 we know that doesn't really work for hybrids, and we would know their calculation from the website.

 

It'll be harder on the battery for sure. The issue was the ICE is oversized and inefficient with light load (cruising at 65mph). Now that ICE would shut down, it'll be recharging the battery and then run it on battery and alternate, it seems.

Faster warm up may not increase emission. If done right, it could actually decrease emission.

 

Correct, the software update is just to "limit A/C usage" just like the ECO mode, so the real live MPG could be slightly better, or closer to the EPA number.