What do you want to know about the Focus Electric?

[dwf123]

I have not found a way to charge to a certain level. They have a choice of charge or value charge, which is a way to charge during off peak hours. Buy, when you charge it simply caps the battery off.

If anyone knows different, please post. I am not even certain charging to a certain percent is necessary because of the liquid cooled/heated shield this battery has.

Open to comment....

 

[felkster]

Out of curiosity, why would you want this feature? Battery management systems do all the work of maintaining appropriate charge levels and battery life for you. For example, when the Focus says "0" it's never truly at 0 (probably about 20-30% left), and when it's full, it's probably near, but not at, 100%. In other words, they're keeping you within a window of battery usage that keeps you from overstressing the cells, while the cooling/heating system is keeping them in a well-performing temperature range.

That's why Ford hybrids have nearly identical battery capabilities at >200,000 miles - because they're not overcharging or overdraining the cells, regardless of what the actual battery gauge tells you.

 

[Trielectric]

I saw a movie where a {Ford?} engineer drove a Ford Transit Connect Electric until it stopped due to a low battery voltage condition. Then he picked up his laptop and reprogrammed the vans Computer low voltage dropout setpoint. He turned the van around and drove it back home. The Transit Connect is supposed to be built from the Focus.

 

[Charged Up]

I have not found a way to charge to a certain level. They have a choice of charge or value charge, which is a way to charge during off peak hours. Buy, when you charge it simply caps the battery off.

If anyone knows different, please post. I am not even certain charging to a certain percent is necessary because of the liquid cooled/heated shield this battery has.

Open to comment....

Out of curiosity, why would you want this feature? Battery management systems do all the work of maintaining appropriate charge levels and battery life for you. In other words, they're keeping you within a window of battery usage that keeps you from overstressing the cells, while the cooling/heating system is keeping them in a well-performing temperature range.

That's why Ford hybrids have nearly identical battery capabilities at >200,000 miles - because they're not overcharging or overdraining the cells, regardless of what the actual battery gauge tells you.

I think the question is valid, and certainly the owner's manual is silent on the issue. Hopefully the battery management system does all the work of protecting the battery, but as Nissan LEAF owner's are figuring out, you can't assume this.

I believe I asked this question during one of the webchat Q&As they did prior to launch, and seems like the answer was charging to 80% is NOT necessary. Presumably because they use less of the full battery capacity and because of the liquid thermal regulation.
It appears Ford uses 85% of the battery, whereas it appears that Nissan is using somewhere between 87%-93% of the LEAF battery.

Although Ford has sighted their hybrid battery performance as a preface for expectations of their BEVs battery performance, I think most would agree that the data from the hybrids is irrelevant to BEVs. The demands on the battery for a BEV are much much greater, and typical hybrid batteries use a much smaller portion of the battery capacity than do BEVs.
In other words, we won't know how good the Ford batteries and BMS are until Wood has 100k on his batteries.