- Increasing the maximum pure electric speed to 85 mph from 62 mph, allowing increased use of electric-only mode on the highway
- Optimizing the use of Active Grille Shutters to reduce aerodynamic drag under more driving and temperature conditions including cold weather, during air conditioner use and when the engine coolant temperature is higher
- Reducing the electric fan speed as a function of coolant temperature to minimize the fan’s energy consumption
- Shortening engine warm-up time by up to 50 percent to enable electric-only driving and engine shutdown at stops sooner after cold starts
- Optimizing the climate control system to minimize use of the air conditioning compressor and reduce the energy used in cold weather operation
It almost sounds like we’re talking about a buggy software product and not a car.
The genesis of this software fix comes from complaints from owners of 2013 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, Ford Fusion Hybrid, and C-Max Hybrid about real world fuel economy. The Huffington Post for example had a rather brutal review of the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid along with this:
BOTTOM LINE: If it doesn’t look like a hybrid or drive like a hybrid, it’s probably not going to get hybrid fuel efficiency. The rumors of poor mpg are true. If you’re looking for real mpg, go with Toyota Prius or Chevy Volt.
Ouch. That hurts.
The class action lawsuits being filed over this issue aren’t helping either. Let’s hope the software fix improves things for owners. Otherwise, Ford’s claim to be the leader when it comes to fuel economy and technology will take a serious hit that it will not recover from.
UPDATE: A reader pointed out to me that late last year Ford had issues with their 1.6L Ecoboost engines where engine fires were possible. That required a software fix to remedy. It sounds like Ford needs to do some better QA on the software that their cars use.
Ford Hybrid Owners Get Software Update To Improve Fuel Economy [UPDATED]
I tripped over a press release from Ford which caught my attention as Ford was announcing that there was a forthcoming software update to fix a bunch of fuel economy related issues with their hybrid cars including:
It almost sounds like we’re talking about a buggy software product and not a car.
The genesis of this software fix comes from complaints from owners of 2013 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, Ford Fusion Hybrid, and C-Max Hybrid about real world fuel economy. The Huffington Post for example had a rather brutal review of the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid along with this:
BOTTOM LINE: If it doesn’t look like a hybrid or drive like a hybrid, it’s probably not going to get hybrid fuel efficiency. The rumors of poor mpg are true. If you’re looking for real mpg, go with Toyota Prius or Chevy Volt.
Ouch. That hurts.
The class action lawsuits being filed over this issue aren’t helping either. Let’s hope the software fix improves things for owners. Otherwise, Ford’s claim to be the leader when it comes to fuel economy and technology will take a serious hit that it will not recover from.
UPDATE: A reader pointed out to me that late last year Ford had issues with their 1.6L Ecoboost engines where engine fires were possible. That required a software fix to remedy. It sounds like Ford needs to do some better QA on the software that their cars use.
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This entry was posted on July 17, 2013 at 7:50 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Ford. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.