Mark Smith
12-10-2007, 11:16 AM
I got to drive a 08 MMH at the Houston hybrid meeting. I was able to use my scan gauge and noticed some significant differences in the software. This MMH was NOT broken in so some of the differences may be due to the battery has not cycled enough.
1) The upper SOC is allowed to go about 2% higher. I was unable to test the lower limit SOC. On highway cruise the battery was no longer recharged by the MG1 after 54%. I did not and was unable to test the max recharge as the software is very aggressive in the use of the traction motor. Refresh rate seemed to be about the same.
2) The use of the traction motor is MUCH more aggressive when in Hybrid drive. Even with light acceleration in hybrid mode the SOC would drop 2-3%. It was very easy to run the battery down to 41% SOC with normal acceleration when in Hybrid drive. Clearly they are using more assist. I think this is where the mileage increase has come from. EV mode seemed about the same as the older models. LGA and double tap worked the same.
3) ICE start up was indeed much softer. Much softer than mine even after my PCM was replaced.
4) Hot restart ICE on time seemed much shorter. I noticed on 2 hot restarts after key off for 5 min the ICE only ran for maybe 15 seconds. Though I didn't put a stop watch on it.
I think on the 08's attention must be paid to SOC and keeping it high not low. It will be imperative to use regen braking otherwise you will be charging the battery allot of the time. After driving this 08 I KNOW I dont have the 08 software. ( I had thought I might have gotten the 08 SW when my PCM had to be replaced and they had to download SW from Ford to reflash the PCM.)
1) The upper SOC is allowed to go about 2% higher. I was unable to test the lower limit SOC. On highway cruise the battery was no longer recharged by the MG1 after 54%. I did not and was unable to test the max recharge as the software is very aggressive in the use of the traction motor. Refresh rate seemed to be about the same.
2) The use of the traction motor is MUCH more aggressive when in Hybrid drive. Even with light acceleration in hybrid mode the SOC would drop 2-3%. It was very easy to run the battery down to 41% SOC with normal acceleration when in Hybrid drive. Clearly they are using more assist. I think this is where the mileage increase has come from. EV mode seemed about the same as the older models. LGA and double tap worked the same.
3) ICE start up was indeed much softer. Much softer than mine even after my PCM was replaced.
4) Hot restart ICE on time seemed much shorter. I noticed on 2 hot restarts after key off for 5 min the ICE only ran for maybe 15 seconds. Though I didn't put a stop watch on it.
I think on the 08's attention must be paid to SOC and keeping it high not low. It will be imperative to use regen braking otherwise you will be charging the battery allot of the time. After driving this 08 I KNOW I dont have the 08 software. ( I had thought I might have gotten the 08 SW when my PCM had to be replaced and they had to download SW from Ford to reflash the PCM.)