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Can I Add Another Battery Pack to a 2014 C-Max

4K views 20 replies 4 participants last post by  Brendon_m 
#1 ·
I just bought a used 2014 ford C-Max Energi. It has 192,000 k and I believe the batteries last for around 160,000k. As I just got the car yesterday, I haven't had enough time to evaluate it, but this morning I got into the car and instead of the range meter reading 23km, as my last C-Max read, it only read 13km, so I know the batteries are going.

Is it possible to add a second Energi battery pack to the car and increase my range?

Thanks,
Ian
 
#3 ·
I was thinking that, but I would love to get more mileage from just electric if possible. The car is supposed to get upwards of 21 miles in electric mode, that's about 34km. To get 13 km on a full charge, the batteries seem to be getting old. My lasrt C-Max Energi only had 132,000km and I got a maximum of 23km on a full charge.
 
#10 ·
It's not worth anyone's time but yours to ensure the proposed half-assery interoperates with the existing vehicle systems and is safe. For 30km of range extension...

You bought the wrong car. With the money you brag about having saved, put gas in it. Or just buy a new battery.

With gas heading to $12/gallon, you should have bought an electric car. The only way to fix a bad decision is to make a good one.

Nobody cares about 650km, and people that do shouldn't care about the 40km almost everybody drives per day. Go buy an electric car and sell your GPS with tires on it.
 
#11 ·
Wow, what a dick.

I wanted a car that would allow me to do city driving on electric power only. But still allow me to go places that's more than 100 miles away, which is what a Nissan leaf gives me for range.

I have family in Toronto which is 500 km away, I go to car auctions in Ottawa which is 150 km away and the hybrid portion of the car is perfect for that.

I have a convertible that I use in the summer, and a jeep that I use on weekends, and I did not want to buy an electric car for city driving and a gas car for when I have to go away, as I don't have room to park 4 cars and it's less expensive for insurance and registration on three cars than four, so I bought one that combined the two.
 
#12 ·
Can you add a second battery? Not easily, that's for sure.

My Chevy Volt's Guess O Meter varies wildly based on how it is driven. Highway driving and cold weather increase consumption and cause it to guess low. City driving and no climate control shoots it way up. I would drive it for a bit and see what your actual range is before worrying about the battery going bad.
 
#13 ·
Can you add a second battery? Not easily, that's for sure.

My Chevy Volt's Guess O Meter varies wildly based on how it is driven. Highway driving and cold weather increase consumption and cause it to guess low. City driving and no climate control shoots it way up. I would drive it for a bit and see what your actual range is before worrying about the battery going bad.
Thanks for the info. I plugged it in overnight when I got it and in the morning the "Guess O Meter" read 13km. That can only be old batteries or the cold since I was sti in my driveway with the HVAC off. I love the car, so I will use it as best as I can with the batteries I have and continue to research the 2nd battery situation.
 
#14 ·
For what an additional battery costs and all the BS you need to make it work, you could sell your GPS on tires and buy this:

Automotive parking light Automotive tail & brake light Tire Vehicle Wheel


You didn't buy a car with the electric range you needed.

You bought the wrong car.

Your false economy related to the initial purchase price fails as an argument to do what you propose. Failing to listen and to acknowledge reality are lenses that make others look like dicks.
 
#16 ·
For what an additional battery costs and all the BS you need to make it work, you could sell your GPS on tires and buy this:

View attachment 127803

You bought the wrong car.

Your false economy related to the initial purchase price fails as an argument to do what you propose. Failing to listen and to acknowledge reality are lenses that make others look like dicks.
For what an additional battery costs and all the BS you need to make it work, you could sell your GPS on tires and buy this:

View attachment 127803

You didn't buy a car with the electric range you needed.

You bought the wrong car.

Your false economy related to the initial purchase price fails as an argument to do what you propose. Failing to listen and to acknowledge reality are lenses that make others look like dicks.
I bought a hybrid with 20km of electric range. I knew what I was buying with the intention of looking into a second battery. I had a 2013 C-Max Energi last summer that I bought for resale and in the week that I drove it, I thought it would be perfect with a longer electric range, but was perfectly happy with it the way it was.

if you can't contribute to the posted topic, don't post at all.
 
#21 ·
Not the same car but I've added a second battery/range extender to my Outlander Phev. You definitely have to know what you are doing and it's pretty hard to justify. I used degraded leaf cells so the range increase was pretty woeful.
I went from around 40km to around 80km with a 170kg weight penalty and I lost some boot space.
I mostly did it as a proof of concept with the idea that I'll get new cells if it worked ok.

I haven't bothered to upgrade the pack as I went from getting about 3000km to a tank of fuel to now getting over 4000km per 1/4 tank. It's just not worth the extra investment to get more range, especially as the car forces me to use fuel anyway if I don't use enough (to stop it going stale).

My personal recommendation would be to replace the factory pack first if it's that weak as you'll probably get more bang for your buck and a more reliable car (modified cars are rarely as good as an OEM build).
Well, first things first, plug a scan tool/obd reader in and check it out, there may be just one especially weak cell or some other fault.

I did a build log here.
 
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