Official Ford C-MAX Energi PHEV thread

[DaveinOlyWA]

I wont make any absolute statements but I can say that it is very very unlikely I will get a car that is not hybrid or ele tric

[DaveEV]

Interesting... Most hybrid owners don't buy another...

Or, if you look at it this way:

Somewhere between 2-4% of the market are hybrids. So if you look at 100 people buying cars, 2-4 might buy a hybrid.

Now, if you look at people who already own a hybrid, 35% of them are going to buy another - they are 10 times more likely to buy another.

Now I (and others here) may be biased, but I almost certainly won't consider a car without some degree of electrification in the future.

[EricBayArea]

Interesting... Most hybrid owners don't buy another...

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/l ... 6214.story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Reading that it doesn't clarify if the hybrid owners are buying a car to replace their hybrid, or to supplement their hybrid - a relevant question. Every person I know who owns a hybrid has a non-hybrid as their second car. For various reasons; other car is fast/fun to drive, other car is an SUV, other car has AWD... However, of the people I know who own hybrids, when they have replaced their hybrid, they have purchased another hybrid. So this is why I wonder about my question.

But on the topic of the C-MAX, now that my wife and I own our LEAF and love driving it I really want to replace our Subaru with a Plug-In hybrid that has AWD in the future so I'm happy to see more models come along. Especially that we have a L2 in the garage already for the LEAF.

[KeiJidosha]

I wont make any absolute statements but I can say that it is very very unlikely I will get a car that is not hybrid or ele tric

Yes. Future vehicles will need a plug to get into our garage. Small BEV could be i3, Fit, Spark, LEAF, Focus, or 500 EV. Crossover EREV could be C-Max Energi, MPV5, or PX-MiEV.

[TomT]

Yes, we are going to replace our SUV this year and we'd really like a PHEV CUV but it does not appear that there will yet be any decent choices. Even the pure hybrids are not inspiring... AWD is not a consideration for us; FWD is fine. (I'm left unimpressed by the Fords at this point...)

But on the topic of the C-MAX, now that my wife and I own our LEAF and love driving it I really want to replace our Subaru with a Plug-In hybrid that has AWD in the future so I'm happy to see more models come along. Especially that we have a L2 in the garage already for the LEAF.

[evnow]

Yes, we are going to replace our SUV this year and we'd really like a PHEV CUV but it does not appear that there will yet be any decent choices. Even the pure hybrids are not inspiring... AWD is not a consideration for us; FWD is fine. (I'm left unimpressed by the Fords at this point...)

We are going to wait for Energi / Mitsu PX-MiEV. No way we're buying a non-plugin.

[redLEAF]

+1 on the C-Max Energi although I saw on edmunds.com that they didn't think it would be available now until early '13; the hybrid version possibly by late '12. I did come across something on the differences between the hybrid only versus plug-in hybrid cargo capacity as we're looking at the utility aspect. Perhaps old news but you'll lose about 11 cu. ft. with the battery packs versus the non plug-in (or 43.4 with seats folded) -- this compares with 67.3 with a Prius V (not plug-in version, not available yet), 65.4 Mazda CX-5, 70 Scion xB, 70.9 Honda CR-V, new '13 Escape at 68.1 and even 53.4 with a Kia Soul; perhaps not everyone will cross-shop these but we would be downsizing from a VW Routan (at 144 total, 32.7 behind third row ... we normally travel with the third seat folded down so will be looking at what that space typically would be for comparison). For anyone who has something big like a minivan, you don't even have to think most times about something fitting, just fold down that third seat and it typically fits. Question is how many times do we need excess room ... researching that now, it also needs to have a great long distance ride (about 40% used for that) as well as great MPG on short trips otherwise we'll simply keep what we have. No question our LEAF is doing quite well as our main weekend errand runner in all but much longer runs or when more room is needed but for winter, utility and trips -- a C-Max Energi could be the ticket. Trade off on waiting is to balance how much the trade-in loses value versus getting something sooner as well as gas prices, etc. and piece of mind to unload it while it's still under warranty ... we had somewhat of the same thing with the LEAF purchase keeping our trade-in under 60K for max allowance.

http://media.ford.com/images/10031/2013_CMAX_Specs.pdf

EDIT: found the cargo dimension for the Routan with third rear seat 'out' for '12 (ours is an '09); as they only fold flat into a well and don't get removed like the older ones probably just a typo but it's 83.3 which blows away all of the above and is almost double what the Energi would hold. Of course we don't typically fill the entire space but it's convenient when you have it. It's hard to have max utility as well as max mileage otherwise someone would have figured it out a long time ago!

[TomT]

All of these are just some of the reasons why it does not look like a PHEV (or even, perhaps, a hybrid) CUV is in our future this time around... BEV only is not an option for our second vehicle.

I saw on edmunds.com that they didn't think it would be available now until early '13; the hybrid version possibly by late '12. I did come across something on the differences between the hybrid only versus plug-in hybrid cargo capacity as we're looking at the utility aspect. Perhaps old news but you'll lose about 11 cu. ft. with the battery packs versus the non plug-in (or 43.4 with seats folded)

[DaveinOlyWA]

the general skinny looks to be hybrids by early MY or late summer, EVs mid Winter, Ext ranges not till early 13 on the Ford Front.

[evnow]

the general skinny looks to be hybrids by early MY or late summer, EVs mid Winter, Ext ranges not till early 13 on the Ford Front.

Yes - if they use the same timelines as they are doing for FFE, Energi should be 6 months late.