Ford custom transit phev - issues

[DavidFenner]

I've had my very expensive PHEV ford custom transit for approx 6weeks, already had the AA out on day 2 because the vehicle would not start due to the accessory battery being flat, alarm is constantly going off early hours of the morning (van plugged in or unplugged, dosent seen to matter) (these early morning alarm sounds  don't flash the lights, dosent show on app, its as if the sounder is going off on its own, when you purposely set the alarm off you get lights  sound and a notification)

It's needed a full software reload because of corruption and apparently will need another major update soon,   it would seem that the 1000 vans tested in London city etc was in fact a typo and what they meant was the 1st 1000 sold at full price will automatically become test subjects.

The van has rarely charges within the specified time and in some occasions it's taken over 4hrs on a 7.2kw charger and still shows not fully charged.

The precondition or remote start advertised, is not a feature available

The geolocation module, is not installed and noone knows if or when this will be available

However the biggest issue, is when fully charged we get an estimated range of 15-19miles of range, and funnily enough we seem to always get exactly what it stated before we start any journey, since the update we have occasionally got more but never more than 21miles. Ford say there is nothing wrong with the van and we should wait as they are always making improvements, but why should I, surely if the van does 35miles, I should be able to get close to this on day 1, and in theory the updates should give me than 35miles and not make out that they are doing me a favour but getting me lose to what is promised.

I understand it might be 35miles in the city only and maybe less on the 50mph roads, but there is no information on the internet, I've asked ford how the 35miles was calculated, but I'm still waiting for an answer

Our van has been left with minimal tools/ equipment since going electric and I would hate to think what range we would get if we have it fully loaded like our previous van.

I rarely break now to maximize the L feature of the energy recycling, we seem to cruise everywhere at 20kw, I'm accelerating soo slowly just to try and get as much range as possible, I would hate to think what range I would get if I drove it like my last van

The idea of this PHEV was because most clients live in a 30miles range of my home and most roads are 20-50mph and so I should really never have to use petrol, I bought the range extender PHEV because my son and a few clients live over 100miles away, and so having the ability to occasionally do long journeys.

I'm having to steal electricity from clients because I can't achieve 50% of the range estimated by ford

Does anyone else have a PHEV, what range are you getting? What is your driving style etc.

[rob4wd]

I have a phev, haven't had any problems with the van, other than one non start event when run out of electric charge prior to a software update...range on electric is poor though..on a warm day maybe 23 miles if I'm lucky...never had more then 22 appear on the dash ..halve those figures when it's freezing...I pity anyone who has to cover any sort of distance in it, it's not pleasant to drive on petrol...overall I can just about make the van work out ok because I just do short hops around town before ( long ) charges...real ball ache having to plug that cumbersome charging lead in all the time...still that's progress !

[Mr PHEV]

The key to getting the best from your PHEV is to keep pressing the MODE button by your left knee, using the mode that's best for the van during each part of your journey. Long stretches of (relatively) fast roads are an ideal time to run the engine and save your battery range High speed just soaks up more power to overcome air resistance, cruise at 56mph with the trucks. In stop/start urban traffic (or motorway jams) switch the idling, wasteful engine off and use the battery. I hoped that AUTO mode would have done all this changing for me, but no. All EVs lose lots of range if you use the aircon or heater. Fit window deflectors and drive with the passenger window down half an inch to save running the fan. Use the seat heater (on 1 notch) to avoid heating the whole cab. Rather than ask for full aircon cooling, turn the heating control to the 10 O'Clock position to lower the load on the cooling (close your windows). Most of the discomfort on a hot day is due to high humidity rather than the high temperature, even some (rather than full) cooling will lower this humidity. The range displayed once fully charged is an accurate estimate given your previous driving technique. My best so far is a consistent 31, EV drivers get used to trying to beat their previous best. The engine will fire up if you take the needle over 5 (50kW) so press the throttle less, try to get used to keeping it 3. Only use "L" and maximise your regen braking with practice, I hardly ever use the friction brakes. If leaving a motorway, try to arrive at the give way line at walking pace just by using the regen - you'll learn when to jump off the throttle and send the needle fully left, pulling your speed down. If making a "there and back" trip, aim to use half your battery range during the outward journey and half coming back - ideal is to arrive home with about 1 mile of battery left. Using electricity to move the van costs about half the petrol cost. As an example, I use AUTO or EV NOW to get to the motorway, EV LATER (ie engine) on the motorway then back to battery once off the motorway/A road. Aim to never use EV CHARGE mode, this uses petrol to recharge your battery, far from ideal. The PHEV handbook was updated and improved, find the new one online or on the Ford Pass App.

[DG PHEV]

I have had one of these since January this year as well.  Mine is a company vehicle (large international company that purchased 100+) so I haven't paid for mine, the fuel or the electricity, I would be absolutely sick if I had put my own money down on this!

In the cold spell at the beginning of the year I saw as low as 8 miles on the range, in the recent good weather I have seen high 20's and even as high as the mid 30's.  During the very high temperatures we have just had the range has dropped back down to the low 20's and even into the teens, however when driving the range hasn't dropped until much later in the day so there is obviously more charge than it is reporting 🤷‍♂️

I was expecting the electric motor to have a bit more power to get up high speed hills (motorway/dual carriage way), I can barely get above 60mph and had an instance of driving at 70mph on cruise control when it violently disengaged and would not accelerate back above 50mph until I had passed the crest of the hill.

Then there is the subject of the alarm... Originally I did not really have a problem, I think it only sounded 2 or 3 times over a period of a couple of months.  I was then informed by my company that there was a software update (carried out on the drive) to improve the range and to carryout a master reset to try and solve the alarm issues.  After the master reset my alarm started going off more often than before, then it eased off and didn't go off that much.  Until recently that is, it has now developed a habit of going off at 05:00 07:00 01:40 last night at I don't know what time and then mid morning today.  The most recent all while the alarm is set to Reduced Guard, another master reset done this afternoon so fingers crossed that gives some respite, I'm just waiting for the neighbours to (quite rightly) starting to complain.  My companies fleet department have said they waiting to hear from Ford and that is basically that, nothing else I can do.

Hopefully Ford will get this fixed sometime soon and we can all get a good nights sleep!!!

[DavidFenner]

Hello All, 

We have an update, it seems the Ford PHEV needs Sync3 for most of the features, our supplying dealer has veified that Sync 3 was the only option on the vans and they were both ordered with Sync 3, however after (what feels like weekly visits) for over a year I have discovered we only have Sync 2.5

Our local dealer believes that the Sync 3 cant be "retro" fitted and so we have 2x vans running 2.5 when the only option was sync3.

This all came about because we got a cold morning and only got 12miles of range (even without AC or anything else running on the van (van is also empty)), when we checked about Precondition which is now advertised on Ford.co.uk as a way to get more miles, it states using precondition uses the mains (while plugged in) to warm the battery and cabin etc to ensure batteries are only for driving,  we insisted on an update as to when this feature will finally be available as we have waited for over a year now, to discover videos of people already enjoying this feature.

Only difference was they had sync 3 and not 2.5

This is the 2nd Feature that I was promised I had when I dont, it seems Ford are very happy to Sell Apples and deliver Lemons.

So 2x Vans, 2x items promised on each, niether have, I cant believe I have been missold on 2x vans twice.

[unofix]

 

This is the 2nd Feature that I was promised I had when I dont, it seems Ford are very happy to Sell Apples and deliver Lemons.

So 2x Vans, 2x items promised on each, niether have, I cant believe I have been missold on 2x vans twice.

If this was me I would be seeking legal advice. At the very least a meeting with Trading Standards. I feel sorry that your good intentions have in effect back-fired and you are left in such a poor position.

[DavidFenner]

On 11/12/2021 at 2:10 PM, unofix said:

If this was me I would be seeking legal advice. At the very least a meeting with Trading Standards. I feel sorry that your good intentions have in effect back-fired and you are left in such a poor position.

Amazingly being a commercial van the Vehicle ombudsman scheme doesn't cover these types of vehicles. 

Apparently dealer is now filing a misbuild claim.

 

I strongly urge everyone to check if they have precondition feature on their app, or even more importantly checked which version of sync you are running. I can only presume I'm not the only 1 with the wrong build

I have had the following people looking at my vehicle all of whom did not pick up on the wrong sync system.

# Ford Quality control department

# supplying dealer pre delivery check

# local TrustFord dealership (who has seen both vans atleast 15x in total)

# supplying dealer service department who performed a recall 

# Ford's own Custom PHEV technician specialist  who is the only guy who travels up and down the UK doing these major PHEV updates (he came out x2, once per each van)

[iantt]

Is the chassis number on the screen the same as the vehicle chassis no? That chassis number indicates a vehicle built later than your first post in Jan? 

[DavidFenner]

As a stupid fool, I bought a second PHEV when I thought Ford had fixed the 1st PHEV

[DavidFenner]

Ford are saying its not a misbuild and 2.5 is correct,  I'm soo confused,  it's advertised with sync3, my dealer ordered sync 3, these are the top spec models which have had sync 3 advertised as standard since 2016 years, yet sync 2.5 is correct

[DavidFenner]

I left the van running this morning for 20mins on full AC (I presume how precondition is supposed to work), when I came back to turn off and plug back in to top up batteries so I can start my day with a full tank of EV, I noticed the batterys were down to 3/4, so for me to precondition the van for 20mins uses 1/4 of the EV, which in reality takes an additional 45mins to top back up, so to precondition the van I need to prep the van 65mins before I want to leave (it's only 5degrees outside, would presume colder will mean getting up even earlier???)

 

 

[unofix]

On 11/12/2021 at 2:10 PM, unofix said:

If this was me I would be seeking legal advice.

 

[Disappointed ford owner]

Horrendous amounts of issues experienced by a colleague who has one. He’s had to take it back to Ford 3 times in less than 1000 miles and the first 2 times Ford turned him away and said there’s nothing they could do. He had to show the forums and insist on a software update for them to do anything and even then they tried to say they didn’t have to offer him a courtesy van. Needless to say, he eventually got them to admit that there was me software available and lend him a diesel courtesy van. Not only that but we have another colleague who owned 3 of these and has sent all of them back as all of them presented an engine management fault and the update didn’t resolve anything. 

[unofix]

Sadly the issues with electric vans seems not to be limited to Ford.

I watched a guy with a £50,000 VW having problems on You-Tube, very reduced range, heater not working, charging taking far longer than it should.

[unofix]

 

[Marky146]

From what I can gather, Sync 2.5 means the car doesn't have SAT NAV, which is present in Sync 3, in a separate APIM module. Having experienced Ford's Sat Nav in my Fiesta ST3, I'm more than happy my Transit Custom only has Sync 2.5!!

Just saying, I do sympathise with you not getting what you ordered. I bought s/h so didn't have a choice. 

[dalin024]

The company I’m working for is interested in buying this van, but when I asked the dealer about remote heating/start it wasn’t available, is this true? 😫

[unofix]

2 hours ago, dalin024 said:

but when I asked the dealer about remote heating/start it wasn’t available, is this true?

Depends, different counties get different options. I'm quite sure you get an auxiliary heater if you live in Finland.

[coxyfish]

I wish I saw this thread before buying my Custom PHEV. 
I’m going through FordPass and commercial vans technical for the issues that I’m having which are (to name a few):

Non-remote start, inability to remotely heat or cool the cabin, inability to set charging times or rates, the van won’t charge at 32 A/7.2 kW, and non EV integration with FordPass app. 

In Ford‘s defence they have fixed the Geo unit and updated the modules that caused me to completely lose power on a dual carriageway. 

I have raised all of these problems with FordPass and commercial vans support but I keep getting delayed in the help or case closed and never any straight answers. 

I’ve discovered the van will not charged at the advertised 32A or any of the above, so unless Ford come up with a fix quickly I’m going to look at my legal options as I looked at these factors when buying the van. 

Has anyone else on here looked at their legal options due to Fords false advertising, as I believe Ford are trying to do their best brush these problems under the carpet. 
 

 

[Bash3000]

Hi Coxyfish,

 

Just wondered how you got on with your van?  I have a Transit custom PHEV and the electric motor died on me on the motorway.  The local Ford dealer is the only one who can fix it but as they only have one hyrbid tech its taken almost 2 months.  Its under warranty for the next few months but I've been told there will be no extended warranty on the replaced parts because I didn't pay for them myself.

I'm thinking that moving this van along will be my only solution.  I spoke to ford and they have basically said they can't or won't offer any reassurance for the future.

Have you still got yours any more issues with it?

 

Cheers,

 

ash

[unofix]

You're in for a long wait if you are expecting an answer from Coxyfish - Last visited the forum 24th June 2022