I'm not sure of the exact mechanics of this but I thought I would share this little trick i figured out. One of the most frustrating parts of the game for me is when I lose a PVP my main team is out of action for almost 3 hours (your repair time increases as your rank does).
This is particularly frustrating in events. Anyway I was doing a PVP match and was just about to lose when I force shutdown the game. When I reloaded my team wasn't being repaired but was usable. I then proceeded to finish using my energon cubes. I logged back in about 20 mins later and suddenly my team was down for repairs but the timer was not 3hours, it was 2hours 40 mins.
What I take from this is that if you force shutdown just before you lose there is a lag between when you lost and when the game starts repairing your team. You will have a short period of time to use your remaining energon and the repair timer still runs.
Let me know if anyone else manages to do this too. I'm using an Android device for the game.