Good Morning Everybody,
I just recently bought my girlfriend a 2008 Escape Hybrid. Its a nice clean car with one family that owned it (mother then daughter) so it seems to have been taken care of well. The car has 95,000 miles on it and no issues that I can currently find, which is great!

I am trying to understand how the relationship between EV Mode, the engine and the battery all works. Right now the temperatures up here are down around freezing at night and 40's or 50's during the day. When I went and test drove this (it was a CL purchase) everything drove great and worked just fine and at the time I was not familiar with how hybrids work. But I have yet to see this thing go into EV Mode, so I'm curious if this is anything of concern or maybe some sort of indication of a weak battery that requires a consistent charge. I am just not familiar with how these things work, so I am not sure how long the engine typically needs to run to get the battery charged up enough to go into EV Mode and use just battery.

We are just driving around town, so most drives are less than 20 minutes, so maybe I just need to take it on a longer drive and see if it works once it gets nice and warm?

 

The ONLY source of heat is the ICE. If you command heat for the cabin, the ICE will run as needed to meet that heat demand. Use of defroster requires running the compressor, which is run by the gas engine (2010+ are electric). Use of climate controls in any "AUTO" mode and adjusting the thermostat as needed generally gives the best results.

Under 50°F, the battery can be damaged by charging, so the car protects the battery and keeps charge currents low until the battery temperature increases. During this time, the battery mostly discharges, and below a certain point, the vehicle will refuse EV operation due to the lower state of charge.

Over 100°F, the battery can be damaged, so the vehicle essentially disables 90-95% of it's hybrid function and essentially only uses it to start the ICE.

Short trips can be murder on hybrids, particularly in extreme temperature conditions (low and high). This minimizes their benefit.

To make the battery last longer than 2-3 years, the vehicle only uses a tiny portion of the available capacity of the battery.

EV mode is also very limited. It helps to remember that the USABLE capacity of the giant battery in back is about the same as the TOTAL capacity of the 12V battery under the hood:

12V * 70Ah = 840Wh
1.2V * 250 * 5.5Ah * 40% = 660Wh

You do NOT have an electric car. You have a gas car with an electric energy recovery system. Hybrids are more efficient because:

1) their Atkinson cycle ICEs are a little more efficient.
2) The HV battery can power the car at stops thus saving fuel consumed while idling.
3) The Electric hybrid system captures kinetic energy (regenerative braking), stores it and releases it to attain new kinetic energy.
4) The Electric motor "boosts" the ICE when the ICE is particularly inefficient, e.g., during acceleration, the ICE burns a lot of fuel. By reducing this demand by supplying boost from the EV motor, fuel burn is reduced. Electrical energy can be siphoned off the ICE slowly when the ICE is operating at a much higher efficiency.

The goal should never be to get the car to operate more in EV mode. It should be to maximize mpg. Any gas "saved" by deliberately operating in "forced" EV mode will be burned replenishing that juice.

AK is a bad place for hybrids as the extreme cold severely inhibits their hybrid function and eliminates many of the advantages; however, they still perform a little better than a non-hybrid.

 

Awesome response! Yeah really the reason we bought this was because the lady wanted something with heated seats, her previous Escape was an 07' with the 2.4L I believe. This gets a little better gas mileage, 25-30 mpg.
Do you know where I can find a good source for preventative type maintenance on these things? I know I can always use a Chilton or Haynes maybe (not sure with these), but just curious if you have anything you recommend where it might have some cold weather care tips?
Thanks

 

If you're actually getting 25-30mpg, that's about all you should expect. Mild weather will be at the top end, harsh weather will be at or below the low end.

For actual maintenance needs, nothing beats the Ford resources:

https://www.motorcraftservice.com/

Signing up on that site gives you access to "Free Resources" by VIN including the online owner's manual. I encourage you to peruse this information. Get to know the vehicle.

Owner's manual has a scheduled maintenance guide:

https://www.fordservicecontent.com/F.../08hevog2e.pdf

If you're troubleshooting or in need of repairs, for $22, you can get full access to all Ford tech data for your vehicle for 72 hours.

Tips:

1. Get Forscan now before you need it. Run the battery balancing function on a warmish day (> 55°F) after the vehicle is fully warmed up.
2. Avoid long term storage at all costs.
3. If the vehicle is going to sit for more than 7 days, disconnect the 12V battery. Owner's manual says 30 days. On a 14 year old vehicle/HV battery, 7 days is better.
4. If there is a need to use the HV jump starter, best to attach a running vehicle to jump the 12V during the charging process like you would a traditional jump start. This will require the vehicles be attached and the jump vehicle running for about 10 minutes. The HV jump starter puts a very heavy load on the 12V battery, and unless it's in very good condition and at a high state of charge, HV jump starting results may be suboptimal.
5. After HV jump starting, allow vehicle to idle charge the battery for at least 15 minutes or until the ICE shuts off. With experience, you'll be able to tell when the ICE is charging the battery at idle. If you determine it's no longer charging, or the battery level displayed in the vehicle indicates 1/3 charge or better (nav equipped units only), you can reduce the idle time.

 

Just to add to what S Keith wrote above:

Your car has no conventional starter nor alternator. When the ICE needs to start, one of the two electric drive motors spins it up. The charging function is from the ICE spinning one of the motors to act as a DC generator.

Reverse is always electric power only, using the smaller of the two electric motors.

The CVT transmission is a cyclic gear design, and very robust. Failures are almost unheard of. It's a good idea to change out the transmission oil at 100K miles.
OTOH, of yours is 4WD, the transfer case is a weak spot and should be checked.

The HV Jump Starter is an emergency feature that your car most likely has. On the end of the dash, driver side, there is a triangular panel facing the door. This pops off easily, revealing a squarish push-button switch. This turns on a charging system that allows the 12V battery to charge the HV battery. It does so for 8 minutes, and may require repeated cycles, with booster cables attached as described above.

As noted, get a copy of FORscan to run on a laptop. It will let you see and do a lot of things on that car (or any Ford or Mazda) that a store-bought OBD2 scanner will not. It's free, and there are mobile versions as well (with limited functionality compared to the Windows version). Google it.

Another useful tool is a ScanGage. This is an OBD2 scanner which lets you add your choice of 4 gages. Mine currently shows State of Charge (SOC), HV Battery voltage, instantaneous MPG, and coolant temp. It's a bit geeky and fiddly getting it set up, but it's useful in learning and maintaining the vehicle

It's a pretty neat car, very well designed and built. Their Achilles heel is the aging HV battery. If you can keep it happy in its old age, the car is good for several hundred thousand more miles.

Oh, and Welcome to the forum!

 

Hey thanks so much for the info fellas! I love the fact that you can show up to these forums and get a real quick education from people that know it. The battery info is super helpful. Do you know if I leave for a period of time does it help to put these on any type of trickle charger or battery maintainer? Do they make battery maintainers specific to the HV battery?

 

No trickle charger option, unfortunately.
When I know I won't be able to drive mine, I leave it with a relative and ask them to drive it to work, or on errands, at least every other day.
If they forget, or if I loose track of when I last drove mine, I have to go through the process to revive it.

SKeith, can the Mouser charger be used as a maintainer when the car has to sit idle?

 

Thanks for the info, the transmission is super cool. Ive never seen one of these before, but the constant acceleration is pretty friendly. Plus its not as peppy as the 07' escape, so it like a governor for the lady haha. If I was the one driving it, id be all over the OBD app, I love seeing that info. But she wont look at that stuff, so the best I can do is just keep an eye on it and maintain it good.

Do you have any experience with windows vs mac on Forscan? My comp is a mac, but we have a PC as well. EDIT: Nevermind, just looked at Forscan and its windows only

Thanks again!

 

Great points.

No. If long term storage is needed, disconnected 12V battery and put it on a float charger/battery tender. When you return, conduct the HV jump start procedure.

"Floating" NiMH batteries actually degrades them. While deep discharge can be very inconvenient, it's actually good for the cells in most cases.

That's truly the best option... just keep driving them.

No. The Mouser PS will destroy the battery if left connected. It's peak voltage is higher than the 100% charged voltage of the battery, so it will just keep pumping current into it even after the battery has cried "MERCY."

As per above, there is no value in "floating" NiMH. If you have a re-charge option available, best to just let it discharge as it will do and conduct a single charge upon placing it back into service.

I suspect Forscan would run under Wine. Would definitely run under Bootcamp.

 

Yeah machine just need to run. Airplanes are the same way. Nothing replaces just using them.

Thanks for all of the answers, ill hop back on here if any lights start illuminating...