Who is going to jump to the Escape Hybrid?

[ptjones]

Yesterday I started out with a full charge and ended up with 49.4 miles all electric EV when I got home. I went about 2 miles on 0 range with a good part down hill, was surprised that the ICE didn't start. I parked in front of the garage to get my bike out and wash it off. Then I drove it into the garage and the ICE started, if I had driven strait into the garage it would have started.   The range started out at 54 miles so 49.4 mi. is pretty close to 54 mi.

[ptjones]

Installed Grill Cover and I didn't notice any obvious change in range yet, I'm thinking that temps are affecting the range with yesterday's temps were atleast 10 degrees cooler. I don't have enough experience with plugins concerning the effects of temps vs range. My garage temp was around 75*F with outside 47*F, probably 20*F cooler than a couple of days ago. I think I will install lower cover now also.  Energi users what has been your experience with temp drop on range?

Paul

Edited September 24, 2021 by ptjones

[ptjones]

I installed the Grill Cover for the bottom and it blocks the sensors so I had to hole saw 1.25" holes for them to work. I hope these pics give you ideas for what can be done. It could take awhile to determine what kind of range improvement I get. I hope to install wheel shortly too. I'm using Velcro to fasten Grill Covers so they can be easily removed. Painted the backside of Grill Cover so letters look better and last longer.

Paul

[Billyk24]

On 9/24/2021 at 12:10 PM, ptjones said:

Installed Grill Cover and I didn't notice any obvious change in range yet, I'm thinking that temps are affecting the range with yesterday's temps were atleast 10 degrees cooler. I don't have enough experience with plugins concerning the effects of temps vs range. My garage temp was around 75*F with outside 47*F, probably 20*F cooler than a couple of days ago. I think I will install lower cover now also.  Energi users what has been your experience with temp drop on range?

Paul

As the temperature drops, your range drops.  It improves as the battery warms up (76f is optimum in the Energi) which is a major issue as the CMax Energi has an inept thermal regulatory system.   For example, this am it was between 47-49f (before 8am) driving the 19 miles to the state park for a swimming workout in the 'warm" lake.    The battery pack was 65f at start, with 4 windows down and driving on the state highway at 55f, I dropped the internal cabin temperature from 66 to 62f and it just stayed there for 15 minutes.  I then gave up and closed all four windows only to watch the battery temperature rise all 1f while the cabin increased to 64.   It is very difficult to regulate the battery temperature of the CMax Energi in an attempt to optimize efficiency and minimize excess heat and related degradation. 

[Dr.Ed]

Only have had my Escape PHEV 5 weeks and 1K miles, but I can get 47 miles all electric. The indicated mile range has been 50-60 but that is based on my trip to work which is down hill vs trip home up hill. I moved up fromC-max Energiso very familiar with how to wrangle more miles per KWH.

 

I have been making use of coasting which is easy with rotary dial shifter. I think the Escape is a big step up from Cmax.

 

I do miss the per cent charge remaining which the Cmax instruments displayed. Now So only get that momentarily when first turning the car on.

[ptjones]

Do you any idea how many miles you lose with 10*F drop in OT?

 

Paul

[ptjones]

With the temp changes I can see my range dropping by about 2 miles to around 47 mi. from 49 mi. I must have gotten good mileage last night when I got home because this morning the range was 57 miles with full charge, when I got to work 7 mi. it had dropped to 45 mi. a 12 mi. drop. About an hour later I checked and range had dropped to 40 miles. This is interesting because I usually have 39 mi. range when I go to lunch. Going home from work I usually gain 2-3 mi. of range. By the time when temps get down to freezing I should have a pretty good idea on how many miles I lose for each 10*F drop in temperature.

I have a ScanGaugeII which shows actual % of charge which goes between 17% to 91%.

Paul

[cr08]

I'm curious with the new liquid cooled batteries what kind of temp ranges it tries to maintain now. Do we know if it is also heated or just cooled?

[Billyk24]

On 9/28/2021 at 1:11 PM, cr08 said:

I'm curious with the new liquid cooled batteries what kind of temp ranges it tries to maintain now. Do we know if it is also heated or just cooled?

The CMax Energi's owner's manual refers to 76f as optimum.  Of course the vehicle has an inept thermal management system in which owners can not manage the battery temperature adequately during warm weather.  I have read the new VW ID4 states 77f as optimum. 

 

[ptjones]

On 9/28/2021 at 1:11 PM, cr08 said:

I'm curious with the new liquid cooled batteries what kind of temp ranges it tries to maintain now. Do we know if it is also heated or just cooled?

It seems to maintain close to the temp when you start it up with a slow rise on long trips.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

Here are some pics of wheel covers that I'm installing. Backside of wheel with aluminum plug copper silicon rubber applied ready to install. 

 showing backside of wheel cover with 1/4-20x 2" screw, 1" plastic spacer and finder washer.                        Wheel cover is 3/16" lexan installed.  1/4" plastic screw out toward edge to keep wheel cover from spinning when hitting the brakes.

Paul

[Billyk24]

On 9/28/2021 at 9:43 AM, ptjones said:

With the temp changes I can see my range dropping by about 2 miles to around 47 mi. from 49 mi. I must have gotten good mileage last night when I got home because this morning the range was 57 miles with full charge, when I got to work 7 mi. it had dropped to 45 mi. a 12 mi. drop. About an hour later I checked and range had dropped to 40 miles. This is interesting because I usually have 39 mi. range when I go to lunch. Going home from work I usually gain 2-3 mi. of range. By the time when temps get down to freezing I should have a pretty good idea on how many miles I lose for each 10*F drop in temperature.

I have a ScanGaugeII which shows actual % of charge which goes between 17% to 91%.

Paul

17-91% range?  The CMAX Energi has a range of 15-98%.

[homestead]

Question for Paul;

What kind of mpg's do you get in just the hybrid mode after the ev batteries are depleted on the phev escape?

 

[ptjones]

I made a 1500 miles trip to Cleveland and back in Hybrid mode. I n bad rain storms I got 43.5 mpg and in good weather I got 50 mpg. With my mods installed I hope to gain around 3 more mpg.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

First day of using  all mods starting from home and ending up their showed 25.8 mi. use with 26 mi. left so it looks like I have gained 2 mi. of range. Today I should be doing 44-47 miles on full charge which should give me a good idea how much I have gain on range.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

Well I ended up with 49.5 miles, I hurt my range by speeding to my bike ride. I will keep monitor this to get an average.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

Looks like I will be going on long trip next week and I will get chance to monitor WT and if it gets to 225*F use EV to cool down the ICE. 

I used up the HVB today with Mods on and got 50.7 miles which is a mile more than my best of 49.7 miles with them off. I need to make and install wheel well covers next to see how much that helps.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

Thursday I ran out of charge at 48 miles and went into Normal Hybrid Mode with Grill Covers on for 10 miles and never got above 194 *F so I taped up the bottom half of center Grill Cover. There was a lot of a gap around it. I will see how that works.

Paul

[ptjones]

Well the last three days I put 2500 miles on FEHP  going to Philadelphia. PA and Rochester, NY and back getting my ICE average to 48.5 mpg. and my LifeTime average to 75.3 mpg which is Trip 2 average, a combination of ICE and EV average.  My first tank with 75*F and tailwind was 64.1 mpg/225 mi. with using EV later.  I ran pass 0E twice, I had 32 miles of EV range left so I wasn't to worried. I went 40 miles passed E0 and didn't run out with 568.4 miles on tank, but only took 11 gal. of gas. My guess is that there should be another half gallon more in the tank atleast or 600 miles on a tank with 32 miles of EV range in reserve should be pretty easy to do.

 

Remember that car won't stay in EV Later when you turn off the car and then turn it back on, it goes to Normal so push the button twice to get to EV Later.

Also if you charge your HVB to a hundred % and then put the car into EV Later the car will act like it's in EV and run the HVB down to 75% before it will EV Later. It's not good for the HVB to continuously be charged  hot  at 100% SOC. 

 

Also I had fun talking to fbov for lunch about our Hybrids while in Rochester. ?

 

Paul

[WNY]

Thats pretty cool. Glad it's working out and all the testing your doing. 

 

[ptjones]

Here is my latest Info:

I just got back from a trip from Newnan, GA to Mooresville, NC and back averaging 54 MPG without refilling on I-85/I-77. I got 669 miles on that tank and 31 miles EV after running out of gas for a total of 700 miles.
I started with a full charge and EV Later which means I ran in EV Mode until SOC was down to 75% about 7 miles to where I got onto I-85, it's uphill. The trip up was about 310 miles taking I-77 north from Charlette to Mooresville. I came back couple of days later with a full charge and this time I got around 10 miles in EV till SOC was down to 75%. The GPS had me go State Rts to I-85 in stead of I-77. At 582 miles my gas range went to E0, I still had 37 mile range for EV range so I wasn't worried about it and wanted to know how many miles I could go pass empty. The next day I finally ran out of gas at 669 miles which was a non event, it just switched to Normal EV. I had 33 miles left in EV and lost a couple of miles so final total miles was 700. I filled up at Sam's and the pump clicked off at 11.4 gal. Three more clicks I got it up to 12.4 gal., I could have stuffed a little more in but wasn't that motivated. I went 87 miles passed E0 and averaged 54 mpg using Premium which is $3.26 vs $3.06 for regular.
So I learned a lot from this trip and hope there is some useful info here.

Last night I got home with 0 range and 42.4 miles EV, normally I get 47-49 miles. So I'm updating my statement on range lost per 10*F to 2 miles lost for each 10*F drop in OT. This morning with a full charge I had a range of 51 miles, down from 57 mi. that I would normally have and it dropped down to 50 mi. almost immediately. OT was 40*F and I ended up with a range of 37 mi. after the 7 mi. trip.
Another interesting fact when I was almost to work I had to speed up to make it through a yellow light, to slow down I push the L button and the ICE started with the "performance" statement. I turned the L off but ICE kept run and will keep running until the WT reaches 128*F or you turn off the car. Fortunately I only had .3 miles to go and I turned the car off. It will be interesting to see what range I end up with the low temps.

Paul

[NRGTi]

Maybe you told the tale several pages ago, pt- but how, pray tell, did you obtain your unicorn? I've just searched and found no evidence of any new Escape Energis in my vicinity, at any price. I thought the car had been indefinitely postponed or cancelled, saving those scarce chips for the well-hyped F-150s and Broncos. Are these cars on sale now, anywhere?

[fbov]

Try the Escape forum. Users are reporting a lot of deliveries.

[ptjones]

Hardy Family FORD in Dallas, GA has a White SE Plugin for $33,185. There are many  owners on the  escape.org forum.

 

Paul

[homestead]

The Escape PHEV sounds pretty good to me.  I have been following posts on the Escape forum.  I think I will wait until they resolve these issues before I order.

1. the noisy clutch problem

2. Rattling subwoofer

3. loose covers under the vehicle flapping at high speed.