Got a New Truck This Week (Ford Escape Hybrid)
 

Well we ended up buying a new truck. We got a different one, but it wasn't working out, so we "exchanged" it for a new one, which just happens to be *almost* exactly what I have wanted for a number of years. (The one I have been looking at is just a newer model.)

Here she is:
http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...psba7d6251.jpg
http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...ps026b9bbc.jpg

Did I mention it's a Hybrid!!!!
http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...psd3962e4d.jpg

I look forward to seeing how far I can go on a whole tank. I do need to make some modifications though. The factory air dam is a little measly.
http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4efc5e81.jpg
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Congrats. From the owners I've spoken to, they love their Escape hybrids. A local lady can get hers up to almost 40 mpg in summer.

That looks decent. Happy hypermiling :)

Nice! I hear little about these, but only positive comments when I do. Look forward to seeing what you can do :)

The premium of a hybrid with no improvements in fuel economy or am I thinking of the mariner? :D

The Mariner? Good grief those were unpleasant! The Lexus RX450h is apparently no improvement either, yet I see them all over the place here.

Mariner was an Escape with different plastic, pretty sure it got the same mileage.

Nice Escape, looks like its in great shape. How many miles on it? Here is the thread I had for mine. Great little SUV. Was bigger than we needed, so we sold it to my parents.

If you pump the tires to sidewall max and drive it right, you could be able to get 30+ on the highway and mid to upper 30s in city. Here's the link to the Fuelly for mine.

http://badges.fuelly.com/images/sig-us/130249.png

I thought the Mariner was the Merc version of the Explorer? We didn't have them up here, I just remember American dealers wanting to know if I could try and sell theirs up here because they couldn't down there ha ha

Thanks for the replies guys. It's not technically my truck, so I'm not sure if I will be daily driving it, but of course I hope I will be. :) It only has 90,000 miles and one owner. I'm guessing a grandma car, but am unsure.

Daox- Any idea on how she got it to 40? Is she a mostly city driver?

Cobb/War_Wagon- The Mariner is the equivalent of an Escape. The equivalency I think you are thinking of is the Explorer/Mountaineer lines, neither of which have the hybrid option.

UltArc/vskid3- I have been a little jealous of you guys on this board for a while, since I have been wanting an 'E' for a while now. :thumbup:

vskid3- Thanks for the link, I have followed that thread since I found it shortly after lurking here. Did anything progress, I know you were talking about doing a boattail?

Beats me about mpg unless you do all the tricks of the trade. I have no idea how the hybrid system works in that vehicle. Maybe since it was owned by a little old lady she drove no faster than 45mph? :thumbup:

Nice. I've wanted an Escape Hybrid for years. The thing that held me back is that they cannot tow at all. I need to be able to tow a small trailer (~850 lbs loaded with my motorcycle) because I don't have a pickup truck.

I am excited to see what you are able to achieve with yours.

My excitement for yet another SUV on the road is somewhat underwhelming. But let's see what she'll do.

Truck? You must have posted the wrong pictures, 'cause they don't show a truck.

You might be thinking of a recent Nissan...

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Congrats on the Escape. The hybrid system makes fuel-saving driving more entertaining than the average car, in a nerdy way. You'll have fun.

Not rated to tow isn't the same as not being able to. I've seen several posts of people towing with them. 850lbs shouldn't be a problem on flat land.

Jeff- I never got around to doing any more than max sidewall and removing the roof racks. My city commute didn't give me much motivation to pursue any aeromods. I think a belly pan would help a lot, its pretty filthy aerodynamically under there.

The Escape uses an eCVT and atkinson-like engine, same idea as the Prius. However, while the Prius will kill the ICE pretty much whenever you take your foot off the gas under 40mph, the first few years of the Escape need more convincing (slightly tapping the brake). The later years were programmed to act more like the Prius in this regard.

I assume she is mostly a city driver. There is no way that you'd be able to get that kind of mileage on the highway with it.

I looked on fueleconomy.gov and compared hybrid to not. 4WD hybrid Escapes got about 35% better fuel economy than their non-hybrid 4WD counterparts. FWD Hybrids were 40% better than FWD non-hybrids. In both cases I used automatic 4 cylinders for an apples to apples comparison, and the numbers were the average of real world users submissions. I think you were thinking of the Toyota SUVs. Lexus and Toyota Highlander (mechanically the same vehicle) were much worse, at best only boosting mileage from about 21 to 25 mpg. Or perhaps the first gen Honda Accord Hybrid, which basically gave you the fuel economy of a manual 4 cylinder in a big v6 equipped automatic.

Why isn't there a fuel log yet??? :)

As much as I would like it to be, this vehicle isn't actually mine. The person who owned the 4Runner bought the FEH to replace the 4R (I bought it from him, just need to fix the engine). From the time we bought it to about last week, his daughter was in town from college and driving it, so I haven't had a good chance to put anything into a log. I filled up 5 days ago and am just waiting for the next fuel up to determine mileage, then I'll start the log. :thumbup:

EDIT: Forgot to mention, when I got it, the average MPG according the computer was under 26 (like 25.7 or something). Now everyday, I see anywhere from 27.9 (during morning warm-up, for example) up to my record of 28.9 (only saw that once though). Again those are the average MPG according the computer. It will obviously change depending on what I'm doing at that exact time. But I will take a 2.5MPG increase over "regular" driving! :D

Well I guess I spoke to soon! Driving with my mom today, I mentioned how I've seen as high as 28.9, but hadn't seen the average over 29 yet. On our way home, she looked down at the screen at it was 29.3!!! The amazing part is that I'm not trying all that hard to increase my FE. I'm just learning little bits here and there about how best to drive it. The 29.3 was after highway driving, not just street driving in all battery mode.

:D:D:D

Very nice. :thumbup:

Well I had my first official fill up today. Not as good as I wanted or expected, but respectable, especially given the vehicle type: 27.7 MPG.

We'll see what I can do in the coming weeks as I get more accustomed to it.

Remove the roof rack crossbars and pump the tires up to sidewall max, you should be able to get 30+ pretty easily. I could get 30MPG tanks doing ~72MPH on cruise with hills.
Remember that all the energy is coming from gasoline. After all the conversions, electric isn't very efficient. When accelerating, blip the gas a bit to kick the ICE on so you don't waste your battery power doing what the ICE is most efficient at. Don't be afraid to give it some gas, most of my acceleration was at least keeping up with traffic, the money is in the coasting. Use electric in parking lots and to extend glides.

Yeah, I plan to make a couple of mods like the crossbar delete and air up the tires. I like to get a couple of tanks in before I start doing such stuff though, gives me a better idea of the benefit I get from it.

I pretty much drove it exactly like you mentioned, except I kept it between 60-65 on the highway for the most part. I mostly just kept up with traffic, if not passed some people. Most of the battery power was in parking lots, the last stretch of road before the parking lot, going from red light to red light, or in through a neighborhood, like going home.

I could actually increase the avg. mpg as much as .3 from the street light outside my neighborhood to my house! And I always have plenty of battery power to do it. I come off the freeway (60ish) on to an expressway (50). Then have to make a left at the light. So between the highway driving charging the battery, then the regenerative braking from slowing down and/or stopping, I get enough to get home. Then in the morning when the engine goes on no matter what, it charges it back up.

It seems like you already have the right idea. Contrary to many people's belief, the most efficient way to drive a hybrid is the same as the most efficient way to drive a non-hybrid - COASTING as much as possible. It is far more efficient to coast to your desired slower speed than to convert kinetic energy -> mechanical -> electricity -> battery -> electricity -> mechanical -> kinetic.

I am not sure how this is best done with the Escape, but I image you have figured it out already. During slow down, probably just enough throttle to keep the regen from happening but not too much so the ICE starts up.

Obviously regen makes an excellent replacement for the DFCO that most of us have for added efficiency in moments when a quicker slowdown than coasting is suddenly required. Better to recover energy than turn it into heat.

I am very interested to see what you can manage to do with your Escape. I have had my eye on Escape Hybrids for years, as well as the Plug In Supply PHEV kits that are available. Pretty cool stuff!

One of my favorite features of the Escape Hybrid is that no gas or brake while in drive is coasting, it'll only regen when you hit the brakes (or put it in the low gear, which regens and engine brakes when you let off the gas). A practiced foot can glide in a Prius, but anyone can glide in an Escape. For being a brick, it could coast pretty well. We would have kept it if I'd known I would end up getting a good deal on an Insight, Prius just seemed right at the time. Oh well, now I own/have owned a hybrid from each of the major (in my mind) hybrid makers.

I've been watching the in-dash screen about what is powering the truck, what is off/on, etc.

What I have found interesting is that while coasting (no brake, no gas) the arrow points from the axle --> motor --> battery, which tells me it is regenerating power. It doesn't seem to make coasting any longer than what a usual vehicle will do, so I'm not sure where the power is really coming from.

Well, it's getting up there, first time over 30!:
http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3bfcfc5d.jpg
Haven't figured out yet if the computer is more optimistic than the pump, but it's going up nonetheless, so that's a good sign!

Adjust the nut behind the steering wheel makes all the difference. :thumbup:

When it comes to a hybrid you really need to feel the car out. I found out early on with the insight the least of the ima system you use, the better your mpg is.