In a hybrid car, the brakes take some of that energy and, using the electric motor as a generator, put power back into the batteries. Regenerative Braking - Whenever you apply the brakes on a car, the kinetic energy of the car's movement is dissipated as heat.The electric motor and gasoline engine operate in tandem up to highway cruising speeds. If you're driving in heavy city traffic, you could go all day using only electric power. At about 25 mph, the gasoline engine starts back up. Electric motors are good at generating torque at lower rpm ranges, so they're perfect for this purpose. Electric Drive - As the Escape Hybrid accelerates from a stop, it does so under electric power.Ford put a lot of effort into making the gasoline engine on-off cycles as smooth and seamless as possible, but testers reported a discernible shudder in the vehicle when the engine went on or off. The car runs on electric-only while you're at a stoplight or waiting in line at the drive-thru. When you come to a stop in the Escape Hybrid, the gasoline engine actually shuts off. If everything checks out, the engine will then shut off, leaving the car running under electric-only power.
#Ford escape plug in hybrid mpg series
The car then performs a series of checks to determine if it can switch to electric-only operation: It checks to see if the batteries are charged, if the operating temperatures are okay and if interior climate control settings are in the appropriate range (the air conditioning's maximum setting requires the gasoline engine to run). The electric motor, in turn, starts the gasoline engine. Start/Stop - When you turn the ignition key of the Escape Hybrid, the electric motor comes to life.Now, let's take a closer look at the nuts and bolts (and wires and batteries) that lie beneath the Escape Hybrid's hood.
Making hybrid technology easy for the average buyer to adopt is probably the most innovative aspect of the Escape Hybrid. That's the reason it could make a significant impact on the U.S. For all intents and purposes, the Escape Hybrid is just an SUV that gets great mileage and doesn't give off much pollution. The operation of the hybrid system is as transparent as possible.
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There isn't even a meter to tell the driver how low the battery charge is getting, because the driver isn't supposed to worry about it. The electric motor and batteries are supposed to operate for the life of the vehicle without maintenance. The driver doesn't need any special technical skills to operate it. The reason Ford took so much time developing the Escape Hybrid is that it wanted the car to function just like a regular SUV. Except for the small "Hybrid" logo on the door, a different gauge in the dashboard and a vent in the rear to help cool the batteries, you'd be hard-pressed to tell an Escape Hybrid from the conventional version. So what did all those engineers do to convert the Escape? In terms of looks, not much. In that respect, the Escape gets good mileage even without an electric motor: It's rated at 25 mpg on the highway.
The Escape itself is recognizable as an SUV, but it is a relatively small one. 2004) developing a hybrid powertrain to put into it. It started with a proven model, the four-cylinder Ford Escape, and spent five years and 100 engineers (Car and Driver, Dec.
Now, let's take a look at the Ford Escape Hybrid.įord didn't try to design an all-new car for their first foray into the hybrid realm. If the batteries get really low, the car can just run on gas until the combustion engine recharges them.įor a more detailed, in-depth explanation of hybrid cars, check out How Hybrid Cars Work. The image below shows a parallel hybrid car, in which both the gasoline engine and the motor can propel the vehicle.Ī hybrid car never needs to be plugged in for a recharge - whenever you step on the brakes, some of that energy is stored in the batteries. Battery-powered electric cars have always been held back by short battery life and the need to plug the car in to recharge it.Ī hybrid car has a combustion engine and an electric motor that work together (either at the same time or separately, depending on the type of hybrid). For gasoline cars, these problems include noise, expensive fuel and polluting emissions. In this article, we'll learn about Ford's brand new, patented hybrid powertrain, take a look at the Escape Hybrid's performance and find out why this car could be a major breakthrough for hybrids in the automotive marketplace.Ī hybrid car is one that attempts to incorporate the strengths of both gasoline-fueled combustion engines and electric motors while eliminating many of the problems that plague cars that are only one or the other.
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