2025 Maverick Hybrid engine braking?

[shadow76]

Go. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. Stop. Go is much worse on the battery (more work / more heat) than towing a trailer in the mountains. Which is usually just one go followed by one stop.

Hmm.... what about towing in stop n go conditions in the mountains? IDK. Never had that happen to me. My guess is that would put extra heat into the battery.

But contrary to popular belief, the HV battery is used very little while towing. Even while towing uphill. And tow/haul mode tells the truck to use the battery LESS OFTEN keeping more charge in reserve, so you have it for passing / emergency maneuvers.

Pro Tip:

If you tow in normal mode it won't hurt anything; but your HV battery will stay 30% to 40%. You'll have more room for regen, but hardly any power for boost.

If you tow in tow/haul mode your HV battery will stay 60-70% charged. More boost will be available, but you'll have hardly any room for regen. One symptom is you will hear and feel the engine brake come on much more frequently.

Tow / haul also boosts engine RPM by about 300 across the board. Like being in 1 gear lower all the time. Which takes work off the battery; and puts more work on the engine. My battery stays within a few degrees of ambient while towing. WHICH IS COOLER than normal driving which is typically +40°F above ambient conditions.

How do you determine the battery temperature?

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[shadow76]

Driving gently I get upper-mid 40s in the summer. Basically I just drive it gently. The difference between 40s and 50s is too much fussing for so little gain. My motorcycle goes down to 60 when I thrash it so that's my "go to" when I need to vent. Of course, now the divorce is over so the bike will be getting better milage.

Fortunately you still have the motorcycle. A buddy lost both of his during a recent divorce.

 

[HeyBales]

How do you determine the battery temperature?

With a scan tool.
Like 72 F:

 

[The Real Maverick]

This is a little odd. But somewhat sensical.

My battery pack hit a new high: 120°F.
No bells or whistle. No problems.
No active cooling either.
(Just assumed passive cooling.)

I did notice one effect:
When pressing the "L" button, no regen boost. Pressing "L" at 120°F it goes to instant engine brake, engine rev, at any speed, even with a low ~40% charge on the battery.

Battery charging was not stopped.
Battery boost/assist and EV only driving was not stopped. Just the heavy regen of "L" mode was stopped. (I didn't try Eco.)

After I noticed lack of regen from L I pulled up the PID for charge limit. Oddly it was still at the maximum. 32 kW.

The 32 kW value goes down when cold.
The 32 kW value goes down when the battery is above 65% charged.
The charge limit goes to zero when the battery is 72% charged.

But this value did not change at 120°F which I found a little odd.

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