Hybrid/ Max Heat and Electric Mode observation

[TopFuelDan]

Has anybody that live in a colder climate notice a drop in full electric when having heater on Max?

We picked up out Maverick XLT Hybrid up here in Eastern Canada at the end of October and we are really enjoying it.

We’ve put just over 2800km/1700 miles on it. As the weather has gotten colder up here, we have definitely noticed a decrease in MPG but we figured that it’s too be expected since we usually start the truck in the AM to warm it up.

I work from home so my wife has been mostly using the Maverick to go to and from work. She has been using the Ford Pass app in the morning and the evening to start the truck and I explained to her that before turning off the Maverick when she gets home and at work to make sure that she turns on Max Defrost Mode so that when she remotely starts the truck the heater will turn on Max Defrost

A few times my wife has come home and she would say that the truck didn’t seem to want to go into Electric Mode. I mostly use the truck in the evening when she gets home and it would go into Electric Mode all the time:

I’ve used the truck a few times in the morning and always noticed that it would take a good 5 minute of driving before the truck would start going into Electric Mode: I figured that was normal since it had to charge up the battery.

Today my wife was working from home and I had to go into town: Of course my wife had the heater on Max so I just jumped in the truck, started it and drove into town. When I left the driveway it went into electric mode, stopped at the stop sign at the end of my street. It went into Hybrid mode and all the way into town it stayed in Hybrid. I really tried to get the truck to go into Electric and it wouldn’t. Had several stop lights where I recovered 100% of the energy and it stil wouldn’t go into electric mode. Drove just over 10 miles and did 0:1 miles of Electric which was from my driveway to end my street. I tried Normal Mode, Slippery Mode, Eco Mode and it didn’t want to go into Electric’ I also noticed they that the truck wouldn’t turn off at stop lights even with auto start:/stop on.

When I leave my destination to go home as I’m pulling out of the parking lot; it’s in Electric Mode but as soon as I pull onto the road it goes into Hybrid mode. Pull into a drive thru for lunch still in Hybrid: When I pull out of the restaurant I notice that the Max Heat is still on and has been on since I left home earlier: As soon as I turned Max Hear off the truck went into Electric Mode.

I turned on Max Heat and it went back into Hybrid Mode. Turned off Max heat and back into Electric Mode:

I’m going to keep an eye on it but I suspect that Max Heat has a severe impact on Electric Mode which would explain why my wife seems to struggle to to go into Electric mode since she drives the truck mostly when it’s cold and I drive it when it’s mostly warmed up. When I do drive it in the mornings after a few minutes I would usually turn on Max Heat but not pay attention if it was why it finally went into Electric Mode.

I’m going to be keeping a closer eye on it but it appears that Max Hear significantly affects Electric mode. That could also explain some of the mpg decrease in colder climate.

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[SuperDave71]

I expect that max heat will run the engine 100% to generate the maximum Heat possible. I saw a PID in forscan for what seemed like an electric heat element, but never have I seen it come on, so I think the only source of heat is the ICE. Did you turn the heat down to see if it runs In electric? I just leave the temp knob on 72 and auto and let it warm up on its own. After a mile or so I get pretty regular electric performance.

 

[TopFuelDan]

If I turn off Max Heat and just leave the heat on it will go Electric no problem. Next time I drive I will try and leave Max Heat on and turn down the fan and see if that makes a difference. I can't remember if it will leave Max Heat on if I turn the fan down, but I believe it will.

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