Is there a way to coax the Maverick into EV mode?

[DanaL]

You are using Eco mode, right? That makes it easiest for me to get into EV mode.

Mostly I leave it in Normal. I have tried Eco and didn't notice much of a difference, then I just started spacing on switching. Now that you said that, I'll force myself to remember. I was just looking at videos of the OBDII devices. None of them mentioned the battery in particular, but that seems like a real attention grabber, which I really don't need.

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[identifyasatruck]

Can you please share what you do?
I see the box get low. At that point, it will go to ICE. I have no choice, nor do I have a choice how to stop it from getting to that point without using the ICE.
I am obviously missing everything.
Everyone has explained how the system works, which is great, but I still have no idea how to do anything efficient with it.

you are not missing anything.
Since you have the EV Coach on, and you can see the box getting low. thats your battery running out of charge...the ICE will turn on in "hybrid" and help recharge the battery.

if you want to try something efficient...when you are on a City street, try pushing the L button on the transmission dial....When you come up to a red light let go of the gas pedal and you will feel the Brake Regen Charge the battery, you will also see it on the EV Coach. the brake regenerating process will coast you to a near stop and help recharge your battery. The only (and major) problem with this is your brake lights dont light up as the regen braking slows you down.

 

[tom_tucker]

Don't believe the hype, the cpu will always counter your input. Put on the quiet screen, pay attention to the road and drive efficiently, avoiding brake dust. Take the shorter route. You will get excellent mileage. The main thing is to avoid accidents, not 2 extra mpg! Keep it out of the junk yard.

 

[HeyBales]

you are not missing anything.
Since you have the EV Coach on, and you can see the box getting low. thats your battery running out of charge...the ICE will turn on in "hybrid" and help recharge the battery.

if you want to try something efficient...when you are on a City street, try pushing the L button on the transmission dial....When you come up to a red light let go of the gas pedal and you will feel the Brake Regen Charge the battery, you will also see it on the EV Coach. the brake regenerating process will coast you to a near stop and help recharge your battery. The only (and major) problem with this is your brake lights dont light up as the regen braking slows you down.

I'd suggest just learn to brake the max while still in regen range - same effect as using L.
The amount of regen to battery that is possible doesn't change between modes.
The amount automatically done for you taking your foot off the Go pedal does indeed.
Your ability to keep the brake dust to a minimum is about skill on the pedals.

The different modes may make that easier for some, or allow more attention to the road without giving attention to the pedals.

But even that's not always true.
L gear, and Eco, recharge more aggressively than Normal or Slippery.
But if you are just needing to coast for awhile - then you still have to get a good technique on the pedal to coast by pressing on the Go pedal so less regen slows you down.

You can also train yourself in Normal mode - which coasts easier, to apply the right amount of braking. Just have to do it enough to get skilled.
And while Slippery and Eco may calm the Go pedal down a bit to make it easier to stay under 10% power and therefore in the blue EV range - you can train in Normal to do the same thing.

Then again some regions just may have the inclines and lights and traffic setup in such a way to make the whole effort much more difficult.

 

[The Real Maverick]

Mostly I leave it in Normal. I have tried Eco and didn't notice much of a difference, then I just started spacing on switching. Now that you said that, I'll force myself to remember. I was just looking at videos of the OBDII devices. None of them mentioned the battery in particular, but that seems like a real attention grabber, which I really don't need.

Three big tips:

Change thinking from miles in electric mode to minutes in electric mode. Is the gas engine off every time you are standing still at stoplights, in drive through lanes, or stuck traffic? It should be. I am almost NEVER getting zero MPG. Less than 0.5% of the time will my engine run when wheels are not turning. On an hour long city drive, my gas engine may run fewer than 10 minutes (in above freezing conditions).

Keep EV coach on the screen full time.

Get up to speed or 2-3 over where you want to be. Then take your foot completely off the gas pedal for just 2-3 seconds and coast. 9 out of 10 times the gas engine will shut off right away. Then apply some go pedal gently keeping the blue bar blue, and/or keep the power under 10%. After a few weeks you'll be doing this without even looking.
Use slippery mode in all conditions. It does no harm and many many folks including this repeat 800 miles on a tank driver find it boosts MPG with some practice and getting used to it.

Ok, that's four things. You got a bonus.

 

[LilMags500]

I feel like if Ford had installed a 2 KW battery instead of a 1 KW battery EV would
hold a lot longer drastically increasing MPG . The vehicle would cost a little more
up front but would pay for itself in the long run and be much more efficient , although
I could have no idea what I'm talking about and it would not be the first or last time
this happens , that I an sure of !

 

[cowmeat]

Not sure if it's really a trick, but I kick mine into EV on any downslope or flat terrain (when doing under 60 mph) by abruptly letting off the gas pedal then right back on. That throws it into EV mode and then I drive as long as I can like that feathering the throttle to keep in EV mode. Eventually it will kick the ICE back on, then on the next downslope or flat area I start the process again.
Been doing this in Hybrids since my first generation Insight

 

[DanaL]

Three big tips:

Change thinking from miles in electric mode to minutes in electric mode. Is the gas engine off every time you are standing still at stoplights, in drive through lanes, or stuck traffic? It should be. I am almost NEVER getting zero MPG. Less than 0.5% of the time will my engine run when wheels are not turning. On an hour long city drive, my gas engine may run fewer than 10 minutes (in above freezing conditions).

Keep EV coach on the screen full time.

Get up to speed or 2-3 over where you want to be. Then take your foot completely off the gas pedal for just 2-3 seconds and coast. 9 out of 10 times the gas engine will shut off right away. Then apply some go pedal gently keeping the blue bar blue, and/or keep the power under 10%. After a few weeks you'll be doing this without even looking.
Use slippery mode in all conditions. It does no harm and many many folks including this repeat 800 miles on a tank driver find it boosts MPG with some practice and getting used to it.

Ok, that's four things. You got a bonus.

I appreciate all this. Points 3 and 4 are absolutely doable and I will try them.
I want point 1 almost more than anything. To me, that means conserving battery, so I have when I get to a light. Which would possibly mean using the ICE at points to make sure I had battery or just coasting a lot and being very light on the gas, which I try to do.
I still don't see why everyone loves the EV coach. If the EV coach shows charge, so does the power meter. I can see the size of the battery when I'm in EV mode, but so what. I still need to do things to make it charge, so why do I care?
I am so grateful for the time you have spent with me, but as I said before, I think the only way I'm going to get this is to have someone sitting beside me.
I will play a little, but I think I will basically just drive and let it do its thing.
I can't tell you how grateful I am for your input. Thank you.

 

[BAScott62]

The EV Coach is the best tool to learn how to maximize regen from breaking, keep the bar in the green (baring running into the car in front or blowing the stop sign, obviously.)

The Power Meter serves the same function but I find the dial display to lag too far behind

 

[Cherokee]

While talking to an acquaintance that’s been driving Ford hybrids for quite a while. He had the Fusion before his MavBrid.
He said everyone over thinks the system.
His advice was to drive the MavBrid just like he did his Fusion.

Drive it like gas cost $5 a gallon and you’re in a full size sedan.
Easy Peasy. But don’t piss off traffic. When you need to throttle up do so.
Drive 5 over the posted speed limit so people don’t cuss you out. Stay out of the high speed left lanes.
Coast when you can and brake gently but not too light on the brakes or you’ll glaze the rotors in short order.

 

[The Real Maverick]

I feel like if Ford had installed a 2 KW battery instead of a 1 KW battery EV would
hold a lot longer drastically increasing MPG . The vehicle would cost a little more
up front but would pay for itself in the long run and be much more efficient , although
I could have no idea what I'm talking about and it would not be the first or last time
this happens , that I an sure of !

This has been discussed probably more than anything.

The short answer is no, not really.
Without a plug into external power source, a larger battery really does not help you since all recharging comes from gasoline (or potential energy turned to kinetic energy turned into electrical energy, but the gasoline got you up that hill or up to speed to get you that potential energy).

People who routinely drive in very hilly or mountainous terrain could benefit from a larger battery vs. what they have. But overall MPG would probably not improve from the window sticker. Because the bigger battery could recoup more of those big downhill runs, but the owner spent more gasoline on those uphill runs. Net zero.

Really, truly, the battery needs to be sized to recoup the energy from one deceleration from top speed to zero. That is the optimal battery size. Because you have to go, then stop, repeat, every time you drive.

Big hills are an outlier condition.

 

[tom_tucker]

This has been discussed probably more than anything.

The short answer is no, not really.
Without a plug into external power source, a larger battery really does not help you since all recharging comes from gasoline (or potential energy turned to kinetic energy turned into electrical energy, but the gasoline got you up that hill or up to speed to get you that potential energy).

People who routinely drive in very hilly or mountainous terrain could benefit from a larger battery vs. what they have. But overall MPG would probably not improve from the window sticker. Because the bigger battery could recoup more of those big downhill runs, but the owner spent more gasoline on those uphill runs. Net zero.

Really, truly, the battery needs to be sized to recoup the energy from one deceleration from top speed to zero. That is the optimal battery size. Because you have to go, then stop, repeat, every time you drive.

Big hills are an outlier condition.

It takes a long decline to fill the battery, sometimes 500-1000 vertical ft. Not that many mountain downhills can do it. Even though I fill it up routinely on mountain trips, I'd say it's still available to recharge 99.9% of the time.

 

[OldNavyGuy]

I feel like if Ford had installed a 2 KW battery instead of a 1 KW battery EV would
hold a lot longer drastically increasing MPG . The vehicle would cost a little more
up front but would pay for itself in the long run and be much more efficient , although
I could have no idea what I'm talking about and it would not be the first or last time
this happens , that I an sure of !

Completely agree. A small increase in battery capacity wouldn’t have cost too much more, but could make a big difference in overall MPG over time.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Completely agree. A small increase in battery capacity wouldn’t have cost too much more, but could make a big difference in overall MPG over time.

Not really.

On mostly flat terrain were most people drive most of the time, it would not help at all. But; you carry around extra weight for no reason.

People who routinely drive downhill on slopes of 5% or more; for a continuous mile or more could benefit from a larger battery.

The way a larger battery helps you is if you have so much downhill you run out of room to capture regen.

What percent of the population has this? And what percent of the time?

 

[gzebrick]

Here’s what I have observed looking at live OBD2 data… Switching between EV and GAS on our 25 Lariat AWD hybrid, the computer control looks at three parameters (and maybe more). Battery Charge Level, EV motor amps draw, and actual gas engine load (% torque).

Percentages below are approximate.

EV only mode is used if battery charge level >32% and electric amps drawn are below 90 amps. Once you exceed 90 amps draw the gas engine starts OR if batt level drops below 33%+-.

Once running, the gas engine mode may provide a low-ish charge to the ev battery while running, or the ev motor may pull amps to supplement the gas engine on increased load. Computer controlled but seems to be smart about it.

when in engine mode the truck will go back to EV when the actual engine torque is below 33%+— AND there’s at least 35%+- charge on the battery.

The EV coach graphic seems to mirror this with the moving bars, but doesn’t really show when the gas engine is adding some charge back or getting supplemented by the electric motor.

I use L mode to maximize regen (provides a perfect score on the brake coach), but need to be careful as there’s no automatic brake light that you get with ev one pedal modes.

(the pic doesn't show it but I've added actual gas engine torque parameter to the displayed data list)

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