#Ford escape plug in hybrid drivers#
#Ford escape plug in hybrid android#

There are some good parts about the Escape PHEV's interior, though. The ergonomics can be a little strange, too, especially the start button, which is angled toward the steering column. The 'wood' trim on the dashboard and door panels is almost offensive in how obviously fake it is. Whereas the Bronco Sport seems like Ford put a lot of thought into it, the Escape comes off as a little more 'They'll take what they get.' Hard plastic surfaces abound, even with a base price pushing toward $40,000, and some of the stuff on the lower half of the cabin seems pretty easy to gouge on accident. I am a little less forgiving about the interior. Charging is a breeze for everyone, with a Qi wireless device charger under the climate controls and a pair of USB-A and USB-C ports for each row. My tester also has a head-up display, but it's one of those systems that uses a little pop-up plastic thing, which looks kind of cheap and is mounted too low for my preference. Both screens are responsive and good at highlighting pertinent information. The SE and SEL trims have a 6-inch LCD screen in the gauge cluster, but the Titanium replaces that with a flashy 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster that I really like.

#Ford escape plug in hybrid android#

Every plug-in trim comes standard with Ford's Sync 3 infotainment system on an 8-inch touchscreen, which packs all the usual fripperies like Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and SiriusXM satellite radio, and the Titanium trim beefs that up further with embedded navigation. Since my Escape PHEV tester is decked out in its top Titanium trim, I'm granted access to all the tech Ford has to offer on this particular car. Andrew Krok/Roadshow Plenty of tech on offer The engine's not going to win any beauty contests, either.

If you do take a road trip, be prepared to make more stops than you might expect while every other Escape variant has a gas tank between 14 and 15 gallons, the plug-in makes do with just 11.2 gallons. The EPA claims the Escape PHEV can hit about 40 mpg combined on gas alone, but I see closer to 36 in mixed use.

#Ford escape plug in hybrid drivers#

Using a standard three-prong plug, it'll take nearly 11 hours to fully charge, so it may behoove more time-constrained drivers to call an electrician and get another big-boy dryer plug installed. That's far from the ideal scenario, though the perfect life for the Escape PHEV is a commute-based existence, where access to a 120- or 240-volt outlet can ensure a charged battery for way less than the cost of gas.

It was nice on my trip from Detroit to Chicago, where I depleted the battery getting to the highway silently, so I was able to generate some charge to use when I eventually got off I-94. A quick tap of the EV switch on the center console lets me conserve charge for later, generate charge, run solely on electricity or let the computers figure it all out. Thankfully, you can avoid wasting energy by cycling through the Escape's multiple electric driving modes. When the charge finally depletes, you're not out of luck - at that point, the Escape PHEV just acts like a standard gas-electric hybrid, delivering short bursts of electricity as the car deems necessary. The slower and steadier, the more blood you can get from that stone. I'm able to eke even more efficiency out of it while (almost literally) crawling through peak Chicago rush-hour traffic, covering some 23 miles on half a charge, but without any coaching on my part, it'll absolutely chew through its capacity if you let it drain on a long highway drive, where electric motors are less efficient. The feds estimate that the Escape PHEV's battery can deliver about 37 miles per charge, which aligns with my experience. It doesn't exactly sound great doing so, either, but that's why the stereo has a volume knob. That's a little lower than the 250 hp the Escape's EcoBoost-toting sibling produces, and while power delivery can be a little pokey to start, the plug-in has no problem getting up to speed on the highway or zipping through surface-road traffic. At the heart of the Escape PHEV is a 14.4-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery, which combines with an electric motor and a 2.5-liter Atkinson-cycle inline-4 to produce a net 221 horsepower, all of which is sent to the front wheels by way of a continuously variable transmission.