2022-2025 Ford Maverick: Hybrid Explained

Hey, my dear friends, Sam Haymart with Test Driven TV. The all-new 2022 Ford Maverick is coming at us fast, and Ford has actually made it a standard hybrid, which means there's a lot of people out there looking at this truck that have never really had any experience with that, and so there's a lot of questions that I see out there. What's it like to drive? Can I work on it myself? And is this thing really reliable? So we're gonna talk about all the major questions that I see out there most often, and I'm gonna do my best to answer them. So let's get right to hybrid 101. The Ford Maverick hybrid powertrain is composed of both a 2.5 liter Atkinson cycle four-cylinder gasoline engine and an ECVT transaxle. Atkinson cycle refers to a combustion cycle mode of operating for a gasoline engine that's more fuel efficient than a conventional auto cycle four-stroke engine, and is defined by different valve, spark, and fuel injection timing scenarios. Nuts and bolts mechanically speaking, an Atkinson cycle engine is virtually identical to any other, no rocket science here. As to the electrified transmission called an ECVT, it's not to be confused with the traditional gasoline powered CVT with pulleys and a belt that few people really like, and many of which have had bad reliability records. No, an ECVT is a completely different animal, not the same thing at all, in spite of a similar name. An ECVT has no pulleys or belt, but has a simple planetary gear set and two electric motors. One motor known as the E motor provides your main electric driving power. The smaller motor known as the motor generator is used to start the engine, charge the high voltage battery, provide regenerative braking, and performs other power balancing functions. While it sounds like voodoo science, it's remarkably simple and has about a third of the moving parts of a conventional automatic transmission. In driving behaviors, first, we don't start a hybrid. We power on a hybrid. Think of it like turning on your phone or your computer. When you turn on the ignition key or press the start button depending on your trim grade, a ready indicator on the instrument cluster will light up letting you know you're good to go and put it in gear. Usually, unless you have extreme temperatures with the heat or the AC turned on, the engine usually won't start up until sometime after you get moving. Because hybrids use electrically powered air conditioning, your AC will still blow cold even if the engine is not running. When you're driving, the computer decides how and when to send power to the wheels from either the gasoline engine or the e-motor, and sometimes both depending on the needs of your situation. At slower speeds and stop-and-go traffic, it's very common to be operating on electric-only power as this is when the gasoline engine is least fuel efficient. When you ask for stronger acceleration and when traveling at highway speeds, most often the gasoline engine will be on and delivering the bulk of the power you need. The gasoline engine and the e-motor are constantly yet seamlessly trading places or sharing the workload. When you apply the brakes, the computer balances the use of its hydraulic brake system and adds additional braking power from the motor generator to create what we call regenerative braking. This is one of the various ways the battery is continuously being recharged. Because the motor generator is always throwing power back to the high-voltage battery pack during coasting, engine idle, and during regenerative braking, the Maverick Hybrid doesn't need to be plugged in. How does this all feel? Well, while I haven't driven the Maverick specifically, I have driven other Ford hybrids with the same system, and I can say that they deliver a smooth power stream across the entire driving range. Torque is good, and the gasoline engine cycling in and out is usually very refined, often such that you sometimes never even notice when it's on or off, unless you pedal to the metal. One thing is missing, though, the sensation of gear shifts. In this one area, the Hybrid e-CVT resembles the feel and sometimes the sounds of a conventional gasoline CVT-equipped car, though. They share nothing else in common mechanically. Unlike some hybrids, the Maverick doesn't have a driver-selectable EV mode. While it can run on electric-only power, you yourself cannot tell it to do so. Further, Ford doesn't list a top speed for electric-only power, but it can do so in a wide variety of situations, even sustaining higher speeds with the engine off when conditions permit, a phenomenon called sailing. The next big area of discussion is Ford's hybrid drivetrain. There are many misnomers and concerns out there about Ford's hybrid system that are found online in various forums and chat rooms. Some people think Toyota makes it or has engineered it. Others think it's an all-new science experiment by Ford and should be looked at with a skeptical eye. The fact is, the hybrid powertrain in the Maverick is the latest generation of Ford's in-house designed and built system that's been in production and well-proven for over a decade in several other Ford and Lincoln models. The Maverick uses what's called the HF45E transaxle, and it's built at their Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan. It's a variation of the very same transaxle currently used in the Ford Escape Hybrid. The one thing that is new about the Maverick's H45E transaxle is the previous mentioned e-motor, which Ford has designed and now builds in-house at Van Dyke instead of outsourcing it from a supplier. The new e-motor is more efficient, quieter, less expensive, and actually produces more power that makes it more suitable for use in a pickup truck. It has 126 horsepower and 173 pound-feet of torque. Combined with the 2.5-liter gasoline engine, which itself has 162 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque, Ford publishes a total blended system power of 191 horsepower. There are two batteries, a conventional 12-volt battery, which powers all of the onboard accessories like lighting, audio, the computers, HVAC, and the like, which is located under the back seat of the Maverick inside the passenger compartment. The lithium-ion hybrid battery pack is located under the rear passenger side floorboard and is virtually identical to the one found in the Ford Escape Hybrid, and it's manufactured in Rossinville, Michigan. And now the last area of our discussion, DIY maintenance and the Maverick Hybrid. Many people have been asking if they can maintain the Maverick Hybrid or work on it just the same as a traditional gasoline-powered one, and the answer is simply yes. The 2.5-liter gasoline engine is little different from any other, and thus owners can change the oil and filters just the same and just as easily. Just steer clear of the orange high-voltage wiring as mishandling it can kill you. Replacing the brake pads, for instance, is the same process as the non-hybrid car in spite of the scary-sounding regenerative braking system they talk of. Brake discs, calipers, and pads are the same, and servicing them is the same. Regenerative braking takes place in the ECVT and doesn't make the brake pads, calipers, or discs any different. The ECVT isn't technically user-serviceable, but neither are most traditional automatic transaxles, and if you're truly concerned about the reliability of the ECVT, the thing to know about it is that it has a third the moving parts of a conventional transaxle, and thus there are far less things to go wrong, wear out, or require routine service. And speaking of routine service, the hybrid high-voltage battery doesn't require any routine maintenance, and like the ECVT, really isn't user-serviceable anyway. At some point in the vehicle's lifetime, the high-voltage battery could need replacement, but keep in mind that it and the rest of the hybrid system components described here are warrantied for eight years, 100,000 miles. All right, my friends, there you go for some of the most common questions I've seen out there about the all-new 2022 Ford Maverick hybrid powertrain. There's a lot of questions out there. A lot of people are excited about this truck. I have one on order myself, so I'm waiting just like everybody else. And so if I didn't quite answer the question to concern you have, feel free to put it down there in the comments, and I'll do my best to find an answer for you. Until then, you can see our Maverick playlist right there, all the videos we produced on it, and there's going to be more. As well as down here, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel. Either way, stay tuned.