How long since you had driven the vehicle? For how many miles. What engine? Do you have S/S? Do you have any non oem items connected? You also might check the 3G board for similar posts.

 

I drove the vehicle on 12/31/2020 and parked it in my driveway late that afternoon. The total mileage is 3,224, since August 2020, when I purchased the vehicle. Engine type is 99Z (I think), FWD only. I did not attempt to operate the vehicle on 1/1/2021. However on the morning of 1/2/2021, the battery was apparently dead. I had it "jumped" and drove it for about 20 minutes. About an hour later, dead battery, again. My VIN# 1FMCU0DZ1LUB70953. I'm not sure what S/S means. Can that be determined in my VIN #? The only NON-OEM items in or on the vehicle are Weather Tech floor mats. I am not familiar with the 3G board.

 

If you car does "die" again because of a dead battery I would ask a mechanic to do a parasitic draw test. What happens sometimes is that the electronics of the car might get goofy and start turning on by itself for some reason. Even if it's something very small it can slowly drain the battery to a point where you can charge the battery but eventually it'll lose that charge to the parasitic draw. Some things such as loose wire or a bad ground can cause parasitic draw.

 

Some Rav4 hybrid owners have been experiencing same issue with 12v battery dead by some ghost draw if car not used for several days.

 

Look for the build date on the sticker on the driver's side door jamb. Your 12v battery could have gone bad if it sat on the dealer's lot for months before you bought it, then if you drive it infrequently, It may not be able to accept an adequate charge. I would have the battery load tested (surprised the dealer didn't do that).

 

Your 12V battery is kept charged with current from your Hybrid battery power only... You may well consider upgrading your 12V battery if your Ford dealer won't replace it on warranty.

Ironically, this happened to me yesterday. I was using the car 24 hours before. It was completely dead 24 hours later, no power anywhere. Called roadside and they jumped it. I ended up using Sport mode and driving in circles. Really wish there was a way to manage starter battery better, and was hoping the Fordpass app would at least pop up a warning for me before it discharged.

"Decided to quit screwing around with the Ford tiny battery and took your advice. I bought a H6 (group 48) AGM battery. You are right it exactly fits the space in the trunk where the original battery was mounted. Once I was in there I set up a parasitic test to see if there were any large current draws. My amp meter could only go down to 100 mA where it would read 0.01, so I suspect the draw is lower. Anyway, I am hoping the larger battery takes care of the strange behaviors I have been seeing. I'll post how it goes over time."

Blue Ox for 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid - Page 6 - iRV2 Forums

12V battery may also be maintained with an automatic charger connected to the Jump Start connectors... 12V battery actually sits in the trunk underneath spare tire.

JUMP STARTING THE VEHICLE - HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE (HEV)/PLUG-IN HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE (PHEV)

Your vehicle has a 12-volt battery that has two prongs accessible from under the hood. Your vehicle can be jumped the same way conventional vehicles can by using these prongs.

A - Positive prong (+). Pull the red plastic cap backward.

B - Negative prong (-).

 

A - Positive prong (+). Pull the red rubber boot backward.

B - Negative prong (-).

This maybe obvious but I’ll ask anyway. I tried to pull the red rubber boot backward but it wouldn’t move. Jiggles around a bit but firmly in place. Is there a trick to doing this?

 

I had exactly same issue ... my car (same model as OP) had similar mileage (3200) and was driven every 2-3 days since purchase at the end of July. It was dropped off for subwoofer fix on Monday, returned on Tuesday, was driven to/from work on Wednesday, and dead on Thursday. A jumpstart from Roadside took care of the issue, and I bought a portable jumpstart battery in case this happens again. Interesting though, I didn't realize that a larger battery could fit in that space.

 

It is a Ford after all, and not a Japanese engineered Toyota RAV4... I'm actually here because my sister got a 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Titanium last spring.

The best you can do is use an automatic battery charger to maintain your 12V battery.

12V battery can be upgraded to a larger H6 in the Hybrid, as it sits in the trunk underneath spare tire. That is not the case with your 2019 Escape Titanium Turbo. Its battery is behind fuse box on driver's side, I think.

 

It is a Ford after all, and not a Japanese engineered Toyota RAV4...

You probably missed my post about Rav4 2020 having widespread issue with this as well. As a matter of fact Escape has had less issues then Rav4 overall.

 

Along the same lines I purchased my 2019 escape titanium turbo in December of 2019. The start stop feature worked for about a month and then it didn't. I took the car back to the dealer and they put in a new battery. The start stop feature worked up until 2 months ago. I just brought the car in in December for a yearly oil change at 2,056 miles at which time I asked them to check out the auto start stop and why it isn't working. I picked up the car and was told I don't drive it enough to charge the battery which start stop feature needs. And I would have to put the battery on a trickle charge to keep it at optimum level so the start stop feature would work. that means I would have to drive my car more than I want to just to ensure the battery is at optimum charge. Never heard of such a thing. The escape is not my only vehicle and I really don't drive my car other than around town. Furthermore it's a little difficult charging the battery when the positive terminal is inaccessible. Since the car is still under warranty I have requested a new battery but that in itself has created a problem because I was advised by the dealer they are on back order. I am disappointed that this vehicle and others like it are experiencing such problems and inconveniencing the owners. I question the pride in workmanship.

Your dealer is correct in saying the stop/start feature will not work unless the battery is at it's optimum charge. If you do not drive the vehicle much or only take short trips you are probably wise to put the battery on a trickle charger as advised unless you take it for a regular 30 mile or more trip.
Many modern cars these days need the battery to be fully charged for all the current technology to work properly, not only Fords.
I think you will find that the negative terminal is under the cowl and you do not need to access it to attach the charger as there is an extension to it under a bolt on the firewall or strut tower as shown here:-

 

Your dealer is correct in saying the stop/start feature ...

I don't believe any of this applies to a 2020 Escape Hybrid. Post 15 is accurate.

 

Just a reminder the 12v battery is actually the booting battery for the vehicle electronics.
It gets charged directly from the alternator, not the HVB and a 12v battery problem can be spotted real easily if you turn off the car and then turn on the radio (it should play for ~20 minutes).
Old school item to check is the electrolyte level in the battery, pop the caps and if it isn't touching the bottom of the black plastic at the top of the cell add distilled water or cheap bottled water. After that drive it for 20-30 miles on the highway to get a good charge in it since regenerative braking doesn't charge this battery and the alternator doesn't turn in EV mode.

A lot of batteries sat in cars and warehouses due to CoVid and the electrolyte does evaporate.

 

Just a reminder the 12v battery ... gets charged directly from the alternator, not the HVB

My car does not have an "alternator." It has a DC-DC converter.

 

Just wanted to remind everyone that this thread is not to compare the Escape with the RAV4. Please keep the Toyota out of this thread please.

 

I recently purchased a 2020 Titanium Hybrid Escape and around 2000 miles I parked it for 8 days while I was on a trip. The battery was DOA. Jumped it and all seems ok and have an appointment on Monday to do some battery tests.

Another strange message came up while driving away form a parking spot. "Vehicle not in Park" or something similar came up twice. At a red light I shifted to PARK and back to DRIVE and haven't seen the message since.

 

Another strange message came up while driving away form a parking spot. "Vehicle not in Park" or something similar came up twice. At a red light I shifted to PARK and back to DRIVE and haven't seen the message since.

You may have got this message because your battery was not fully charged yet and the message disappeared as you charged it with further driving.
All sorts of technology 'glitches' can occur if the battery is not fully charged..

 

More than likely it needs a tcm reprogramming or replacement. Also if you really don’t use hotspot turn WiFi off.

 

I just had this same issue. The car was built in September and I brought it home in October. It has been driven pretty regularly but obviously not a lot of miles since bringing it home. Over this past week, it wasn't driven for exactly 6 days. There's no reason a battery should be stone dead (8 volts) after sitting only 6 days. The car has just over 3000 miles on it. I will be watching the voltage very closely over the next few days. If it shows further evidence of the battery draining, I will be testing for a parasitic draw. There really isn't any explanation for a brand new car killing off its battery that quickly. It has to be a defect of some kind. Of course the dealer will be fixing it if there is a problem but it's always good to let them know you've confirmed that there is a problem before you drop it off. I will report back here, regardless.

Update: I checked the car for a parasitic drain this afternoon. It showed a 280 milliamp (Ma) draw after a minute or two. I called the dealer to make an appointment to have it looked at. The service manager said the only accurate way to check for a parasitic draw was to wait 40 minutes... Uh... Wow, I said. That's a long time but apparently all the systems may still be doing their thing for that long so that's the only way to check it. I'm just going to see how the battery holds up overnight. If it's dead or too low, it's going to the dealer to be diagnosed.

 

I’ve put my 2020 escape hybrid to sleep for 60 min only to come back and hear the electrics motor coolant pump is running (it’s low on the firewall infront of the passengers feet) now it comes on constantly and runs the battery dead all the time within hours of shutting off the vehicle. Dealer can’t figure it out and it’s been out of service 40 days and on it’s 5th trip back to the dealer. Currently going back Monday as it sits dead in my driveway. I love the car and got 0% on the loan and would like to keep it but it does me no good if it isn’t ready to go when I am. I’m between a rock and a hard spot because my time is closing in on deeming the car a lemon and just getting something else.

 

Just an update since last week...

The car was looked over by my local dealer. They ran a full diagnostic on the battery and did a parasitic draw test. They found no issues. The draw was only 10 milliamps which is well within normal range.

For what it's worth, before I took it to the dealer I went into the system options and did a few things:
1. Disabled automatic system updates and turned off WiFi
2. Turned off Mobile Hotspot (Cellular)

I really have no conclusive evidence that these changes solved the problem but I do know that the battery is not draining anymore. Voltage has stayed static for several days whereas it was dropping daily by a quarter to a third of a volt.

I was suspicious of the Mobile Hotspot (cellular) because the 3 months "free" coverage had recently expired the week just prior to the battery going dead. The fact that others had reported having the same battery issue at the same mileage made me suspect that it could be software or system related. If the expiring cellular plan kept trying to validate my subscription (or whatever) via cellular, it's possible that it could run the battery dead over a period of 5 or 6 days not being driven. I know my previous cell phone would trash its battery when out of cell range because it kept trying to reconnect to the network.

It's a stretch... I know but these are the only things I changed on the car. If the computer is firing up WiFi or the mobile hotspot while the car sits, it would draw some power. I just thought I would put it out there in for someone else to try.

 

@Corski67...as Jerry Seinfeld would say. " you might have something there". .
I have wifi and auto updates etc. set up in my car and it doesn't seem to draw power but your later model and battery setup is obviously different.

 

I have wifi and auto updates etc. set up in my car and it doesn't seem to draw power...

Me, too; wi-fi and auto updates on since the day after purchase, 1/18/2020, with no issues. It's gone to sleep and awoken without issue.

However, mobile hot spot has never been activated.

 

Since this thread is for 2020+ Hybrid Escapes, let’s leave the discussion to that please.

 

2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Titanium, owned 4 months, 5000 miles. 2 days after last drive, enter car, no lights, chimes, won't start. Connected a portable battery charger, doesn't draw down charger % level, same issue (never a problem on other cars I have jump started with it). Hooked up a trickle charger, light says it is charged upon hookup, let charge overnight, still no lights come on, no dash display. Finally, I followed instructions in the manual for hybrid, jump started from my truck. Checked all the displays to see if there was a battery level indicator nothing. All my presets were intact, clock is right, etc. Next day, go in, dash comes on, but doesn't recognize same fob that was in my pocket the day before. Tried with the second fob, not recognized. After a 3rd try dash displays no lights again. Called Ford Dealer, they said I could bring car in next week, 7 days, no loaner car to give me. They suspect that the car sat on the lot too long before being sold to me. That's it. We'll see. Tempted to jump it again and have O'Reilly's check it out. Either way, need Ford dealership to troubleshoot, replace the battery if necessary under warranty. I definitely don't want to get stranded somewhere, so I guess I'll just have to wait.

 

Just posted an update about about my 2020 Escape Hybrid Titanium. Same issues with dead battery. A new SSM with number 49574, came out and the problem is a faulty module that they can easily reprogram at the dealership.

 

How long since you had driven the vehicle? For how many miles. What engine? Do you have S/S? Do you have any non oem items connected? You also might check the 3G board for similar posts.

I just got my vehicle back 2/17/21. Died twice and we had to jump start vehicle each time. A new service message came out regarding the ABS module. It needed to be reprogrammed. The SSM number is 49574 if your dealership has not received the information yet.

 

2020 hybrid titanium didnt start early am and was making a loud thumping noise behind glovebox. Dealer useless. Called tow truck and he jumped it. so far it seems ok now. Has this happened to anyone else? 7 K miles. 6 months old.

 

I took my Hybrid in for the rear camera recall and mentioned the battery issue and messages I was seeing. They tested the battery and replaced it stating that the "Load Test (Failed)" and the battery fault codes were 4U0 5J51, F60CM. Hoping this will solve it, but I have been reading in this forum about others seeing parasitic draw on the battery while engine off. Not sure the battery replacement will solve my issues in the long term. Still wondering how a year old car with 10,000KM on it needs a battery replacement so soon. But I will report back if the problem occurs again.

 

I moved your post to this thread. The thread you had posted in had absolutely nothing to do with this battery issue.

 

I am posting this for a friend who has no access to this forum. Him and his wife have a 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Titanium that often would not start do to battery issues. What follows is his research and solution. He asks that I post this in case it might help someone else.
---------------------------------

Solution to our battery problem - 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Titanium.
Our new 2020 Escape Hybrid would frequently be unable to start. The dealer could not figure it out. We discovered, through trial and error and research, what was causing the problem and developed solutions to monitor and prevent it. We are sharing our story here in hopes it might assist others who may have had similar issues. This worked for us but there is no guarantee it will work for you, so you assume responsibility of any damage or issues if you attempt this.

As everyone probably knows, the vehicle has two batteries. The main battery which moves the car, and a smaller battery that starts the car and powers the computer system, lights, dashboard, radio, accessories, etc.

The small battery has been the problem with our car.

The first thing we did was to find a way to measure the voltage of the small battery. We purchased a Car USB Charger Multi Port Voltmeter found easily on Amazon.

We plugged it into one of the power ports on the dash, (formerly known as the cigarette lighter). It has two USB slots so that can be used to charge your phone or tablet, but what we wanted was the voltmeter.

We discovered that if we enter the car in the morning and don’t do anything, not touch the brake pedal, not start the car, just sit there and turn on the radio, we would get a reading on the voltmeter from the small battery. If the small battery was below 11.6 volts it would not be able to start the car. So, any reading above that was good. But, if the small battery had less than 11.6 volts no reading would display on the voltmeter, the radio would not turn on and instead the car’s screen would display the message, ““System off to save battery. Please turn ignition off or start engine.”

Also, after driving the car and turning the engine off the voltmeter would briefly display the voltage of the small battery. This can be misleading though, as it really is a surface charge and in reality the charge will drop rapidly.

So, we could measure the voltage of the small battery and in doing so we discovered two factors that contributed to draining the charge of the small battery:

1. The small battery is charged by driving the car on medium to long trips. Short trips, say only a few miles, won’t charge it. We often drove it only twice a day for ten minutes or less. Thus, we were not charging the small battery.

2 When you first open the car and sit inside without starting the engine, everything is being powered by the small battery. The computer system, lights, dashboard, radio, accessories, etc.

If you sit there for several minutes, you are draining the small battery. This happened with us a few times, so the small battery was weakened and our short ten minute drive was not sufficient to charge it. Over several days, the small battery became so weak it would not be able to start the car.

Our solution:
1. Purchase the dashboard voltmeter to monitor the charge of the small battery.

2. Upon entering the vehicle, if we were not prepared to start the car and drive off immediately, we would switch the car from the small battery to the main battery. To do this, without touching the brake pedal, push the start/stop button. That will automatically transfer everything to the main battery. You can sit there using the main battery for some time.

3. Of course, incorporating longer drives into our driving routine kept the small battery charged too.

Since we implemented these changes we have not had difficulty with the car.

Hope this helps someone else.
H.W. Arnold

 

I am posting this for a friend who has no access to this forum. Him and his wife have a 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Titanium that often would not start do to battery issues. What follows is his research and solution. He asks that I post this in case it might help someone else.
---------------------------------

Solution to our battery problem - 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Titanium.
Our new 2020 Escape Hybrid would frequently be unable to start. The dealer could not figure it out. We discovered, through trial and error and research, what was causing the problem and developed solutions to monitor and prevent it. We are sharing our story here in hopes it might assist others who may have had similar issues. This worked for us but there is no guarantee it will work for you, so you assume responsibility of any damage or issues if you attempt this.

As everyone probably knows, the vehicle has two batteries. The main battery which moves the car, and a smaller battery that starts the car and powers the computer system, lights, dashboard, radio, accessories, etc.

The small battery has been the problem with our car.

The first thing we did was to find a way to measure the voltage of the small battery. We purchased a Car USB Charger Multi Port Voltmeter found easily on Amazon.

We plugged it into one of the power ports on the dash, (formerly known as the cigarette lighter). It has two USB slots so that can be used to charge your phone or tablet, but what we wanted was the voltmeter.

We discovered that if we enter the car in the morning and don’t do anything, not touch the brake pedal, not start the car, just sit there and turn on the radio, we would get a reading on the voltmeter from the small battery. If the small battery was below 11.6 volts it would not be able to start the car. So, any reading above that was good. But, if the small battery had less than 11.6 volts no reading would display on the voltmeter, the radio would not turn on and instead the car’s screen would display the message, ““System off to save battery. Please turn ignition off or start engine.”

Also, after driving the car and turning the engine off the voltmeter would briefly display the voltage of the small battery. This can be misleading though, as it really is a surface charge and in reality the charge will drop rapidly.

So, we could measure the voltage of the small battery and in doing so we discovered two factors that contributed to draining the charge of the small battery:

1. The small battery is charged by driving the car on medium to long trips. Short trips, say only a few miles, won’t charge it. We often drove it only twice a day for ten minutes or less. Thus, we were not charging the small battery.

2 When you first open the car and sit inside without starting the engine, everything is being powered by the small battery. The computer system, lights, dashboard, radio, accessories, etc.

If you sit there for several minutes, you are draining the small battery. This happened with us a few times, so the small battery was weakened and our short ten minute drive was not sufficient to charge it. Over several days, the small battery became so weak it would not be able to start the car.

Our solution:
1. Purchase the dashboard voltmeter to monitor the charge of the small battery.

2. Upon entering the vehicle, if we were not prepared to start the car and drive off immediately, we would switch the car from the small battery to the main battery. To do this, without touching the brake pedal, push the start/stop button. That will automatically transfer everything to the main battery. You can sit there using the main battery for some time.

3. Of course, incorporating longer drives into our driving routine kept the small battery charged too.

Since we implemented these changes we have not had difficulty with the car.

Hope this helps someone else.
H.W. Arnold

I merged your thread to the existing thread on this issue.

 

I have the same issue, I rent the Titanium hybrid 2.5 liter 2020 for 48 months since august 2020. After 5000 km, no battery, Ford said battery was dead. Today, 3 weeks after having a new battery, dead again... no electricity at all in the car

 

This has happened to me twice now. To say I’m mad would be an understatement.

 

You may consider Lancero's solution: 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid - replace 12 volt battery with larger Group 48 AGM | Page 2 | 2013+ Ford Escape Forum

I decided to test the AGM battery after four full days of the Escape sitting undriven (a few weeks after install). It was 100%, according to my Schumacher. With the OEM battery I'd get daily decline and diminishing returns on driving recharge. Sitting four days would've likely resulted in sub-50% and/or "deep sleep".

Unlike the flooded battery, AGM charges faster, lasts longer, and can be deep cycled + this battery has twice the RC.

Just like the subwoofer rattle, I was not happy about having to do this (and having to pay for it), but not having to waste my time, and battle with utterly inept Ford service was worth the price. The dealership had essentially waved the white flag saying they could find nothing wrong. Well, Ford using a tiny flooded "starting" battery as a modern hybrid aux battery was the problem on mine.

I may even be willing to use the 12v power point in the back when we go camping this weekend, instead of worrying if it's sleeping again.

 

Depending on build date it could be this.

(SSM 49574 - 2020 Escape With 2.5L HEV/PHEV - No Crank/Discharged Battery - Built On 09-Jun-2020 And Through 16-Nov-2020)


Eric B
2017 Ford Escape Titanium 2.0
2020 Ford Escape Titanium Hybrid

 

Just happened to me. I bought 2020 titanium Hybrid by order (did not sit on lot ever) in november 2020.
Car has 5000 or so miles, 6 months old, driving every day past week 50 to 100 highway miles. Parked as usual, turned off (no load beeps as I exit to say car was on), doors windows closed, took key out. In morning 12 volt battery dead. Got jump start, was able to drive 20 miles, park turn car off, restart and drive home. There is clearly an issue with this model car. See cargurus dot com/Cars/Discussion-t86100_ds1139425 car gurus multiple posts for dead battery on 2020 escape hybrid. Anyway pretty upset to say the least a new car dies for no reason with no warning.