This is my first Hybrid so I'm curious what other tips & tricks for maintenance others have?

Believe the oil life monitor when it lets you go more than 10K miles between changes.
- As of the 2020 Escape, OLM no longer counts EV miles, looking for the ICE to go 10K miles between changes. My last two oil changes have been at 15.6K and 17.4K intervals because I make ~40% EV usage. Actual ICE mileages were 9.6K and 9.3K. (Note that I do a 5K change on a new car.)

Extend the change interval for the engine air filter

• As noted above, the ICE isn't running all the time, but the big reason is...
• Paper air filters become more efficient as they get older. Getting clogged also reduces air flow, but a hybrid lives at mid-range RPM, where the emissions system is more than capable of adjusting to actual flow rates.

I do used oil analysis, and see a reduction in Si as the air filter ages. A new filter will be better in some ways, worse in others. My tradeoff analysis says "leave it in."

Understand the common driving modes

• EV mode is kind of obvious, ICE is off, motors turn using HVB power.
• Series mode uses the ICE to generate power to directly turn the motor. It's hard to sense, but very common at low speed because the motor has more torque than the ICE, and it's all available at 0 RPM.
• Hybrid mode Charging uses excess ICE power to generate electricity and charge the HVB
• Hybrid mode Discharging uses HVB to reduce ICE power needs by adding EV power

Play the "hybrid game"

• watch the EV Coach to see how much EV is available (outline) and how much you're throttle foot is requesting.
• use ICE uphill, try to EV downhill
• from a stop, press the throttle gently to EV up to 10-20 mph, (EV Available rises as you start moving)
• reduce throttle slowly to extend an EV glide by staying within the shrinking EV Available outline.
• try to avoid strong acceleration that uses both ICE and HVB power (hybrid discharge mode)
• strive for hybrid charging mode, so using fuel also banks HVB energy for EV glides.

Understand what's in your control (speed) and what's not (weather, traffic, terrain), so you have realistic expectations. Mileage will tank in cold weather, but also at high speed in fair weather. Gentle hills will add mileage, steep hills will reduce it. Traffic can also go either way. As a result, my mileage varies between 30 and 60 mpg... perhaps an unexpected, if realistic expectation. I've had tanks from 32.9 to 51.1 mpg (and, yes, the dash mileage is 5% optimistic).

Have fun!

 

Believe the oil life monitor when it lets you go more than 10K miles between changes.
- As of the 2020 Escape, OLM no longer counts EV miles, looking for the ICE to go 10K miles between changes. My last two oil changes have been at 15.6K and 17.4K intervals because I make ~40% EV usage. Actual ICE mileages were 9.6K and 9.3K. (Note that I do a 5K change on a new car.)

Extend the change interval for the engine air filter

• As noted above, the ICE isn't running all the time, but the big reason is...
• Paper air filters become more efficient as they get older. Getting clogged also reduces air flow, but a hybrid lives at mid-range RPM, where the emissions system is more than capable of adjusting to actual flow rates.

I do used oil analysis, and see a reduction in Si as the air filter ages. A new filter will be better in some ways, worse in others. My tradeoff analysis says "leave it in."

Understand the common driving modes

• EV mode is kind of obvious, ICE is off, motors turn using HVB power.
• Series mode uses the ICE to generate power to directly turn the motor. It's hard to sense, but very common at low speed because the motor has more torque than the ICE, and it's all available at 0 RPM.
• Hybrid mode Charging uses excess ICE power to generate electricity and charge the HVB
• Hybrid mode Discharging uses HVB to reduce ICE power needs by adding EV power

Play the "hybrid game"

• watch the EV Coach to see how much EV is available (outline) and how much you're throttle foot is requesting.
• use ICE uphill, try to EV downhill
• from a stop, press the throttle gently to EV up to 10-20 mph, (EV Available rises as you start moving)
• reduce throttle slowly to extend an EV glide by staying within the shrinking EV Available outline.
• try to avoid strong acceleration that uses both ICE and HVB power (hybrid discharge mode)
• strive for hybrid charging mode, so using fuel also banks HVB energy for EV glides.

Understand what's in your control (speed) and what's not (weather, traffic, terrain), so you have realistic expectations. Mileage will tank in cold weather, but also at high speed in fair weather. Gentle hills will add mileage, steep hills will reduce it. Traffic can also go either way. As a result, my mileage varies between 30 and 60 mpg... perhaps an unexpected, if realistic expectation. I've had tanks from 32.9 to 51.1 mpg (and, yes, the dash mileage is 5% optimistic).

Have fun!

Wow! Much appreciated on the large write up. There is a fair bit of information here that I was not aware of.

In regards to the oil change frequencies... that's good to know. I never thought that likely the 5,000km interval is probably not the same for a Hybrid considering a lot of "Total Km" will have been electric. Is there any way to find total Electric Km? I know the "This Trip" has this information, but I can't find a history of it. I normally keep one of the 2 trip screens active always going so I have some historic information, but it doesn't appear to keep track of Electric Km beyond that "This Trip" and it isn't in FordPass that I can see? The GM oil life monitor seemed incredibly optimistic and sometimes stated I probably could have gone close to 10,000km between oil changes which had me suspicious and thus am cautious regarding the Ford's oil life monitor too.

I'm not sure where the "EV Available outline" is on the instrument cluster/display, but I'll check for that tonight... similarly, the other driving modes. I've noticed some signs that these modes are perhaps active... however, nothing concrete... is that mostly indicated by the multi colored lines (blue for using electric, green for charging, grey for ICE)?

My daily commute one way is mostly highway so unless there is absolutely no wind it is usually highway gas cruising. However, throughout town and then in the city I've been able to get it almost exclusively electric and that "hybrid glide" is slowly being learned and is fantastic if I can perfect it when on the off ramp from the highway. Used to be about 25-30% of KM electric when I first got the Escape, but slowly creeping towards 40% one way. Total combined driving thus far states about 37mpg, but I've gotten up to 61mpg on some drives!

Very big difference coming from a V6 truck and my soon-to-be-former hard accelerations almost always. I've realized the folks around where I live drive extremely hard and will drive extremely close while I'm accelerating gently when there is no reason to accelerate hard. Just a mindset change I suppose.

 

Once you've got the above steps in the 'hybrid game' down you can start using cruise control to squeeze out more Electric miles using the EV Coach Screen.

If you're in Electric but your foot is on the accelerator pedal I've found that more power is kept available because the car doesn't know whether you're about to accelerate. But if you set cruise control I've found most of the time the applied power drops significantly and thus extending the distance traveled before the Hybrid cutover. And if it's safe for you to do so you can further decelerate using the +/- buttons to further delay the Hybrid cutover. Even if you need to accelerate in Electric you're going to use less power doing so with the +/- buttons than your foot.

Moreover, you can initiate more Electric miles at highway speed too with cruise control. As you crest a hill or enter a slight decline/flat area in Hybrid I've been able to force it into Electric just using the +/- buttons to set the cruise 1 mph lower. Before I started doing this it would have stayed in Hybrid but my reducing the cruise speed 1 mph throws it into Charging at these grades and when it needs more power to maintain speed it first opts into Electric and stays there until either the available power is exhausted or the terrain conspires against me.

Like fbov said...this hybrid changed my driving personality. On the highway I'm now happy to ride the slow lane at or under the speed limit hitting the +/- cruise button all along the way and in the city i keep in the rightmost lane welcoming every opportunity to engage the regenerative braking and coast at an ungodly slow speed as long as it's safe to do so.