2021 Ford Escape PHEV consumer reviews

Ride quality & heated seats are amazing. Add that to having to go to the pump every 6 weeks. Sports mode really changes up if you’re looking for a little extra power. Only issues is the recalls but chance of having an issue is 1 in a 100000.

I purchased a new 2021 Ford Escape PHEV (plug-in Hybrid) in Oct. of 2021. It has 14000 miles on it. It now stalls in the middle of traffic while in EV mode. It's happened 3 times. Once while my wife was driving in the middle of an intersection (blocking traffic, horns honking, ect.). There is a recall for this exact failure on the same year, model, and engine as my vehicle, but they say I don't qualify. The recall code is 21S48. I believe it’s a high cost fix for them, so they're not issuing the recall as they should (e.g. have these vehicles called in for testing and diagnosis before the failure happens). Anyway, I have to wait 3 weeks for a dealership mechanic to even look at it and I have a long drive I must make in less than a week. Needless to say I'm very disappointed in Ford quality and support. I'm an electrical engineer for 35 years, I design high-reliability products and I'm very disappointed in the quality of Ford engineering that missed this breakdown in safe operation. Maybe they're not ready for EV yet. Maybe they need to invest in Hi-Rel design training for their engineers. All I know is I spent $45,000 for a malfunctioning and dangerous Ford vehicle. I’ve only owned it for 18 months, it only has 14,000 miles on it and it feels like a lemon. I should have purchased the Toyota RAV4 Plugin Hybrid! Sorry for the ranting, but I feel indignant and frustrated by this.

I bought the SEL in August 2021. So far, I've logged nearly 5,000 miles, 85% of which was pure electric. The annoying turn-on of the engine isn't the end of the world. In fact, you can still get an estimate of efficiency because one of the menus shows the proportion of miles driven in electric versus gasoline mode. In the city, if the engine turns on, at the first opportunity to stop, I switch to park, hit the shutoff button and restart the car. I have found that in city driving, no heater or air conditioning on and driving in eco mode, I can easily get as much as 52 miles per charge, way above Ford's estimate. This car is amazingly efficient. I love it, especially with gasoline prices going through the roof.