I'm guessing with the Pacifica's 16.6kwh battery that unless you're forcing it to stay in EV mode that liklihood of running down your battery is even less. (The escape is a 1.8kwh, correct?)
Your comment made me realize I didn't know the capacity of the Escape Hybrid's battery pack. So I looked it up. More common on the Internet for that spec is 1.6kwh. The exact number isn't important for what we're discussing anyway.
It's important what these numbers represent. I saw only one place that mentioned it is for a 50% charge at a favorable temperature. And is that kwh number for fully discharging the pack, or discharging it down to 40%? Similarly, there's no indication of just what the Pacifica's 16.6kwh figure is for.
In any case, and in the interest of battery longevity, I think the Pacifica would be set up to use only some middle portion of the battery's potential capacity. To me, the more important numbers are: how far can it go in ev-only mode, and how fast can it go in ev-only mode.
Whatever the details...
I presume the Pacifica, like other plug-in hybrids, is designed to operate in electric-only mode until some minimum level of charge is reached. At that point, I'd think it would be vulnerable to the same ICE-only operation as a regular hybrid climbing a long steep hill.** Prior to reaching that level of discharge, and while climbing a steep hill, it would have to choose between electric-only and electric+ICE. I don't know how the Pacifica, or any other plug-in hybrid manages this. Probably it depends on the maximum power output capability of their ev-only system. For instance, does it have an electric motor powerful enough to propel a loaded van up a steep hill at 100kph? Or can the battery discharge fast enough to provide all the power needed?
**Unlike my understanding of the Volt, which I think is set up to run the gas engine to charge the battery pack beyond what's needed for immediate propulsion. I stand to be corrected on that, though.
I've described highway operation of my Escape Hybrid. I also use it to drive from sea level up logging roads and old mining roads high into BC's mountains. These ascents commonly gain 3000' vertical, but can be up to twice that. The amount of energy needed to raise two tons so much elevation means that I quickly exhaust whatever charge is available from the hybrid battery. Then, it's ICE-only to the top.
On the descent, the potential energy involved in keeping two tons from free-falling is so great that the battery pack is soon full to the rated capacity. It then stops accepting charge and the remainder of the descent is on the mechanical brakes. (Which do fine as long as you keep the speed down. But I'd much rather have a low range for this.) Even for highway drivers, this can become an issue towing trailers on mountainous highways.
Presumably the Pacifica's much larger battery would mean more of such descents would be done by regenerative braking, but even so these descents are so great even the larger battery would be full to capacity long before the bottom. Someone with a physics degree could tell us how much of a descent would fill up the Pacifica's battery. The neat thing is that at the bottom, you'd then have the fully rated distance available in ev-only mode. Which would cancel out how much gas you used to get up part of the climb to begin with. Whereas with the Escape Hybrid, I can only go 2km or so on a flat road at under 63kph before I've used up the charge gained on a big descent.
This would be a good time to repeat the Hinton story. Last summer, we ran out of gas in the wrong part of Hinton. Except my calculations underway indicated we were not out of gas. The "STOP SAFELY NOW" indicator came on. This is the worst thing that can show up on the Escape Hybrid's dashboard, and means: "Pull off the road and stop immediately, and call a tow truck for delivery to the nearest Ford dealer for an expensive repair." Alarms sounded and lights flashed. The gas engine quit and wouldn't start. The a/c quit (and it was a scorching day). Besides the heat, I was sweating from the tension of the moment. But I discovered that as long as I stayed under 30kph, the thing would still drive. We made it to a gas station on the remaining charge, waited while the RV drivers left their vehicles lined up at the pumps while they shopped in the convencience store, and a fillup fixed everything. Phew. Occupants of the Escape were impressed that it had this reserve capability.
