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Is 470 tq only available in hybrid mode?

JandS

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The answer is technically yes, but you're going to be "in hybrid mode" way more often than not. Like, pretty much all the time.

There's quite a bit of misinformation floating around regarding just what "hybrid mode" means, probably from mystified folks who have never owned a hybrid.

A lot of people in this sub-forum seem to think that hybrid mode means the electric charge will be fully depleted, and then will be entirely absent from the system until you perform a sufficient amount of coasting or braking in order to recapture some of that energy. The reality is that the gas engine will be used to keep the hybrid battery at a software-determined optimum charge level whenever the performance demands are low enough to allow for it. I don't know how Jeep's software will map this out, but on our 2009 Escape Hybrid, 2019 Niro, and the 2020 Rav4 Prime we briefly owned, most normal, non-spirited driving means/meant the traction battery stayed well above 50-60% charged pretty much at all times. No, you absolutely do not need to be riding the brakes on several miles of downhill to keep the battery sufficiently charged for your next burst of speed.

The 4xe page does have specific language stating "The Max Regeneration feature remaps the accelerator pedal to command more aggressive regen at low pedal positions.". This wording tells me that the 4xe should act similarly to those other vehicles mentioned above (and as in every other hybrid I've ever driven), and that it further has the ability to make that effect more pronounced. In other words, it should behave like any other modern hybrid. No need to overthink it "because it's a Jeep".

In short, even when you're on the gas pedal, the vehicle will attempt to provide some charge to the battery if and when it can. What this means is that in most normal driving situations, you should almost always have some charge in the traction battery to pull the 470 ft-lb of torque as needed.

Of course, when you're driving very aggressively for long periods of time, you could potentially burn through a bunch of that needed charge pretty quickly. In those situations, the energy demands from the traction battery are much higher than can be replenished by the engine, and the software might decide that you need all the power you're asking for, rather than siphoning some of that off for the task of charging the hybrid battery. In that rare case, yes, you will run out of charge and the 4xe will turn into a "normal" 2.0T with a bit of extra weight. In fact, depending on the software implementation, it might be slightly worse even than just a heavier 2.0T, because the vehicle may decide that the need to top off the battery takes higher priority than your demand for ever more power. Our Escape Hybrid is guilty of this, and in the rare instances where Road-Rage-Me takes over and I briefly kill the battery off, the vehicle punishes me by robbing me of all the electric motor power as well as some of the gas engine power as it tries to get back to its happy place (and I to mine) while I'm still going at it. But again: rare.

Unless you're driving around everywhere with the skinny pedal pinned to the floor, you should expect to have that power on tap pretty much whenever you need it.
Excellent job of explaining a rather complicated topic.
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