Quote:
Originally Posted by Scahpe
I always wonder why Ford didn't put a "short range" button on these. You press the button and then you can drive it away without the engine even starting.
Of course, the engine would still start if the battery got below a certain state of charge, but this would be handy for short trips (like down the street and the like).
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Two reasons:
1. During their consumer test phase, before launch, drivers
actually complained about
"Not being able to tell if the vehicle was running" when they started it. So much so, that they eventually cut out the EV start and put in the automatic ICE on during key start. Yes, blame the idiot test subjects Ford used for the FEH for that. Thanks a lot, morons.
(I and other owners have since complained about that, though it seems that Ford is too lazy to make any changes and still worries about consumer acceptance as a whole.)
2. For a while, there was some government debate about whether or not it was legal to have an EV button. Toyota avoided the issue on the Prius by disabling the EV switch on the US version of the Prius when they ported it to the US market, and it remained a big question mark for some time until it was finally cleared up, though even now it's not getting much use or attention for some reason.