Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the 2009-12 MMH/FEHs have drum brakes in the rear, which is not optimal for heavier loads. Earlier models had discs all around.

 

I presume it had something to do with the addition of RSC. I prefer the all around discs my 2008 has.

 

Not sure where you get from as the Ford F-150 had drum brakes up till mid-99MY and that depended on the axle.

 

The car world seems to be unable to conclude whether drums or discs are better for the back end of ordinary cars. There is no question that discs are more costly to maintain on the back, because they're more complex (and have to have a small drum brake to use as a parking brake anyway) and more exposed to the crud churned up by the front wheels.

I've had suv's with both disc and drum back brakes. I haven't been able to discern any performance difference.

Some have claimed that drum brakes activate slower than discs, but I don't know if that's true, and with little of the braking effort on the back end, it would have minor importance.

Of course disc brakes were introduced because drums overheat. But by far most braking effort is on the front wheels. I run into this during very long steep descents. Once the hybrid battery is at full capacity, which doesn't take long relative to the size of these mountains, all speed control is done with the brakes. Though I've heard this can result in overheating the brakes, I have yet to experience this. In fact, at the bottoms of these descents the front discs will be warm to hot (not burning or smoking hot), while the rear drums will be cool to warm. So as far as capacity goes, the rear drums are up to the demands put on them. Though others will disagree, I see nothing wrong with drums on the back of the more recent FEH. Yes, it seems like a downgrade, but in fact could have no effect other than cheaper brake repairs.

Edit: I hasten to add that I feel strongly that an Escape Hybrid should not be used to tow a heavy load down a long steep descent. This may be the reason for the 1000lb limit.

 

If this were true, then drum brakes would still be widespread when in fact they are pretty rare even on non-performance or heavy duty applications. The 2013+ Escapes have discs all around as do all the other current Ford SUVs.
In earlier FEHs rear brake pads wear faster than the fronts because the front brakes used mostly regen braking, but I understand for 09-12 this may have been modified to a more traditional front biased setup (probably because the rear drums were not designed to handle the load )
Changing brake pads on a disc brake setup is pretty simple, and on a FEH they usually last more than 100K miles which makes them pretty cost effective for maintenance.

 

 

The second generation FE 4WD had rear drums, at least the 2009 does and I don't if that changed after that.

 

I'd be surprised if most sub-$20,000 cars have discs on the back. And how much of this is driven by marketing as opposed to performance, like large rims, is another important factor.

If the brake bias was changed more toward the front in '09, that is more likely to be because the more braking done by regeneration (using the front wheels) as opposed ordinary brakes (rear wheels), the better the hybrid system works to improve mileage. This would be true regardless of the type of rear brake. Yes, this increased forward bias would promote rear wheel lockup in hard braking, but the thinking is that ABS would step in to counter this. In addition, the FEH has a brake pressure proportioning valve, which helps automatically determine front/rear braking bias.

It may be easy to change disc pads, but I was referring to the cost of brake service. Disc brakes require discs almost as often as pads these days, and costly caliper assemblies less frequently. This upkeep is far more expensive than drums, and I repeat that rear discs, especially on "utility" vehicles, suffer from crud stirred up by the front wheels.

Something more: Rear discs still need auxiliary drum brakes to use as parking brakes. It may be the FEH went to rear drums to reduce costs, weight and complexity.

 

A friend who has a Prius says he uses the brakes to slow down, in situations where I use Low.

I'd argue, in agreement with you, that when you use Low, all the braking is done utilizing regeneration (except below 3mph, in panic stops, if the system is cold, and if the traction battery is full). Whereas if you use the brakes, some of the braking is done with the rear brakes and so that energy is lost. In addition, but which may be inconsequential, braking with the brakes wastes energy illuminating the brake lights and boosting the power brakes, while regenerating with Low doesn't do that.

There are differences between using the brakes or Low depending on whether you are within or abvoe the ev-mode range maximum speed, but I haven't entirely figured that out yet.

 

It seems strange, but I've never been able to find braking distance numbers to help prove if the change from rear discs to drums resulted in longer stopping distances. I know the FEH has relatively long stopping distances, but I don't know if this was a post '08 problem. I'm not willing to agree that going to rear drums was a mistake until I see it proven by such numbers.