Newbie looking at purchase and vehicles

Our 2015 has a 3.31 rear axle ratio, and with the 6-speed tranny it is not an issue at all. The engine loafs along at 1500 RPM when we're cruising at 60 MPH, and the engine is super quiet. The only thing I have against it is the engine braking is not quite strong enough. It has not been a problem for us, even in the mountains (it has really large disc brakes all around). However, from what I've read, the hybrid F150 recharges the big battery mainly through regenerative braking, so I suspect that would help in the downhill department. 

LA, does the 2.7 EB starter have conventional ring gear engagement? Still wondering about that report the hybrid has a belt starter. Doesn’t make much sense to my why a hybrid would need a starter at all.

GG, you can’t depend on regen braking to replace engine braking on a hybrid, the battery is too small (1.5kwh on the F150) and so is the motor/generator (35kw). Also the battery might already be fully charged when you hit the downhill grade. The Prius shifter has a “B” mode which creates engine braking for this purpose.

Even pure EV’s can have that problem. There are folks with EVs who live on top of mountains who configure their home charging profile so that there’s “room” in the battery to recover the potential energy when they head downhill. But what if you happen to be fully charged at the top of a long grade? Since EVs have no engine braking if the battery is full they are completely dependent on their friction brakes. That could be a problem although I haven’t heard of issues yet, but there aren’t many folks hauling heavy loads in EVs yet. I suppose it could be solved the way it’s done on diesel/electric locomotives, by dynamic braking where the excess energy is dissipated in a big resistor bank. If EVs had something like that they could probably eventually eliminate friction brakes entirely. As it is most ev drivers do almost all one pedal driving (no friction braking) anyhow.

Originally posted by lostagain Maybe electric vehicles can install a giant search light pointing up on the roof of the car to burn off that excess energy from driving down hill.

If I recall correctly, though it's been a while since I retired, the car weighs 60% of the weight of the counterweights.  It's balanced when the car's full, but it is a little less so when traveling up and down relatively empty.  It's too bad they couldn't have used those extra electrons to charge some batteries.