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There is a warm up period for both the prius and camry. Your times seem long, but I doubt there is a problem. You'll have to find another EH owner who lives in a cold climate to verify, but I think this is normal.

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It might be because of the defroster. The defroster requires the use of the air-conditioning compressor, and in your Escape hybrid, I'm pretty certain the A/C compressor is belt-driven from the engine, so the engine must run in order to defrost. Are you changing the heat mode from defrost to general heat after, let's say, 10-15 minutes?

Some other hybrids use electric-driven A/C compressors to avoid this sort of issue.

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I also have an '08 FEH.  It cold-weather the MPG drops from 35MPG to about 25MPG at about 18 degrees.  I have had it drop to 20MPG at 5 degrees.  ANd this is over a 4 hour drive so it had nothing to do with warm-up.  Even in city driving it takes 15-20 minutes before the engine will shut down at a stop light.  Usually the engine will come on again before the light turns green.  I have been to the dealer 3 times and they do nothing about it.

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I will typically drive with just the heat on and no defroster.  I always drive with the ECON button on also.  It's hard to believe that over a 4hour drive that it doesn't all warm up correctly.

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