Accelerating quickly vs slow acceleration?

[rocky]

Just got my ffh SE 2014 today. Was always confused when reading the Prius forums about the topic. Wanted to see what my fellow fusioners had to say about this.

 

Which is best for saving fuel and improving mpg on a highway? Which is best for loca-city driving? Is there even a difference of city vs highway depending on the way you accelerate?

[acdii]

Somewhere I have a thread on acceleration on the Fusion. What I do is start out slightly in EV when the battery charge is high enough and when ICE kicks on keep it at 2 bars on Empower, sometimes up to 3 bars, but keeping it at or around the 2 bar mark seems to work best. That equates to about 2KW of power. It takes a very light touch to do this, but after practice it comes easy.

 

What I find doesnt work too well is granny driving it, seems that it wastes fuel driving like this. Get up to speed as quick as you can, by keeping it around the 2 KW and back off as you approach it and then feather the pedal lightly to keep it there. Works pretty good.

[corncobs]

Ditto on the explaination!

However I would add one point about accelerating. Yes keeping it at two bars is a good start I actually look at the arrows. Whenever possible I accelerate as fast as the arrow is still pointing up.

A little bit too much to start with I just lighten the load on the throttle to have the arrow pointing up.

[ptjones]

Two Bar method is what I used for my record run and it is easy to use. :)

 

Paul

[rocky]

When you folks say 2 bars, what display setting are you referring to?

[acdii]

Empower display, first one up from the MyView.

[hybridbear]

Just got my ffh SE 2014 today. Was always confused when reading the Prius forums about the topic. Wanted to see what my fellow fusioners had to say about this.

 

Which is best for saving fuel and improving mpg on a highway? Which is best for loca-city driving? Is there even a difference of city vs highway depending on the way you accelerate?

Check out this thread: http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/6994-fuel-economy-tip-list/

It explains what trial and error has found to be the best. I'm planning to create a BSFC map for the FFH as well based on data I log with Torque to try to further expand this knowledge.

 

Somewhere I have a thread on acceleration on the Fusion. What I do is start out slightly in EV when the battery charge is high enough and when ICE kicks on keep it at 2 bars on Empower, sometimes up to 3 bars, but keeping it at or around the 2 bar mark seems to work best. That equates to about 2KW of power. It takes a very light touch to do this, but after practice it comes easy.

 

What I find doesnt work too well is granny driving it, seems that it wastes fuel driving like this. Get up to speed as quick as you can, by keeping it around the 2 KW and back off as you approach it and then feather the pedal lightly to keep it there. Works pretty good.

With the instant MPG gauge turned on, each bar on that screen is approximately 10 kW. I need to further test this to get an accurate measurement when running in EV mode and when running with the ICE on.

 

[rjent]

I completely agree with this. Don't baby it when leaving a stop light/sign, but don't push it either. Get to the middle of the intersection in EV then transition to ICE and accelerate. I also try to keep the battery charge at 50 percent. If you do the ICE does more "pushing" than "charging" which IMHO is more effecient.

 

Just my .02

Somewhere I have a thread on acceleration on the Fusion. What I do is start out slightly in EV when the battery charge is high enough and when ICE kicks on keep it at 2 bars on Empower, sometimes up to 3 bars, but keeping it at or around the 2 bar mark seems to work best. That equates to about 2KW of power. It takes a very light touch to do this, but after practice it comes easy.

 

What I find doesnt work too well is granny driving it, seems that it wastes fuel driving like this. Get up to speed as quick as you can, by keeping it around the 2 KW and back off as you approach it and then feather the pedal lightly to keep it there. Works pretty good.

[HybridDragon]

I have been driving my 2015 FFH Titanium for about 4 days now

I am obviously no 'old hand' like some of the forum participants, but I find the suggestions here very useful

 

I have found that when I 'baby' the acceleration when the ICE kicks in, I get a lot more "RRRRRRRRR" noise from the engine. If I press more firmly, without trying to drag race anyone, I get less noise and a more pleasing noise, if that makes sense. So I agree 'Granny" driving is out.

 

I have not been watching the screen to see how many bars I am running, but I will now and figure out where it operates best for me as far as noise and performance.

[lolder]

Watch how much power the cruise control uses when you accelerate when you select resume. That's probably the best compromise.

[corncobs]

Watch how much power the cruise control uses when you accelerate when you select resume. That's probably the best compromise.

ECC is a very good coach!

 

As long the arrow is pointing up indicating that the HVB is charging you get the best of both worlds. Good acceleration and good FE.

[Easy Rider]

Which is best for saving fuel and improving mpg on a highway?

 

Unless you are a person who lets fuel mileage obsession take over your life, then the most important factor is SLOW DOWN, within reason.

It takes more fuel to go faster and to accelerate faster.

The other biggie is learning to anticipate stops and slow downs so you can slow down gradually without completely stopping.

Other than that, just drive the car and enjoy it.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Easy Rider

[RLMeadors]

Unless you are a person who lets fuel mileage obsession take over your life, then the most important factor is SLOW DOWN, within reason.

It takes more fuel to go faster and to accelerate faster.

The other biggie is learning to anticipate stops and slow downs so you can slow down gradually without completely stopping.

Other than that, just drive the car and enjoy it.

I've had my 2014 FFH Titanium for 3 months now. I live in the metro Atlanta area... and since I prefer not to be honked at, driving slow is not a very practical option a lot of the time. ;) However, I have found the tips here on MPG to be extremely helpful. Trying to get the best MPG is kind of a fun game for me. I don't compromise my speed too much but have found that I can get pretty good MPG using the techniques found here. Really happy with this car... And like you said, Easy Rider, it's just a really enjoyable car to drive. That's the most important part as far as I'm concerned!