Car surprised me today (hybrid learning curve)

[higheroctave32]

Before heading to work today I had to drop my wife off at our daughters house. The detour added only 2.5 miles, all city, to my commute. Because of this I was driving my FFH a bit more like a normal car. Usually I stretch EV across an intersection before engaging the ICE to accelerate up to the 2nd bar on Empower. This time I was only giving a couple seconds in EV before accelerating away, still only to about the 2nd bar, but today instead of the battery charging like it always does at that level of acceleration, I was getting electric assist with the battery arrow pointing down. The only difference was that my SOC was higher than normal due to the added miles for the drop off. I drove like I always do on the freeway and arrived at work with better MPG than I normally do. 48.2 today instead of 45-47ish. Which led me to think, is there some sort of different mode the car enables when the computer detects a certain driving pattern to maximize mileage for it? It's the first time I've seen anything like that from the car and I am quite curious. I really expected to get a little worse mileage, not better.

[Easy Rider]

Yes. But don't obsess over it. Maybe there was a significant tail wind that made the difference.

 

Accelerating really, REALLY slowly sometimes isn't the best tactic.

Ford has done a really good job, I think, of engineering the car for "normal" driving.

Maybe your deviation was really closer to "normal". ;)

[higheroctave32]

I agree. It's strange that some of the days I am paying the least attention to driving efficiently is when I get some of my better mileage reports. I try to never get up to speed really slow and have been experimenting with reaching the current speed limit fairly quickly and backing off rather than the type of acceleration the car doesn't punish me for by taking away a dang leaf lol. Driving strictly for efficiency can become a chore very quickly and I was actually having a really good time driving today, so was very pleasantly surprised at the result.

 

This is my first hybrid and I feel a distinct obligation to drive it the way it is intended to be driven. My other recent cars have been a 2000 Mercury Cougar V6, a 2005 Explorer Sport Trac (still have), and a 1990 Mustang GT(still have), so nothing prepared me for the style of driving that has quickly become normal with this amazing car.

[corncobs]

By accelerating in EV across the intersection you are already wasting a ton of energy. This you have to charge back later on.

With the load at the 2nd bar you get the best of both worlds. Good pickup of the line, charging the HVB after a few yards and usually a nose ahead of the driver next to me until I stop acceleration at speed limit +3.

Shortly after that I'm being past until we repeat the game at the next light.

 

This morning I probably had my last 50+ MPG commute for this year.

[acdii]

As I posted elsewhere, minimize EV as much as possible. Never accelerate under EV except for short bursts to get moving. Keeping SOC as high as possible will return your best MPG in most driving situations. The only time where mixing EV and ICE works best is in the mid speed driving, 35-45 MPH, where you get long coasts in with smooth transitions between EV and ICE, and nice long slowdowns to stop lights. On the highway, keeping the pack at its highest SOC with the ice just above the threshold to EV will return your best for highway driving.

 

EV 5-15 MPH and transition to ICE at 2-2.5 bars on Empower works best, at least after 34890 miles for me. I have been consistently at or above 45 MPG nearly every day. Traffic and stupid short lights are the only thing keeping me from getting better.

[Easy Rider]

Keeping SOC as high as possible will return your best MPG in most driving situations.

 

I was going to say that isn't quite right......but it is, in kind of a round about way.

 

The point is to keep the load on the ICE below the point where it needs battery boost.

But putting your attention on the SOC probably isn't the best way to accomplish that.

 

The point IS to use the battery power to prevent the ICE from going into a really inefficient range.......and then recharge it when the ICE is running at or near it's peak efficiency.

I think the Fusion engineering does a really good job of doing that WITHOUT the driver doing anything special.

 

I am still somewhat amazed when mine goes into EV mode when cruising down the highway around 50 MPH.

[Waldo]

The hybrid gets much better MPG in the city driving, so just changing your drive to have a higher % of city like you did would easily explain the mileage difference, regardless of how you drove.

 

The difference between 45-47 and 48.2 is really so small, that it's barely within the tolerances of the measurement anyway.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Waldo

[Griswald]

It all seem so counter-intuitive.

 

When my car is using zero gasoline to move, my MPG's are really high.

When my car is using gasoline to move, my MPG's are lower.

 

I do everything I can to keep the screen blue, bcause I'm not using gasoline. I am averaging 44.0 and routinly get over 50.

 

The car will charge the battery no matter what the SOC shows, it can't do anything but that. Sure, some of the energy gets shunted off when the battery is full, but the screen showing full is only about 65% charged according to Torque.

 

I'm not talking about 100 miles at 62 mph with no hills, that I'd agree on. I'm talking about commuting.

[DirectorMan]

As I posted elsewhere, minimize EV as much as possible. Never accelerate under EV except for short bursts to get moving. Keeping SOC as high as possible will return your best MPG in most driving situations. The only time where mixing EV and ICE works best is in the mid speed driving, 35-45 MPH, where you get long coasts in with smooth transitions between EV and ICE, and nice long slowdowns to stop lights. On the highway, keeping the pack at its highest SOC with the ice just above the threshold to EV will return your best for highway driving.

A lot of my driving is in the city along a particular route in which the speed limit is 35 MPH, with some areas that have long stretches between lights. After getting up to 35 MPH on the long stretches, I try to keep it in EV mode. Doing so I average 50 MPG on a car with 1600 miles on it. If instead I take the freeway, I try to keep it out of EV mode, and I average about 41 MPG. Does that correspond to what you are advising?

[higheroctave32]

I'm going to simply not obsess over it like everyone says and just drive the car moderately using the simple tricks I've learned here and enjoy the hell out of it. Using said tips on my way in today, with 2.1 miles less city driving as I was coming from the bank, so the car was a little bit warmed up already, got me 52.3. That's my best ever standard commute. Coming from a vehicle that was averaging 15 mph, a 5 mph bump is huge in my mind.

 

I've also been experimenting with taking all surface streets on the way home. It's actually 1.6 miles shorter, takes me 10 minutes longer and I got 54.4 that night. Being as time focused as I usually am though, I'm not sure the extra 10 minutes are worth it when I don't get home till after 9:30 p.m. Silly, I know.

 

 

[Waldo]

Seeing that 54mpg number is nice, but let's do a little math. You used .33 gallons on this 10 minute longer commute. So your regular commute must be 20 miles and you said you get around 46mpg usually. So that means you normally burn .43 gallons of fuel, or one tenth of a gallon more. At today's prices, that means that you save 30 cents for your extra 10 minutes. That values your time at $1.80 an hour; it certainly does seem silly to me.

[higheroctave32]

I'm also trying to get my first 600 mile tank. Each time I get a 50+ mpg trip my DTE is a little better than it was before. It's showing to end up at about 587 so far so I'm pretty sure I can easily make it as my fill-ups so far have been only 11.5 gallons.

[md13ffhguy]

That values your time at $1.80 an hour; it certainly does seem silly to me.

But, oh so satisfying. Can't put a dollar value on that. ;)

[acdii]

A lot of my driving is in the city along a particular route in which the speed limit is 35 MPH, with some areas that have long stretches between lights. After getting up to 35 MPH on the long stretches, I try to keep it in EV mode. Doing so I average 50 MPG on a car with 1600 miles on it. If instead I take the freeway, I try to keep it out of EV mode, and I average about 41 MPG. Does that correspond to what you are advising?

Pretty much. I do mostly rural Highway driving, with some city mixed in, and keeping SOC high when above 45 MPH is what I am trying to point out, if below 45, mixing EV and ICE works best since you have times were you are regenerating, coasting, and light acceleration, where EV works best.

[Hybrider]

... At today's prices, that means that you save 30 cents for your extra 10 minutes. That values your time at $1.80 an hour; it certainly does seem silly to me.

 

That is one, albeit a miserly, way to look at it. I would much rather spend those 10 minutes driving an FFH which I love to drive, all the while listening to a stereo that sounds soooo good. :shift: