Brandon Satterwhite

Never mind about the kW question. After I went out to the car to look at the Empower screen, I see that it looks like 1 bar = 1 kW. This is great data to have. So it sounds like the general guidance would be that when possible you want to drive the ICE at > 1.5 bars on the Engage screen and (based on what I've read elsewhere) you want to use EV at <1 bar. I can definitely work with that!

This is interesting data that Larry posted on ICE efficiencies, but can someone make it more useful for me... Are the bars on the Empower screen 10 kW each? i.e. can I expect to get basically max efficiency from the ICE if I'm at 2 bars? I think that's the result I'm picking up from all my reading here... if the EV goes above 1 bar, nudge the gas pedal until the ICE kicks on and you go up to 2 bars. Accelerate/charge HVB at 2 bars until (HVB approaching full and you're say a few MPH over the speed limit), and then glide back down in speed and go EV as far as you can. Note that this is the plan I'm formulating in my head for 40 to 45 mph, which is my commute. I understand the ICE-only argument for the 65 to 70 mph crowd. At that speed, you probably don't accelerate with ICE at 2 bars, so you'd never hit the EV glide phase I'm describing, I'm guessing.

So, you try to accelerate just enough for the ICE to kick in? In general I would think that the slower you accelerate (less power demanded) the better. You want to avoid "jack rabbit" starts, but according to what you're saying, you're also better off not accelerating too slowly?