How To Improve Winter MPG's

[ptjones]

2020 FEH owners are reporting 40-45 mpg with AWD on Escape forum web site. My latest build date on my FEHP is the end of next month, we will see.

 

Paul

[MeeLee]

I'm getting 48MPG at 75F, and 47.3mpg average around 80+F ambient.

In the city, mpg can go as high as 50.

I accelerate on the gasoline engine, and 'coast' on the electric motor. That seems to make the most of my mpg (up from 42mpg trying to let the car decide how to switch between the two).

 

The problem is that the car doesn't know the road ahead, and quite often is running the gasoline engine longer than needed, resulting in the engine switching to electric, right as I'm about to enter an intersection and need to stop.

 

Then it tries to accelerate on the electric motor, because the batteries are fully charged, and the engine has nothing to charge. The small 40/50HP electric motor isn't well suited for acceleration much past 25-30MPH, resulting in energy losses.

 

For that reason, I force the engine on (by pressing the pedal deeper), until I've reached cruising speed. Then blip the throttle the other way, by shortly letting go, allowing the engine to shut off, electric motor to regen, and take over the job of coasting.

 

I really feel like this car needs a larger supercapacitor pack, and at least a 20-25% larger electric motor.

 

I also believe that the engine is putting out closer to 160HP (rather than the rated 140hp), and the electric motor is overboosted to 45-50hp rather than the rated 40HP, with a combined performance coming closer to 215hp vs rated 180hp.

It's underrated, much like their mpg ratings of 42mpg. I'm getting closer to 50mpg in the city, and 40mpg on the highway. Hovering around 47mpg average doing 25/50/25 city/suburbs/hwy.

Edited March 27, 2021 by MeeLee

[Sky14FFH]

On 3/24/2021 at 8:52 AM, Waldo said:

Just because you don't see the future vision that Ford does, doesn't mean they're not making decisions for the long term.  What's the Swedish navy going to do with all that lumber now? 

You answered your own question with your first statement.  There's now a forest where there wasn't one and everyone's happy.

 

On 3/24/2021 at 8:52 AM, Waldo said:

Ford has seen the long term trend that people don't want cars,

What people?  Americans whom the auto industry tells us have insecurity issues whom are selfish and vain?  The people who want to be 11% more likely to die in a car accident?   SUVs suck.  They are gas guzzlers.  They literally take longer to get around in - slower around corners, harder to navigate parking lots, harder to see around you in and you don't have the freedom in them that you have in a car if you live in a sprawling city and need to take a lot of errands.  I get things done in my small stickshift nearly twice as fast as I did in my Explorer.  When all I had to drive was the Explorer I felt like a prisoner to it and haven't felt that way since until this pandemic.  I couldn't take as many trips in it.  It actually hurt me in a sales job I got when I was young. It hasn't got everything to do with this "short term" oil spike we've been in since 2003.  It's totally short term thinking. Did they forget all about "peak oil", the oil prices over the long run are only going to march upwards.  If I'm going to buy an SUV then it will be a Subaru or Honda which are better.  Let's hope their future electric/hybrid options are on the way or ford is dead meat.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Sky14FFH

[Sky14FFH]

On 3/27/2021 at 8:19 AM, MeeLee said:

The small 40/50HP electric motor isn't well suited for acceleration much past 25-30MPH, resulting in energy losses.

If I am taking my sweet ass time, no one is behind me and I'm in the slow lane then I can get up to 50mph on just the electric.  But you're right, the electric motor isn't strong enough and I am still not certain of the best driving strategy but I think using all that battery up just to accelerate might not be the best use of it when it is better to use the battery to keep the car at a steady speed with the engine off.

[ptjones]

There is some confusion here, the Hybrid is the same car as the Energi, but with a much smaller HVB so it can't take advantage of the electric motors full potential power. Have you noticed if you have a high SOC HVB and it is cool when you first start out in the morning in EV the car has surprising amount of power in EV up to 35 mph when the  ICE turns on to lubricate the trans. If you haven't done this you might try it to see the difference in power..

 

Paul

[MeeLee]

Not sure,

I have the FFH, and after a good 5-10min of interstate at >70mph (on the ice), the battery pack is fully loaded.

Then the electric motor seems more eager to aid the ice, and I have a lot more pickup, even in eco mode.

 

The FFH I just perfect as is, on a wet pavement.

But on dry tarmac, it can easily use an additional 25-50 horses.

Edited April 27, 2021 by MeeLee

[ptjones]

On 4/26/2021 at 10:50 PM, MeeLee said:

Not sure,

I have the FFH, and after a good 5-10min of interstate at >70mph (on the ice), the battery pack is fully loaded.

Then the electric motor seems more eager to aid the ice, and I have a lot more pickup, even in eco mode.

 

The FFH I just perfect as is, on a wet pavement.

But on dry tarmac, it can easily use an additional 25-50 horses.

It is very difficult to get the SOC above 55%, EV will automatically come on to assist the ICE.

Interesting that I have always had my 2013 CMAX  in EV+ and I use a ScanGaugeII to monitor SOC (State of Charge).  There is more to this story, I have found that if you stop for an hour or two and your SOC is around 40% -44% actual as displayed by ScanGaugeII when you shut off the car, the SOC won't change much. But if your SOC is below 40% like the other evening when I got home my SOC was 37% and in the morning it was 26%, the lowest I have ever seen it.  Of course the ICE started immediately, the ICE will start anytime the SOC is below 33%. When the SOC is above 44% when car is shut off and then turned on a few hours later the SOC will go up, last night it was 47% SOC and this morning 57%.  SOC gauge reads from 33-65% SOC actual so you can only use 32% SOC normally.  You can force the SOC to go higher by arriving home with 55% SOC and in the morning you could have 70% SOC. IIRC I got home from a long trip with SOC in the high 50's and in the morning it was 80%, what a blast to drive like an Energi ? and could have gone 3 miles if I kept the speed below 35 mph. I heard that this change is caused from the HVB module balancing the level of the individual cells and cooling down when car is shut off.

 

Paul

[MeeLee]

I think even with other battery sucking devices, when you turn them off for a while, it seems like the battery somehow recharged somewhat.

 

Battery internal temperatures could play a part in it. But also electron distribution in the cell gets evened out (as closer to the cathode/anode there's greater inconsistencies when batteries are under heavy load).

 

It's funny, because I do exactly the opposite of this thread. I need to improve summer mpg. And for that, I often remove engine plastic covers, engine hood covers, etc... because any Temps over here above 75F reduce performance noticeably on ice engines (especially when hitting 90 or 100F).

Not only because of increased AC drain on the engine, but because hot air is less dense.

And an engine running at Temps outside of the optimal 75F, will work less efficiently. 

 

Your winter mpgs might drop, because the engine is adding fuel to get the correct mixture to the already very dense air. 

You could either run the car leaner (causing higher emissions), or, try to insulate the engine, keeping it running at higher Temps, or creating a 'hot air intake'.

A guy on the Honda (I believe CRZ) forums, was able to increase his 66 IMP MPG, to 80* routing his intake air via the exhaust tubing (probably routed the exhaust heat exchanger for cabin air to the engine, sacrificing comfort for mpg).

 

* That's from 55 to 66 MPG for the folks in the US.

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by MeeLee

[ptjones]

First this a Atkinson-Cycle engine which is different from a regular engine, I found that the Hybrid increases mpg's to 80 -90 *F and then levels off, it never went down until I turned on the A/C on with the Grill Covers. I have driven across the Arizona Desert at 108*F and the mpg's didn't go down.  There many things that could add up for the improvement like ICE running hotter, OT lowers air density, tire pressures going up, oil temps going up lowers resistance ect.

 

Paul

[MeeLee]

On 5/25/2021 at 11:18 AM, ptjones said:

First this a Atkinson-Cycle engine which is different from a regular engine, I found that the Hybrid increases mpg's to 80 -90 *F and then levels off, it never went down until I turned on the A/C on with the Grill Covers. I have driven across the Arizona Desert at 108*F and the mpg's didn't go down.  There many things that could add up for the improvement like ICE running hotter, OT lowers air density, tire pressures going up, oil temps going up lowers resistance ect.

 

Paul

Not sure why your results are different from mine.
While at night, with 75F temps, I don't use the AC, I get anywhere between 47 to just over 48 MPGs.
But even taking traffic out of consideration, during the daytime at ~90F, and my best MPGs never exceed 46 MPG, remain mostly in the 45's.

AC drain during the daytime averages between 250-500 W, reading from the internal meter. (halfway the first bar).
The picture is only for illustration. Even at 105F outside, my climate control use has never exceeded the 50% point (2nd bar).
 

 

We live at sea level, with high humidity levels. So the air here is perhaps more dense, despite it being around the high 80's, low 90s. (temperatures above the asphalt may be quite a bit higher).

Edited May 29, 2021 by MeeLee

[ptjones]

Having a ScanGaugeII you can monitor ICE WT, Which is very important for getting better MPG's, HVB SOC, HVB temp and trans temp. I found the best MPG happens between 225*F to 215*F WT. These temps are hard to get too without Grill Covers.

 

Paul