MPG Happy Talk

[ptjones]

This should almost prove that your thermostat should be changed now that the temp of the engine seems to be stable now that the grill is covered.

 

Good to see that things are starting to look positive for you.

Thermostat is fully open at 202deg.F He still is leaking to much air past Covers. At 30-40deg.F on hwy at 65mph I can reach 200's, 206deg's is what your looking for.

[tombarker13ffh]

Today, 34°.

[Fynack]

Today, 34°.

Impressive , very impressive. Ford should use your car as the protocol to help figure out whats up with other peoples cars.

[hybridbear]

Today, 34°.

 

What is your route like? I know you've mentioned a little bit about it before, but it seems like you are getting exceptional mileage for those temps. About how many minutes is your drive? What's the highest speed you reach? By the proportion of your miles that are EV it seems like you must be driving mostly in the city...

 

I'm glad your mileage is so high, that's fantastic!

[tombarker13ffh]

Impressive , very impressive. Ford should use your car as the protocol to help figure out whats up with other peoples cars.

 

Won't say i didn't try. If I would've left it on cruise control, it'd probably be more like 41-43. I did a lot of easing up on hills and coasting into town areas. 50-65mph otherwise.

[acdii]

Only 68 for 1.1 miles of ICE?

 

[tombarker13ffh]

What is your route like? I know you've mentioned a little bit about it before, but it seems like you are getting exceptional mileage for those temps. About how many minutes is your drive? What's the highest speed you reach? By the proportion of your miles that are EV it seems like you must be driving mostly in the city...

 

I'm glad your mileage is so high, that's fantastic!

It's straight south, 55mph zone the whole way except a one-stop town that's probably a half mile from end to end. There's a section in the middle that's probably 5 miles of patchy hills up and down. I let off the gas going up and coast going down. On flats I gas it up to around 65 and then ev coast for a while. I dont ever go slower than 50mph unless I'm rolling up a hill. Drive time is around 35 minutes.

 

http://goo.gl/maps/ZtNZm

Edited March 7, 2013 by tombarker13ffh

[acdii]

How quickly does your slow when you let off the gas? I should video mine and compare.

[tombarker13ffh]

It definitely slows (charges) if I stay off the gas completely, but I'll use some EV to maintain speed as much as possible. If I didn't it'd probably drop to 30mph in like... a half mile maybe? I've never gauged it. I do stay off the gas if I'm going downhill or theres a stop ahead though, because I want it to charge some..

[hybridbear]

How quickly does your slow when you let off the gas? I should video mine and compare.

 

It feels like ours slows at different rates when letting off the gas sometimes...but it might just be all in my head, I'm not sure...

 

Or it could be that the car is on an uphill and I just don't realize it.

[hybridbear]

It's straight south, 55mph zone the whole way except a one-stop town that's probably a half mile from end to end. There's a section in the middle that's probably 5 miles of patchy hills up and down. I let off the gas going up and coast going down. On flats I gas it up to around 65 and then ev coast for a while. I dont ever go slower than 50mph unless I'm rolling up a hill. Drive time is around 35 minutes.

 

http://goo.gl/maps/ZtNZm

Cool, seems like you have a great route for the hybrid.

[ace8726872]

It definitely slows (charges) if I stay off the gas completely, but I'll use some EV to maintain speed as much as possible. If I didn't it'd probably drop to 30mph in like... a half mile maybe? I've never gauged it. I do stay off the gas if I'm going downhill or theres a stop ahead though, because I want it to charge some..

 

I am doing exactly the opposite when I go downhill. In my commute, I have this long downhill. First, I tried to coast and use EV as much as possible. But the drains my battery when I get to the bottom of the hill where it flattens out and I can't cruise in EV. So now, I crest the hill, going about 65 so that the car doesn't go into EV mode. I tip the throttle ever so gently at the top of the hill so that the instant MPG shows 60+ and the battery is charging. i slowly accelerate going downhill and end up going little over 70mph at the bottom. I have almost full battery at that point to cruise in EV mode. This way, I don't have to stress about my car slowing when going downhill. I only use very little, if any, gas going downhill, charge my battery and go fast enough to keep up with the traffic.

 

One thing I noticed is that I can cruise in EV at 64MPH if the battery is full / almost full when the road is flat or slightly downhill.

[acdii]

I am doing exactly the opposite when I go downhill. In my commute, I have this long downhill. First, I tried to coast and use EV as much as possible. But the drains my battery when I get to the bottom of the hill where it flattens out and I can't cruise in EV. So now, I crest the hill, going about 65 so that the car doesn't go into EV mode. I tip the throttle ever so gently at the top of the hill so that the instant MPG shows 60+ and the battery is charging. i slowly accelerate going downhill and end up going little over 70mph at the bottom. I have almost full battery at that point to cruise in EV mode. This way, I don't have to stress about my car slowing when going downhill. I only use very little, if any, gas going downhill, charge my battery and go fast enough to keep up with the traffic. One thing I noticed is that I can cruise in EV at 64MPH if the battery is full / almost full when the road is flat or slightly downhill.

Thats pretty much the same thing I try to do, as long as no one is in front of me. Waste energy going uphill by bleeding it of with as little throttle as possible to stay on ICE, then gather speed going downhill which puts more juice in the pack yet gets high MPG returns, then I can cruise with very little throttle, staying on ICE with the instant showing 50+. Have to stay above 63 to do this though, otherwise it will insist on being in EV.

[GreenAussie]

Thats pretty much the same thing I try to do, as long as no one is in front of me. Waste energy going uphill by bleeding it of with as little throttle as possible to stay on ICE, then gather speed going downhill which puts more juice in the pack yet gets high MPG returns, then I can cruise with very little throttle, staying on ICE with the instant showing 50+. Have to stay above 63 to do this though, otherwise it will insist on being in EV.

 

That's my technique too.

[JSKershaw]

Had a 51KM drive this morning in about 2*C weather. My final destination numbers were 51.3KM Driven 4.9L/100KM (48MPG) 2L of gas used. So far this was the best drive to work I have had. I have averaged about 42-47MPG on my drive to and from work.

 

I love this car and the fuel game I play! LOL

[tombarker13ffh]

I am doing exactly the opposite when I go downhill. In my commute, I have this long downhill. First, I tried to coast and use EV as much as possible. But the drains my battery when I get to the bottom of the hill where it flattens out and I can't cruise in EV. So now, I crest the hill, going about 65 so that the car doesn't go into EV mode. I tip the throttle ever so gently at the top of the hill so that the instant MPG shows 60+ and the battery is charging. i slowly accelerate going downhill and end up going little over 70mph at the bottom. I have almost full battery at that point to cruise in EV mode. This way, I don't have to stress about my car slowing when going downhill. I only use very little, if any, gas going downhill, charge my battery and go fast enough to keep up with the traffic.

 

One thing I noticed is that I can cruise in EV at 64MPH if the battery is full / almost full when the road is flat or slightly downhill.

See, I,'ll EV as much as I can on flat ground and let off uphill so it starts charging the battery uphill and I'll ride it out over the crest and probably edge onto the gas as the downhill levels out, usually on EV again. At that point I have more of a charge than before i went uphill. Edited March 9, 2013 by tombarker13ffh

[tombarker13ffh]

37°. 35 mph. Includes 1.5 mile warmup. I dont really understand the trip computers math methods because youd think if i did 13 miles on .2 gallons, I'd be doing 65 miles on a full gallon. How does it figure? And yes, I drove 35 mph in a 55 zone the whole way.

Edited March 9, 2013 by tombarker13ffh

[KingJL]

..I dont really understand the trip computers math methods because youd think if i did 13 miles on .2 gallons, I'd be doing 65 miles on a full gallon. How does it figure? ...

Simple... The computer'math is set for only one decimal point and it does not round... Just truncates. The actual fuel used for 13.7 mi @ 51.2 MPG is 0.267578125.

[lolder]

37°. 35 mph. Includes 1.5 mile warmup. I dont really understand the trip computers math methods because youd think if i did 13 miles on .2 gallons, I'd be doing 65 miles on a full gallon. How does it figure? And yes, I drove 35 mph in a 55 zone the whole way. IMG_20130309_030033.jpg

The display 0.2 is a rounded figure. The 2010-12s show it in hundredths of a gallon. The calculation is to more decimal places.

[tombarker13ffh]

Hm. I guess .267 is quite a bit more than .2

[jeff_h]

Today was a new best MPG commute, had to stop a little short of home as my DTE was at zero 12 miles prior, knew today would be close... squeezed in 12.0 gallons so I guess it wasn't as close as the display says, I guess the buffer capacity is 1.5 gallons or so, at least with my car.

 

So anyway the morning commute was 44.6, steady rain put a slight damper on things and also had an accident that blocked 2 of 3 lanes for a bit and that was enough to jack up the commute. Caused a few more ICE cycles while the HVB level stayed around 30% or so... then would trickle down again and the ICE cycled yet again. The commute from the prior morning was 48.0 so this was a slight reduction but not too bad.

 

Anyway, it was payback time for the afternoon commute - temp was mid 60s and no more rain, and had a couple of the 'good' traffic jams that only slow things down temporarily and allow more EV use while creeping along, those help with MPG.

 

[tombarker13ffh]

Dannnng i hope i get that when its mid 60s here!

[JSKershaw]

I'm getting the hang of driving this hybrid and I'm not driving it like an old granny (no offense to granny's)

Here are a couple of trips I had (Sunday and Monday) when I remembered to pull out my phone and take a photo :)

[tombarker13ffh]

29 degrees driving home. Happy talk! Keeping this tank average above 45 mpg so far. Seems to wanna dip down to 42 ish during warmup though.

 

[lmp180psu]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="acdii" data-cid="45001" data-time="1362752731"><p>

Thats pretty much the same thing I try to do, as long as no one is in front of me. Waste energy going uphill by bleeding it of with as little throttle as possible to stay on ICE, then gather speed going downhill which puts more juice in the pack yet gets high MPG returns, then I can cruise with very little throttle, staying on ICE with the instant showing 50+. Have to stay above 63 to do this though, otherwise it will insist on being in EV. </p></blockquote>

 

I tried this technique for the first time yesterday since i was frustrated a bit with traveling the highway at 60 or so to stay in and out of Ev to get the best mileage, while being past by pretty much everyone. The battery pack gets charged for use on the highway and once i get off the highway, plus the instant mpg on ICE is noticeably higher. I was struggling to see 30 mpg at a flat 60 mph on ICE before. Nice to actually travel 60-70, with the slight times above 70. Was less stressful and annoying this way too. Got 43 mpg for the trip which is similar to other times. Temp outside was 50 and no climate which helped too.