MPG Happy Talk

[Sleddog]

I'm back to get my normal mileage. Got 57.3 going to work, and 59.4 coming home. I'm starting wonder if the life time will go above 53.0. I seem to be stuck at that mileage.

[wiscy67]

My lifetime average had been going up 0.1 mpg per day until my car was borrowed for a road trip to Vegas at which time the average came down 2 mpg. It's been slowly recovering but I don't know if it will get to 53.

 

I did have a PR on my mostly freeway drive to work today of 63+mpg!! I wonder if my average mpg can equal my average mph? Is that like golfing your age?

[acdii]

I still got it.

 

[dalesky]

I still got it.

 

Nobody likes a braggart! haha

[Sleddog]

Ok. I was wrong. My mpg turn 53.1 lifetime Friday morning. I had the emissions recall done and I feel it has helped my mileage. My normal locations for EV+ have not been learned again. But my dealer is very close to were I work and the number of key cycles they did set there location for EV+. It should be interesting when my fusion learns my work location again. I'm hoping I can run EV+ for almost half a mile.

 

My trips to and from work all have been over 55 mpg, with one trip home over 60. I hope, if all goes well, to hit 54 mpg lifetime by September.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Sleddog

[acdii]

Nobody likes a braggart! haha

LOL, if you only saw what today's trips were. No where NEAR that! :) My lifetime since the new tires were installed is sitting at 38.8 .

[Shadoweb]

Driving from Lowes to Target in the same parking lot...

 

And then to the Grociery Store...

 

[wiscy67]

Well, I finally got around to turning on Enhanced Mode for my Trip 1 meter. (Trip 2 never gets reset as it will represent the lifetime stats of the car). Now I can finally compare the accuracy of the car's stats to the manual calculation of mpg. Today I did had my first fill-up early since switching to Enhanced Mode. 380.2 miles driven. The Trip 1 meter reported 7.49 gals used and a 50.8 mpg average. The pump actual was 7.445 gal which comes out to 51.1 mpg average. Very close and not the 2 mpg difference many are seeing.

[Hybrider]

I bet Elle would cringe if she saw it's been over a month and a half since anyone showed some love for her great topic. :) The temperatures should be warming up nicely by now for our Northern FFHers, at least I hope so.

 

So here's my last bit of Southern winter happiness before I spend the next few months with the A/C running everyday during my commute.

 

So it looks like 62 MPGs should be doable in an FFH for an extended amount of driving, at least under conditions close to perfect for FFHs.

 

And here's a shot of my new personal best MPGs for my commute, and which contributed to my best MPGs so far in the previous pic.

I originally had thought that our FFHs were able to get better gas mileage with the coldest temperatures possible, at least those temps that didn't require us to run our heaters or defrosters, in which doing so noticeably impacts my MPGs.

But now I know that my driving techniques were what was improving at the same time that the temperatures were going down at the beginning of this winter. And since recently the temperatures have been increasing here to the point of needing to run the A/C, my MPGs have been still going up. And I know my driving techniques haven't improved any during that period of increasing temperatures, so it has to be the temps going up that is causing the improvement in my MPGs recently.

So now it seems to me that having the highest temperatures possible without having to run the A/C does allow the highest possible MPGs, at least in my FFH. I actually think my MPGs would probably continue to rise with the increasing temps here, as they are starting to climb above 90° now. But alas I probably will never truly find out if that is true since I can only handle using the slightly rolled-down windows for cooling up to about 85° or so before I start to break out in a sweat and give up and turn on the A/C.

My FFH makes me feel like a scientist with all of the experiments and mental data collection it allows me to do in the name of getting that last bit of MPGs that I can.

 

Edited May 6, 2015 by Hybrider

[Shadoweb]

Mine is on it's way back down thanks to having to now drive at the start of rush-hour traffic instead of at the tail-end of it.

[wiscy67]

Hybrider, Obviously pretty impressive. Can you remind us of your commute profile - I'm guessing by the high % of EV miles that it's not freeway? I drive about the same as your 25.7 mile trip but on the freeway at 65mph and have only been able to achieve about 14.5 EV miles at most.

 

 

I bet Elle would cringe if she saw it's been over a month and a half since anyone showed some love for her great topic. :) The temperatures should be warming up nicely by now for our Northern FFHers, at least I hope so.

 

So here's my last bit of Southern winter happiness before I spend the next few months with the A/C running everyday during my commute.

 

So it looks like 62 MPGs should be doable in an FFH for an extended amount of driving, at least under conditions close to perfect for FFHs.

 

And here's a shot of my new personal best MPGs for my commute, and which contributed to my best MPGs so far in the previous pic.

I originally had thought that our FFHs were able to get better gas mileage with the coldest temperatures possible, at least those temps that didn't require us to run our heaters or defrosters, in which doing so noticeably impacts my MPGs.

But now I know that my driving techniques were what was improving at the same time that the temperatures were going down at the beginning of this winter. And since recently the temperatures have been increasing here to the point of needing to run the A/C, my MPGs have been still going up. And I know my driving techniques haven't improved any during that period of increasing temperatures, so it has to be the temps going up that is causing the improvement in my MPGs recently.

So now it seems to me that having the highest temperatures possible without having to run the A/C does allow the highest possible MPGs, at least in my FFH. I actually think my MPGs would probably continue to rise with the increasing temps here, as they are starting to climb above 90° now. But alas I probably will never truly find out if that is true since I can only handle using the slightly rolled-down windows for cooling up to about 85° or so before I start to break out in a sweat and give up and turn on the A/C.

My FFH makes me feel like a scientist with all of the experiments and mental data collection it allows me to do in the name of getting that last bit of MPGs that I can.

 

 

[Texasota]

Well, I finally got around to turning on Enhanced Mode for my Trip 1 meter. (Trip 2 never gets reset as it will represent the lifetime stats of the car). Now I can finally compare the accuracy of the car's stats to the manual calculation of mpg. Today I did had my first fill-up early since switching to Enhanced Mode. 380.2 miles driven. The Trip 1 meter reported 7.49 gals used and a 50.8 mpg average. The pump actual was 7.445 gal which comes out to 51.1 mpg average. Very close and not the 2 mpg difference many are seeing.

I occasionally get a result similar to yours (manually calculated and trip 1 agreeing reasonably close) and then on subsequent tanks the trip computer will be wildly inflated. A few recent examples from my spread sheet of this bizarre inflation are 5.09, 6.01 and 8.06. I love this car but I think he has bi-polar disorder.

 

It would be interesting to see your results over several tanks and see if it continues to be consistent for you.

[Hybrider]

Hybrider, Obviously pretty impressive. Can you remind us of your commute profile - I'm guessing by the high % of EV miles that it's not freeway? I drive about the same as your 25.7 mile trip but on the freeway at 65mph and have only been able to achieve about 14.5 EV miles at most.

 

Sure I can describe my commute again. I realized later that even though I have described my 25-mile commute (one-way) some in this same topic, and some in other topics, it would be good to describe my commute once again to go with my last post, since it does seem to be a really good commute for achieving high MPGs in a hybrid.

 

I will first start by posting a elevation graph to help visualize the elevation changes in my 25-mile commute. I found a really good web page (veloroutes.org) for getting elevation graphs from combing through this Happy MPG topic and seeing an elevation graph which hybridbear had posted in this topic in the past.

 

My house is on the left, at the highest elevation, and my workplace is at the right, at the lowest elevation. You can see there is about a 400' total of elevation change, but the biggest climb I do is when I approach my house at the end of the day.

 

Originally when I got my FFH a little over a year ago, I was driving my normal commute route which was about 85% freeway with a mile or two of city streets at both ends of my commute. Then as I got more familiar with what my FFH was telling me, I noticed my MPGs seemed to be declining as I made that climb right before my house. And my FFH was telling me that I was also making a climb as I left my house due to the freeway there was close to a clover-leaf type of highway super intersection. So I started taking the city streets initially to bypass that freeway interchange to reduce the elevation changes. And then since my freeway commute consisted of rolling hills to overpass the major streets, and that I also noticed the city streets were getting better MPGs, I started driving the city streets completely for the drive home, since I had more time to take a slower route after work. Then I started leaving home earlier so I would have time to take the city streets to work too. Thus that was my evolution to taking just city streets back and forth from work.

 

So after I had switched to driving just all city streets on my commute, I started noticing that my MPGs would be better if I did not have to stop at the intersections, so then I started watching the traffic lights to learn how to time them so I didn't have to stop as much. And with practice, I figured out how to "be the last car through the intersection" and that allows me to drive even slower, which gives me even better MPGs than before, since I am now able to coast for a almost a long city block up to the traffic light.

 

So the 61.7MPGs in my last post was achieved on my commute of 25 miles one-way of city streets, where I am usually driving 35 MPH, sometimes up to 50 MPH to make it through a light while it is still green or yellow. The temperatures for this tank of gas have been 65°-70° in the morning and 80°-88° in the evening.

 

The bad thing about reaching such high MPGs is that it can spoil you to the point where you start to think that a tank "only" achieving 59 MPGs is crappy. ;)

 

As many people have said before me, I love my FFH. :love_shower:

Edited May 6, 2015 by Hybrider

[Hybrider]

I occasionally get a result similar to yours (manually calculated and trip 1 agreeing reasonably close) and then on subsequent tanks the trip computer will be wildly inflated. A few recent examples from my spread sheet of this bizarre inflation are 5.09, 6.01 and 8.06. I love this car but I think he has bi-polar disorder.

 

It would be interesting to see your results over several tanks and see if it continues to be consistent for you.

 

Yes, Texasota, I have had similar experiences with the differences between the calc'ed MPG values and the gauge MPG values not being consistent, especially now that I am seeing such high MPGs on my dash display. But my calc'ed MPGs have gone up as well, so I don' worry much about the difference anymore, one way or the other. Here is a link to a post I posted recently that show the actuals compared against the expecteds for a few of my fairly recent fill-ups.

[Hybrider]

To bring my great MPGs back into perspective, since they were reached under some of the most ideal circumstances possible, some of the FFH owners that have previously posted in this Happy MPG topic have reached higher lifetime MPGs than myself. I am currently at 49.3 lifetime MPGs on my Trip 2 gauge, which has never been reset. And my calc'ed MPGs are currently at 47.4 MPGs. But I'm gunning to reach those other guys' levels of lifetime MPG averages since I now know they are obtainable, even by me.

[Texasota]

 

Yes, Texasota, I have had similar experiences with the differences between the calc'ed MPG values and the gauge MPG values not being consistent, especially now that I am seeing such high MPGs on my dash display. But my calc'ed MPGs have gone up as well, so I don' worry much about the difference anymore, one way or the other. Here is a link to a post I posted recently that show the actuals compared against the expecteds for a few of my fairly recent fill-ups.

While driving under ideal circumstances (in Florida with warm days and very flat roads) the trip display MPG per tank was some of the highest numbers I have recorded and it was also those same tanks that had some of the wildest inflation on the trip display MPG. It seems like when the EV percentage is the highest so is the inflation.

[Hybrider]

Well I filled up yesterday, having the most miles between fill-ups to date for me, due to my hectic schedule. And I was on the same Trip 1 stretch, which I always reset right after filling up, that I had posted about above with the 61.7 MPG midway through this stretch.

 

After I finished filling up, I got a very pleasant surprise. My Trip 1 gauge was then showing 59.4 MPG at the time I filled up, but my calculated value came out to its highest value ever, 62.5 MPG. :drop: That makes up a little bit for the negative offset on the previous fillup, since that previous stretch was a shorter distance, and on that previous stretch of 274 miles, the Trip 1 gauge said 59.9 MPG, but the calc'ed value was only 54.8 MPG. As a side note, I always stop filling up at the first click.

 

So as we have been discussing also in this topic, the expected (gauge) value can vary quite wildly from the actual (calc'ed) values, especially at the higher MPGs that are reached sometimes. But when averaged out over time, I see approximately the same 2 MPG difference between the gauge values and the calc'ed values that others have seen.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Hybrider

[Texasota]

But when averaged out over time, I see approximately the same 2 MPG difference between the gauge values and the calc'ed values that others have seen.

I see similar results. After recording 32 tanks in my spread sheet I see a lifetime inflation in the gauge of 2.37 MPG but the gyrations from tank to tank are surprising.

[wiscy67]

Texasota,

 

After logging 5 fill-ups since I turned on the Enhanced setting I'm seeing what you and others have experienced - fluctuations. I think 3 have been spot on including my last one where car reported 11.42 gal used and the actual was 11.36 gal. But 2 have been off including actually using 10% more than car displayed. Currently car lifetime shows 47.8 mpg and fuelly (actual) shows 46.6 mpg.

 

I occasionally get a result similar to yours (manually calculated and trip 1 agreeing reasonably close) and then on subsequent tanks the trip computer will be wildly inflated. A few recent examples from my spread sheet of this bizarre inflation are 5.09, 6.01 and 8.06. I love this car but I think he has bi-polar disorder.

 

It would be interesting to see your results over several tanks and see if it continues to be consistent for you.

[GrySql]

Well I filled up yesterday, having the most miles between fill-ups to date for me, due to my hectic schedule. And I was on the same Trip 1 stretch, which I always reset right after filling up, that I had posted about above with the 61.7 MPG midway through this stretch.

 

After I finished filling up, I got a very pleasant surprise. My Trip 1 gauge was then showing 59.4 MPG at the time I filled up, but my calculated value came out to its highest value ever, 62.5 MPG. :drop: That makes up a little bit for the negative offset on the previous fillup, since that previous stretch was a shorter distance, and on that previous stretch of 274 miles, the Trip 1 gauge said 59.9 MPG, but the calc'ed value was only 54.8 MPG. As a side note, I always stop filling up at the first click.

 

So as we have been discussing also in this topic, the expected (gauge) value can vary quite wildly from the actual (calc'ed) values, especially at the higher MPGs that are reached sometimes. But when averaged out over time, I see approximately the same 2 MPG difference between the gauge values and the calc'ed values that others have seen.

Just to add a little chaos into this discussion, the Speedometer is not too accurate either. The Trip gauges use this data.

 

Speedometer

The IPC receives the vehicle speed data from the GWM over the High Speed Controller Area Network 3 (HS3-CAN). The GWM receives the vehicle speed message from the PCM over the High Speed Controller Area Network 1 (HS1-CAN). The PCM receives the wheel speed data from the ABS. The PCM uses tire size stored in the vehicle configuration file along with wheel speed inputs to generate a vehicle speed signal.

The IPC provides a tolerance that allows the speed indication to display between 3% below and 7% above the actual vehicle speed. This means that with an actual vehicle speed of 97 km/h (60 mph), the speedometer can indicate between 94-103 km/h (58-64 mph). Incorrect tire size or tire size configuration could potentially affect the speedometer accuracy.

[Hybrider]

Sounds like they should just use GPS for increasing the accuracy. :headspin:

[GrySql]

Sounds like they should just use GPS for increasing the accuracy. :headspin:

I knew you'd like that one... :idea:

[acdii]

I found that if I calibrate the scan gauge to the TomTom, then I can get a more accurate MPG estimate on the Scangauge which is always lower than what the car reports, and it with 1% of actual.

[hybridbear]

So now it seems to me that having the highest temperatures possible without having to run the A/C does allow the highest possible MPGs, at least in my FFH. I actually think my MPGs would probably continue to rise with the increasing temps here, as they are starting to climb above 90° now. But alas I probably will never truly find out if that is true since I can only handle using the slightly rolled-down windows for cooling up to about 85° or so before I start to break out in a sweat and give up and turn on the A/C.

This is what we determined back in summer 2013. The best MPGs are at the warmest temp the driver can stand without using A/C. This is because the ICE is more efficient with warmer air in the intake and the transmission has less internal resistance with hotter fluid. The HVB can also store slightly more energy at warmer temps which makes the energy conversion process slightly more efficient.

[Charrua]

Highway MPG seem to be getting better with age. 2 years ago in May we drove from Michigan to Colorado and back and averaged 42 MPG. We just got back from a trip to Washington DC and this time we averaged 47.7 MPG. I can't really claim that it's my driving because I mostly just set ECO cruise to 70 MPH and enjoyed the ride.

Temperatures were mostly in the 60s on the ride out so we didn't use the AC. On the way back temperatures were in the 70-80s and I had the AC set to 72.