Is this the car for me? What should I expect with the following commutes.

[Bmr4life]

So my job is 84 miles round trip, 74 of those miles are at 70-75mph going with flow of traffic. I carpool most days and the meeting spot is 16 miles round trip with it being either all streets or half street half freeway (50-70mph) depending on which route I take. Every 2nd-4th carpool, its my turn to drive us to work.

 

To summarize, here's an example work week. One day drive alone, 82 miles round trip. Two days I carpool as rider, 16 miles round trip each day. Two days I carpool as driver 87 miles round trip (70 highway miles at 70-75 mph).

 

With carpool I do just over 17k miles per year.

 

What I'm trying to figure out is will I be able to avg at least 38mpg with this car for my non-standard commute cycle.

Edited April 21, 2013 by Bmr4life

[tombarker13ffh]

I would say depending on elevation change, traffic, weather, etc., you'd average about 36-38. At 70-75, you'll get 35 if you're on cruise and not stomping it to pass people a lot. During your 16-mile carpool trips, you ought to be able to get 45-50 mpg. If you do 14-17 miles city driving at the beginning/end of your 70-mile highway drives, your total weekly average should come up about 3 mpg from your highway driving.

 

(210miX35mpg)+(48mix45mpg)=9510/258mi= 36.8mpg.

 

Is that better than most other vehicles available? Yes. A 4-cylinder gas motor will get you 35 on the highway, but you'll average high 20s with city driving figured in. A Prius may beat the Fusion in your commutes or not, but its ugly as a butt.

 

All this based on my experience with the car, of course. "Your mileage will vary."

Edited April 21, 2013 by tombarker13ffh

[Bmr4life]

Thanks. So the carpool trip is 8 miles each way. I won't be negatively hit on my mpg due to the trip being so short and the ICE being cold to begin with?

Edited April 21, 2013 by Bmr4life

[acdii]

Not in warm weather, mostly cold impacts the short trips. However, beware that you may be asked to drive more because the others will want to take YOUR car! LOL

[tombarker13ffh]

It was 43 degrees this morning and my car was warmed up and on EV mode within 0.5 miles from my house. I think when it was super cold, it would take up to 1.5 miles to warm up completely. Then I drove 11 miles to town and around town for about 4 miles. 53 mpg. If I had shut the car off after just driving the highway into town, it would've showed 47 ish cuz I started at 47.4 avg and it was 47.4avg when I got in. By the time I was done driving around (looking at houses), it was 47.8avg. This just shows how city driving can improve the average on a trip. Your car may show 35 mpg on the highway, but if you've got 10% of your trip hopping stoplights at the end, you'll do better than 35.

Edited April 21, 2013 by tombarker13ffh

[tombarker13ffh]

You may find the car does better than 35 at 70mph though, especially in warm weather. I've got 50+ at 65mph before. 35 is shooting low because I don't know your driving conditions. I wouldn't be surprised if you averaged low 40s. High 40s would surprise me.

[Bmr4life]

Normally, I can do 70 or 75mph without any issue. I currenly set my cruise there and almost never have to make any adjustments. Also, I'm in Atlanta so its not cold very often. I park in the garage at home so its always 60F+ for the morning start.

[Terps]

60+ in the garage will be a big help, my daily commute is 6.7mi and mornings above 40F I have been getting 43-45 in the mornings and 47-50 later in the day around 50-60F on the way home. This is without a heated garage so below 40F outside and those morning numbers severly drop in to the mid 30s. As far as the highway it should easily get around 40 at 70, I personally have gotten about 42-43 around 75-80 here but those trips have a partial drop in to the 50-60mph areas once I get in to Denver. My best Interstate commute so far was 44.3mpg on 56.4 miles doing 77 with the cruise control on for easily 70% of that trip, the rest was 55-65 mph with few slow downs so little room to inflate the actual interstate travel. The interesting thing was that I took eco cruise off during this to see if speeding up faster after slows and maintaining a higher speed up hills made any difference and it appears to have done so because the car spent less time accelerating or pushing at low mpg to get over hills.

[milleron]

So for you, Eco-Cruise is actually working the opposite of how it's designed to work??