New Owner - 2 days - Any advice for hybrid highway newbie?

[Craig]

Getting ready for a long drive. Been practicing mixed city/highway. After 150 miles have 35.5 average mpg. Any advice for a ton of highway miles coming up?

Craig

[neod192]

Enjoy the car and keep it under 75 mph. Don't worry too much about mileage.

[acdii]

Something to try that I discovered with this new Hybrid. At highway speeds above the EV threshold, if you can keep the battery at or near full charge, the engine will be used to propel the car and not charge the pack. Using the instant MPG gauge, you can feather the pedal at 70 and keep it around 40 MPG. It will take practice and eventually the sweet spot will be found where you can drive it without having to keep one eye on the dash.

 

But, most important, as Neod said, Enjoy the car!

[Craig]

Thanks Neod192 and acdii! Appreciate the advice.

[Craig]

acdii- what is your experience with cruise control- some have said this is your friend relative to mpg.

[acdii]

The Adaptive cruise is good for getting good MPG if your new to Hybrids, as you can use it in city traffic to keep pace with traffic, its where I saw the best MPG in the 13 when I had it. The EcoCruise is exceptional to the Fusion, it mimics Hybrid driving to some extent. Nothing though can compare to due diligence when it comes to getting the most out of the car though, lots a practice, lots of patience, and most of all attention to what you are doing. When I first got my Flex I used the ACC a lot and it helped for the first 500 mile break in, and now I drive it without the cruise and am doing even better. I just put my 3rd tank in and got 21.9 MPG. If it had the Eco Cruise, I am pretty sure it would be getting near 22 just using the Cruise too.

 

The old school cruise, if you were to turn eco cruise off, will wate gas as it will force the car to accelerate harder up hill, and when resuming from a lower speed to a higher one where Eco cruise will slowly speed up. I dont use the cruise in my 2010 though, I can always beat it manually.

[Craig]

Thanks acdii.

[B25Nut]

Follow Acdii's good advice. Also, if you know you are coming up to a downgrade, drive so that EV is assisting the ICE and draining the battery so that you take advantage of the free energy that will charge it on your way down.

[acdii]

Another thing using Cruise, if you are going down a grade, with an immediate uphill following, cancel cruise and gather speed to bleed off the hill, depending on the length of the next hill you could make it over the top without expending any energy.

[fusionTX]

Something to try that I discovered with this new Hybrid. At highway speeds above the EV threshold, if you can keep the battery at or near full charge, the engine will be used to propel the car and not charge the pack. Using the instant MPG gauge, you can feather the pedal at 70 and keep it around 40 MPG. It will take practice and eventually the sweet spot will be found where you can drive it without having to keep one eye on the dash.

 

But, most important, as Neod said, Enjoy the car!

So how do you get the battery to be at or near full charge when on a long trip?

[neod192]

So how do you get the battery to be at or near full charge when on a long trip?

Go 65 mph or faster. It'll charge the battery, and rarely use it to drive the car. On the way to work this morning, I took the highway, the car was all warmed up, battery charged up and I was seeing 40-50 on the instant MPG gauge. Sadly, it was just about time to get off the highway ! I wanted to keep going. I have a long ramp so with regen brakes I ended up with a fully charged battery when I stopped at the light - yes, that little notch at the top was also blue. Unfortunately, I only got 34.1 on the trip :banghead:

Edited April 23, 2013 by neod192

[fusionTX]

Go 65 mph or faster. It'll charge the battery, and rarely use it to drive the car. On the way to work this morning, I took the highway, the car was all warmed up, battery charged up and I was seeing 40-50 on the instant MPG gauge. Sadly, it was just about time to get off the highway ! I wanted to keep going. I have a long ramp so with regen brakes I ended up with a fully charged battery when I stopped at the light - yes, that little notch at the top was also blue. Unfortunately, I only got 34.1 on the trip :banghead:

I don't think driving at high speeds results in a battery at full charge. I've seen the battery near full charge, but not while I was on my long trip to Florida. I haven't yet figured out how to make the battery approach full charge at will, and even if you do before entering the highway, it is bound to lose charge as you gather speed.

 

Tomorrow, I may take a 140 mile trip to Ft Lauderdale by myself. No extra weight. I look forward to seeing the results. But if there are some tips I can use, will be glad to try.

[corncobs]

@ fusionTX

I agree with neod192 since I do see the same result. If you go faster than 65mph it charges the HVB a bit over half full and then it stays there. At this point the ICE is no longer doing double duty which makes it very efficient even going 70mph.

The reason it doesn't reach a full charge is exactly like neod192 described it; exiting the interstate you don't wanna throw the energy away so they keep some head room which then ends in a fully charged HVB.

[B25Nut]

When accelerating from a stop, don't get frustrated that the ICE wants to kick in. Even the slightest upgrade will get it out of EV. Use the ICE to get slightly above your intended speed, then let off the pedal. It will then usually go into EV, and being gentle with the pedal will keep it there. Start wiith the Engage display so you'll see the interaction of ICE and EV.

[jeff_h]

@ fusionTX

I agree with neod192 since I do see the same result. If you go faster than 65mph it charges the HVB a bit over half full and then it stays there. At this point the ICE is no longer doing double duty which makes it very efficient even going 70mph.

The reason it doesn't reach a full charge is exactly like neod192 described it; exiting the interstate you don't wanna throw the energy away so they keep some head room which then ends in a fully charged HVB.

 

I am not so sure of the above, but don't really want to debate it and would rather have another person sample the behaviors -- if you have a long trip planned, I suggest you do the above and set the cruise on 65 and check MPG between stops (let's say 100 miles between breakfast and rest stop), but then on the next leg set the cruise at 62 and leave it there until the next stop (let's say 100 miles between rest stop and lunch), then come back and tell us how things went. it's not a perfect comparison since terrain and traffic will be different, but if you have a long trip then you have time to do some sampling so you can be test case.

Edited April 23, 2013 by jeff_h

[corncobs]

I will actually do that Friday thru Sunday on our road trip to SoCal.

Hopefully the weather is nice so it's a fun drive.

[acdii]

I did that when I went to FL, but the results were all over the place. If I knew back then what I know now, I probably would have been able to get better MPG on the interstate doing 70. At high speeds the less battery used the better the MPG does. It will use some charge when additional HP is needed, but for the most part it will get to 75-80% and stay there when above 65 MPH, and then the ICE will stay at or above 40. The last few times I drove the car I was able to get better MPG in it by keeping the battery charge high at highway speeds.

 

Stupid touch pad posted before I finished.

Edited April 24, 2013 by acdii

[neod192]

 

I am not so sure of the above, but don't really want to debate it and would rather have another person sample the behaviors -- if you have a long trip planned, I suggest you do the above and set the cruise on 65 and check MPG between stops (let's say 100 miles between breakfast and rest stop), but then on the next leg set the cruise at 62 and leave it there until the next stop (let's say 100 miles between rest stop and lunch), then come back and tell us how things went. it's not a perfect comparison since terrain and traffic will be different, but if you have a long trip then you have time to do some sampling so you can be test case.

Here are some pics of what I was talking about, from this morning's commute:

 

Instant MPG over 40, battery "fully charged" and discharging.

 

Instant MPG over 40, battery "fully charged" and still charging.

 

This is after I got off the highway and stopped at the bottom of the ramp. The battery has a higher charge state than on the highway - yesterday it showed 100% full, but not today.

 

Now, I don't know if the charge/efficiency state in the first 2 pics is achievable in the long run or not, but if it is I would be happy :)

 

I'm looking forward to corncobs' report!

[acdii]

Thats about the same thing I saw on mine. Too bad it took 8400 miles to discover it, maybe I wouldn't have been so.. nope, wouldn't have mattered, not when the other car was doing better at the same time. Food for thought though. If it were my first Hybrid, I wouldn't have been so harsh and complaining. After all, this new Fusion is an awesome driver, I find I miss driving it when I am driving my old one, especially now that I have to avoid potholes, man can I tell the difference between them. Turn the wheel on the 13, avoid pothole quickly, turn wheel in old one, someday soon I will miss that pothole, whoosh, hey it moved, slop, back over again. I really dont know how to describe it, but man what a difference. Maybe rowboat to Aerobatic plane would best describe it.

[dalesky]

I drive constantly now (when safe) with my cruise on. When I get my FFH I expect to do the same. Sounds like cruise has two modes- regular and eco. I assume eco causes the car to accelerate much slower than regular. Given that I don't have the 'fancy' cruise, but just the standard one, can I expect better mileage in town, at around 55mph average on very flat roads?

[BradS7535]

Also a new FFH owner (going on my 5th day). Just to chime in on this topic, I have about a 47 mile commute to work everyday (47 mile commute, 47/47/47 MPG, coincidence?) and I've been trying different driving methods to see what will give me the best results. On monday I tried driving how I used to in my 1999 Ford Ranger truck (manual transmission). So not accelerating that fast, crusising on the freeway around 70...etc and I got around 44 MPG on my trip to work. On Tuesday I wanted to "actively" try to drive it like a hybrid. Set ECO cruise at 62 MPH, slow acceleration, long breaking...etc. and I got around 48 MPG on my trip to work. But after reading this topic and acdii's comments (been following his posts for quite awhile leading up to getting the car!) I decided to try to keep the car around 70 MPH on the freeway and keep the battery as fully charged as possible. I didn't feel like I was going to get as good of milage today,but when I pulled into work and shut off the car I was surprised (and delighted) to see I achieved 54.8 MPG on my trip to work!

 

A little more info on my commute. I start out going about 11 miles on the freeway (62-70 MPH), then take a canyon road (45-50 MPH) for about 9 miles, then small highway (~50 MPH) for about 13 miles, then freeway driving (62-70 MPH) for the last 14 miles.

[acdii]

I didn't feel like I was going to get as good of milage today,but when I pulled into work and shut off the car I was surprised (and delighted) to see I achieved 54.8 MPG on my trip to work!

 

 

OMG!!!! That is just awesome. You got that doing 70 just blows my mind!

[corncobs]

What do mean by " I don't have the fancy cruise "

 

EcoCruise is not enabled by default you have to enable that thru the settings on the left side dash.

[lmp180psu]

What do mean by " I don't have the fancy cruise "

 

EcoCruise is not enabled by default you have to enable that thru the settings on the left side dash.

Pretty sure he means the adaptive cruise option. I don't have it either, but have the Eco cruise enabled. Wish I had the adaptive cruise looking back, but didn't think I'd use it that much.

[acdii]

Yeah, once you have it, its hard to go back. I have it in my Flex and even though it isnt Eco Cruise enabled, it does help save gas,