600 mile club

[ptjones]

I was LOL. :hysterical: That is why I like the CMAX Hybrid hatchback, Energi has the bump in the trunk too, but still a hatchback. 2017 was last year for CMAX Energi and 2019 looks like the last year for FFE/FFH. I'm intrigued with the 2019 FFE better HVB with the 25 miles range EV. I think with my MODS and Driving technique I could get it up to 40 miles EV or so. :)

 

Paul

[rdr]

18,000 miles on my 2017 FFH SE and the fuel mileage is a respectable 52.8 mpg since it was purchased. My wife has now taken it over and the fuel mileage is going down down down since she has a more aggressive driving style that keeps the car out of electric mode more than my driving style.

 

She had a respectable 42.3 mpg after 27k miles on her 2016 FFH when it gave its life last weekend.

[ptjones]

18,000 miles on my 2017 FFH SE and the fuel mileage is a respectable 52.8 mpg since it was purchased. My wife has now taken it over and the fuel mileage is going down down down since she has a more aggressive driving style that keeps the car out of electric mode more than my driving style.

 

She had a respectable 42.3 mpg after 27k miles on her 2016 FFH when it gave its life last weekend.

Doesn't it have what I call Prius Button that makes you get better MPG's?. :) I hate that button, I bought my CMAX because it doesn't drive like a Prius. :yahoo:

 

Paul

[One]

Hello! I am new here. Just got a 2019 FFH.

Please indicate the average speed when you do those 600-700 miles with a fuel tank. I did 57.4mpg on city trips but on the highway, long trips, high speed (70-80MPH) battery cannot help. Mileage goes down to 36mpg.

[Beachcomber86]

Hello! I am new here. Just got a 2019 FFH.

Please indicate the average speed when you do those 600-700 miles with a fuel tank. I did 57.4mpg on city trips but on the highway, long trips, high speed (70-80MPH) battery cannot help. Mileage goes down to 36mpg.

Don't expect a legit answer here. You'll be told you are driving too fast and you should have gotten an ICE only vehicle. I'm doing about the same as you with my 2018. I'm jealous, I'm lucky to get 40 in town at 1 mile over posted speed limits.

[Beachcomber86]

Hello! I am new here. Just got a 2019 FFH.

Please indicate the average speed when you do those 600-700 miles with a fuel tank. I did 57.4mpg on city trips but on the highway, long trips, high speed (70-80MPH) battery cannot help. Mileage goes down to 36mpg.

Don't expect a legit answer here. You'll be told you are driving too fast and you should have gotten an ICE only vehicle. I'm doing about the same as you with my 2018. I'm jealous, I'm lucky to get 40 in town at 1 mile over posted speed limits.

[md13ffhguy]

Don't expect a legit answer here. You'll be told you are driving too fast and you should have gotten an ICE only vehicle. I'm doing about the same as you with my 2018. I'm jealous, I'm lucky to get 40 in town at 1 mile over posted speed limits.

Based on my experience with three FFHs now, I can legitimately state that these cars were designed for maximum efficiency on highways at speeds up to about 55 mph. They do all right on occasional stretches of 65. Above that, they need almost constant ICE-assist, so efficiency drops dramatically. I can assure you that when manufacturers reference highway efficiency, they're almost certainly talking highways speeds of 55, not 70+.

[djminfll]

Don't expect a legit answer here. You'll be told you are driving too fast and you should have gotten an ICE only vehicle. I'm doing about the same as you with my 2018. I'm jealous, I'm lucky to get 40 in town at 1 mile over posted speed limits.

 

The car can only do what the car can do. I try and drive a bit more leisurely than I did before driving a FF, I maintain about 60mph on the highway and I get anywhere from 43-55mpg, better if the road is flat. There's nothing wrong with driving 70-80mph, but you can't expect that the battery is going to be of much assistance.

I drove to my in-laws today, about 150 miles away, and I maintained 70mph most of the way. I got just about 40 mpg, but bumped up the mpg for the whole trip a bit once I got off the highway and was driving on local streets. Final mpg (according to the dash computer) was 42.7 overall.

[One]

EPA says: "driving over 50 mph is like paying more for each gallon of fuel"

For my specific car 2019 FFH, if a gallon is $2, price will jump as follows

 

60 mph $2.31 (15.5% increase vs 50 mph)

70 mph $2.75 (37.5% increase vs 50 mph)

80 mph $3.38 (69% increase vs 50 mph)

 

Thus I understand my 36mpg at higher speed. Please help me understand your +600 miles.

[md13ffhguy]

My commute is 90% highway, mostly 55, but a couple 60/65 mph stretches. However, rush hour traffic often limits speeds considerably. My 40 mile commute often takes me a full hour, so yeah, my average speed is probably in the 40s... 600 miles between fill-ups isn't really hard to do that way. Except, now that it's winter, I'm probably doing more like 550-575.

[md13ffhguy]

I also adjusted my driving style for the better when I purchased my first FFH 5+ years ago. I drive the speed limit, stay mostly in the right lane, and accelerate and brake gently. I feel like I've become a safer, less stressed driver. YMMV.

[DeeCee]

Mileage data - The following is just my personal experience and not meant to imply what everyone should be getting

 

I currently drive a 2017 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid which has the same hybrid drive train as the FFH. My usual daily commute is 18 miles each way on two lane roads with speed limits of 45 to 55 MPH. I have been keeping MPG stats on a monthly basis using the cars reported mileage and the gallons pumped each month. My best month has been 45.1 MPG and the lowest month has been 40.6 MPG. I don't try any hyper mileing tricks and usually drive with the climate control on Auto and Adaptive Cruise engaged and let the car/computer decide what s best. Before the Lincoln I had a 2013 FFH and had similar results with it. I do see a drop[ in mileage to 35-39 MPG when I take a trip on interstates with 70 MPH limit. My current actual lifetime mileage after 43,632 miles on the MKZH is 42.7 MPG.

[One]

Thank you all! It is very useful. Ford did a good job. It is possible to do much better than official mpg 41/43.

[One]

After +3 months and almost 4000 miles we keep improving the mpg. We will enter the +600 miles club for sure on this last fuel tank.

Here is the main tip I discovered.

 

When you are on battery be very very gentle with the acceleration pedal and brake. Try to go on the battery as far as possible. This is common sense.

When the engine is turning ON, do not be gentle anymore! Try to gain as much speed as possible, by the law and road conditions. Not racing but try to get speed fast and then go back on battery and glide. It is not an easy task on freeway long distance at constant speed, but using some speed variations and taking profit of some downhills it i possible to improve.

 

Most probably summer will undermine the mpg. A/C ON means the engine will turn ON more often and it will keep running longer.....

[ethermion]

Winter means heat is on, and so the ICE. Cabin heat comes from the ICE just like in a conventional car. The batteries don't like the cold either.

 

Anyway, welcome to the club. These are seriously nice cars.

 

We stopped giving out certificates for the 600 mile club years ago. Relax, don't worry, enjoy your nice ride.

[bjbena]

Hi all. I know there's no certificates, but I am proud I just joined the 600 mile club.

 

I've been using 90 octane ethanol-free gas. Managed 44.1 MPG and 630 DTE. Not bad.

 

Edited July 24, 2019 by bjbena

[ptjones]

Congratulations! :happy feet: I couldn't see your pics, you might try loading them to your Gallery and then when you start your Post click on My Media and go to your gallery and click on your pic to add it. You may not have to do this after you have posted a few times.

 

Paul

Edited July 26, 2019 by ptjones

[Sky14FFH]

On 12/30/2018 at 9:25 AM, md13ffhguy said:

reference highway efficiency, they're almost certainly talking highways speeds of 55, not 70+.

I disagree.  I found a 54mpg sweet spot on the cruise control set at 66mpg (gps shows between 64-67).  Another sweet spot of all places is at 78 on the cruise where one can get 49mpg.  That's on the energy saver tires though. The sweetest though is about 52 mph where you can get 56-60mpg with a some nearly 3 mile battery runs.  These are on at least 1 hour road trips though.

[Carlos G]

Hello! 
i have questions about my FFH 2015 that I just purchased few days ago. It has only 45,000 miles on it. I put gas (full tank) and it read only 470 miles to empty….. 

i am kind of concern because I traded in my old car that made the same amount of miles in full tank. 
how can I at least get to 500 miles to empty? 

[Waldo]

On 9/27/2022 at 8:32 AM, Carlos G said:

Hello! 
i have questions about my FFH 2015 that I just purchased few days ago. It has only 45,000 miles on it. I put gas (full tank) and it read only 470 miles to empty….. 

i am kind of concern because I traded in my old car that made the same amount of miles in full tank. 
how can I at least get to 500 miles to empty? 

 

The miles to empty is a prediction based on the history or recent driving.  So it's still pulling data from the previous owner and/or all the time spent at the dealer.  Give it a few tanks and it will work itself out.

[Semi]

On 9/29/2022 at 3:45 PM, Waldo said:

 

The miles to empty is a prediction based on the history or recent driving.  So it's still pulling data from the previous owner and/or all the time spent at the dealer.  Give it a few tanks and it will work itself out.

where to read some recommendations from FFH to drive with 600+ mileage?)

[MeeLee]

Posts in hindsight are hilarious.

In the past 3 to 6 years we've learned that those 600-700 mile estimates are off by 1.5 x.

 

I had 450 miles estimated range, and after an 80 miles to and 80 miles back of GPS (highway) where I averaged at 40-44mpg, with peaks of 55mpg (speeds 50-75mph), I was left with just 195 miles on the counter. My average mpg on this trip actually went up by 1 mpg.

 

The map said I did 165 miles. The fuel counter said I did 255 miles.

 

I've seen ranges as high as 700 miles, but was forced to refuel at 400 miles.

 

In order to see these high mpg ranges, do long highway rides at preferably 55mph. Preferably tailgating a tractor trailer or van or something... It takes roughly 10-25 minutes of highway driving, before both the high voltage battery, and the 12v lead acid battery is fully charged.

 

Depending on where you live, it might take approx 10 minutes to cool or heat the car at minimum fan speed.

 

You also get better mpg with racetrack regular fuel, or shell or BP high octane fuel.

 

Apparently the timing advances quite a bit when the engine is running in atkinson cycle mode. (Below 60mph). Once you go faster without going downhill or without a tail wind, the engine still keeps its 2k rpm, but the atkinson cycles end, and exhaust valves open normally. 

 

The fusion's atkinson cycle basically reduces cylinder content by keeping exhaust gasses in the cylinders, thus nearly matching fuel economy from a 2.0 liter engine to a 1.5-1.7 liter. 

 

Aside from that, make sure your tires are at the max rated psi when hot (highway ride on a hot day). Mine are 45-50psi hot, or 40-45psi cold, depending on my tires.

 

You can also replace the 12v lead acid with a lithium one. Mpg goes up by at least 3mpg, and thus it won't be hard to hit 700 miles.

 

Also, ecvt oil must be changed with oem ford oil, (dont put standard transmission fluid in it) at around the 100k miles mark. I saw an increase of about 0.5 mpg avg, meaning the oil still looks pinkish tea color, but the wear additives need to be replaced.

 

Lastly, accelerate on engine (normal mode) to above the speed limit, then cruise either in neutral or on the electric motor; or keep maintaining your speed with the engine in eco mode, when charging up the battery.