trick to get 100 MPGe ?

[kacalapy]

so what’s the trick to get the 100 MPGe?

 

 

I have been driving the fusion energy to work ( 35 miles) and not charging during the day. my average is 55 MPG. is it possible to get 100 with longer rides and less EV run time?

 

 

plus even with modest upgrade the ICE runs and puts the MPG at under 20. you would have to be in EV mode over 90% of the time to get close to 100 MPG

 

[SteveEnergi]

Pretty much correct.  You need to be mostly electric to get the 100MPGe (mostly marketing).  The best you'll get in hybrid mode is around the 43MPG, as advertised.

 

For example, my MPG was at 92.6, until this weekend where I took about 150 mile trip and I dropped down to 88MPG.  On the trip, I set EV Later mode on the highway and conserved the battery for cruising the streets.  I also only had a full charge when I left the house as there weren't any charging stations at my destination.

 

My numbers get high because during the week I have a 10.4 mile round trip commute to work.  I charge about 30 minutes when I get home and then run the kids around.  The only way to get high numbers, of which, mine are meager compared to others on this forum, is to drivel mainly electric only.

 

Steve

[meyersnole]

so what’s the trick to get the 100 MPGe?

 

 

 

I have been driving the fusion energy to work ( 35 miles) and not charging during the day. my average is 55 MPG. is it possible to get 100 with longer rides and less EV run time?

 

 

 

plus even with modest upgrade the ICE runs and puts the MPG at under 20. you would have to be in EV mode over 90% of the time to get close to 100 MPG

 

Hi kacalapy -- I think we need to talk terminology first.  MPGe stands for Miles Per Gallon equivalent. Wikipedia defines it as this. In short, you can only achieve this number in EV mode, once the engine kicks in (as it would on a 35 mile trip) your numbers will be averaged with the 43/41 MPG ratings the car may achieve in hybrid mode. The car is rated at 108 MPGe city and 92 highway MPGe in EV mode, so you would only achieve these numbers on short trips -- not longer. 

 

If you look on the left of your drivers console, the car will either show you MPG or MPGe. If you are interested in how efficiently you are driving the car then you would be interested in MPGe (which will include the efficiency while driving in electric mode). If you are only interested in how many gallons of gas you are putting in the car then set it to show you MPG, this number will always be higher as it treats the electricity as free energy (not averaged into the total).

 

Hope this helps...

[shaggy314]

My highest was 96.2 and creeping up... then winter happened and I've been fighting to stay above 91 (I know, first world problems).

 

As mentioned above the ICE is not your friend for getting to 100. I'm hoping to get there this summer since I get covered parking, any A/C and you aren't getting there. I have a sun roof, so about 1/2" of passenger rear and a tilted sun roof gets a nice little vortex in the car. It's all about avoiding sitting in the sun. If the car doesn't have to fight a 140 ambient, you should be fine

[KPerino]

Hi all,

I'm a new 2014 Energi owner, and new to the forum. Sorry to ask a "basic" question, but I thought this group would have the real world experience to answer. I drive about 40 miles one way to work, mostly highway, speeds up to 70+. I charge over night, and at work, so I have a full charge on each leg of my commute. Can you suggest the best way to set the EV mode to be most efficient? Should I stay in "Auto", or "EV Only" until the battery runs out? Any other tips you can think of? Thanks so much for your help.

Ken

[SteveEnergi]

I would offer this

 

Hi all,

I'm a new 2014 Energi owner, and new to the forum. Sorry to ask a "basic" question, but I thought this group would have the real world experience to answer. I drive about 40 miles one way to work, mostly highway, speeds up to 70+. I charge over night, and at work, so I have a full charge on each leg of my commute. Can you suggest the best way to set the EV mode to be most efficient? Should I stay in "Auto", or "EV Only" until the battery runs out? Any other tips you can think of? Thanks so much for your help.

Ken

I would offer this in order to maximize your mpge.

 

In your case, since you can charge at work, I might handle it this way.

1. Use "AUTO" until you get on the highway and then set to EV Later.

2. Use the EcoCruise and set it to 60/65.  If you have to drive 70+ then you really are going to use up the battery quickly.

3. How far is your job from where you exit the highway and arrive at work?  Say it's 3 miles.  If you started your trip with say 24 EV's and it's 4 miles to the highway at the beginning of your commute, you'll probably have around 21 EV miles remaining.  You need about 2 EV miles to go from highway exit to your job (assumption is 3 miles when you exit the highway).  Subtracting out the exit from the highway to your job, that leaves you with around 19 EV Miles.  Knowing this # (maybe it's 18, or 20), you can now back up from the highway exit to the highway.

4. Knowing how much to keep in reserve from Step 3, say you have 18 miles from that calculation, you now know you can set the EV mode to EV Auto at around 9 miles from the highway exit heading to work.  Depending on hills you may have more, or less but can adjust your "EV Auto" accordingly.

5. On your commute home from work, do the same sort of calculation.

 

The goal is to not have any EV miles left when you arrive at work and vice versa when you arrive home.

 

Steve

[KPerino]

Thanks much Steve. Very helpful!

[SteveHas]

I am picking up my Energi tonite.

My commute is 19.38 each way with perhaps 4 before highway and may be 8 miles from exit on the way in.

What would you and the user group here suggest for my commute?

Edited September 22, 2014 at 05:56 PM by SteveHas

[murphy]

Use EV Now for the 4 and 8 mile sections.  Use EV later for the highway sections.

[jeff_h]

Use EV Now for the 4 and 8 mile sections.  Use EV later for the highway sections.

 

...and if it's a predictable route that you will take every day, once you get somewhat of a baseline established to what 'normal' would be, sample around a bit with varying behavior to see which way tends to yield the best results,

[Rexracer]

Is any portion of the drive up hill? Save your EV and use gas during those climbs.

 

As Jeff said, play with the settings so that once you learn what you can do, your coasting into home on those last drips of EV only power...

[rbort]

Hi Steve:

 

At 19 miles each way, you should be able to reach your destination on EV only.  Hopefully you can charge at that end before going home.  If not then save EV by using EV later at higher speeds so you can use some of it on the way home at lower speeds.

 

Higher means faster than 45mph.

 

-=>Raja.

[lonzo71]

I drive 84 miles a day and what do is that I save my EV for the ride home since I cant charge at work yet. On the way home, i'm about 70 hwy/30city, but since I have a lot of traffic on the highway, I dont turn on the EV till I hit the traffic. I drive 5 over the limit no matter where I'm at and I ease on both peddles. I get between the high 90's to 103 mphe

[shaggy314]

I'm up to 98.8 MPGe lifetime now, but 'Winter is coming'... I have a 5 miles street drive on my way home, if I'm farther than 20 minutes from home, I stay in auto and EV later for those last 5 miles. I wind up in the 80's MPGe wise.

 

I stay in Auto EV and ECO cruise for a vast majority of the time and save EV for traffic and streets when needed.

 

As in NASCAR, drafting helps. For the highway, adaptive cruise FTW! I draft trucks up to 75 MPH at the lowest, 1 bar, setting and use less gas than 61 on my own. As long as I trust the adaptive cruise, I don't think I'm unsafe. I hover my foot over the brake, but the car starts slowing me down before I do, when needed. Most of the time I don't notice the speed changes.

[Alex]

I get around 100 mpge from late March to September here in WI. The winter drops that in half. Don't expect miracles with electric if you live in the north. I get 8-10 miles per charge when it goes under 10 deg.

 

Drive smart as people mentioned above, gas on the freeway and electric 55 and under, unless you have a small jaunt on a freeway.

Driving over 65 mph will hurt you as seen here http://www.mpgforspeed.com/

[Doug0716]

I work 14mi (one way) from the house and drive about 10mi (one way) on the freeway, most of which is at 70-75MPH and don't charge at the office.  My to/from work average is about 100-150 MPG. My overall avg is 72 MPG at about 5000 miles.  None of these figures include electricity costs ($0.09c/kwH where I am, pretty cheap)

 

Going 55-65 and you'll get run over and be a danger to others and yourselves. It's not worth becoming a hazard to save a few bucks a month IMHO.  And that site's MPG estimates are way off for our cars, at least for mine.  I did a road trip at 85-90MPH and that killed the miliage (about 32MPG), but I don't find 70-75 to be too bad.

Edited May 19, 2015 at 04:18 AM by Doug0716

[lonzo71]

I live and work in the DC metro. I refuse to go over 60 on the highways and I'm getting near 60 mpg lifetime and I'm over 14k in milage. If you feel that you need to do more than 10 over the speed limit, you are part of the problem IMHO. Speed around here is normally 65+

[Doug0716]

I'm not sure where you're getting that people are doing more than 10 over the speed limit from. Our speed limits on most of our freeways are 70, some are 75.  Outside the city you can find 80 MPH and between San Antonio and Austin there's a 40 mile stretch that is 85MPH  (the road trip that I referred to above was on this stretch).

In any case, people going below the speed of the flow of traffic (regardless of the speed limit) are dangerous just like those going drastically faster than the traffic around them. So if your not willing to drive with the flow of traffic for gas purposes (or because you don't want to drive that fast) please don't put your life, and other's, at risk and take a different route.

[Hybridbear]

In any case, people going below the speed of the flow of traffic (regardless of the speed limit) are dangerous just like those going drastically faster than the traffic around them. So if your not willing to drive with the flow of traffic for gas purposes (or because you don't want to drive that fast) please don't put your life, and other's, at risk and take a different route.

I disagree. There are stretches of freeway around here with a 55 MPH speed limit where most people routinely drive 70-75 MPH. I'm not going to drive 70-75 and get a speeding ticket just because everyone else is. The police are routinely watching for speeders on this stretch of freeway and even still people go 15-20 MPH over the speed limit. I keep my speed to 55-60. I completely disagree with your statement that I should put my life at risk by speeding as well as risking a speeding ticket because everyone else speeds. Also, your likelihood of dying in an accident increases exponentially with speed.

[Doug0716]

Most of the time when a road is that heavilly enforced there may be a few people doing 15-20 over, but that's probably not the average flow.  In any case: Yes, the likelihood of dying increases with speed but driving below the flow of traffic also increases your chances of being in a wreck. Driving 15-20 MPH under more than doubles your risk (I've seen studies say up to 6 times the risk, excluding turning accidents) from driving with the flow.  So yes, driving too fast is dangerous, but so is driving too slow.

[stevedebi]

I disagree. There are stretches of freeway around here with a 55 MPH speed limit where most people routinely drive 70-75 MPH. I'm not going to drive 70-75 and get a speeding ticket just because everyone else is. The police are routinely watching for speeders on this stretch of freeway and even still people go 15-20 MPH over the speed limit. I keep my speed to 55-60. I completely disagree with your statement that I should put my life at risk by speeding as well as risking a speeding ticket because everyone else speeds. Also, your likelihood of dying in an accident increases exponentially with speed.

HB,

I agree in principle, and won't go that far above the speed limit myself (maybe a few MPH, so that the hills result in a decent speed with the Eco cruise). But I always stay out of the left lane unless passing.

 

I do have to say that here in CA the police can give a ticket for impeding traffic, even if you are not speeding or are doing the speed limit. I don't think they would generally do it if you are at least adhering to the limit, but they can do it, by law.

Edited May 20, 2015 at 04:30 PM by stevedebi

[Platinum15Ti]

I'm getting 139mpg average with my current tank. The lifetime average is just shy of 100mpg. I'm getting nearly double the mileage I was getting in the winter due to not having to warm up and use the heat/defrost constantly. My round trip to/from work is 27 miles. I charge at night and plug it in when I get home. I Always use EV Auto and use my cruise control often, even in the city. On the highway, I sometimes trick it into EV, even at 75 mph.

[meyersnole]

I'm getting 139mpg average with my current tank. The lifetime average is just shy of 100mpg. I'm getting nearly double the mileage I was getting in the winter due to not having to warm up and use the heat/defrost constantly. My round trip to/from work is 27 miles. I charge at night and plug it in when I get home. I Always use EV Auto and use my cruise control often, even in the city. On the highway, I sometimes trick it into EV, even at 75 mph.

 

Why would you want to trick the car into EV mode at 75mph? At that speed you are going to exhaust a significant portion of your EV range quite quickly. 

 

I tend to enter EV Later mode at speeds north of 55 and save it for secondary roads.

 

If I have plenty of battery, then I will run EV Now to prevent the engine from turning on even on the highway, but tend to just keep up with traffic in the right lane... Don't like that engine coming on!

 

My lifetime average is just getting back to 60 mpg as I take too many trips up and down 95 during the Fall. Love this car, the only time I put gas in it is when I do take a trip. Have not been to the gas station since February.  

[Platinum15Ti]

If the plug in EV charge is gone and it's in hybrid mode, why not "throw" it in EV if possible. It charges back up fairly quickly coasting and using the brakes. I do quite a bit of highway driving and still have a good fuel economy average. If I could only charge at work....

[rbort]

 

 

If the plug in EV charge is gone and it's in hybrid mode, why not "throw" it in EV if possible. It charges back up fairly quickly coasting and using the brakes.

 

Can't do that, the main battery is dead and the system in locked into the auto mode which is hybrid operation.  You can never get back out of that unless you plug in the car somewhere, coasting and brakes are not going to do it unless you go down a mountain.

 

-=>Raja.