Real world mpg

[Energized]

AFAIK, you can only see one or the other ,  MPGs or MPGes

[pluggedin]

Okay, so how do I get back to MPG only? I unchecked instantaneous fuel but that didn't do it.

[apm]

Here is my fuel efficiency for the last couple of weeks:

 

 

 

I hope that the ICE efficiency will improve over time, since as of now it is really poor. I have 65.6 miles on ICE using 2.47 gallons for a fuel efficiency of 26.5 MPG. I used to get around 38 MPG on my 2010 Fusion Hybrid.

 

Overall I'm really pleased with the car.

 

Regards,

APM

Edited April 30, 2013 at 02:43 PM by apm

[larryh]

Okay, so how do I get back to MPG only? I unchecked instantaneous fuel but that didn't do it.

 

In the left information display select settings, then display, then units, and for fuel economy, select fuel only.

[pluggedin]

In the left information display select settings, then display, then units, and for fuel economy, select fuel only.

Thanks larryh, I knew it was something really simple. My forehead is sore from slapping it and saying, Oh duh! :doh:

[larryh]

Thanks larryh, I knew it was something really simple. My forehead is sore from slapping it and saying, Oh duh! :doh:

I just set it to MPGe to see what I was getting for EV mode driving around town:  133 MPGe.   I wasn't expecting it to be that high.  I will have to check again.

Edited May 3, 2013 at 03:26 PM by larryh

[Brad Schuck]

We haven't gone to zero on the range yet, but we have gotten to 20 for the two times we have needed fuel. I squeezed in 12.7 gallons both times. The range doesn't seem to change when you fill up. I assume it calculates range based on one charge and then the hybrid mileage because the range indicates 620 miles and we have 3100 on the odometer. I travel 100+ miles per day and charge up after each 50 mile leg so my overall mileage is 108mpg. It is right on the money as I average 25 EV miles and 25 gas miles which equates to 50 miles on gas for a 100 mile trip which is 1 gallon per day. On the weekends we use the Energi exclusively for about 150 miles per weekend on pure EV thanks to our L2 charger. The Energi is proving to be one of the best decisions we've made on a car. It started off rather rocky but after the dealer did a 'hard reset', everything started working great. The only thing negative is that we will probably be out of the initial warranty by August.

[47Minutes]

The only thing negative is that we will probably be out of the initial warranty by August.

 

www.floodfordesp.com  Some of the best Ford ESP prices on the Internet.  You have until you reach the 36,000 mile factory warranty to buy online without any hassle.  After that it at least mandates a call.  It is about $100 or so cheaper for me if I buy now with 1300 miles on the odometer vs. waiting until 33,000 miles.  I'm planning to wait myself as it is worth that $100 to me to not out of pocket the $1200 now.

[patw7452]

I have had my car for 3500 miles and this is what I am getting now.

41 mpg highway on hybrid alone a/c 69 mph cruise.

79 mpg highway on electric and hybrid a/c 69 mph cruise 35 miles highway distance

53 mpg city on hybrid alone no a/c 37 mph avg.

66 mpg 1/2 highway using electric and 69 mph cruise and a/c and 1/2 city with hybrid only and no a/c.

my commute is 34 miles one way in city driving (main road with lots of lights driving around 55 mph between lights in the early morning with no a/c)

35 miles one way if I take the freeway.

The 53 mpg has been a real suprise. however, using the a/c will pull that down into the 40's

My best total mpg comes from using the city during the morning on hybrid (no electric) and using the saved electric in the evening and using the highway at 69 with the cruise and a/c.(in the evening the city section is so crowded that the transit time goes from 55 minutes to 1 hr 20 min).

[PaulinPalmSprings]

On my cross-country trip - 4500 miles (CA to MN) I had the following stats:

 

Average MPG: 40.88  (High tank was 53.56 low tank was 36.63)

 

Now that I am in town, I'm in electric mode all the time, and my lifetime average is 50 MPG.

 

But like everyone here states, it all depends on your driving habits. I do several short jaunts during the day, and always am topping the car off with a level 2 charger at my house, or the 32 free Level two chargers the city put in all around town.. so I never use gas. But when I do have to drive long distances, I seem to be averaging about 40 MPG on Gas only.

[ChuckJ]

We have averaged 60.1 MPGe with our general driving, but it all depends on how much over 25 mile driving you are doing between charges and long distance trips.  The interesting thing that I find is that most of us treat MPGe like it's MPG.  I think it's better than that.  Think of it, if it costs $.10 / KWH to charge your car it would cost about $.75 to go 21 miles.  At a gas cost of $3.00 / gal it would cost you about $1.50 to go the same 21 miles at 42 MPG.  So really, we going twice as many miles for the same cost (41 miles for $1.50 instead of $3.00).  So the MPGe seems really conservative to me.  Am I missing something?

 

ChuckJ

Edited November 15, 2013 at 12:46 PM by ChuckJ

[Dag]

Since electric rates and gas prices Cary, I don't worry about MPGe. I simply say, I'm getting 94 MPG, for around $20 a month.

[Russael]

We have averaged 60.1 MPGe with our general driving, but it all depends on how much over 25 mile driving you are doing between charges and long distance trips.  The interesting thing that I find is that most of us treat MPGe like it's MPG.  I think it's better than that.  Think of it, if it costs $.10 / KWH to charge your car it would cost about $.75 to go 21 miles.  At a gas cost of $3.00 / gal it would cost you about $1.50 to go the same 21 miles at 42 MPG.  So really, we going twice as many miles for the same cost (41 miles for $1.50 instead of $3.00).  So the MPGe seems really conservative to me.  Am I missing something?

 

ChuckJ

 

MPGe is based off of the amount of energy that a gallon of gasoline contains, which according to wiki (using regular unleaded) is 33.44kwh.

 

During the summer, I averaged about 1kwh per 5 miles (according to the car) driven.  If I consumed 33.44kwh, I could drive 167.2 miles per 'gallon of gas' assuming 100% charging efficiency.  At 240V, there's about a 20% efficiency loss there, so technically, I drive 139.3~ 'miles per gallon'.  My MPGe for the car was 167... but not anymore since I started using heat.

 

It's all about efficiency.  A gasoline powered car that could drive 140 miles on a gallon of gas would be the equivalent of what we get out of a battery pack and electric motor.

 

Thinking about gas vs electricity in terms of prices, my electric rate is a flat 12 cents per kwh.  Some are much higher, some are lower.  So 33.44kwh of energy costs me $4.0128.  Considering a gallon of gas right now is between 3 and 3.20 per gallon for regular, if you HAD a gas motor that gave you 140MPG, it would actually cost LESS to drive on gas than electricity at my electric rate.  There's another person on here who said their electric rate was as high as 37 cents per kwh.  At that price, 33.44kwh costs him $12.3728.  That could buy him 4 gallons of gas.  A car that gives 40MPG (like ours do) could travel 160 miles, making it cheaper to use gas than electricity to travel the same distance.

 

Anybody who has an electric rate over 30 cents per kwh, unless they have solar energy or some other form of 'free' energy, may as well not even consider the Energi and just go for the Hybrid.

[SD Diver]

That would be me in San Diego,  Under the SDG&E tiered program in San Diego, I was paying $0.37 per kWh in tier 4.  Not worth it.  However, owning an EV allowed me to switch the house over to the EV-TOU2 rate.  Between midnight and 5:00 am I now pay $0.16.  Moving the pool pump to that time also helped.  I now pay less in electricity with the EV charging nightly than I payed without it and the original tiered billing.  Even on-peak (noon - 6:00 pm), my max is $0.29.  All other times are at $0.19.  I think there is a gallery photo of mine that showed the tier levels...

[ChuckJ]

I'm not sure why some of you guys are paying $.30+ / KWH  when some of us are paying $.08 any time of the day.  That bears some looking into.

 

ChuckJ

[jeff_h]

I'm not sure why some of you guys are paying $.30+ / KWH  when some of us are paying $.08 any time of the day.  That bears some looking into.

 

 

Yeah no kidding, mine is about $.11/kWh anytime (could get a split night rate of about $.06) but the California Dreamers (and some other areas) really get soaked on their rates.

[frbill]

Yeah no kidding, mine is about $.11/kWh anytime (could get a split night rate of about $.06) but the California Dreamers (and some other areas) really get soaked on their rates.

 

I am not sure this is germaine to this thread but I thought I woud jump in with some reasons ( as I understand them) for the CA rates. CA hyper-regulates their utilities and demands that they not use certain energy sources (e.g.Coal). New plants are almost impossible to create. Thus supply is fixed in the Golden State while demand is skyrocketing. As I understand it they are having to pull power in from all over the Southwest to meet demand, thus they have enormous infrastructure costs to make supply meet demand. Basic economics then would require an increased cost. .30kWh is unbelievable for me in IL. I checked my rates and for summer it was .4kWh anytime . Here we have a large legacy of Coal plants which supply almost 48% of our electricity. I expect the expense to go up as those legacy plants go offline because of increased regulation or conversion to clean Coal technology or Natural Gas. I am grateful to live in Southern IL where the rates for now are extremely advantageous for EV driving. I am making decisions to drive almost exclusively EV and am getting between 20 Miles (on really cold days with less advantageous routes) and 29 miles (on warmer days on the good route).

 

Peace,

 

Father Bill

Edited November 16, 2013 at 03:07 PM by frbill

[tseibel76]

Those higher rates also encourage conservation and solar system installations. Here in ND, I pay .078/kWH for my first 750 kWH and then .048kWH after that. It actually goes down the more you use. Definitely does not encourage conservation or the installation of solar. This puts my cost to drive in EV at less than $.02/mile.

 

We also have a lot of coal plants, but that is rapidly changing. With cheap natural gas, and this administration's hatred for coal, all new plants are going natural gas and some utilities are retrofitting old coal plants to use natural gas instead. As soon as natural gas prices go up, electricity rates will follow.

 

If I was paying .30+/kWH, I would be exploring solar. Father Bill is right, CA must import so much electricity, so costs go through the roof. However, CA's electricity is also much "cleaner" than ND's. We have some of the "dirtiest" electricity in the country (along with WY). Not much of a green movement here.

[ChuckJ]

California has lots of wind and sun that they could capture.  Then there's natural gas. We have pure Solar companies here in Texas that charge about .13 / KWH.  This is probably a political problem. 

 

ChuckJ

Edited November 17, 2013 at 01:29 PM by ChuckJ

[larryh]

The composition of sources used to generate electricity by state can be found in the following article:

 

http://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/ClimateFriendlyCarsReport_Final.pdf

 

More than 60% of California's power is generated from natural gas. 

80% of North Dakota's electricity is generated from Coal.

 

My power in MN is 100% generated by wind turbines.  The power company offers an option to have your power generated by window turbines for an extra $0.004 / kWh.  The normal rate is $0.1014 / kWh.  The discounted EVSE off peak rate is $0.0585. 

Edited November 17, 2013 at 01:44 PM by larryh

[murphy]

My power in MN is 100% generated by wind turbines. 

So if the wind stops blowing your house goes dark? ;)

[larryh]

So if the wind stops blowing your house goes dark? ;)

My allocation of energy comes 100% from wind turbines.  They can't control the actual electrons that arrive at my house.  The power generated from coal and all other sources is mixed together with that generated from wind by the time it arrives at my home.  I get dirty electrons as well as clean ones.  If I use 500 kWh of energy for the month, then the electric company will have generated 500 more kWh of energy from the wind and 500 kWh less from other sources. 

Edited November 17, 2013 at 02:20 PM by larryh

[murphy]

I have a similar situation.  Most (All for October) of my power comes from the solar panels on my roof.  Unfortunately they don't work after the sun goes down so I'm bringing power back from the grid that I previously fed to it during the day.  I really dislike cloudy days now.

[larryh]

So during the day, the solar panels generate more energy than you consume.  At night, you reclaim the extra energy that you supplied during the day.  Hopefully, the rates are the same for the power you generate versus the power you consume so the net cost is zero. 

 

I let the power company invest their money in renewable energy resources (wind turbines) and pay a small fee to use them.   Buying a wind turbine would be very expensive.

[murphy]

So during the day, the solar panels generate more energy than you consume.  At night, you reclaim the extra energy that you supplied during the day.  Hopefully, the rates are the same for the power you generate versus the power you consume so the net cost is zero. 

 

It's called netmetering.  Whatever I "bank" is available for use later.  There is no cost for the energy I bank and get back later.  In October I banked 1 kWh more than I used.  My bill was $7.08 which is the fixed monthly charge.  Sun levels have been lower in November due to shorter days and cloudy conditions.  I am about 20 kWh behind at the moment.  Once a year on May 31 they pay me 10.25 cents per kWh for whatever is in the bank.  Why do they do this?  Because it is mandated.  Also on a hot July afternoon I will be generating more power than I can use so it tends to level out the load in the neighborhood when everyone has their Air Conditioner running.  PECO doesn't have to invest in more capacity to handle short term peak loads.  My peak generation happens at the same time as their peak load.  They also probably get to include my generation capacity in their renewable power calculations.