Real world mpg

[nascarnat]

I've had my  Energi Titanium for just over a month now. I took it on a road trip this weekend. Minnesota to Michigan, 650 miles each way. I didn't 'drive it like a hybrid', I just put the cruise to a couple over the limit and had the climate control on the whole trip. 3 people and luggage in the car, so it was weighted down more than normal too. The trip out I saved my battery for the in town driving while we were on our trip. The way back I burned it completely, left it in auto until it was depleted then drove the rest of the way on hybrid power. I averaged 40.06 MPG on the way back and 39.9 on the way out, with 140 EV miles each way. I'm calling it 40 both ways because it could have been more up hill on the way out than back, or whatever. I was hoping for mid 40s but am still happy with the ride and performance of it. 

[Alex]

I have only had the car 5 days and my commute to work is 16 miles round trip. So far 226 mpge.

Currently the car says I have 24 EV miles. Drive to work is 1/2 in town, 1/2 back country roads.

 

Get to work with 18 EV miles and get home with 10-11 EV miles left. It is better than I expected (currently in 70 deg F). Just hope I can do it when the temps get into the negative like last year (-40 F for a week in WI)

[Russael]

Hahahaha... No, you won't get any EV usage if you hit -40F.  It got to around -15 here in MI and the ICE kicked on sometimes in the driveway as I was backing out, and that was with temps hovering around 0.  Still... -40?  I know a 50/50 blend of antifreeze to water has a freezing point of -35F.  I wonder if they give a different ratio for you guys in the really cold climates (Montana, WI, etc).

Edited August 20, 2014 at 09:09 PM by Russael

[larryh]

I have only had the car 5 days and my commute to work is 16 miles round trip. So far 226 mpge.

Currently the car says I have 24 EV miles. Drive to work is 1/2 in town, 1/2 back country roads.

 

Get to work with 18 EV miles and get home with 10-11 EV miles left. It is better than I expected (currently in 70 deg F). Just hope I can do it when the temps get into the negative like last year (-40 F for a week in WI)

If you want to make it to work in EV mode when it is below zero, you will need a heated garage.  I also have a 16 mile round trip.  I am able to get to work using about 0.04 gallons of gas by preconditioning the car with a 240 V charger and using the engine block heater when it is -20 F.  The car is in an attached garage.  On the way home, it will run the ICE when it is below 0 F no matter what you do, if you leave the car outside.  It may take about 0.15 gallons of gas to get home. 

Edited August 20, 2014 at 09:48 PM by larryh

[Hybridbear]

In the few days with the Energi we've done almost exclusively long highway drives. We did the drive home from the dealer in two legs:

91.7 miles, 25.4 EV miles, 1.0 kWh & 43 MPGe

123.3 miles, 44.6 EV miles, 4.4 kWh & 47 MPGe

 

Today I had to drive 60 miles one way to work with no chance to charge:

58.1 miles, 21.9 EV miles, 4.2 kWh & 52 MPGe

63.1 miles, 28.6 EV miles, 1.5 kWh & 56 MPGe

Going southbound in the morning I was driving into the wind which lowered the MPGe. Coming home I had to follow a detour which added a few miles but also lowered my average speed which helped MPGe, as did having the wind at my back.

 

Our in town driving has been mostly 150+ MPGe. I'm averaging 199 Wh/mi in the few thousand miles I've driven our Focus Electric. Both of those numbers will get worse in the winter. I'm really curious to see how the Fusion Energi compares to the Focus Electric in all electric efficiency. The Fusion has lower EPA ratings and is a bigger and heavier car. It also has a less powerful electric motor propelling a heavier vehicle and a more complicated transmission to have additional energy losses that way.

[Cody Permann]

Topped off my car with gas today for the very first time! I didn't need gas but I wanted to get my first reading after having the car for just over a month. Also, I expect my economy to drop sharply now that winter is setting in so I wanted to get a baseline before it drops.

 

Here are my calculations since I'm interested in tracking MPGe. Since I don't have a power meter for my charger I'm using the trip odometer reading to track my power usage. Based on several threads on this forum I'm using a flat "loss factor" of 1.21 to account for the AC/DC conversion. So based on the 170 KWh my car is reporting, that should amount to about 205.7 KWh going into the car. This method also allows me to leave out preconditioning costs.

 

If anybody has any comments on my math, please let me know

 

4.14 Gal + ((170 Kwh * 1.21 AC/DC conversion factor)/ 33.41 Kwh/Gal) = 10.29 Gals equivalent

4.14 * $3.229 + 205.7 * $0.0625 = $26.22

187.7 MPG

75.5 MPGe

 

Tracking MPGe--not MPG.

Edited November 16, 2014 at 08:54 PM by Cody Permann

[Kybuck]

Do you charge at level 1 (120V that came with the car) or level 2 (220V)?

 

At level 1, the factor (per my average) is closer to ~1.45.

 

How many miles did you drive?  Regardless, the numbers don't seem to work out - assuming 4.14 gallons @ 187.7 MPG, it'd be 777 miles.  9.23 gallons equivalent @ 75.5 MPGe would be 697 miles.

[Cody Permann]

Do you charge at level 1 (120V that came with the car) or level 2 (220V)?

 

At level 1, the factor (per my average) is closer to ~1.45.

 

Right, I only use my Level 2 charger.

 

How many miles did you drive?  Regardless, the numbers don't seem to work out - assuming 4.14 gallons @ 187.7 MPG, it'd be 777 miles.  9.23 gallons equivalent @ 75.5 MPGe would be 697 miles.

 

There is an error there! That top line computes 10.29 gallons equivalent which "fixes" the last line 10.29 * 75.5 ~ 777 Miles.

I'll edit the original post - thanks!

[Rhynri]

I've seen a few references to changing the units between MPG and MPGe.  As near as I can tell, on my 2015 there is no option to do this.  Furthermore, I can't figure out the method it's using to calculate the MPG each trip.  My leg home last night returned 30.4 mpg with 4 EV miles (I started with a flat dead HVB, so those are Hybrid mode) out of 55.7 miles driven total.  I drove at 68 indicated (this car, like every recent car, reads 2mph above actual) with ECO cruise and drafting semis (at 3 bars ACC) which seemed to make no difference in instant economy, which is really confusing.  Am I just seeing break-in mileage?  The car has 370~ odometer on it.  I'd tell you my lifetime EV but I have no idea how to look at lifetime values, just the two trip meters.  MFM rankings says it's 66% EV.  I used to drive my TDI like a madman, and still was getting 40mpg per tank, 42 if I was nice to it.  I'd hope this advanced technospaceship could pull that off, even if gas is cheaper at the same MPG.

[Hybridbear]

I've seen a few references to changing the units between MPG and MPGe.  As near as I can tell, on my 2015 there is no option to do this.  Furthermore, I can't figure out the method it's using to calculate the MPG each trip.  My leg home last night returned 30.4 mpg with 4 EV miles (I started with a flat dead HVB, so those are Hybrid mode) out of 55.7 miles driven total.  I drove at 68 indicated (this car, like every recent car, reads 2mph above actual) with ECO cruise and drafting semis (at 3 bars ACC) which seemed to make no difference in instant economy, which is really confusing.  Am I just seeing break-in mileage?  The car has 370~ odometer on it.  I'd tell you my lifetime EV but I have no idea how to look at lifetime values, just the two trip meters.  MFM rankings says it's 66% EV.  I used to drive my TDI like a madman, and still was getting 40mpg per tank, 42 if I was nice to it.  I'd hope this advanced technospaceship could pull that off, even if gas is cheaper at the same MPG.

Only 2013s can show MPGe. It appears that your car may still show MPGe on MyFord Mobile for trips that are all electric. I'm not sure what it does for mixed trips.

 

How much air is in your tires? Dealers often have them underinflated. I don't like mine to drop below about 38 so I keep them firmer.

 

MPG is also highly dependent on wind. We drove from Mpls to Rochester last weekend and got 50 MPGe going to Rochester and 38 MPGe coming back, largely due to wind.

 

I drive from Minneapolis to Owatonna periodically for work and will usually see MPGs in winter of about 38-40 with the cruise control set to 65 MPH. In the summer I can get 45 MPG on the same route. Those numbers are all based on calm winds. I've seen as high as 54 MPG with a tail wind and as low as 32 or 33 MPG when the wind is strong out of the west as I drive north/south.

[Rexracer]

Break in mileage is partly to blame, and if you were at 3 bars while cruising that's a lot of energy expenditure. I wouldn't "judge" things until you have at least 1-2k miles on the car.

And these cars are going to be MUCH more sensitive to driving patterns comapred to a TDI. Especially since to "drive it like a madman" you have to push the car a lot harder to achieve the same acceleration rates.

All hypothetical - on the TDI normal cruise is using 10% power, and when your driving aggressively your going up to 60% of its power. To acheive the same acceleration rate you need to push the Energi to 80-90% of its power.

 

I have never seen below 35mpg on the freeway, with hills and wind.

[Rhynri]

Oh, I'm driving the Fusion like it's made out of glass.  My statement about the bars was to give relative distance from the semi.  I don't think i'm incurring a penalty for being at that distance because many of the rigs on I-35 rarely change speed.  If you think 4bars is more effective, then I'll switch to that.  I think I just wound up on 3 as the default.  I wish ford would institute a mode like it uses for warmup.  Run the gas engine at lower RPMs and supplement with EV power from the motor for hills and such.  Until my engine warms up, my meter reads about 60 or so.  You'd think that would get better for a long drive than 100% ev then hybrid mode right off the bat.  But I could be barking up the wrong tree.

Thanks for that information HybridBear.  I'll top off my tires.  That's the exact route I drive to my college (I'm using my GI Bill) 3 days a week, so It's nice to see your mileage numbers.  I'd honestly have bought a Focus EV if i thought it could make the round trip every time (it's 54 miles each way), even if I needed to pass or detour a little.  That being said, Ford easily met my numbers for a lease on a new loaded Fusion Energi when chevy wouldn't help me get into a 19k$ used Volt (with great credit).

Edited November 19, 2014 at 08:17 PM by Rhynri

[Dark Voltage]

I love my FFE.

I got it in March 2015 with a full tank and i havent been to the gas station since then.

My commute to work or school is about 22 miles. So round trip is about 45 miles. 

The reason why i got the FFE is because i can charge my car at school and at work for free

so thats an extra savings for me. The only time i have to pay for a charge is when i charge it at

home. (I ONLY do value charge)

 

I'll be hitting 1,000 miles in my odometer by tomorrow. I drive alot on the freeway with heavy traffic so this 

helps with the Regen. 

 

 

 

 

Does anyone know why my MPG (NOT EV) miles go up every once in a while?

 

For example

Last week I had 405 MPG left to drive and today i have 460 MPG. Im not complaining but im curious as to why this happens.

[larryh]

MPG is miles per gallon of gas.  You aren't consuming gas while driving in EV mode, so the numerator (miles driven) keeps increasing while the denominator (gallons of gas consumed) remains the same, i.e. MPG increases. 

Edited April 16, 2015 at 11:24 PM by larryh