Long Highway Drive

[fastdriver]

I'd like to get 40 mpg or higher for a long highway drive down I-5 from Northern California to Southern California (400 miles) with our Energi Titanium. Except for the initial charge at home, assume there is no opportunity to plug in.

 

1) I'm thinking I should use EV later, but I'd like to strategically use EV mode (eg. always use EV later except when not on the freeway?). At the end of the trip, the number of EV miles left should be close to zero. I will be able to recharge when I get there, so there is no need to save EV at the destination.

 

2) What speed would be best for best MPG on ICE? I've read in the hybrid forum that results are bad at 61 mph with ICE kicking in and out.  I'm guessing that is the same for us with EV later.

 

3) ECO-cruise the whole way or not?  I've found that downhill should have ECO-cruise turned off to trick the car to not use ICE.  We have adaptive cruise control. We use the +/- to change speed or let the computer do it.

 

4) Can I get EV miles back if the battery is totally depleted like during the long and steep downhill on I-5 from the Grapevine to the valley?

 

Any hints for this upcoming trip would be greatly appreciated. If there are places to plugin I don't know about on I-5, that would be great too. :)

[CombsAuthor]

Sounds like a great trip.

 

Here are my two cents...

 

1. It would be best to use EV later Mode while you are on the highway and switch to EV Now Mode when you are in slower traffic. Once the EV battery is depleted, (which it probably will, then it will revert to Auto Mode on its own. Be sure to pack your cord for charging when you get there.

 

2. 62 mph is the optimal performance speed that many owners report. Set your display setting on the left side of the instrument cluster to "Engage" so that you can monitor the energy management systems in action. You will find that the ICE will be assisted quite a bit from the Electric system. As,for me, I typically drive faster (around 70) and still enjoy good performance and fuel economy. The key point with this car is that the faster you go, the more compromises in fuel efficiency you will find.

 

3. ECO Cruise is good to leave on as the default setting. You will notice less aggressive acceleration on hills or when a slower car gets out of your way, but the steady acceleration found in the ECO cruise mode will provide overall better fuel economy.

 

4. Once the EV battery is depleted, it must be recharged by plugging in and the Fusion will revert only to Hybrid mode. All Regen energy will be directed toward the Hybrid battery.

 

Other tips:

 

+ Check ahead along your route to find charging stations. I use an app called PlugShare. If you can determine where you will stop for lunch, then its always a good idea to see if there is an easily accessible place to plug in for awhile and add some more charge to your EV battery. Don't go out of your way and don't try to spend 2.5 hours to fully charge, but still it can be beneficial to charge for a half hour while you eat. I noticed that In n Out Burger at I-5 and 41 has an available outlet and the Flyng J further south has Shore Power outlets available. Likewise there are tons of places closer to the coast along our route.

 

+. Enjoy the ride! Sometimes we get too stressed with trying to get 200 mpg on the highway, and forget to enjoy the comfort and the quiet of this well engineered vehicle. By using ACC, I have really found my journies to be very peaceful and driving time passes very quickly.

[Mr. Fusion]

I was using Engage thinking it was better than empower, until I did my first long trip....

 

The Empower setting is so valuable when in hybrid mode (EV Later or big battery depleated). It tells me when EV power is available by showing some blue at the bottom of the white ICE bar. Using Eco cruise, I'll click down a MPH or two when going down a hill to force EV (if it doesn't do it on it's own. Sometimes slight declines need the cruise click down to encourage EV). Then when at the bottom of the hill, I'll click back up to speed when the ICE kicks on to get me up the hill.

 

The Empower lets me know exactly when the EV will max out. Sometimes, if no traffic is behind me, I'll click the cruise down as I see the Empower gauge hitting the ceiling of the EV peak. As you use the battery, that ceiling will slowly lower. By slowing down, it mimics a glide. With the hybrid battery low (between 25% and 40%), I'll pulse back up to speed or a few MPH above. Seems the battery charges best in that range. If I try doing this on a 50 to 75% battery, I don't get battery charge. Instead, it uses the battery to assist, defeating the pulse and glide technique.

 

Unfortunately, you can't see hybrid battery level unless the big battery is depleted. However, with Empower, you can get a feeling of when the battery is low and will take a pulse charge by the low EV ceiling.

 

I also made My View contain a tach and the temp gauge. When the ICE kicks on for the first time, it will run until a certain temp. At least that's what it does on the highway. I can get an idea of when it will allow EV with the temp gauge.

 

Also, the Energi's will go EV in hybrid mode at high speeds as long as it can take the load, ie down a hill. I don't know if the regular hybrids will do that or not.

 

My first highway trip was rainy with a mix of 55 MPH to 70 MPH zones and I got between 40 and 42 MPG (had a few stops)

 

Good luck!

 

Edit: I inflate my tires to 45 psi

Edited May 18, 2013 at 12:23 PM by Mr. Fusion

[gz3490]

1) I live in the High Desert and work down the hill, I use Auto for most of the way up since it uses more battery faster but only enough that I know I can charge my Batt with Regen Braking. Then I use EV now on traffic or streets or if I know I'm getting close to my destination since I also charge at work. 

 

2) I think I read or seen somewhere that hybrids can only go up to 62 mph on electric when the Energi can go up to 82 mph, this might be a reason hybrids prefer 61 mph

 

4) Yes you can, I have needed to go up the hill 4,000+ft and come right back down, since I press the brakes slightly and use regen I have gone from Hybrid mode to 3-5 miles on Regen, again this is coming down a 4k ft hill and pressing the brakes slightly to only activate regen braking. I think I've seen as much as 20% charge on only regen if I drive behind a big rig driving slow. 

[TX NRG]

.

4. Once the EV battery is depleted, it must be recharged by plugging in and the Fusion will revert only to Hybrid mode. All Regen energy will be directed toward the Hybrid battery.

The EV battery and the Hybrid battery are just logical partitions of the same battery pack that gets charged from the outlet and regeneration. If you get enough regen from descending a mountain to fill up the 1.1kWh Hybrid portion of the battery, any extra should go into the 6.5 kWh EV portion.

[http]

 

4) Yes you can, I have needed to go up the hill 4,000+ft and come right back down, since I press the brakes slightly and use regen I have gone from Hybrid mode to 3-5 miles on Regen, again this is coming down a 4k ft hill and pressing the brakes slightly to only activate regen braking. I think I've seen as much as 20% charge on only regen if I drive behind a big rig driving slow. 

 

 

If I am reading the Owner's Manual correctly, you don't have to apply the brakes to activate the regenerative braking to charge the batterie., All you have to do is take your foot off the accelerator and the regen kicks in, acting like an engine brake and the generator starts charging. That's how regen works on my wife's Lexus 450h. There are gauges and displays that show the batteries charging as you coast with no brakes.

 

Is that how it works on the Fusion?

 

I can understand that you might need the brakes going down a 4,000 foot decline, but you don't need to brakes to tell the car to charge.

[Mr. Fusion]

Yes, coasting will put juice back in to the battery. Braking will put more juice into the battery.

[Rhyalus]

One unfortunate thing from my perspective is that when you go to EV later mode, it will not charge beyond where you are on the battery at the time that you went into that mode.

 

So if I have 7 miles left and go into EV later mode, it won't charge past this point.  I guess it focuses on keeping the 2nd "partition" charged so it can operate in hybrid mode.

 

It would be great if it would charge back up if the opportunity presented itself.

 

R

[rprobst]

One unfortunate thing from my perspective is that when you go to EV later mode, it will not charge beyond where you are on the battery at the time that you went into that mode.

 

So if I have 7 miles left and go into EV later mode, it won't charge past this point.  I guess it focuses on keeping the 2nd "partition" charged so it can operate in hybrid mode.

 

It would be great if it would charge back up if the opportunity presented itself.

 

R

It will not charge higher? I understood that EV Later mode won't let the state of charge go lower than it is when you enter that mode, to reserve as much battery as possible for use later, but I didn't think it prevented the battery from going higher.

 

Suppose you were coming down a 10,000 foot hill in L, in EV Later mode. Wouldn't all that regen energy go into the battery? Seems to me that if the car has the input to be able to charge the battery, it would do so.

[murphy]

It's even worse than that.  When you start the car they reserve about 92% of the battery for later use.  If you have to stop during your trip they then will reserve 92% of whatever charge is left.  After a lot of stops there won't be much battery left in spite of using EV later mode.

[Guest drfeltersnatch]

i averaged 38-40mpg on highway @ 72mph for 130 miles. no charge when i left the house.

[Rhyalus]

It will not charge higher? I understood that EV Later mode won't let the state of charge go lower than it is when you enter that mode, to reserve as much battery as possible for use later, but I didn't think it prevented the battery from going higher.

 

Suppose you were coming down a 10,000 foot hill in L, in EV Later mode. Wouldn't all that regen energy go into the battery? Seems to me that if the car has the input to be able to charge the battery, it would do so.

Confirmed...

 

It will NOT charge higher not matter what you do.

 

I guess they did not want to manage yet another dynamic.  Either you are in hybrid more or you are in EV mode...

 

R

[Rhyalus]

i averaged 38-40mpg on highway @ 72mph for 130 miles. no charge when i left the house.

 

That is pretty good, but the more I drive this car, the more I think that the gas engine is not very efficient.

 

I had a 3.5L Altima from 2003 that got 26 or so MPG without turning off at red lights, coasting and recharging a battery, etc.

 

The 2.0L engine in the Ford is turned off at every opportunity, which leads to a rougher ride (IMHO).  So I am not sure what to think of this ICE in the Energi....

 

R

[Mr. Fusion]

One unfortunate thing from my perspective is that when you go to EV later mode, it will not charge beyond where you are on the battery at the time that you went into that mode.

 

So if I have 7 miles left and go into EV later mode, it won't charge past this point.  I guess it focuses on keeping the 2nd "partition" charged so it can operate in hybrid mode.

 

It would be great if it would charge back up if the opportunity presented itself.

 

R

I've put it EV later and my big battery had clicked up a mile later in the trip.

[Rhyalus]

I have seen that too, but that is nowhere near the regen capability tha t you see in auto mode, right?

 

Could even be just a round off thing...

 

R

[meyersnole]

Not a mechanical engineer, but I think this is not a matter of what is is harder to manage in EV later and more of how to get the best efficiency from the hybrid drive. If you are traveling down the road and there is excess power, then I hope that would be stored to a certain point and then used instead  or in addition of ICE allowing my large car carrying around an 800 lbs battery get 40mpg on the highway.

[Rhyalus]

Meyer, you may be right. If you put it on empower, you can see the bar adjust as to when ev will be used or the ice. So it probably charges the hybrid partition and then uses the excess power if generated.

 

Still, would it be better to charge the ev battery instead?

 

I don't know if it matters....

 

R

[gz3490]

Found out the hardway a while ago but I keep forgetting to post.

 

4) If you keep it in EV later and going down a hill (grapevine/cajon pass) and the battery charges to 100%... well, then regen braking stops working... this is a heavy car and it will fly down the hill then you are only using the brake pads which almost seem tricky to control, nothing bad but its like changing cars all of a sudden.

 

anyone can try this but what I do now is make sure I use enough juice so that I will regen on the way down.

 

oh by the way the hill assist/grade assist works great and not sure but it might not turn on the brake lights and avoid weird looks from people thinking you are riding your brake pads lol.