My EV range story

The reason your Ev range is so high is that you're using Hv on the climbs. In essence, your Ev is descending, on average, while you're Hv is climbing, on average.

Yesterday, I had to go on a 40 mile trip (with three stops) after a full-charge. I knew I wouldn't make it the entire way on Ev (and I was right) so I used Hv - and charge mode - on the two big climbs on the trip, totaling about 3 miles. This allowed me to only use Hv on the second leg of the trip, and Ev on the other three legs. Since my average Ev efficiency is 5.0 miles/kWh, my average Ev range is about 28.5 miles, so this little 3 mile portion on Hv + charge mode extended my range by about 13 miles (40 - 28.5 = 11.5 plus the 1.5 miles I had left when I got home).

 

Awesome, I would like to see that app run on the 11.6 screen. Do they have an android version of that? My commute is not that hilly but I may try some of the switching you did. I've been hypermiling since 2006 with a 6 cyl. '99 Solara, got 29.77 avg. for 200k miles. Also, my son is still driving the Solara. It now has 385k miles on it but he doesn't get the mileage I did. Lol. Then a 2012 v with 51.6 avg. for 125k miles. And you are right, the Prime is different from ICE and Hybrid hypermiling. Still learning things after 3 months. As was quoted in another thread: Prime On.

 

how many miles can you go in ev, if you start with a full charge, and drive until the engine comes on?

 

This is what I've gotten driving strictly on EV, ambient temperature in mid 70's to mid 80's, flat roads, 40-55mph. I'm accelerating, driving, and slowing down like an annoying stoned snail with polio!
Har, har!!
And yes Mr. Bisco, I can actually reach a destination whose distance is as indicated herein by continuing to drive like the aforementioned snail. Mais oui, Fifi, we weel arrive, eventually!! Har, har.

Side note: non ma friend, I deed not offend following drivers, as there were none during my adventure! Har!

.

 

nice! that's about 3X what my pip will do. very impressive!

 

Ah yes, butt do yew drive a la snail!!

.

 

yes, or slower if possible.

 

OK, this may be a stupid question, but let me ask it...

What's so wrong with using the all-EV for high-speed freeway driving (ie, 70-75 mph) as well? And just using it until it's used up? Then the car will switch to HV on its own. Why not do that, instead of what most people seem to do (switch to HV on their own as soon as they start going fast on the freeway)?

I know it uses the battery faster than city driving... but if I had bought the Bolt (or a Tesla) instead of the Prime, it'd all-EV, and I'd be doing high-speed EV driving! So why avoid it on the Prime?

Obviously the Prime has a smaller battery (and doesn't do regen as well as the Bolt), but the Prime's MPGE is the best of the bunch at 133, I believe. I'm kind of asking a question that I don't necessarily believe (as I've started putting it into HV myself when hitting fast freeway speeds)... but at the same time I realized if I had purchased the Bolt, I'd be doing fast freeway miles in it.

So if I have 120 miles of freeway driving tomorrow, what's wrong with me using up 20ish of it on EV and then having it go to HV? At least that way the battery's ready for a charge that night when I get home (instead of having it remain fully charged for days at a time if one only does a bunch of high speed freeway driving and keeps it in HV mode instead of EV). Please tell me why most don't like to use the EV for fast freeway (especially if one lives 1/4 mile from the freeway)... Thanks!

 

it's thought that gasoline is more efficient, at high speeds, and electricity is more efficient at lower speeds.

 

you make a valid point @bisco

 

Works for me.

Bob Wilson

 

In the first 3 months, I used EV until it changed to HV. Now I'm trying something different. My first 3 miles are 28 mph in EV and usually I gain about 1-2 EV miles. Then I go to HV to ease onto a hwy. 50 mph and after a 3 miles I enter the parkway 60 mph. Once I'm up to speed I switch back to EV for the duration. For me, this seems a little better or it is just getting warmer here. Everybody's commute is different (speed, distance, temp, elevation, a/c or heat among other things), so there is no 1 size fits all strategy.

 

Nothing.

The strategy should be to use Ev up on every route long enough to use up all your Ev miles if you can recharge at the end, or to use Ev strategically to avoid future engine warm-up cycles.

Using Hv is considered "more efficient" on the highway only relative to itself - the engine is more efficient at higher load than at light load like you get in the city. So, using Hv for hill climbss, acceleration and high-speed driving is more efficient than using Hv for 30mph city driving. Ev is most efficient at lighter loads (such as city driving) but it's still very efficient at higher loads as well, it's just that it obviously depletes the battery faster just like climbing hills uses more gasoline.

I use Ev on the highway every day I go to work. It's 11 miles each way, about 4 of which are on the highway (and strongly up-hill one direction). So what? I use 6 Ev miles to go those 4 miles, and then recharge at work. I use 2 Ev miles to go those 4 miles on the way home.

Route planning is another matter. If there are multiple routes, the shortest and slowest speed route is usually most efficient for Ev, but the route with the fewest stops (turns, stop signs, lights, etc.) is usually the best for Hv. Just yesterday I wanted to take a long-ish trip (a little over 30 miles) and I wanted to do it all in Ev. It has a net descent so I felt I could make it if I chose an efficient route. I made it with 7 indicated route miles to spare. I chose a route that used a 35mph surface street instead of a longer (but quicker) 65mph highway. EVTripPlanner said this would save me 0.8kWh on the total trip. When you only have 5.7kWh available, that's a big savings.

All highway route:


Surface street route:

 

I have a 10 year old? Bluetooth Globalsat BT-359C GPS receiver (
USGlobalsat Corporate
) that I use with my '09 netbook running Androidx86. I use Globalsat's Android app to log the NMEA data that includes all the positional info. This text log can be viewed in Google Earth which gives an elevation popup window also. There are many apps that can also record these text logs from your built-in GPS. Some may be able to record waypoints into the log also as joachimz's app has done. I don't have a compatible device so I haven't tried them. The BT-359 uses the SiRF StarIII Low Power GPS chipset which can be accessed via USB/RS-232 on Windows with free software. In the past I have used Suunto T6D and Ambit3 training watches and Garmin Moble PC Nav software to collect similar data. I also have expensive GIS software on the desktop.

This is a good explanation of the NMEA log. NMEA data

A couple of weeks ago I did the first run trying out Android. Morgantown, WV to Manhiem, Pa in Lancaster County (think Amish country). I-68 to I-70 to I-81 to I-76 across the mountains if western Md. Netbook went to sleep near the beginning so I missed about 20 miles and ran out of battery on the way home. Files attached.
To view in Google Earth go to "Tools" menu then select GPS. In the GPS import dialog box select import from file then click import. File browser opens, select the the dotNMEA file you want to view(renamed dottxt for PChat upload). Once open, elevation data can be viewed by right clicking the track and selecting show elevation data.

 

I just drove for the first time from my house to my flying field (R/C aircraft). This was a concern before I decided to purchase the car. Google says it's 27.1 miles, the car said it was 26.6 miles. So, pushing the Ev only range.

However, it's a very efficient route, at least in my 2004 Prius, where I regularly averaged over 60mpg for this trip. It does have a net climb of about 600 feet (and the corresponding descent on the way back). Because of the efficiency of the route, I thought I could make it, others were not so sure.

Round-trip today, full-cargo area with the seats down (really light stuff, though), two people (my son and I), air-conditioning the entire way, full-charge at the start, 24% left when we got home.

Love this car.