What's your EV/HV Pattern for longer trips?

a few weeks ago went to San Diego airport (60 mi from my house) for a 4 day trip, while they have EV chargers, didn't want to leave it plugged in for 4 days, also went a little faster than usual (flight left at 6:15am), i did switch to EV on the longer downhills but mostly HV, had ~ 20 miles left when i arrived which was good enough for the trip home.
When i went up to Monterey (~ 400 miles one way) i knew i would not be able to charge so used EV primarily off fwy (except going down grapevine w/DRCC at 65 and gaining ~ 11EV miles), also played with charge mode

 

When I go to my sons house which is about 55 miles away I use EV all the way. First I drive to Schoolcraft Community College 21 miles, charge there, then drive to Washtinaw Community college another 21 or so miles, charge there, then drive the rest of the way to my sons house 7 miles. after I'm finished at my sons house I reverse the process. Takes all darn day but hey, it's all EV 110 miles besides the electricity is free.

 

When I did my US 2 trip across North America from Michigan to Washington State I would charge at each Motel I stayed at every night, then take off going 70, 75 MPH (speed limit in Mt and ID is 80 MPH) I would get about 14 miles EV before ICE kicked in. I averaged about 46, 48 MPG on the way there and 54 MPG on the way back. On my way through Casper WY from Idaho Falls via route 26 I averaged 67.8 MPG. On one downhill trek I gained a much as 4.1 miles EV

 

accelerate to cruising speed and use up all of the EV

 

Before getting onto the highway.

Save EV electricity for later. You'll still have HV electricity available for the acceleration.

For long road trips, take advantage Charge-Mode when more EV could be handy. That worked out well on our 1,700-mile adventure a few weeks ago.

 

I use EV until gone, then HV for the rest of the way. You can still use the HV portion of the battery at highway speeds. I did that today for a 120 mile round trip averaging 70 mph half way and 60 mph the last half. Overall mpg was 82.2 with 1 charge.

 

I use EV till I get on freeway, then switch to HV. This only occurs on longer trips which are longer than my EV range. On long downhills, ie, Grapevine, I'll switch back to EV and use B mode to get some more EV back. The northern Grapevine downhill portion is an extreme example, but generally if I know the terrain enough I take advantage of the areas to recover EV.

Edit: I do try to make sure by the time I get home I've used up all the EV range I had.

 

If I tried that, I would be sleeping on the couch.

 

I use EV until it's gone, then it switches to HV. By the way, I went to Idyllwild this weekend. It's up in the mountains above Palm Springs. On my way down the hill, I was obviously braking frequently on curvy mountain roads. My battery charged while I was driving! I was amazed.

 

I've had this happen once. My EV was depleted and after some hard braking the EV portion of the battery showed a charge (I was in D mode). The EV depleted 30 miles before it started recharging. I also was amazed.

 

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When I go to my sons house which is about 55 miles away I use EV all the way. First I drive to Schoolcraft Community College 21 miles, charge there, then drive to Washtinaw Community college another 21 or so miles, charge there, then drive the rest of the way to my sons house 7 miles. after I'm finished at my sons house I reverse the process. Takes all darn day but hey, it's all EV 110 miles besides the electricity is free.
If I tried that, I would be sleeping on the couch.

well......while charging for an hour and a half each time (four times) you would find me napping in the car.

 

The warm-up cycle prevents engine stress. Electricity from the battery is used to hold RPM down while the warming takes place.

 

The best way to answer this is to do both while monitoring the segment mileage. Do it multiple times both ways and see which one gives you the best mileage. There is a lot of qualitative information coming out about Primes but very little quantitative information. See the post from priuscatprimeguy for quantitative example. The idea is to maximize overall mileage, not just EV miles. Maximizing EV miles does not necessarily mean maximizing total mileage. If you can get there and back on EV then life is good. If not, there is a lot that happens that impacts the mileage, and you need to run multiple, monitored trials to see which is best.

 

when I did my trips my mileage was gas fill up to gas fill up (about 350-420 miles per tank each day)

 

I have 4000 miles on my prime. I played a lot with charging mode. Conclusion, waste of gas mileage.
Ev, hv modes switching to gain gas mileage. Conclusion, waste of time.
B mode, if you are in drive and have to brake hard, it probably is better than hitting something.

Main conclusion, just get in, push start, put in drive and just drive it. Brake easy and let coast for the best gas mileage. Same as any other car.

Of course plug in as often as you can.

 

One man's "waste of time" is another man's fun or game. Please don't make blanket assumptions and opinions...unless you are going into politics.

 

It's nice having the fully-automatic setting, but not everyone wants a point & shoot camera.

There are times when special settings do yield better results.