Hi all! I am a two week old Prime owner, and I've stacked up a few questions. However, my MAIN question, which has been difficult for me to find a clear and easy answer, is this: If I'm expecting to drive outside of EV range (25+ miles round trip), what is the most fuel efficient mode to drive in? I ask this because I'm still not totally familiar with all the functions of the Prime. I've pretty much only used Eco Mode and EV Mode, then the charge dies and I'm back to Hybrid driving. So far, I've driven about 480 miles, and my lifetime average is still only 110 mpg. I've used about two ticks of the eight tick fuel gauge since buying the car. Basically, what's been happening when I have to drive farther than 25 miles is that I use up the charge, it switches to hybrid, and then I watch the MPG slowly fall until I'm home and can charge again. Is this the most efficient way to drive? Is there a mode that doles out the charge over time? I ask because I really want to make sure I'm utilizing highway/midrange driving. Also, what on earth does MPGe stand for?! If it's not MPG, what is the typical MPG of the car? the 54 mpg + 25 miles you get on electric? Is it 75 then? I am not a math or science person, but I want to be! Please help me understand!
welcome! you're conflating different modes. eco, normal and power are all available whether you are driving ev, ev auto, or hv. as for the most efficient, it is supposed to be eco, hence the name. but some experienced drivers find the feel of the gas pedal easier to modulate in normal mode. mpge is a complicated formula to judge the efficiency of plug in hybrid cars, when using both wall electricity and gasoline over a period of miles. the mpg meter in the car is meaningless when you are using wall charge. ev auto will decide for you when to use electricity or gas. most feel that gas is more efficient for hard acceleration and highway speeds, and electricity for back roads.
eco. it increases the amount of gas pedal travel for the same amount of power, making it more difficult for lead foots to waste energy.
IMO just drive the car in EV till it runs out. The car gets 54 MPG afterwards but the combination of EV miles driven plus the 54 MPG will give you a higher MPG reading overall, it doesn't matter what combo you use.
Welcome to the forum and to the rare vehicles in the middle of the country club. I'd recommend learning to drive your new vehicle in Eco mode. It will train your foot to be more economical over time. The three modes, Eco, normal, power only change how far you have to press down on the throttle. Floored is floored (100%) no matter which of the three modes you're in. Once you run out of EV battery only mode and it switches to HV mode, it's still up to you to drive efficiently to get the best mpg from there. In HV mode you still have some battery left, but the car decides when to use it based on how hard you're pushing it. There's a big section on this in the manual that you really do need to read. It will help clear up some things for you.
I’m a one month owner, so not an expert. I’ve had three trips of 50-80 mile length and this is what I’ve done. I used EV mode whenever my speed was going to be under 45mph (I generally stay off the interstate highways), and switch to hybrid, or EV AUTO, for higher speeds. I would try to arrive back home with as close to zero EV miles left. I’m not really sure about the difference between hybrid and EV Auto modes. Doesn’t seem to make much difference in my experience. I’m thinking I might select hybrid mode over EV Auto if the weather is near freezing and I’m needing big cabin heat; EV Auto if the temperature is in the 40-50s and not requiring much cabin heat?? I’ve been keeping my cabin heat set to around 62 degrees so far this Winter (I own sweaters / jackets). Craig
Thanks for the help all! I think that answers my question. I've only been driving in Eco mode, but was curious if EV Auto was actually better to use than just EV Mode until it runs out. Also, I'll check out the manual!
The difference is EV Auto will allow your engine to run if the demand is high enough, even if you still have EV battery range left. EV Mode pretty much locks the engine out unless you exceed 84 mph or if your EV battery runs low.
