Hi all. I'm the very happy owner of a new 2018 Prime that drives about 23miles daily on 35mph (20%) - 50mph (20%) hilly roads, and 70 mph highways (60%). I've been trying to understand the best way to use my charge, and take care of / extend the the life of my battery. I've been playing around with manual EV/ HV selection, getting 60-80mpg combined over the trip. If I can make the RT in EV with ~1-2 miles of battery to spare, is it best to use EV for the whole trip (battery on return is ~5%), or am I better off using using HV on the highway, and returning home with a higher charge %, and then topping off to say 80% daily. Thanks - Dave
congrats and welcome! if you can make it in all ev, go for it. if you can't, warm it up before hitting the highway, then use hv for highway and ev for back roads. all the best!
Was ~5 miles shy on EV R/T tonight...guess it's the cold setting in. Thanks fo the suggestions...some HV on the highway might be the better option to get me from our rural area to the stop and go thats 15 minutes from us. Thanks - Dave
Welcome Dave. I've had my prime for a few months now and here's what I do daily (90 mile round trip): turn on the ICE to warm it up and crank the cabin heat while it is on, then go EV to the highway and hv on the highway. I then use up all ev charge on the way home when it is a bit warmer. In the summer I'll use ev in the morning when it is milder. The first approach will likely work well for you in the winter and I'd guess that you'll be able to make a round trip in ev in the summer.
If you really want to drive yourself crazy, determine your gas cost per mile at 70mph and cost on EV. Depending on your electric rate, and cost of gasoline, it might be less expensive to burn gas at 70mph. In my area, electricity would still be less expensive than gasoline, so I might flip over to Hybrid for 5ish highway miles and plan to arrive back home just as I run out of battery. Probably not worth the hassle and wear & tear on the push buttons .
Thanks, seems this is working out best for the cold. I realize I probably won’t reap the full benefits of those with shorter, more stop / go drives, but any way I look at it, my current mpg is a major improvement over previous cars. Lovin’ this thing more and more every day.
