My EV range story

Wow! Very impressive.

 

Using really rough numbers, a $2 charge is paying for 2/3rds of a gallon of gas to save the cost of 1/3rd gallon.

For a trip beyond EV range, I start off in EV Auto then forget about anything else. Just drive. I set the trip odometer & gas mileage display to zero at the start of the trip, and this set up seems to give me the best average mpg with least bother.

 

I have an 80-mile one-way commute: from home to work, it's 5 miles stoplights, 60 miles highway, and 15 miles divided highway with some stoplights. My Prime Premium tells me I have 28-32 miles of EV driving after a full charge.

I use EV for the 5 miles from house til I reach highway speed (75mph), then I switch to HV for the next 60 miles at 75-80mpg. I find the A/C is cooler when the gas engine is running. I try to have a 4/5 eco score for A/C use (72-74 degrees fan at second lowest setting, recirculate).

Once off the highway I use EV again, especially when taking off from stoplights. I like to get to speed quickly from a light. I know this hurts MPG but it helps me weave around slowpokes.

I arrive at work with 10 or 15 EV miles left, most of which I usually use getting lunch.

In the afternoon, I end up at about 53mpg on the highway before reaching my home exit- this is probably due to elevation (going uphill) and running the A/C higher It's (90-100 degrees and humid this summer). I make sure I save 5 miles of EV charge for the stretch between the highway and hoe so I usually have ~60mpg for the afternoon.

 

I only have my Prime for a week so trying to see what works best for my commute of 31 miles each way. Right now I am only getting 22 miles on a full charge but have only charged it twice so far. I can only charge at home so trying to stretch my EV miles out and of course use the most economical method.
My commute is 7 miles on a hilly winding road where I have been using all EV. The next 22 miles are different highways of varying speeds and a few with stop lights. For this portion of the ride I use HV unless there seems to be alot of traffic and then I switch back to EV. After getting off the highway I have almost another 2 miles of flat driving.
When I leave work I use the remaining EV miles for the 2 mile drive to the highway and then use HV for the highways and that leaves me with around 9 EV miles for the 7 miles of the hilly winding road at the end of the commute.
Not sure if this is the most efficient way or if I should just use all of the EV miles on the commute to work and then going home would be all HV miles.

 

Having a plug-in really imposes a need to strategize, at least for you guys. I think there's an "auto" mode, where you just let the car mix-and-match?

 

Yes I have not tried EV Auto Mode yet. Was trying to get a feel for the car and see what works best for me. That will be my next experiment.

 

I've been a very, very bad boy, Abbott!! Playing with my Prime on a bunch of fast, no traffic, twisty downhill roads, mainly Bastanchury Rd near Brea, doing over 85 with a playful new Acura TSX, neck and neck for several miles, until he turned off. Surprised when the ICE kicked in; very smoothly though. Down to about 31 EV miles when charged, but it was worth it!!
What a wonderfully smooth handling Prime car!!



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Is there a reason you switch to EV mode for freeway driving down hill? Why not just coast in HV? Is it more efficient at charging in EV mode than it is in HV mode?

My first week of driving was 75mpg using EV Mode until it was gone and then driving the rest in HV Mode.
The second week, I did EV Mode for city driving (gray) and HV Mode for freeway driving (blue) and got about 85mpg.

 

My daily commute is mostly uphill in the morning and downhill on the way home. I've just been using EV until it runs out-- usually it doesn't because I gain a few mile of range on the downhill.

I've wondered whether i should use HV going up the hill but it seems complicated to figure out when to use what. I'd probably forget to go back to EV at the top of the hill.

 

The problem, is if freeway driving is the majority of your trips. I too, always try to leave EV for street driving, but if a roundtrip (with no place to charge) is 85 miles, and 80 of that 85 miles is freeway, then a good portion of the EV has to be used up in freeway. I do agree though, and always try to save EV range for when I know I'll be driving on the street, for freeway driving (even going 62-64) eats up a lot more than city, with no braking to help replenish the EV.

For what it's worth, this is the pattern I've settled into, and it seems to work for me. Do EV for the first mile or so (until I hit the freeway). Then turn on the HV right before I accelerate onto the freeway. For a while I didn't switch to HV until after I accelerated, but accelerating eats up a lot of EV. When you move it to HV and it's cold, it'll "warm up" the engine while still drawing from EV until it's warm. Then drive HV for freeway until I exit.

However I keep these two things in mind: if I know there won't be much street driving, I'll use up the EV on the return trip, and for that return trip, use all of it and let it go to HV on its own (as once I'm off the fwy, I only have under a mile until I'm home, and it's at lower speeds, so it usually just draws from the EV buffer). And, I constantly keep it in "B" when driving EV in city, or start/stop freeway driving (the trick is, you have to remember to move it back to "D" when you're out of EV and back to HV). There's a whole thread on this, but just wanted to report, that this works pretty well for me.

Also, there's a commute I make about 8 times a year, with a very steep, long hill up (and thus, a very steep, long hill down) -- street, not freeway. The first time I switched to HV for the hill so I wouldn't use up a bunch of EV going up the steep hill, and the next time I did it in EV instead to compare. I think in the end, it was better with EV -- with the caveat that only do so if you have enough EV juice left at the top of the hill to later get you BACK to the hill on your return, so you can use the "down" direction (in B) to recharge your battery back up, and make up most (not all, but most) of what you "spent" by going uphill in EV.