Switching to HV mode should stop the "miles remaining in EV mode" from decreasing, right?

I would think it depends on how you use the EV miles. Going slowly in traffic at 25mph, good efficiency, going 60mph on the highway, not so much.

 

Ya, most agree on here it is smarter to save your EV miles for slower than highway speeds.

 

As mentioned, most of us tend to save/use our EV miles for side roads. I would say 35mph or less ideally. Use your HV for speeds above 35-40 on longer trips where you will be using ICE.

Where I am its a 55mph country road, and I try to use the first 2-3 miles in EV mode, because i will never recover them once in HV mode due to the 70-75% SOC theory. And in my case hitting 50-55mph immediately out my driveway uses alot of EV power quickly unfortunately. Normally i would not want to use EV for these speeds but when ive hit HV right out the door, i lose the 3 miles EV anyway, and never recover them.

I wish i lived on a slower street!

 

This has probable been discussed elsewhere (link, anyone?).

But I've seen some good numbers when using my EV to boost HV MPG at freeway speeds of 65 - 75 mph. No direct measurements, and I probably ought to keep some records. But it's my sense that I get better MPG numbers when powering off than if I use the EV on a 45 mph uphill grade, which would be the other alternative on this route.

 

Any use of EV will certainly improve the gas MPG. Some uses are more efficient and provide larger improvements in gas MPG. The real test is how they effect MPG-e which is a more meaningful evaluation of efficiency. The "-e" means add the energy equivalent of gas at 1 gallon per 33.7 kWh from your power line. I believe that lower speed uses of EV provide the best overall MPG-e results.

 

Interesting short trip yesterday. Drove to a restaurant in EV 7.5 miles. Not enough EV miles left to make it home of course. The early part of the return trip is a gentle uphill for about a mile and half. Switched to HV showing 6.4 EV miles. The ICE warmed up to the required 130F in that short distance at 35 mph and the EV miles only dropped to 6.1. Not the "usual" 1+ EV mile drop one would expect. Switched back to EV and only need another very short HV to make it home with 0.8 EV miles to spare.

Conclusion: the hot day, 95F, and the gentle uphill only required a small amount of EV miles to help the ICE while it warmed to its 130F. On a cold day the ICE would have insisted on running longer to reach 130F. I'll test the theory in about 6 months

 

i did a little test today. started out with 15.8 ev range, backed out of the driveway and put it in hv. drove for 30 miles, and when i got to my destination, i had 11.8 ev range left. so, used 4 out of the beginning range or 25%.

 

Do you have very fast roads shortly after you leave your garage? Why would it have gone down so much?

 

no, it's a couple miles at 40 and a couple at 35. then the highway at 55, but the range is down by the time i get there. i thought this was normal until this thread got started.

 

Ya, that kind of seems excessive.

Try the same thing tomorrow...except after you hit HV, go back to EV until the ICE turns off, then go back to HV. I wonder what your results might be doing this.

 

I've had the impression the system doesn't like to stay at "full" and will use up some electricity regardless of how you drive. That's good for battery longevity.

You observation seems to have confirmed it.

I've also noticed the if the EV generated beyond where you pushed the button is rather substantial, it will get used without request too.

 

i'll give it a shot.

 

I agree with this...but 25% seems excessive.

 

It does seem a bit much.

But measuring it is a bit of a challenge, since we know for a fact that HV will consume EV capacity. You'd have to drive without ever entering stealth mode.

I've never tried that... and live close enough to a highway to experiment. However, it's under construction for the summer. The speed on it has dropped from 70 to about 40... which is great for EV.

 

i'm glad to hear you say that john, because some of the people at the beginning of this thread claim it recovers all the way to where it began. i was thinking my software was off.

 

interesting, going back and looking at my post #5, the last time i did the exact same trip, it dropped to 13 miles and stayed there. so this time, it used an extra mile.

 

I think that is normal Bisco....It seems no matter where I start HV at( IE: 14.7EV ) It will use those first few EV miles and then always end up around 11.3 to 11.8 highest. I have never seen it recover higher then 11.8 ever.

Im assuming no matter how hi your EV "estimate" is initially, the recovery EV estimate will never go higher then 11s.

I guess this is the 70-75% SOC correct?


This is why i always try to use EV power until i get down to mid 11s range leftover, until i hit HV. Even if im on the hwy at 55mph for those initial EV miles, it seems to give me better overall MPG.

Dan

 

thanks dan, good to know i'm not the only one!

 

I've only owned by PIP for a few weeks my average EV start is 12 how do I increase starting EV? Sorry it this has been asked before

 

it's a reflection of past performance. the further you drive in ev, the higher the ev range will climb. but it's a formula, so, if you drove 15 miles today in ev before your ice started, you range estimate will be higher than 12 after your next charge, but not 15. the more ev you drive, the higher it will go, assuming you can drive more than 12 miles ev. if you drive a lot of mixed ev/hv, it will use that, but it get's more complicated.