es300h

thats amazing mileage, i am having hard time achieving 40mpg, so far best mpg is 34.1, anyone know what could be wrong? i am driving mostly in normal mode.

UTAS

Extreme, yes, but not meaningful, because that "99.9 mpg" is the computer's upper limit when calculating instantaneous mpg for the duration the gas engine is off and moving forward on battery.

Average mpg is best calculated manually at each fill-up. The vehicle's computed mpg is usually different from manual calculation.

andywoods

99.9 MPG let me add a disclaimer. First yes that figure is true and no it is not photo shop. yes it is over a two day period and no you could never sustain anything close to that on a continuous bases . The facts are it was 1:00 am so there was no traffic. Because there was no traffic I was able to creep up the hill on battery power alone. This you could never do under normal conditions plus you would get a ticket for impeding traffic driving that slow on the freeway. Once to the top it is a case of coast down the hill which charged the battery back up. Remember the car has a one mile range on battery alone which can be done by putting it in EV mode. This is what i did going up the hill on the freeway. Which is why I said you could never drive that slow under normal conditions. Having heavy traffic which would allow you to drive slow won't work because to save energy you have to maintain a steady speed. Finding the point where the electric motor is maintaining the momentum. In traffic you would lose the momentum with the stop and go. It is about the really low rolling resistance the car has. First I put the car in Eco mode and turned on the EV switch and never exceeded the speed that would cause it to leave EV mode. The route I used is as follows. Half mile to where the hill starts. On the way there are small inclines and declines. On the declines I maximized the charging by slight pressure on the brake keeping the charge maxed. When taking off I would accelerate to about 15mph and then let it coast with enough pressure on the gas pedal to maintain the momentum. When I reached the bottom of the hill I let the car coast up the hill in EV mode. Even though it is a steep incline once rolling it takes very little to keep it rolling. It is about 3/4 of a mile up the steep side of the hill and about mile and a half on the other side which has a more gradual incline. Once at the bottom on the other side it is about two miles to the office. If i keep the car in EV and use only enough power to maintain momentum, not accelerating, or stopping I am able to do the two miles on battery alone. Again this can only be done when there is no traffic that makes you have to stop. The trick is never having to stop the momentum so you never have to accelerate. The most I have got is three miles on battery alone. Note the trip is about five miles and took me almost an hour. It took even longer on the return trip. Coming back the incline is gradual put a lot longer so the motor had to kick in for the last 1/8 mile. Outside of that I keep the motor from kicking in so no gas was used. In conclusion the car design is great. With the extremely low rolling resistance (which is why you should not change the wheels). The efficient conversion of power to force is amazing. The test also required that you have the gas tank near empty less weight, the heater and air are off, turn off lights even the dash lights, turn off the radio and any thing else that uses power. ( it was 1:00 am so I had to have the head and tail lights on, plus the energy monitor on the radio). Would like to see some one else reproduce this. Remember this is on a round trip. No one way stats that is easy. I am going to do it again but this time will photograph the miles driven. Wish i could record the route on a topographical map so I could monitor energy output at different points.

es300h

anyone? i am talking a long trip next week (over 1K miles), any tips?

JerryKK

If you drive like andywoods (prior post) it will take you three weeks to drive the 1,000 miles!

Drive in eco - don't go over 70 - and you should get the maximum your car is capable of.

Slackbus

And don't forget that those of us in colder climates make our cars work harder and we get less efficient winter gas as well. Comparisons to those in Southern US are meaningless over the next few months. 35mpg is probably pretty good.

Consider how your old car changed in winter - my old car would go from 10L/100km to 11~12L/100km ... being at 6.5L/100km in the winter with the 300h is really pleasing me!

Arty101

So, the Chevy Volt is designed to operate in EV with up to 16 miles and a higher and more reasonable top speed. They can claim that 99.9 mpg by using only EV, but their true combo mpg is much less.

jollick

From the GM Volt website:

Official full charge time is 4 hours at 240-v

EV Range is 35 miles officially, GM still says 25 to 50, based on driving style, temperature, and terrain.

Extended range charge-sustaining combined city and highway fuel economy is 37 mpg. It is 35 mpg city and 40 mpg highway.

Total range is 379 miles, 344 of gas range plus 35 miles electric range.

UTAS

Yes, however, 99.9 remains the upper limit of the onboard mpg computer. When the gas engine is off, in theory the mpg is infinity and cannot be expressed in a real number, because miles driven divided by zero gallons of gas used is expressed as an infinite number - as far as the computer readout is concerned, 99.9. Obviously, this is unsustainable, because the gas engine eventually has to regenerate the battery bank, and average mpg then meets real world physics - about 38-40 mpg on average.

Some mpg will be better or worse on given days, given terrain, given climate, heavy feet, hard driving, etc.

jcarlo

Any recommended iPhone apps to track mileage, fill-ups, basic maintenance schedule? Thanks

jollick

There is a free app called FuelEcoFree that looks promising.

Jboswald

My 300H has just over 7,000 miles (got it in August - first one at the dealer). I have averaged 38.5 actual MPG since I've owned it. The computer shows 39.2 (It's most always a little optimistic). You can see a big difference with the winter blend of fuel and running the heater - it drops the mileage. I'm expecting to average closer to 40 once we get back to summer blend fuel and won't need to worry about the heater (will start worrying about the air conditioning instead)...

Arty101

Good to know. I'm averaging around 38 lately, but started at 40.5. So maybe it's the winter blend and not my lead foot. On a side note, I'm actually getting a bit less mpg on Eco mode than the Sport mode even though the Sport mode was more poop. A little counter intuitive if you ask me.

JerryKK

Just a guess (because I haven't had the car long enough for a definite conclusion) but it's quite possible that going up an hill or incline or giving it a lot of gas to get onto a freeway, etc. - that the car will not do as good in Eco because it has to strain more - so maybe Eco should just be used in traffic (when it's stop and go) or on straight-a-ways on the freeway. Maybe others can weigh in on this.

Slackbus

I've noticed the sport vs. eco mpg, too. I think it is completely dependent on drive style. When I "don't pay attention" to mpg and fuel efficient driving, Eco gives me the best results because it feathers the throttle response without having to focus on it. When I'm paying more attention and feather it myself, sport gives me the best along with the increased acceleration, but its very easy to lose yourself to the throttle

I don't think the idea of "straining" in Eco is valid, only because it doesn't seem that the actual engine settings are affected by Eco mode. It seems just to be a throttle response change (along with things like reduced cabin fan speed, etc.).

Any one else have any input on this?