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How to drive properly in city traffic to maximize MPG
12-30-13, 10:48 PM
#1
Pit Crew
Thread Starter
How to drive properly in city traffic to maximize MPG
After owning the HS250H for a while, i am able to get about 32-34 MPG in the highway. My computer says 34-36 but the calculation at the pump is always 2 MPG less. This is the best i can do and i am in eco mode 95% of the time. When doing strictly city driving the MPG drops tremendously (to 30 MPG). I thought this vehicle is designed to perform better in MPG doing surface street driving.
So how do you drive and maximize the use of the electric motor in city driving? Every time when i am in front of a traffic light, if i throttle a little more than half way, the ICE motor will turn on. With no cars behind me, I can do light throttle (which only uses the electric motor) but the car will take a little while to pick up speed. So I have to drive normally whenever there are cars behind me (which means using both gas/electric motor) to launch. I try to have good driving etiquette so i don't get weird stares and people tailgating me all the time.
I envy those who can do 40mpg in their cars. I can't get anywhere in high 30s in MPG unless i am on a straight flat highway in eco mode. Even then, i will have to coast whenever i can and avoid hard throttle.
Is there a computer update that can be done to get this to do a little better or is my battery slowly losing capacity?
So how do you drive and maximize the use of the electric motor in city driving? Every time when i am in front of a traffic light, if i throttle a little more than half way, the ICE motor will turn on. With no cars behind me, I can do light throttle (which only uses the electric motor) but the car will take a little while to pick up speed. So I have to drive normally whenever there are cars behind me (which means using both gas/electric motor) to launch. I try to have good driving etiquette so i don't get weird stares and people tailgating me all the time.
I envy those who can do 40mpg in their cars. I can't get anywhere in high 30s in MPG unless i am on a straight flat highway in eco mode. Even then, i will have to coast whenever i can and avoid hard throttle.
Is there a computer update that can be done to get this to do a little better or is my battery slowly losing capacity?
12-31-13, 07:21 AM
#2
I'll leave the hypermiling tips to others, but a few things I do are:
- brake lightly long before a stop, to maximize regen and avoid the mechanical (heat) brakes. A rough guess is to brake such that the power meter drops to the bottom of the regen range, but not past it.
- accelerate in the green band if possible. As you said, it depends on the surrounding traffic.
- drive smoothly, and keep some distance behind the guy in front of you so you don't have to brake so hard when he slows. Yeah, some other guy will cut in front of you, but how much longer will it really take to get where you're going?
- keep tires inflated. I run ~38 psi.
Using the above techniques, I get 36-37 mpg combined. I don't sit in real city traffic, so maybe it doesn't apply to you, but I also don't follow the other big rule for getting high mpg - driving below the speed limit. I'm usually doing 10-15 mph above the limit, so my mpg could be even higher.
Good luck!
- brake lightly long before a stop, to maximize regen and avoid the mechanical (heat) brakes. A rough guess is to brake such that the power meter drops to the bottom of the regen range, but not past it.
- accelerate in the green band if possible. As you said, it depends on the surrounding traffic.
- drive smoothly, and keep some distance behind the guy in front of you so you don't have to brake so hard when he slows. Yeah, some other guy will cut in front of you, but how much longer will it really take to get where you're going?
- keep tires inflated. I run ~38 psi.
Using the above techniques, I get 36-37 mpg combined. I don't sit in real city traffic, so maybe it doesn't apply to you, but I also don't follow the other big rule for getting high mpg - driving below the speed limit. I'm usually doing 10-15 mph above the limit, so my mpg could be even higher.
Good luck!
Last edited by Magellan55; 12-31-13 at 07:24 AM.
12-31-13, 01:09 PM
#3
Highway is usually your worst mileage, with the engine running pretty much all the time. I usually average around 38 on the highway above 60 mph.
Sometimes the stop 'n go city can be tough, especially when there is traffic behind you and most people are late and want to get moving ....NOW. And by city I mean 15 to 25 mph.
In this case, the HS seems to want to run on and on with out ever shutting down, when you have to accelerate from the stop, up to 15 or 25 then hit the brakes for the next stop. You'll notice it runs almost continuously.
About the only thing you can do in city situations, is at the stops, put it in neutral for about 5 seconds, put it back in drive, and if the engine is warm enough, within a few seconds, the engine will shut off. Then you can either put it in EV Mode and pull away and stay under 20 mph, or accelerate all the way up to 40 never leaving the first green band in ECO Mode.
But the only other trick I can think of is, remember about 38 mph.
In those situations where the engine just seems to run forever in city traffic, just run it up to 38 mph, lift off the throttle, and re-apply the throttle slowly watching the hybrid meter and do not go above the first green band. Once the engine shuts down, if you're gentle on the throttle, you can glide all day, or until the battery runs down, on electric alone.
If you give it too much gas, and the engine starts, drop back away from the cars in front of you, run it up to 38, chop the gas, re-apply slowly, then run on battery.
Practise... and practise again. Once you get some basic hypermiling skills and techniques down, you'll like testing yourself to do better the next time.
Sometimes the stop 'n go city can be tough, especially when there is traffic behind you and most people are late and want to get moving ....NOW. And by city I mean 15 to 25 mph.
In this case, the HS seems to want to run on and on with out ever shutting down, when you have to accelerate from the stop, up to 15 or 25 then hit the brakes for the next stop. You'll notice it runs almost continuously.
About the only thing you can do in city situations, is at the stops, put it in neutral for about 5 seconds, put it back in drive, and if the engine is warm enough, within a few seconds, the engine will shut off. Then you can either put it in EV Mode and pull away and stay under 20 mph, or accelerate all the way up to 40 never leaving the first green band in ECO Mode.
But the only other trick I can think of is, remember about 38 mph.
In those situations where the engine just seems to run forever in city traffic, just run it up to 38 mph, lift off the throttle, and re-apply the throttle slowly watching the hybrid meter and do not go above the first green band. Once the engine shuts down, if you're gentle on the throttle, you can glide all day, or until the battery runs down, on electric alone.
If you give it too much gas, and the engine starts, drop back away from the cars in front of you, run it up to 38, chop the gas, re-apply slowly, then run on battery.
Practise... and practise again. Once you get some basic hypermiling skills and techniques down, you'll like testing yourself to do better the next time.
01-13-14, 05:08 PM
#4
It is counter intuitive but I have found that driving with the "Econ" setting on continuously does not produce the best results. The setting modifies the HVAC, cruise control and throttle responses. If I am using the first two than I select Econ and drift along. Around town I found that the slack throttle resulting from this causes me to use a heavier foot to achieve a given speed and the mileage graphic dips.
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