For those of you with PHEVs, how many miles per kilowatthour of battery capacity do you generally get? Are there different hypermiling techniques for electricity? When in 'mixed hybrid' mode, do you generally get the same, or better miles per kwh? For example: - 10 miles in 2kwh with no fuel = 5 miles per kwh - 20 miles in 2kwh with double normal fuel efficiency is the same as driving 10 miles in pure EV mode (from an electricity efficiency standpoint), and 10 miles on gas, so it's the same 5 miles per kwh. - If you could get 30 miles on 2kwh with double fuel efficiency, that would be 15 miles on electricity and 15 miles on gas, or 7.5 miles per kwh - more efficient than the EV only mode example above. -->Adam
It seems to me that the techniques should be a little different. Part of the rationale for the whole "pulse and glide" thing is to try to reduce the amount of time that the engine is idling in the background when it isn't really needed. You run the engine for a short pulse of acceleration. Then, you coast with the engine completely shut off (hopefully). (Pulse and glide still helps somewhat, even if the engine isn't warm enough to shut off during the glide.) In EV-mode driving, pulse and glide might just be irrelevant. I've been operating under the assumption that driving at a constant speed is at least as efficient (possibly more). If anyone can explain why that isn't true, I'd love to hear it. As for miles/kWh, my tests have shown about 3.6 mi/kWh in blended mode (at 55 mph). That's after correcting for the fact that some gas was being used. In pure EV mode, I've gotten between 4.0 and 4.9 mi/kWh, depending on how long the trip is. Presumably, I got 4.9 on the longer trip because the battery and/or motor got warmed up to a more efficient temperature. (I'm just guessing here.) Arthur
On level ground I can get about 150wh per mile. If there are hills or I'm using more amps then I should I get an electron guzzling 250wh per mile. These are all electric figures.
It should be irrelevant because of one primary reason - air drag which rises at an exponential rate vs speed. There will be one speed at which travel will be most efficient. At speeds lower than that, static vampire loads will lower efficiency (for example, at 0 mph you will get 0 mp/kWh) and at higher speeds more energy wasted by trying to push air.
