Sonata Hybrid takes 2 tanks to cross lower US

Hi ALS,

Yes, I agree. The difference will probably be in the suburban secondary road commuting. Where the 3rd Gen Prius was deoptimized from, to get better 65 mph fuel economy.

Not so sure if that bigger engine and bigger wheels (to acomdate the bigger engine weight) was such a good idea in light of a pure parallel hybrid will always do better on the highway. So, they kinda de-unique'd the Prius with the 3rd Gen. If they would have kept the 1.5 liter, and done all the other changes, not have done the center console, and kept the car at the old width, with the tweaks to the warm up programing, the Prius would still be unique in its killer suburban secondary road commute mileage.

Regarding, the Prius highway operation - rather than do pulse and glide, the Prius is designed to run the smaller engine, with the improved low-power efficiency (atkinson) in essentially a hybrid-less mode. That is, use the synergy of the eCVT to get the highest grearing ratio (fewest engine turns per mile), along with the high partial power efficiency of the atkinson engine, and just leave the battery out of the equation during highway cruising.

The advantage of the Prius highway mode concept, is the battery does not see allot of cycles - and will have a long life.

Its yet to be seen if the Sonata will also have a long battery life in its pulse-and-glide highway mode....

 

The factory spec'd 62 mph EV mode worked all the way up to 88 mph.

When he was making the 65mph cruise control run, it was dropping into EV when the Scangauge II indicated lod drop.

 

"Sonata Hybrid has 37/38 mpg" Perhaps it used three (3) tanks.

 

Wow. One impressive vehicle, for sure. Hyundai has come a long way since the initial Excels of the '80s. Does anyone know if the back seats fold down on the Sonata Hybrid? The lack of that was a deal-breaker for me for the FFH (that and about a $7K premium over a Prius). If Hyundai's Li-PO batteries prove themselves, this car will smoke just about any other high-mileage vehicle out there. Given their staunch warranty, I wouldn't bet against it. Oh, and it looks pretty cool, too, perhaps with the exception of the gaping Mazda3-esque baleen-whale style mouth. But I'd be willing to overlook that. And a hell of a lot of car for the money. FFH and TCH, watch your backs!

 

Did you read the thread on the other website?
(see original post).
It's pretty clear that he experienced two tanks and not three.

 

Yea, Wayne Gerdes used 2 tanks not 3 to cross the lower tier of states.

Which is incongruent with the EPA rating you have stated above.

Could this be another case of the crazy high-speeds they have in the new EPA highway test? 75 mph if memory serves? Its probable that above a certain speed, the highway constant speed pulse and glide might not be available in the Sonata Hybrid. So, if you cruise above that speed, there is not enough battery power to maintain speed, the car knows that, and does not do the constant speed pulse and glide - with the consequent large drop in mileage -50 something to 38 something. Which kinda reminds me of the Volt numbers, now that I say it...

 

Also, keep in mind that the review says "If you shift to N, the ICE shuts down right away." I doubt the EPA has any shifting into neutral and coasting in their test. The car is probably in drive, with foot on gas, the entire time they are not braking or sitting.

All a Google search came up with is this event from 2008: Honda Insight Hybrid Wins Hypermiling Competition with 124 Miles per Gallon : TreeHugger

Does anyone know of any organized hypermiling competitions?
(Danny, do you think PriusChat might be interested in organizing such an event in the future?
And, maybe go in on it with some other websites and see if we can get around 100 people entered?)
.

 

Toyota has been "skunked" several times per year over the last 6 years, and yet they by far largest manufacturer of hybrids, probably having over 80% of worldwide market... I am vary of anyone making any claims, until vehicle is in hand of customers who will tell us how it drives.

 

I wonder what the Prius is capable of with cruise set at 65 under perfect conditions? I might try this today if the weather cooperates.

 

Hyundai has very strong tech leadership. MIT grads. Expect a very competitive hybrid.

 

That is probably true, but the 38mpg EPA highway rating is much worse than the 53 mpg the Sonata was getting in cruise control at 65 mph too two hours into the trip from Ga to Mi . And its somewhat unlikely the cruise control is shifting both the engine and electric motor into a disconnected state from the transmission.