Full green SOC assist - of my favorite newfound "states"

I found a wonderful way to improve mpg on one trip. As some of you may have read in the past, I have a couple bridges, one of which in particular has a killer ascent, but then you have to come to a dead stop and lose all momentum at the bottom with a toll booth (Rhode Island EZ Pass is not just drive straight through - they actually have the yellow bars that lift when you pay. I've seen an ambulance come to a full stop at this bridge, it's ridiculous). After that you accelerate to about 40-50 mph to continue on, with general uphill, so that with normal state of charge you'll be getting in the 30 mpgs even once you get going.

I've found that if I maintain the brake depressed most of the way down the backside, but without too much actual slowing, that I can usually, but not always, get full green bars just before the toll. The acceleration after from 5 mph or so is all electric, even when I try to push harder to get the ICE going. The ICE then eventually starts, and I accelerate to 45 mph getting around 50 mpg. I can easily accelerate more gently up in the 70s, 80s, etc. 50 mpg is the floor! Once I'm up to speed, I've come across this "cruising" state of battery assist a few times. This particular picture was taken at 44 mph. The arrows are not flashing back and forth at all - the image as you see it stays put on the screen for quite a bit of time unless I adjust the pedal.

Thought I would share. It brings up my mileage significantly on the trip to have a couple miles of 80 or 99.9+ (whatever it ends up being) compared to the 30s or 40s I'd get otherwise.

 

I actually try to get the ICE to light, since, just guessing intuitively, it would be better to prolong the high state of charge rather than use everything on full out driving in EV. Ja?

Oh, and I can't see the energy used yet, but maybe after I get my hands on your new device Would be happy to test one for you. You should sell through Amazon, I've been saving up gift certificates just for a ScanGauge, but now looks like I'll redirect that money elsewhere...

 

pEEf and uart, thanks for the input, to update you...

I drove this route this morning, and only got 7 out of 8 green bars at the bottom (not sure if it matters, but was 19°F, car did not feel snappy and energetic like it can). Over that particular terrain, it seems better to "save" the charge a little and mix it with the ICE like in the pic above. The reason is that shortly after I can get the full charge, there's a couple more hills to climb. If I use all EV before that and the charge runs down, I then climb those hills at 20-30 mpg instant (this morning in cold saw 18 mpg, ugh!). If I spread it out in the past I know I've seen 40-50 at the least.

Again, not sure if any way to calculate at all, but it's my impression the car likes working in that green state as long as it can on that particular road.

 

Taken a long time to collect even the smallest samples (and once I just forgot to reset the mpgs when I had full green...doh!). I'll do more soon.

Description of three points:

A. about 2 miles after initial acceleration from about 5 mph with full green bars. Unfortunate hill just before this point cuts down on 100+ mpg mileage significantly.
B. about 2.5 miles in, after climbing a bridge
C. about 3.0 miles in, after descending most of the bridge

Pure EV, then engine as needed once the green wore off:

Point A: 87.3 mpg
Point B: 67.3 mpg
Point C: 76.7 mpg

ICE assist most of the time:

Point A: 75.6 mpg
Point B: 59.8 mpg
Point C: about 67 mpg

Notes:

Pure EV, depending on traffic, may not always be possible with the slow acceleration.

Preliminarily, pure EV is clearly better in numbers, but when the ICE assist was done today there were extremely heavy headwinds (and sidewinds...), whereas I remember the pure EV day being clear and sunny, no winds of note, so I'll keep testing to get a better average for both ways.

 

Thanks, Sagebrush, very concise way to think of it. I've heard of this magic 15 kw point, I don't know if I can wait for the Priuscan, may just crack for a Scangauge. I can approximate 15 kw using instant mpg as a percentage of current speed from what I've read about SHM, but otherwise I have no precise idea where that is.

Oh, and you've inspired me to a music lesson.

The Zen of Classical Period Trills

1. Avoid starting on principal note
2. Avoid directional interference

When 1 and 2 are in conflict, avoid 1.

 

Hey uart,

They both ended with six blue bars. I'm guessing that within the sixth bar, that is, from the "bottom" of that sixth bar to the "top", there could be a range of charge that I can't account for, but visually they ended the same.