HV/EV button (taking advantage of it)

i think the vehicles are the same, but the drivers and driving are different.

 

I played on the motorway the other day only to confirm what others mostly say around here:
- I didn't touch the HV/EV button, the EV light on the dashboard was lit all the time. ICE started somewhere between 80-90km/h.
- On speeds above that ICE stays on all the time. Even if I glided for about 30s. However, current fuel consumption on the display does drop to 0 while gliding.
- At speeds above 100km/h pure glide on a level ground is uselessly short due to air drag. A pseudo-glide (HSI bar in the lower third) does minimize fuel consumption, but it doesn't shut off the ICE.
- EV range was reducing slowly, so I guess while I was playing around, the electricity did contribute to locomotion.

Finally, hypermiling on motorway is too complex for me. Therefore, I am returning to good ol' Cruise Control at fixed speed. There are finer things to enjoy along the way, than saving a few millilitres of gasoline.

Well, perhaps ... If somebody comes up with a chart of average fuel consumption vs. cruising speed (with and without EV miles left), I could adjust my CC speed accordingly.

 

Optimizing your driving on the highway doesn't have to be painful. Use CC, set to 80 kph, but anytime the HSI is not in the upper half of ECO, either adjust the accelerator to put it there (go slower on uphills), or consider using the electric motor (level or slight downhill). I tend to not be shy using almost all of the battery when I know I'll soon have a stretch of road that will keep the HSI in the upper half of ECO, and thus charge the battery with the ICE running optimally.

This strategy is yielding, on long trips, around 3.5 l/100 km on my non pip gen3.

 

This seems in line with the observation I had when I had to slow down a bit due to traffic, and I also saw suddenly a decreasing EV range. Maybe a constant speed of around 90 km/h gives the same effect?

 

Thanks, but 80 kph on motorway is going to bore my wife and kids to death.

driving = gasoline × time
gasoline = money
time = money
money is a root of all evil => money^2 = evil

Therefore:
driving = gasoline × time = money × money = money^2 = evil

 

I like to optimize my mileage, but I draw the line at major discomfort or inconvenience. Driving at 80k when the speed limit is 100, or driving with the heater or A/C off, is a bit beyond my pale. I'd gladly pay for the tiny amount of extra fuel it consumes.

 

My most common commute is 73 km, the time difference 80 kph vs 100 kph is 11 mins. It's just not worth it.

 

Yesterday I also was able to try this out more systematically for the EU version of the PiP. On a completely flat highway with constant speed, even only 1 km/hr above the point where the ICE comes on (85 km/hr), the contribution of the battery becomes zero (after warming up). So, indeed no blended mode is possible for the EU version in such circumstances, what is a pity for those mostly using highways. The only way to use the battery (and not be left with a filled battery at the end) is to have a speed lower than 85 km/hr. That's indeed what I finally did, in the slowest lane behind a truck.

The good news is that if you do this for, say, 20 km to use all of your remaining charge, the delay is only a few minutes. For example, driving 80 km/hr instead of 100 km/hr for 20 km, gives a time difference of 15 minutes - 12 minutes = 3 minutes.

Jan

 

Therefore, my EV range must have fallen a bit due to temporary speed drops below 85km/h and a slowdown at the toll booth. There's hardly any level ground and motorway traffic is very dynamic in my country. Fixed speed cruise control is practiacally useless.

Owner's manual advises against regular driving in EV with high energy demand (uphill, speeds close to EV margin, etc.). The sustained high electricity drain is supposed to shorten LiON battery life.

Anyway, I've learned to achieve best MPG not to touch any buttons. I leave the ECO mode off. I don't switch HV/EV manually any more. I avoid PWR zone when accelerating. On motorway I drive 110-130km/h and leave the car to engage ICE by its own.