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I'm up to about 2280 miles. I've been using my 7 bullet points in the What I've Learned thread to very good effect! The temperature has gone up to the upper 50's, and most importantly the roads are drier, leading to (for me) a record high 66.7 mpg tank full last week.
Last week with the tank full, I headed out on my 3rd highway trip. This time to Salem, which is just like a trip to Eugene plus an additional 1/3 the distance on I-5. Although its warmer, the additional distance cruising at 70 mph should lower the overall trip mpg. My goal was to achieve 50 mpg for the round trip. On the drive to Salem Current Drive showed me 52.9 mpg, and 50.5 mpg for the return (wet roads and rain 2/3's of the way). I filled up at home the day following my return and Trip A showed 51.1 mpg This includes short trips with cold engine around Salem. On this trip I made much more use of ACC, set at 60 mph on the two lane, 70 on I-5.
Last week with the tank full, I headed out on my 3rd highway trip. This time to Salem, which is just like a trip to Eugene plus an additional 1/3 the distance on I-5. Although its warmer, the additional distance cruising at 70 mph should lower the overall trip mpg. My goal was to achieve 50 mpg for the round trip. On the drive to Salem Current Drive showed me 52.9 mpg, and 50.5 mpg for the return (wet roads and rain 2/3's of the way). I filled up at home the day following my return and Trip A showed 51.1 mpg This includes short trips with cold engine around Salem. On this trip I made much more use of ACC, set at 60 mph on the two lane, 70 on I-5.
- With ECON on there is increased pedal travel in the throttle. Below about 50 mph that is useful to me for fine tuning acceleration for top mpg. Above 50 I'm really pushing the pedal to get power responsiveness for passing and etc. ECON off feels much more comfortable, with plenty of subtle power control in the 55-70 mph range that is not dis-similar to ECON on at slower speeds. (The ECON button in my old Civic Hybrid and gen 2 seemed to give greater access to ev mode, not the case in the gen 3)
- I made lots of use of the white EV button for use in getting up to speed or for climbing hills (there are several in the 4-7% grade category). Pushing that button many times gets the engine off at times the system is not doing so on its own. Also in the on position the system sometimes seems more willing to dig deeper into the battery reserve before engine turn on. I think doing this helped my mpg a lot! Knowing the road also was important for occasionally using SPORT to build battery, and saving pushing white EV button on to near the top of hills helps some too.
- I discovered that from a standing start, EV button off; the car will go forward with green EV light on till around where the power meter moves past the first notch past the green/blue charge/discharge line. At near that point, the light will go off and the engine come on. I found that starting out with the white EV button on, the engine can remain off till the power pointer moves past the blue / gray boundary. This can be a road conditions and traffic sensitive thing to play with, but retarding my acceleration to the blue /gray boundary can greatly reduce the amount of gasoline needed to get up to speed.
- I really liked the ACC, it turns out to be all I'd hoped. I found that when passing a slower vehicle ahead, it best to change lanes further behind than usual, to prevent slowing for speed matching the other vehicle. Also found it best to cancel ACC when traffic speeds up after a mass slow down. This allows for gentler acceleration back to cruising speed ….also better mpg.