Rain causes a significant drop in mpg for me too.Got my first dose of highway driving in the rain with the Insight EX. 42.0 mpg. This thing could not maintain 65 mph staying in the blue range of the power meter. Just could not do it. Rain really seems to add a lot of rolling resistance. This commute routinely gets me 49-51 mpg..
Thanks for the info!I have an EX (Michelin Energy Saver OEM) which handled well in rain... so can't comment on Touring tires. But a forum member @autotech previously posted a video that showed the Touring handling well in snow-plowed road conditions, which were quite stable and impressive.
While I don't have the same tires as you, I wanted to share that adjusting for the conditions should help maximize mpg..
Rain increases the density of air and its aerodynamic drag, so it (technically) consumes more energy to get to and maintain speed. Water on the roadway also requires more energy output/use to move water out of the path of the tires.
Going faster creates more overall rolling resistance, so generally I slow down for the conditions, to maintain traction, and to manage fuel efficiency and energy needs.![]()
For OEM tires, the Michelin’s perform pretty well in rain. I have only spun the tires once.I have an EX (Michelin Energy Saver OEM) which handled well in rain... so can't comment on Touring tires. But a forum member @autotech previously posted a video that showed the Touring handling well in snow-plowed road conditions, which were quite stable and impressive.
While I don't have the same tires as you, I wanted to share that adjusting for the conditions should help maximize mpg..
Rain increases the density of air and its aerodynamic drag, so it (technically) consumes more energy to get to and maintain speed. Water on the roadway also requires more energy output/use to move water out of the path of the tires.
Going faster creates more overall rolling resistance, so generally I slow down for the conditions, to maintain traction, and to manage fuel efficiency and energy needs.![]()
What mpg do you normally average for this drive in clear/dry weather? Did you detect any traction issues from the OEM Touring tires while driving in storm?After the storm had passed I still had a good amount of highway left over so I made up for some of the lost mpg by driving pretty conservative. Ended the 90 mile trip at ~51 mpg. Might sound great but during the storm I was getting mid to low 40s so there was definitely some noticeable decrease.
It was my first time driving that route southbound but the northbound route on my way up I averaged about 52mpg so pretty much the same. I didn't notice any traction issues and would argue that the traction is far better than what I had in my previous 07 Accord. I guess time will tell since I can't really make a determination based on one experience.What mpg do you normally average for this drive in clear/dry weather? Did you detect any traction issues from the OEM Touring tires while driving in storm?
Yeah definitely how I feel as well. Having people constantly riding my rear or always passing me up makes me self conscious of my driving which pretty much makes me try to keep up with the right laners at least. The problem tho is that feeling of watching the mpg for the trip slowly trickle down the more you press the gas. I guess I just have to reach that acceptance stage of owning a hybrid that I'm not always going to be able to have the best possible mpg for each drive.The biggest mpg numbers I achieve are when I drive without 'pressure' from cars around/behind me; this sounds maybe parallel to the conservative 2nd half of your drive (?). The second largest mpg gain I see is from anticipating terrain, which it sounds like was severely impacted by your weather conditions.
The majority of the drive was highway but there was about 3-5 miles of normal roads to allow the car to warm up. Still, this is a brand new vehicle (last Wednesday) so I think I still have a lot of warming up to do.The low mpg portion of your drive was toward the beginning, and the ICE may have been working longer/more initially from that. I need to travel at least ~3 miles before the actual drive mpg starts to offset the low mpg effects of the ICE running at cold start. Longer drives also give EV more chance to kick-in to improve mpg.
I'd say a good 45 miles was in the severe storm and the remaining 45 was raining but visible. Go figure the worst part of the storm occurred during the more hilly portions of the highway. It's the tri-state 294 from Milwaukee to Illinois if anyone is interested or from the area. It's also under construction so I had to be even more careful of keep track of the lines since they are constantly changing.How many of the 90 miles were in stormy weather vs clear weather?
This video is kind of technical, but illustrates how silica helps to deliver both low rolling resistance and traction. Both OEM tires for the Insight (Michelin Energy Saver for LX/EX and Continental ProContact TX for Touring) contain these silica compounds.As I understand it, we have low rolling resistance tires on the Insight. Do such tires cause traction issues? I'm wondering what's the trade-off between these tires and standard tires (other than mpg)?
Interesting question !Does anyone have experience/perspective on whether driving in rain/warmer weather (mid-50s F) yields better or worse fuel economy than dry/colder weather (mid-30s F) for the same driving conditions (terrain, speed, distance)?
I was thinking:
I have timing options on when to make a long drive and would like it to be the most fuel efficient. But the weather conditions I have to choose from fall into the rain/warm and dry/cold buckets above.
- In rain/warmer conditions, rain affects rolling resistance, but the 'warmer' weather may increase HV battery to offset losses in fuel economy.
- In dry/colder conditions, the HV battery recharges more slowly and/or cabin heating (and fuel consumption) load increases to keep the HV battery warm enough to help fuel economy.
What was the outdoor temperature? >50F?Just drove in the rain in the early a.m. today to run errands on a 16 minute drive and managed 76 mpg driving in eco mode and not speeding. At one point during that 16 minutes the trip computer was reading 108 mpg! Managed 52 mpg on the trip home.
Around 60F. Since owning this car I have never seen a 108 mpg reading on the trip computer at any point ever. I'm still amazed. I'm going to run a few errands this morning and it's going to be about 50F. I'll see if I can come close to that 76 mpg I managed to get yesterday.What was the outdoor temperature? >50F?
Sometimes when one pushes the power on button the engine remains off and you can drive for awhile before the engine turns on. Before the engine turns on "Current Drive" will show 199.9 mpg. After the engine turns on current drive will work its way down. How long the engine remains off seems dependent on many factors including temperature and HV battery charge level. Length of engine off operation after power on seems a little different each day ....for me.Around 60F. Since owning this car I have never seen a 108 mpg reading on the trip computer at any point ever. I'm still amazed. I'm going to run a few errands this morning and it's going to be about 50F. I'll see if I can come close to that 76 mpg I managed to get yesterday.