DozerBob

50+ MPG the easy way! After almost 3 weeks of 120 mile round trips to work I'm happy to report a consistent 50+ mpg, without the plugin feature. That's right, using EV-Later mode! On the freeways of Los Angeles and Orange County. I'll try to explain how and why this works. This first picture shows me at the start of my drive with battery capacity at 28 miles I've got 28 mi Electric to use if I want and am at 1983.4 total miles on the car. When I got in my car after charging all night it read 25 miles, but after driving down a short hill it regenerated to 28. I switched to EV-later after taking the picture and left it there for the whole trip to work.Here are my thoughts to consider.1. I want to get the best gas mileage I can possibly get. Running on Electricity gives me the best mileage possible, therefore during this drive I'm going to try to travel as far as I can on Electricity especially when the electric motor is the most efficient. The Electric motor is not very efficient going uphill. It takes more juice to push this car uphill due to its weight.2. The gas engine gets bad gas mileage, but it can accelerate you uphills and increase your speed and charge your battery. 3 good things. What you don't want to do is cruise on the gas engine. I don't let it run for more than 1 minute at a time, If I can help it. You have the control. It's in your right foot. Use the Empower mode Display and your right foot to control the throttle. Don't use cruise control. I'm going to call this technique, "Surfing". Just like in surfing, You use the waves to propel you. You will be using the waves, or small hills to decide when to use the ICE and when to go EV-Auto and "surf" down the hills. Get the car up to 62 and back off the throttle until the blue threshold comes on. Then don't let the center of the bold blue performance indicator get past it so as to stay in electric mode, easing off the throttle a bit as the Threshold Indicator slowly comes down. When I've slowed to 55 or so, I step on the accelerator and increase my speed, taking about 30 seconds to a minute to get back to 68. That way I've given the ICE time to charge the hybrid battery back up so when I go to electric mode, the Threshold indicator will stay at about the second line on the KW indicator longer. That's what I do on flat stretches of road. Highways in the cities are not flat. There are undulations in the terrain caused by overpasses and underpasses, They are called "vertical curves" and are the result of elevation changes. Overpasses are usually a mile or so apart as they cross over roads below. Sometimes the freeway will go underneath a road and you will descend in elevation to go underneath a bridge. Now Here's the "Surfing" trick, try to eyeball the road ahead so that you are at the top of an overpass when you are at 68 and you are backing off the throttle to go into electric mode. The electric motor is more efficient going downhill, even slightly and you can maintain your speed longer because it takes less KW or juice to go downhill. The C-Max is a heavy car and it's own mass going downhill is a big plus. The longer you can run the electric motor, the higher your mpg will be simply because electric mpg is way higher than using the ICE. That is the crux of getting higher mpg. At the end of your trip you should see a definite increase in the percentage of EV-Mode used. Now if you see the road ahead is going uphill for an overpass, time it so you are firing up the ICE to propel you uphill and increasing your speed to the top.If all you do is run the gas engine from the bottom of the hill to the top, and go electric from the tops down you will increase your mileage. I ran 63.6 miles total 32.6EV and got 50.2 mpge in EV-Later modeThe 28 miles on the battery indicator was reduced to 24 even though I was in EV-Later the whole way.

50+ MPG the easy way! After almost 3 weeks of 120 mile round trips to work I'm happy to report a consistent 50+ mpg, without the plugin feature. That's right, using EV-Later mode! On the freeways of Los Angeles and Orange County. I'll try to explain how and why this works. This first picture shows me at the start of my drive with battery capacity at 28 miles I've got 28 mi Electric to use if I want and am at 1983.4 total miles on the car. When I got in my car after charging all night it read 25 miles, but after driving down a short hill it regenerated to 28. I switched to EV-later after taking the picture and left it there for the whole trip to work.Here are my thoughts to consider.1. I want to get the best gas mileage I can possibly get. Running on Electricity gives me the best mileage possible, therefore during this drive I'm going to try to travel as far as I can on Electricity especially when the electric motor is the most efficient. The Electric motor is not very efficient going uphill. It takes more juice to push this car uphill due to its weight.2. The gas engine gets bad gas mileage, but it can accelerate you uphills and increase your speed and charge your battery. 3 good things. What you don't want to do is cruise on the gas engine. I don't let it run for more than 1 minute at a time, If I can help it. You have the control. It's in your right foot. Use the Empower mode Display and your right foot to control the throttle. Don't use cruise control. I'm going to call this technique, "Surfing". Just like in surfing, You use the waves to propel you. You will be using the waves, or small hills to decide when to use the ICE and when to go EV-Auto and "surf" down the hills. Get the car up to 62 and back off the throttle until the blue threshold comes on. Then don't let the center of the bold blue performance indicator get past it so as to stay in electric mode, easing off the throttle a bit as the Threshold Indicator slowly comes down. When I've slowed to 55 or so, I step on the accelerator and increase my speed, taking about 30 seconds to a minute to get back to 68. That way I've given the ICE time to charge the hybrid battery back up so when I go to electric mode, the Threshold indicator will stay at about the second line on the KW indicator longer. That's what I do on flat stretches of road. Highways in the cities are not flat. There are undulations in the terrain caused by overpasses and underpasses, They are called "vertical curves" and are the result of elevation changes. Overpasses are usually a mile or so apart as they cross over roads below. Sometimes the freeway will go underneath a road and you will descend in elevation to go underneath a bridge. Now Here's the "Surfing" trick, try to eyeball the road ahead so that you are at the top of an overpass when you are at 68 and you are backing off the throttle to go into electric mode. The electric motor is more efficient going downhill, even slightly and you can maintain your speed longer because it takes less KW or juice to go downhill. The C-Max is a heavy car and it's own mass going downhill is a big plus. The longer you can run the electric motor, the higher your mpg will be simply because electric mpg is way higher than using the ICE. That is the crux of getting higher mpg. At the end of your trip you should see a definite increase in the percentage of EV-Mode used. Now if you see the road ahead is going uphill for an overpass, time it so you are firing up the ICE to propel you uphill and increasing your speed to the top.If all you do is run the gas engine from the bottom of the hill to the top, and go electric from the tops down you will increase your mileage. I ran 63.6 miles total 32.6EV and got 50.2 mpge in EV-Later modeThe 28 miles on the battery indicator was reduced to 24 even though I was in EV-Later the whole way.