AvMPG stabilized

[mlaurence]

Totally flat roads, with extremely frequent stopping and starting, and many short trips, the C-Max just can't work optimally.  Or at least those trips are the ones where I get the worst MPGs.  I periodically get a trip around 35mpg, but those are usually <5mi so the ICE warmup kills it.  On the other hand, I had a random 20mi 76.8mpg trip, and I still can't figure out how or why.  

Hi, as a fellow Bostonian, I'm wondering where you find those "totally flat roads."   :) No, I know of a few, and my best tactic there is to get up to and a little above the speed limit and then let the EV coast with a little power to keep it going.  The biggest variable that a lot of people don't think about is net difference in altitude.  You'll go up and down a lot of hills but a lot of the time you don't realize you've dropped 500 feet in the process of reaching your destination, or climbed that far.  That's why I really only believe my mileage when I've finished a round trip.

 

So far I haven't owned my C-Max through a really cold morning, but when it's in the 40's and 50's it might take a mile or so before the EV will kick in.  Of course the mpg's drop, but the upside of all that ICE driving is that the battery is building up to the top, so you'll be able to use the EV more during the rest of your trip.  I'm enjoying 45.1 lifetime right now (on the car's computer, anyway), but I know it won't last when the New England winter kicks in.

[CMax-Traveler]

Hi, as a fellow Bostonian, I'm wondering where you find those "totally flat roads."   :) No, I know of a few, and my best tactic there is to get up to and a little above the speed limit and then let the EV coast with a little power to keep it going.  The biggest variable that a lot of people don't think about is net difference in altitude.  You'll go up and down a lot of hills but a lot of the time you don't realize you've dropped 500 feet in the process of reaching your destination, or climbed that far.  That's why I really only believe my mileage when I've finished a round trip.

 

So far I haven't owned my C-Max through a really cold morning, but when it's in the 40's and 50's it might take a mile or so before the EV will kick in.  Of course the mpg's drop, but the upside of all that ICE driving is that the battery is building up to the top, so you'll be able to use the EV more during the rest of your trip.  I'm enjoying 45.1 lifetime right now (on the car's computer, anyway), but I know it won't last when the New England winter kicks in.

 

The totally flat roads are nowhere around here.  I don't know of any near Boston, just too many little hills.

 

I did discover that my MPG took a big hit on the few somewhat colder days we've had recently, but I've now learned how to adjust the heater so it's not much of an issue.  That said, I'm fully expecting the winter days will completely kill my MPG.  The ICE warm-up time is so much longer when it's colder out, and none of my trips are especially long, so on the colder days, the ICE is going to be running a lot.  We'll see.