Hello and Help (please)

[alleyritz]

Hi, we purchased a used C-max 2013 SEL manufacture date 10/12, two weeks ago. The MPG is so erratic, varying from 47 for my 100 mile down hill commute, to barely 22 city driving. Average temps here in the WA state Tricities area have been over 100 degrees, have been trying to spare the A.C. Have also been trying the pulse and glide but obviously haven't figured it out. What's ICE? Also, never had a car so attractive to bugs on the grill. Love the spacious interior but too stressed out about Mpg. Any hand holding available?

[marshtex2]

ICE is short for internal combustion engine; that's where the gasoline gets used.  Keeping up with pushy drivers in city and suburban traffic kills mpg.  Choosing routes that have less traffic thus letting you dwaddle along will help.  How many miles on the odometer?

Edited August 6, 2014 by marshtex2

[Wnuk]

Are you going by instantaneous MPG? If so, don't. It will constantly vary. Fill the tank, reset trip 1 or 2 and use a whole tank of gas. Then check your average for the tank after refilling.

[hybridbear]

Hi, we purchased a used C-max 2013 SEL manufacture date 10/12, two weeks ago. The MPG is so erratic, varying from 47 for my 100 mile down hill commute, to barely 22 city driving. Average temps here in the WA state Tricities area have been over 100 degrees, have been trying to spare the A.C. Have also been trying the pulse and glide but obviously haven't figured it out. What's ICE? Also, never had a car so attractive to bugs on the grill. Love the spacious interior but too stressed out about Mpg. Any hand holding available?

You can program the "My View" screen to show how much power is going to the climate control. Since the A/C uses power over time, slow city driving with a lower MPH average speed will see a bigger impact from A/C use than freeway travel. This is because you might spend 30 minutes in the car in the city to drive 12 miles and use 0.75 kWh of electricity for the A/C. Or you could spend 30 minutes in the car on the freeway and drive 30 miles while using that same 0.75 kWh of A/C. Since you covered more distance on the freeway and thus consumed more energy to power the car, the 0.75 kWh A/C load is a smaller percentage of your total energy consumption.

 

One thing we do to reduce A/C energy consumption is start out with the HVAC set to Auto and a high interior temp, possibly 78 or 80. Then as the system gradually cools the car down you periodically lower the HVAC temp one degree at a time until you get to the desired temp. If you watch your consumption on the "My View" screen you'll see that once the fan speed begins to drop and the power demand falls under 1 kW, lowering the temp one degree at a time doesn't really increase power demand.

[C-MaxSea]

Welcome Alleyritz.& congratz on the C-Max !!! 

 

With just two weeks, and 100 degree temps, just relax and don't sweat it too much to begin with.  Lots of good reading here to get the hang of the car - a lot of tech on the dash to understand & customize to your liking.  (Read here, play in the driveway, then test on lonely streets for best understanding)

 

Good advice above on the AC etc... .  Yes the instantaneous MPG gauge will show very wide swings between 20 and infinity; ignore it, other than as an indicator of what is happening with your power sources.  It is subject to the grade of the road and which mode of operation the car is in - ICE, EV, or combined.  You might want to just put the center MFT screen on the power distribution diagram for now to see what is happening.  Also, test out different left side gauge screens for a while to become more familiar with the color (EV blue or ICE white mode) switching, power thresholds and battery charging.  Notice particularly how the power sourcing is affected by the grade of the road, and your weight on the 'gas' peddle - learn to back off the throttle after shots of gas so that you slip into EV (blue) mode when you want, and then 'feather' the throttle.  Very importantly, learn to know when the EV battery is charging & when not - the chevron up or chevron down, located over/under the EV battery symbol. 

 

Probably best to set up your ECO cruise for freeway driving and learn from it.

 

Be patient, careful, take one step at a time understanding, and keep your 'eyes on the road' (most of the time). :)

 

Trying to de-fume the planet, one neighborhood at a time,

Nick

 

('Free' MPG's are the ones available to you in the form of EV driving mode, Ecoasting, & regen braking.  You already 'paid' for them with the gas you used getting to speed or up that hill - use them or lose them !!!  Stretch your gas energy as far as you can subject to terrain and climate dictates - or, just have fun in your screaming, tech teaming ECO machine  :superhero:  )    

 

(Every gas & battery 'squirt' counts, but only if you are in the 'MPG/de-fume the planet' game - just trying to breath easier, more oxygen = better, healthier living, plant a tree, yadda, yadda, yadda ..........  )

Edited August 9, 2014 by C-MaxSea

[Adrian_L]

You should be getting trip mileages of at least 30 mpg in the city--but don't worry about that for now:  your mileage will improve as the car gets through it's break-in period. 

 

Drive like it's Sunday and you've got time on your hands......

[ScubaDadMiami]

You can program the "My View" screen to show how much power is going to the climate control. Since the A/C uses power over time, slow city driving with a lower MPH average speed will see a bigger impact from A/C use than freeway travel. This is because you might spend 30 minutes in the car in the city to drive 12 miles and use 0.75 kWh of electricity for the A/C. Or you could spend 30 minutes in the car on the freeway and drive 30 miles while using that same 0.75 kWh of A/C. Since you covered more distance on the freeway and thus consumed more energy to power the car, the 0.75 kWh A/C load is a smaller percentage of your total energy consumption.

 

One thing we do to reduce A/C energy consumption is start out with the HVAC set to Auto and a high interior temp, possibly 78 or 80. Then as the system gradually cools the car down you periodically lower the HVAC temp one degree at a time until you get to the desired temp. If you watch your consumption on the "My View" screen you'll see that once the fan speed begins to drop and the power demand falls under 1 kW, lowering the temp one degree at a time doesn't really increase power demand.

I use A/C almost always. There are just some things I must have, and enjoying the comfort of A/C in the South Florida summer is one of them, for sure. :thumbsup:

 

I have tried several methods to initially cool my cabin interior with the least negative impact on fuel economy. Among these, I have tried start-up with Climate on or off. I've tried start-up with Auto as the setting, and I have tried the manual setting. I've tried different combinations of open circuit or Recirc. I have started with low battery SOC and high.  At the end of trying all of the various combinations, here is my conclusion: If you are lucky enough to set yourself up to start with a high SOC, that makes the biggest impact of all and gives you the most benefit, and this is even more important than which method you use to start the cooling your interior. On the other hand, to get the minimal fuel economy reduction from A/C start-up, there are some best practices to follow that involve the timing of when you make your first power-up of the A/C. Here are some examples.

 

If you park your C-MAX outdoors in the heat, as you approach your C-MAX, hold down the button on the fob for long enough to first unlock the doors but then to next open the windows. At least this gets the first hottest air out as you enter and start your vehicle. If you like, you can start with nothing turned on, and you can use the high SOC to taxi out and make your first speed increase, which can quickly exchange some fresh air inside the cabin to somewhat cool it down before turning on the A/C at first fire-up of ICE. This will make Climate have to work less to cool the interior, which will lessen the initial higher draw period. [At this time, I point out that you get additional help by having tinted the windows and selected Oxford White paint color.] Close the windows to let the A/C kick in for final cooling during your first ICE burn. Five bars or less seems to be least impactful of draw, per the meter. Make final adjustment to blower, which seems to work well somewhere between three to five bars.

 

At home, I park in a parking garage, which means that I have to taxi to and from my parking spot. I typically have my air conditioner turned on from my previous drive, Recirculate turned on, temperature set at 73-74F, and fan speed on at about three bars [since cooling in the shade is quick and easy]. If I am juiced up properly, by the time ICE makes its first burn, I am nearly up to speed with traffic, and my cabin is cool enough that there is not such a sustained high draw on the HVB.

 

The initial cooling phase after start-up will be the time of the biggest draw on HVB, and then the draw comes to rest after it decreases after a few minutes. [Highest fan speed has slightly more impact than lower, but not by much.] Since ICE will be already running anyway for your first charge-up of the HVB as you hit the road, it really doesn't make that big of an impact to have the A/C make it's first big current draw at that time. The only real effect will be to make the first charge up of HVB take a little longer, which is the price of the first ICE warm up of the day, anyway.

 

In the end, no matter which way I started the A/C, whether Auto or manual with Recirc, and even pretty much independent of temperature setting [within the expected comfort zone], the impact on fuel economy was about the same: higher initial draw followed by coming to rest at final draw. Timing the first ICE burn to your A/C really seems to help, and it seems to help more than does the method by which you initially bring your cabin to temperature.

[Kelleytoons]

Temps have been in the 90's here pretty consistently (normal for central Florida) and I run the AC so the car is at 72 degrees, no matter what.  I usually have the fan on at 2 bars, but sometimes when I first start off I switch to 3 and use recirc to cool things off quickly.  Car windows are all (with the exception of the front, natch) tinted at 35 percent, which does help a lot.

 

That said, if I don't get at least 45 mpg in the city I feel cheated.  To me it all comes down to how you drive -- if you drive as if there is an egg between your foot and the gas and brake pedals, if you look ahead and watch traffic and lights so you can judge things properly, you can get good mpgs no matter what you drive.  And, of course, in the C-Max they will be great.  Conversely, even a Prius will get lousy mileage if you accelerate and brake quickly.

[Jus-A-CMax]

Drive it normal in the 1st month, get to know your car, how it accelerates, what the EV can or cannot do and play with it. Don't go the whole hog on hybrid driving, Pulse & Glide unless you owned a previous hybrid and know what you're doing. Slowly, implement little hybrid steps. Read up on this forum, lots of tips in the Fuel Mileage section. Learn to "feather" the pedal.

 

Also, don't go so slow as to PO the rear driver. Good luck with it and enjoy the CMax :)

 

PS and welcome :rockon:

[RockwallRick]

I can't win for losing! If I try to get the best possible mileage out of the car my Wife accuses me of driving like an old Lady! lol I still manage to average around 46 mpg even with the AC

running full blast all of the time! My Wife is content with her 43 mpg average!! :rockon:

[Jus-A-CMax]

Don't worry, I drive my her Jaguar and she has to remind me that I need to go faster. Ok, true. But then I love to show her my :drool:  800+ miles a tank gas receipt compared to her piddly 320 mile receipt on  my her Jaguar 22 gallon tank. FTW  :yahoo:

 

:love_shower: the CMax  ;)

Edited August 7, 2014 by Jus-A-CMax

[RockwallRick]

My Wife used to have a Suburban with a 42 gallon gas tank! Imagine what it would cost to fill that up now. It was possible to get 600

miles out of a single tank provided it was all highway driving on flat roads!

[Adrian_L]

At one point it used to cost me $115 to fill up my old Audi A6 with premium (in Canada, gas is taxed to death).  It put me in a foul mood and was one of the reasons I started looking into the Volt, which led me to the Focus electric, then to the C-max.

[alleyritz]

Thanks for all the good advice! When we purchased our C-Max, t had 17,800 miles on it. We have already put on almost 3,000 miles in three weeks, a little more than usual. My husband won't slow down to 63 so I get better mileage than he does. We put almost 80,000 miles on our 2011 fusion SEL which is why we went to a hybrid. We hope to get more than two years from this car. What's SOC? Love all the driving tips but i need to figure out the acronyms. Turns out we are having a grasshopper invasion. Dead bodies and legs all over the grill!

[kostby]

 

SOC = State Of Charge - In visual terms, how much 'Blue' shows in the Battery icon that can be displayed on the left side dash screen. In the pic attached, the battery icon is just over half full.

 

The 'Blue' color in the Battery icon is a relative indication of how much charge in the High Voltage Battery (= HVB) is available to use to power the vehicle and power major electrical accessories like the air conditioner compressor and the blower.

Edited August 9, 2014 by kostby

[C-MaxSea]

That is a lot of miles alleyritz, no problem.  BTW, there is a great thread on acronyms somewhere here.  Nick

Edited August 10, 2014 by C-MaxSea