Fuel Saving Tips and Tricks Part 1

[C-MaxJaxon]

I'll start with a list of everything I can think of and keep adding to it as I remember more. Some may be debatable.

 

- Accelerate just fast enough that you don't impede traffic behind you, or as slow as you like if there is nothing behind you

- Slow gradually when coming to a stop to improve the chance of regen recovery

- Lift off the accelerator and coast to red lights or lines of cars at a stop sign, train crossing, traffic jam, etc.

- Avoid driving, especially on the highway, when it's extremely windy

- Avoid driving when it's extremely cold

- Drive the speed limit or less on the highway

- Draft off of vehicles in front of you on the highway (potentially dangerous, do it if you dare)

- Keep your tires inflated to at least the pressure posted inside the driver's door (38 psi)

- Keep the heat or A/C off unless you absolutely need it

- Accelerate gently on downhills to gain momentum and then lift slightly on the accelerator to let your speed carry you up the hill

- Use full synthetic oil

- Don't carry around any unnecessary weight in the car

- Use the Empower display to try to keep the car in EV mode as long as possible (lifting off the accelerator briefly, decreasing cruise speed 1 MPH or quick cancel/resume of cruise typically engages EV mode)

- Enable EV+ and Eco Cruise

- Don't make short trips with the engine cold or in cold weather where the engine doesn't get fully warmed up

- Try taking a different route with fewer hills, fewer stops, or a lower speed limit

- Use gasoline without ethanol or E10 instead of E15 (not sure about advantages of premium)

- Use cruise control for sustained high speed driving unless you are an experienced hypermiler and you are confident you can do better

- When replacing the tires, buy the latest model with the lowest rolling resistance

- Keep the car in a garage whenever possible in cold weather to minimize warmup time, and in extreme heat to reduce the need for air conditioning

- Use an oil pan or block heater

- In cooler weather, cover the lower grill openings with ptjones' custom Lexan covers, clear packaging tape or foam pipe insulation for aero improvement and/or keeping the coolant temperature higher

- Tint the windows or use a sun shade to keep the interior cooler and reduce the need for air conditioning

Edited January 6, 2013 by C-MaxJaxon

[kechair]

re: keep heater or a/c off:

 

I would also like to suggest: as an alternative to turning on the heater, use heated seats if available.

 

Also, an open question to all - apologies to those not interested in the specific scenario but it's a bit of a burning question for me since I cannot figure this out myself:

 

When the battery is near it's lower threshold ie. below 1/2 charge, is it better to:

 

1) Force the car into EV mode as long and as often as possible by letting off the gas, even if the battery is near the lower threshold, thereby forcing the battery to deplete to the lower threshold. In some cases this would cause repeated short cycles of the engine turning on to charge to just above the lower threshold,

 

or

 

2) try to STAY in engine on mode until the battery is charged to a) at least half capacity b) almost full or c) at full capacity, then engage in a more sustained EV mode cycle?

 

or does it matter?

 

I've been debating this ever since I got the CMAX but have not had a long enough road trip to test out which technique leads to better fuel efficiency.

Edited January 5, 2013 by kechair

[Jus-A-CMax]

kechair, you can do an elongated pulse and glide. What I do in that situation is to let the batts go low as possible and then let the ICE automatically kicks in and slowly accelerate to your peak pulse speed and let it glide down.

 

This does 2 things: it allows the charge up of the batts in the pulse phase. I noticed charging in my car is only possible by slowly accelerating and then the glide phase you are also charging up the batts. Versus hard acceleration which means zero charge up to the pulse speed.

 

If you get tired of the P&G, just throw it into the eco-cruise at 60mph.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[JohnTrigger]

kechair,

I agree with the above post by Jus-A-Cmax.  I also think it depends on the roadway in front of you to some extent. For example, if I am low on battery and have a hill coming up directly in front of me, I gently use the ICE to go up the hill and charge the battery at the same time, since the hill will eat up the battery quicker anyway. If, however, I am on a flat piece of road for a while or a slight decline, I try to stay in EV as long as possible.  If a fairly steep decline, I let off the gas entirely and coast, allowing a gravity assist regen.  It also depends a little on traffic and how close the guy is behind me.   When I am charging the battery, I try to keep the white KW arc as low on the Empower display as I can, thus keeping the MPG arc as high as possible.  That is what I'm doing so far, anyway.

[JulieB]

Where I live, we get up to 10% ethanol in our gasoline mixture. There are places that have ethanol-free gas, but I'd waste most of a tank driving out to a station that has it. 

 

Hey, Texas is a big state. 

 

And as I said in another thread, I have asthma. Going without A/C in the heat is asking for more health problems than the extra couple of MPG is worth.

[kechair]

JustACmax and JohnTrigger,

 

Thanks for the advice. Makes a ton of sense. So basically I was focusing on the wrong thing - instead of the batt charge level, I should be paying attention to the road situation as first priority (whether coming up on an incline or decline and the degree of slope) in determining whether to engage in ICE or not when approaching lower threshold battery depletion levels. For instance, there may have been times when going downhill where I artificially stayed in ICE for longer than I needed to just to charge the batt to higher / full levels when I should have lifted off the throttle (having reached desired glide speed), engaging EV mode, and letting the engine rest. This is helpful - I think I over analyzed the situation. Thanks again! Hopefully this will help others who might be wondering about similar nuances.

[acdii]

Question on your cars. When you let off the gas with less than 3/4 charge, how quickly does the car slow?   If I compare my 2010 Fusion hybrid to my 2013, I can coast long time in the 10, but if my wife is behind me in the 10 while I am in the 13 and I lift my foot, she has to ride the brakes to keep from hitting me.

 

Also in the 10, when doing 55 and up, I can get the instant to bounce between 38 and 44, and get pretty good MPG in it, but this new car, Unless the pack is charged it barely gets to 38. I have never seen it go above 40 on ICE except when I lift my foot, and then the car slows down.

[robodog61]

What is your opinion of blocking the radiator grills to increase coolant temp?  I took it on a 25 mile ride in very cold (about 10 degree) weather and noticed that when the EV mode is on, the coolant temperature would drop rapidly.  I have read other posts that advocate blocking and it sounds good - I just don't want to damage and want to make sure I have proper cooling.

[JohnTrigger]

Question on your cars. When you let off the gas with less than 3/4 charge, how quickly does the car slow?   If I compare my 2010 Fusion hybrid to my 2013, I can coast long time in the 10, but if my wife is behind me in the 10 while I am in the 13 and I lift my foot, she has to ride the brakes to keep from hitting me.

 

Also in the 10, when doing 55 and up, I can get the instant to bounce between 38 and 44, and get pretty good MPG in it, but this new car, Unless the pack is charged it barely gets to 38. I have never seen it go above 40 on ICE except when I lift my foot, and then the car slows down.

 

When I let off the gas pedal and truly glide in the CMAX, it does slow the car quite a bit. I suspect because the CMAX Hybrid battery has more capacity than the older ones, so it needs a more powerful regen capability which consumes more kinetic energy, thus slowing you more than previous versions.

 

In my 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid, which BTW can only EV below 40 MPH, I can actually push on the gas a tiny bit after letting off the pedal and get a very good coast out of it and still charge the battery.  In the FEH I can also put it into L gear when coming to a stop and get a stronger charge out of it when coming to a stop.  However, in the CMAX when I try L gear, the ICE starts.  In the FEH, the engine always starts initially when you start the car and runs until it gets warmed up, but the CMAX ICE rarely starts right away when I push the start button in the AM.   So, there are definitely differences between the old and new Hybrids from Ford. I like the CMAXs version better than my FEH version, since you can go up to 62 MPH in EV--way more useful than only 40 MPH.  But in the FEH, I still get about 35 MPG, so not bad.  Either beats the gas milage in my '02 V-10 6.8L Excursion or my 03 Dodge Ram Hemi Pickup (I have all the gas mileage extremes covered!)

 

When the CMAX ICE is running and the Hybrid battery is anything but full or nearly so (and thus being charged), I stay in the mid 30s MPG as well.  On a few occasions when the battery gets "full", the MPG on ICE will get into the lower 40s MPG.  I have not done a long highway trip at 65+ yet, where you can't EV since you are above the 62 MPH cutoff, and thus the Hybrid battery will get full and ICE will be on all the time--then I suspect the MPG will go into the lower 40s.  I doubt you'll ever see 47 at true highway speeds, as the EPA test is different than 65-70 MPH driving.

Edited January 5, 2013 by JohnTrigger

[bymaine]

What is the consensus on starting from a stop? a) power up to glide speed on the ICE and conserve battery power for the glide, or b) save the mileage and slowly accelerate using the HVBattery...depleting its reserves? Not sure if there is one answer and if this depends on conditions, but I'm trying to learn better hybrid driving techniques. 

 

I am currently blocking my lower front grills and have seen a ~4 mpg increase. The coolant temp is warming quicker and staying there longer. I am using foam pipe insulation as a temporary testbed. Temps in Maine have been in the single digits this week, and I did 42.3 this morning on a coffee run with a un-garaged start. There is a good thread called "3 mpg gain with grill covers" that has discussed this in detail. 

[JohnTrigger]

Where I live, we get up to 10% ethanol in our gasoline mixture. There are places that have ethanol-free gas, but I'd waste most of a tank driving out to a station that has it. 

 

I think almost everywhere now adds 10% ethanol; there are websites that list pure gas stations.  Ethanol, per gallon, has about significantly less BTU (British Thermal Units, a measure of energy) than a gallon of pure regular gasoline, thus you'll get significantly less gas mileage out of pure ethanol compared to pure dead dinosaurs in present engines (assuming you could run pure ethanol in todays engines-don't try it, and don't try E85 either).    Since the mixture is 10% ethanol at most gas stations, your gas mileage will suffer about 1-2 MPG in a CMAX.  Many states don't even require the pump be labeled with 10% ethanol, so you are probably getting it even if you think you are getting pure gas.  Even 10% ethanol is hard on small engines due to its water retention (boats, weed eater, lawnmower, snow blower, etc), but supposedly doesn't hurt our cars (the ones made in the last 20 years), but it does "go stale" after a couple of months (why the Cmax Energi model has a special mode to use up its gas in its tank and why companies make products such as STA-BIL).  I'd say get your 10% ethanol gas at a station that has lots of business, so it is getting used up and resupplied, and thus is as fresh as possible.

Edited January 5, 2013 by JohnTrigger

[JohnTrigger]

What is the consensus on starting from a stop? a) power up to glide speed on the ICE and conserve battery power for the glide, or b) save the mileage and slowly accelerate using the HVBattery...depleting its reserves? Not sure if there is one answer and if this depends on conditions, but I'm trying to learn better hybrid driving techniques. 

I think (A) above using moderate accel

[C-MaxJaxon]

What is the consensus on starting from a stop? a) power up to glide speed on the ICE and conserve battery power for the glide, or b) save the mileage and slowly accelerate using the HVBattery...depleting its reserves? Not sure if there is one answer and if this depends on conditions, but I'm trying to learn better hybrid driving techniques.

 

I do both, depending on the situation. If the stoplight is on an uphill or there is a hill coming right after the light, I press the pedal just enough to turn the engine on. If there is a downhill after the light, the battery is at 30% or more, and no one is behind me, I press lightly on the pedal to keep it in EV mode as long as I can. And if it is the first time the car has gone into EV mode after a cold start, I will sometimes try to keep it in EV mode because usually the engine will restart and keep running until it's warmed up again.

[bymaine]

Jason, Thanks for the response. Your methods make sense. I am seeing exactly the same thing,,as soon as the EV kicks on for the first time in this cold weather, the temp drops quickly back to the lower limit, turns blue and the ICE starts regardless of the battery charge. Easy acceleration after a light downhill will sometimes charge the battery once coasting a bit after coming up to speed. We have nothing but 10% Eth gas up here in Maine this time of year. The cold weather and gas mix is not helping my mileage. The foam covers have certainly improved the mileage though/ Looking forward to warmer weather!

[Tree63]

_{ICE vs EV from stop:  as noted by others, it depends on traffic behind me (if none EV it) and hills in front of me (if flat - EV it)}

 

_{Grill covering:  from the thread referenced, I installed 2 strips of pipie insulation (covering about half the opening space top and bottom), and ave seen about 5% improvement in mileage (39 - 41 mpgUS; 5.7 - 6.0 l/100km)}

 

_{Winds:  I was really surprised how badly mileage suffered when driving in windy onditions.  Is the engine so sensitive or is it aerodynamics of the car body??}

Edited January 5, 2013 by Tree63

[C-MaxJaxon]

_{Winds:  I was really surprised how badly mileage suffered when driving in windy onditions.  Is the engine so sensitive or is it aerodynamics of the car body??}

 

I think all cars are sensitive to strong wind. The poorer the aero of your vehicle, the stronger or more direct the head wind, or the faster you drive, the worse your MPG will get.

[ptjones]

You should add to your list Wolverine Model 9 oil pan heater.

Also the grill covers improve gas mileage more than anything else.

You get about same MPG from Premium as No Ethanol and alot cheaper. Not sure worth the cost.

Drafting isn't for everyone but it's whorth 3-4mpg at 70mph more if you have head wind.

[Generalbeluga]

I find all of these Hyper-mileage discussions interesting.  The fact that we are on this forum to begin with, shows that we are a little more technically inclined than most drivers.  But, I am finding it hard to believe that the "average C Max driver" would go through all of the convoluted contortions posted above on a regular basis just to milk the last possible MPG out of their car!  It is not only tedious, frustrating and distracting, but dangerous as well.  The kind of attention needed to constantly monitor the dash gages would make "anti cell phone and driving" advocates salivate!  You can't be safely watching your mileage gauge and the road at the same time; I've tired and almost rear ended several cars in the process.  So, as fun as it might be to theoretically discuss the car's full MPG potential, it not realistic or safe to try to achieve it in any kind of a real world driving scenario, unless you live on a dry lake bed with no wind and the temp never goes above 70.  Unfortunately, most of us live in the real world with ups and downs, winters and summers, and that angry a--hole :rant2: behind us that won't get off of his horn if we don't leap into action.  I plan to just relax and enjoy the ride.   :)

Edited January 8, 2013 by Generalbeluga

[PWBarrett]

It's crossed my mind to wonder if some folks complaining about the mileage have never reset their displayed MPG, and have some old MPG "baggage" holding down the numbers they're seeing.

(Just hold down the left OK button and it will reset the displayed MPG without resetting the lifetime stats.)

Really basic, but...

[Jus-A-CMax]

Tire pressure 42psi. Great for roll and within the tire limits.

[ptjones]

Tire pressure 42psi. Great for roll and within the tire limits.

How much MPG's does that make?

[mtberman]

I find all of these Hyper-mileage discussions interesting.  The fact that we are on this forum to begin with, shows that we are a little more technically inclined than most drivers.  But, I am finding it hard to believe that the "average C Max driver" would go through all of the convoluted contortions posted above on a regular basis just to milk the last possible MPG out of their car!  It is not only tedious, frustrating and distracting, but dangerous as well.  The kind of attention needed to constantly monitor the dash gages would make "anti cell phone and driving" advocates salivate!  You can't be safely watching your mileage gauge and the road at the same time; I've tired and almost rear ended several cars in the process.  So, as fun as it might be to theoretically discuss the car's full MPG potential, it not realistic or safe to try to achieve it in any kind of a real world driving scenario, unless you live on a dry lake bed with no wind and the temp never goes above 70.  Unfortunately, most of us live in the real world with ups and downs, winters and summers, and that angry a--hole :rant2: behind us that won't get off of his horn if we don't leap into action.  I plan to just relax and enjoy the ride.   :)

 

Clearly you've never owned a Prius or frequented a Prius forum! Or a Ford Escape hybrid forum. This is all pretty normal compared to those people.

 

you see, there's a whole subculture dedicated to the topic of "hypermiling", and they've been at it for years. Some drive their cars around with a Scangauge mounted on the dash, literally monitoring fuel flow and fuel injector activity to see exactly when fuel flow stops. It's simultaneously fascinating and a little strange to hear what they have to say, and to see just how obsessed some folks get about milking the last possible MPG out of a hybrid. Engine monitoring, grill blocking, drafting, folding in the rear view mirrors, you name it. They've tried it all.

 

You're probably right that these aren't your average drivers. More like hobbyists. Interesting to hear about it all, though.

[Generalbeluga]

How much MPG's does that make?

 

Probably not enough to compensate for the premature tire wear you will get on a set of $800 tires!

[C-MaxJaxon]

Keeping an eye on the Empower screen isn't much different than watching the speedometer or rear view mirror. Certainly no more distracting than driving a manual transmission where you have to either listen/feel the RPMs or watch the tachometer or dash for a shift light, then coordinate moving both legs and one arm to shift, repeatedly.

 

If I really want to save fuel, I can put on an extra layer of clothes and ride my bicycle to work, which I have been doing for the last four years, but have been wimping out the last couple months.

Edited January 9, 2013 by C-MaxJaxon

[ptjones]

Being a pilot you get use to scaning the displays automatically, aware of your invironment inside and outside the CMAX. It's a challedge but after awhile you get use to it. I have been doing all my testing with 38psi.