Hybrid amusement

[Altivo]

So I've now had my XL hybrid for six weeks. No, I haven't put 5,000 miles on it. More like a bit under 500. Overall, seems to be averaging about 44 miles per gallon in mixed use of rural (paved) roads and city driving (with construction zones and all that, it's summer.) No complaints from me.

One of the things I enjoy, weird as I am, is the summary data displayed each time you turn the key off. Gives fuel usage for that trip, miles covered, and how many of those miles were on electric power. I'm amazed that it's often as much as half on electric, even though I'm still working at tuning my driving for maximum hybrid efficiency. And I often forget to turn on Eco mode until partway through a trip. (Why, oh why didn't they give an option to set the default mode to Eco? Seems like a no brainer for a hybrid.)

Anyway, today after going out for breakfast and shopping (45 mpg avg., 21 miles, 8.8 of those were electric) and parking in my usual spot to unload, I realized that I hadn't pulled as far forward as I prefer. So when I brought the reusable grocery bags out to put back into the truck, I got in and pulled it forward about four feet. The trip summary for that (all electric of course) told me that I had traveled 0.0 miles and my fuel usage was 999.9 mpg. [Divide by zero often, Ford programmers?]

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[Timothyd]

So I've now had my XL hybrid for six weeks. No, I haven't put 5,000 miles on it. More like a bit under 500. Overall, seems to be averaging about 44 miles per gallon in mixed use of rural (paved) roads and city driving (with construction zones and all that, it's summer.) No complaints from me.

One of the things I enjoy, weird as I am, is the summary data displayed each time you turn the key off. Gives fuel usage for that trip, miles covered, and how many of those miles were on electric power. I'm amazed that it's often as much as half on electric, even though I'm still working at tuning my driving for maximum hybrid efficiency. And I often forget to turn on Eco mode until partway through a trip. (Why, oh why didn't they give an option to set the default mode to Eco? Seems like a no brainer for a hybrid.)

Anyway, today after going out for breakfast and shopping (45 mpg avg., 21 miles, 8.8 of those were electric) and parking in my usual spot to unload, I realized that I hadn't pulled as far forward as I prefer. So when I brought the reusable grocery bags out to put back into the truck, I got in and pulled it forward about four feet. The trip summary for that (all electric of course) told me that I had traveled 0.0 miles and my fuel usage was 999.9 mpg. [Divide by zero often, Ford programmers?]

It takes fuel to generate electricity so you take a small hit when running on the battery?
I'm with you being fascinated with the technology of the hybrid- pretty cool.

 

[Altivo]

It takes fuel to generate electricity so you take a small hit when running on the battery?

Not, I think, when you just turn it on to READY and creep forward a few feet in All Electric mode. Yes, it takes fuel to keep the battery charged at some point, but the gasoline engine did not start up in this case, as it wasn't needed. Therefore, zero fuel consumption and that short a distance probably registers as zero too. Zero divided by zero is an undefined value, usually causing a computer fault or error message of some sort.

Properly, something like "N/A" for not applicable would be the message to display.

 

[icegradner]

This is common on hybrids, my Toyota hybrids did the same thing in terms of the range reading. Keep in mind that it takes a while before the computer gets used to your driving style, it make take a few thousand miles before you get an accurate range reading.

 

[teh603]

So when I brought the reusable grocery bags out to put back into the truck, I got in and pulled it forward about four feet. The trip summary for that (all electric of course) told me that I had traveled 0.0 miles and my fuel usage was 999.9 mpg. [Divide by zero often, Ford programmers?]

Better than having it show an error message, crashing the truck, or blasting a hole in the space- time continuum.

 

[Altivo]

Better than having it show an error message, crashing the truck, or blasting a hole in the space- time continuum.

True. But I'd prefer just blank or a dash. Probably not enough room for "no data" but that would be better than the totally spurious "999.9"

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