What’s your EV coach “blue bar” length?

[skinnyboy]

Seems I inadvertently created some concern. Here is a very detailed description, with photos, from my observations today.

That's interesting, thanks for putting a numerical value to the blue box length!

Leaves me wondering what the thought process was when this screen was being designed, to not have the blue box occupy the complete right side of the white bar when the battery is at it's maximum allowed state of charge. Perhaps I'm missing something.

Cheers.

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[MakinDoForNow]

I mean, yeah, you can, but at that point, the truck isn't moving with no throttle input, so it's not very useful as a vehicle.

You can take foot off torque pedal while moving and see it at that moment. I think the man being an accountant has a spreadsheet with lots of data collected through his obd device and saved either in or to be later put into it. I think he said he has done this on several vehicles he has had. I expect him to be able to compare all his trips in each drive mode to each other with different temps and with whether acc was on or off. But only the man knows what he has.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Seems I inadvertently created some concern. Here is a very detailed description, with photos, from my observations today.

Maybe reproduce blue bar shown at 2485.3 after driving in low (2-3 miles?) Until engine braking occurs?

 

[molash]

I do not pay any attention to that.I just drive it like a normal car.

 

[MostlySafeBear]

You're a funny guy.

I coast to every single stop light and every single stop sign.

You should try it some time.

I am not referring to coasting. You specifically said "remove all throttle input", not to modulate it or feather it, or to coast.

So, sitting in your parking space, remove all throttle input. Tell me how long it takes you to reach your destination with no throttle input whatsoever.

Bring snacks and a drink.

 

[Bronson]

Wondering the same thing. My bar or box is never long. My gas mileage is never great. Usually around 35 MPG and 33 when I take long highway trips at 75 mph. I have suspected that the battery is not the same capacity it had when it was new but I can't figure a way to check it. The small box raises my suspicions again.

The Blue bar is always short on mine too. I have to drive super conservative just to get 38mpg. Eco mode every trip, never push hard on throttle, try to force EV mode by letting off gas. My commute to work is mostly highway. I drive only 65 and the best I can get for that trip is 33mpg. I drove more aggressively in our 21 Kia Rio and it was much more fuel efficient (averaged 44 actual mpg over 9k miles). I'm hoping that the shorter blue bar and worse mpg in the maverick is only because it's colder out now or it's not broken in yet.

 

[SuperDave71]

Bronson,
With cold weather and the winds we have here that come with it, on an empty interstate 65-70 mph I am an averaging low 30’s mpg. But I’ve also seen trips in the 50’s when it was warm and I was on slower roads. If I get into some traffic, and the drafting effect, I see improvement. My best highway performance is to find an empty ‘lowboy’ semi going 65-70 and follow at a reasonably sae distance.

 

[GPSMan]

That's interesting, thanks for putting a numerical value to the blue box length!

Leaves me wondering what the thought process was when this screen was being designed, to not have the blue box occupy the complete right side of the white bar when the battery is at it's maximum allowed state of charge. Perhaps I'm missing something.

Cheers.

I know, right?

There is this mindset "people just want to drive". But in fairness, the fact you are here reading this puts you (and me) on the nerdy side of the spectrum. Apparently "focus groups" have shown the "average joe" does not want detailed information. Just on or off. Hot or cold. Full or Empty. 7/8 of a tank of gas makes some people's heads explode. Ya know, "fractions".

 

[GPSMan]

The long line can sometimes be glimpsed for a short time when you first start up in “all electric mode” aka “leaving the parking lot slowly” mode. You have no control over that ‘mode’, if we can call it that, it’s automatic.

As soon as ICE kicks in for the first time, however, the chance you’ll see that capacity is gone for the rest of the trip. And the bar on startup doesn't always appear this bountifully either, there are lots of variables. If you do get lucky enough to see it, it’s size diminishes pretty fast if you can manage to stay on battery power for a little bit.

But for a brief period of time you can get a nice feeling of knowing your battery and electric motor COULD do a lot more than they usually do, but it’s limited by design for battery longevity and probably a number of other reasons others could expound upon more.

Dude: you are correct! You gave me the inspiration to look into this. I can now recreate the long bar on demand.

Parking with high state of charge, then restarting in EV nets the very long bar and produces EXCEPTIONAL TORQUE AND AMAZING EV ACCELERATION! Double the normal EV acceleration. Like my other car is a Bolt EV and it would rival (but maybe not quite) keep up with the Bolt EV in a side by side drag. Wow. Cool, but short lived.

That's the what is. Now why?
Positive "glitch" or by design for some reason?

 

[clavicus]

Dude: you are correct! You gave me the inspiration to look into this. I can now recreate the long bar on demand. Twice in a row.

Parking with high state of charge, then restarting in EV nets the very long bar and produces EXCEPTIONAL TORQUE AND AMAZING EV ACCELERATION! Quite easily 4x the normal EV acceleration. Like my other car is a Bolt EV and it would rival (but maybe not quite) keep up with the Bolt EV in a side by side drag. Wow. Cool, but short lived.

That's the what is. Now why?
Positive "glitch" or by design for some reason?

My theory is that this is a ‘convenience’ mode oriented towards “leave the parking lot” with a slightly larger acceleration range so you can keep ICE off the whole time even if you need a little bit of extra oomph to move around, but also likely you may have to be stationary while waiting in a queue to get to an open corridor where you can go more than 20-25mph.

I dunno if that logic holds up but that’s how I’ve thought about it.

 

[GPSMan]

Starting at 70% SOC (rare) I could accelerate like a bat out of hell.

Was night & day compared to "normal".

To get it to 70% I had to drive around my block three times at idle in Tow/Haul so I was putting power in the bank without taking any out.

That's why trip MPG was in the 30's.
Also rare (for me).

 

[Aza]

The Blue bar is always short on mine too. I have to drive super conservative just to get 38mpg. Eco mode every trip, never push hard on throttle, try to force EV mode by letting off gas. My commute to work is mostly highway. I drive only 65 and the best I can get for that trip is 33mpg. I drove more aggressively in our 21 Kia Rio and it was much more fuel efficient (averaged 44 actual mpg over 9k miles). I'm hoping that the shorter blue bar and worse mpg in the maverick is only because it's colder out now or it's not broken in yet.

Have you tried using Normal for your highway commute? I was using eco mode with cruise control when I got mine. My commute is almost all highway. I was surprised that when I switched to normal mode with cruise control it was getting better gas mileage.

 

[Bronson]

Have you tried using Normal for your highway commute? I was using eco mode with cruise control when I got mine. My commute is almost all highway. I was surprised that when I switched to normal mode with cruise control it was getting better gas mileage.

I haven't tried normal mode yet. That's interesting you get better gas mileage in normal mode. I will try that next time and see if I get better results as well. I'm think about just switching my all my driving to surface streets though if I continue to see lower mileage on freeway. Which should be okay since everything is short distance for me. I would get much better mileage overall and I can't think of any downside to all city driving besides more wear on the tires and the brakes and even that won't be too bad because of the regenerative braking.

 

[Maverick2023]

I’ve been getting consistent 40 + mpg in a mixed and mostly highway driving. Not even trying to stay in the blue bar. This is within the last week. With the exception of the 33 mpg where it was in the 20’s in the morning.

 

[Aza]

I haven't tried normal mode yet. That's interesting you get better gas mileage in normal mode. I will try that next time and see if I get better results as well. I'm think about just switching my all my driving to surface streets though if I continue to see lower mileage on freeway. Which should be okay since everything is short distance for me. I would get much better mileage overall and I can't think of any downside to all city driving besides more wear on the tires and the brakes and even that won't be too bad because of the regenerative braking.

I have been using eco mode to get out of my neighborhood and then switching to normal when I am about to get on the highway. Just something to consider and to experiment with to see if it helps. Good luck and please report back

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