Hybrid Maverick out of gas... how many miles can it drive in electric only mode? The answer (video)

[Boomhauer1]

My mother in law drives a Chevy Trax. So worst case scenario for a fuel pump, injectors, lines, everything. Yet nothing has broken for 130k miles. Oh, she also has ran it dry almost monthly for the last 3 years. She is horrible with money so only gets 2 gallons at a time. I’ve stopped taking her gas cans, but my wife keeps feeding the stupidity.

You would have figured being stuck on the side of the road would make you not want to deal with running out of gas but then again I think people get hardened during financial crises. It's a conundrum for sure.

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[Rob Cactus Gray]

You would have figured being stuck on the side of the road would make you not want to deal with running out of gas but then again I think people get hardened during financial crises. It's a conundrum for sure.

I was homeless in 2010 for about 6 months. I didn’t get stupid with my limited funds. My only possessions were my car and a what it could carry. I tried to keep my gas tank full as possible so I wouldn’t ever run out and get stuck. Instead of getting 2 gallons when empty I would get 2 to fill it to the brim. Made since to me to have a reserve of fuel when things got worse.

Of course this scenario wasn’t really my fault. I lost everything coming back from Iraq. My x wife took it all and left me with $20k in debt. So my mind set wasn’t that of a poor person with bad spending habits. It was of a pissed veteran that was determined to get his life back.

 

[huunvubu]

Well he buys them and then sells them, so he doesn't care about the consequences

Which is the reason I always buy brand new.

 

[Shakesbear]

Running the fuel tank dry like that is a very bad idea, say goodby to the fuel pump in short order,

I take it you've never run out of gas before I've run out of gas before, and many friends too. I've never had to replace a fuel pump. That being said, I do think letting your gas tank get too low after years of driving is not good for your fuel pump due to impurities that may settle to the bottom of the tank. The Mav is new, so very unlikely that would happen in this case. Just don't make a habit of it

 

[SFB]

I was interested to know what happens......

Informative, thank you. Obviously not meant to run on battery only if engine is dry.

 

[SFB]

I take it you've never run out of gas before I've run out of gas before, and many friends too. I've never had to replace a fuel pump. That being said, I do think letting your gas tank get too low after years of driving is not good for your fuel pump due to impurities that may settle to the bottom of the tank. The Mav is new, so very unlikely that would happen in this case. Just don't make a habit of it

These are wet fuel pumps, as Im sure you know. Their lubricant is the fuel, running out of fuel may or may not shorten the life of the pump. I've built fuel pumps for aircraft for many years, their bearings, at least the ones I have built are made of carbon. the pumps would shut off if they lost fuel pressure, don't know how automotive systems work but I would assume they wouldn't be allowed to run on very long because the pump motor would overheat and that wouldn't be a good thing enclosed in a cell full of fuel vapors. Just an observation.

 

[Phileaux]

At EXTREMELY low gas level fuel pump shuts off to save itself. No damage. The prefilters & filters take care of junk, which isn't much with modern gas. The only reason for junk, I'm the past, was gas station filters had to have a certain flow rate to keep customers happy. Modern filtration is amazing.

 

[Boomhauer1]

I was homeless in 2010 for about 6 months. I didn’t get stupid with my limited funds. My only possessions were my car and a what it could carry. I tried to keep my gas tank full as possible so I wouldn’t ever run out and get stuck. Instead of getting 2 gallons when empty I would get 2 to fill it to the brim. Made since to me to have a reserve of fuel when things got worse.

Of course this scenario wasn’t really my fault. I lost everything coming back from Iraq. My x wife took it all and left me with $20k in debt. So my mind set wasn’t that of a poor person with bad spending habits. It was of a pissed veteran that was determined to get his life back.

That is horrible. Glad you recovered from that situation and hope you find someone or have found someone who will treat you better than that.

 

[nick112288]

So if that's all the further it goes on just battery, just how often does the gas engine kick on and off?

 

[clavicus]

So if that's all the further it goes on just battery, just how often does the gas engine kick on and off?

Constantly, there's no actual EV mode it's switching back and forth all the time.

 

[brnpttmn]

So if that's all the further it goes on just battery, just how often does the gas engine kick on and off?

I've done the 1 mile trip back from the grocery store on electric-only a couple times, but that pretty much depletes the battery so the next trip will start with ICE running (which this time of the year in MN is pretty much a given anyway). In general city driving you can usually get a third to half of the miles in electric mode.

It's best to think about these types of hybrids as "e-assist." You can do significant time in e-mode, but to maximize that you'll want to try to engage it while trying to maintain a steady cruising speed on city streets. I don't worry too much about keeping the ICE off while accelerating because it requires very slow acceleration and will deplete the battery quickly.

 

[Rob Cactus Gray]

That is horrible. Glad you recovered from that situation and hope you find someone or have found someone who will treat you better than that.

Thanks, I absolutely did find some one amazing.

 

[TMAC]

The goal of the Hybrid is to get 40 miles to a gallon of fossil fuel, while eliminating range anxiety. 50 years from now, we may want to increase that to unlimited miles. R & R with a Tesla motor & Batteries. https://electricgt.com/shop/the-ultimate-tesla-swap-package/

 

[ffoc01]

These are wet fuel pumps, as Im sure you know. Their lubricant is the fuel, running out of fuel may or may not shorten the life of the pump. I've built fuel pumps for aircraft for many years, their bearings, at least the ones I have built are made of carbon. the pumps would shut off if they lost fuel pressure, don't know how automotive systems work but I would assume they wouldn't be allowed to run on very long because the pump motor would overheat and that wouldn't be a good thing enclosed in a cell full of fuel vapors. Just an observation.

The fuel pump runs on either one of two conditions. It primes for about 1 second when the engine computer is first activated and runs normally, at variable load, once an RPM signal is received.

So, on conventional vehicles, once the engine stalls and the RPM signal is lost, the fuel pump shuts off. It will turn on again when someone tries to restart the engine. In a hybrid, the pump will remain in for as long as the powertrain is trying to restart the engine. What he did in this video is just about the worst case scenario for a submerged fuel pump. The only hope for that pump is if the engine computer shut down the fuel pump once it realized the gas engine wasn't restarting (when the red triangle powertrain fault warning came on).

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