Maverick Hybrid electric mode limited

[stoptothink]

I regularly drive mine from a standing start up to 55mph with the ICE off and only by electric. However you have to be a very patience guy to accomplish this. This is one way i get 700mpt. It will go into electric drive only at speeds up to 65mph. I regularly drive 55mph highway speeds and force it into e mode where i keep it there until battery charge runs out, then back to hybrid mode to recharge.

Most people wont drive this way, i am retired and dont drive in traffic much. So i can slow drive it around in electric mode.

How? Unless you are rolling down a hill, there is no way the battery has enough juice to get you from 0 to 55 on electric alone - no matter how slow you are accelerating. It's very easy to pop it into electric only when on the highway, but that's totally different than accelerating from 0 to 55. Currently we're averaging 49.6mpg, would easily be 50+ but my wife uses it 3x/week for her 50-mile (round trip) highway commute.

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[Mach 1]

Do it at least once a cruise, when traffic allows. Here in the hill country its tough to find perfect level road, but then that would work against me up/dn.

I could make a video.

I usually will accelerate from light up to 35-40mph keeping the ICE off regurlarly depending on traffic, stop/go is where you can get away with it.

I have clocked some very minor hills, i can e mode 6 miles. I regularly do 2-3 mile spirts in e mode. Just got to be aware of traffic.

Some of my cruises i am in electric/regen mode for 80% of miles. I believe my tops is 82%.

 

[Mach 1]

Heres some of my stats.

 

[GPSMan]

I can't want to get one. Been a Hybrid driver since 2005. The "EV miles" screen seems "deceptive". I believe 80% of the time (hours) you are in the Mav can be with engine off, sure. 80% of the miles seems untruthful unless 100% of your miles are literally stop and go "crawling". Possible, but improbable. One freeway trip and your EV percent should be cut in half.

 

[icegradner]

I can't want to get one. Been a Hybrid driver since 2005. The "EV miles" screen seems "deceptive". I believe 80% of the time (hours) you are in the Mav can be with engine off, sure. 80% of the miles seems untruthful unless 100% of your miles are literally stop and go "crawling". Possible, but improbable. One freeway trip and your EV percent should be cut in half.

Seems completely realistic to me, under the right conditions, and it doesn't seem to have to be just bumper to bumper traffic. Once you are used to the Mavericks sounds, you can hear when the engine kicks in and out, there is no doubt about it. For one thing you can be on battery, for forward momentum, at much higher speeds than what I'm used to from my older hybrid car (08' Camry Hybrid), and the regen is more efficient, so the tech has improved a lot over the years.

 

[Darnon]

If you stay under 40 mph you can spend a lot of time on electric. The in-town part of my commute is something like 2/3rds electric. Past that and the electric motor (or, more likely, the power controller/battery delivery) runs out of steam fast.

Maintaining 50+ requires keeping the EV Coach bar pretty near the tippy top which can take a steady foot. Maybe Eco mode could use having a plateau programmed to help hold below that threshold. That would also help staying within EV when accelerating from a stop. Also the cruise control seems a bit more prone to jumping power to ICE than my Fusion Hybrid was even in Eco mode with its "calmer" hysteresis.

 

[GPSMan]

Look at it this way:

If 50% of your miles are electric, and you are getting 42 MPG overall, then the engine is running at 21 MPG. It gets worse: if you think you have 75% electric miles and average 42 MPG overall, the gas engine is running at 11 MPG.

This is a 36-38 MPG engine; right?

So the battery is boosting you 4 to 6 MPG. It's not boosting you 30 MPG, which some seem to think it is.

 

[Darnon]

The ICE engine's efficiency can be deceptively low because it's frequently running when you are loading it with acceleration past what the electric system alone can provide or it has the load of charging the HV battery.

Since it could display the power gauge, instant MPG, and battery SoC simultaneously it was easier to see on my Fusion Hybrid that it would often be only 20 MPG when the ICE was running. Only until the battery got nearly topped up cruising at 55+ for a few miles would it get up to 30-40 MPG.

 

[James D]

This video shows 60mph sustained electric speed.

 

[jsus]

Look at it this way:

If 50% of your miles are electric, and you are getting 42 MPG overall, then the engine is running at 21 MPG. It gets worse: if you think you have 75% electric miles and average 42 MPG overall, the gas engine is running at 11 MPG.

This is a 36-38 MPG engine; right?

So the battery is boosting you 4 to 6 MPG. It's not boosting you 30 MPG, which some seem to think it is.

No.

The ICE charges the battery. Between that and regenerative braking, that's where you get your electric miles from. When the ICE is running, it has increased load to power future electric assist or electric only miles.

You can't do that type of math.

 

[stoptothink]

This video shows 60mph sustained electric speed.

That's very easy to do on the highway; get up to speed, get off the accelerator briefly, and then ease back on while keeping the power gauge in the green . Regularly averaging well over 50mpg on our longer highway drives, but we have to use the ICE to get up to that speed.

The ICE engine is deceptively inefficient because it also has to charge the battery. The atkinson cycle engine would be significantly more efficient at steady highway speeds if it was not pulling double duty.

 

[GPSMan]

What people don't understand is: technically every new F-150, F-250, F-350 also has "electric only" miles when coasting. Just the computer does not keep track. Fuel is completely cut off, thus in those big trucks they are driving on battery only too, just no regen. And some have auto stop / idle stop too.

 

[Darnon]

What people don't understand is: technically every new F-150, F-250, F-350 also has "electric only" miles when coasting. Just the computer does not keep track. Fuel is completely cut off, thus in those big trucks they are driving on battery only too, just no regen. And some have auto stop / idle stop too.

It's more "inertia-only miles" unless it's a PowerBoost.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

I have found after several months of driving the Hybrid that I don't really even think about it anymore. I personally do use Eco Mode because the method of getting up to speed and then costing or holding your speed seems to be more consistent in Eco mode, plus regen braking when taking your foot off the peddles tends to keep the battery charged up better. There is no actual button electric mode, but this thing does run just on electric power depending on how you drive it. Every now and I again I'll put her in sport mode and I always find it a bit fun.

Do not overlook the L (low) Regen enhancing button. The manual says you can enter and leave low mode at any speed and drive selection. It is automatically turned off when reverse is selected and maybe some of others. I only use it in standard and economy modes.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

What people don't understand is: technically every new F-150, F-250, F-350 also has "electric only" miles when coasting. Just the computer does not keep track. Fuel is completely cut off, thus in those big trucks they are driving on battery only too, just no regen. And some have auto stop / idle stop too.

I had a 1991 caprice 4 door. It had V8, the auto transmission when in cruise would disconnect the ice or more likely just lean the carb to idle. One problem was that at 10,500 ft altitude cruise would lean fuel to the point that ice would die. So I just turned off cruise, I do not remember if I also had to drop to lower gear but I never drove that high often enough to check into having car set for higher altitude. That car would always get 27-36 mpg on highway but 12-14 in town. That full size sedan would have made an excellent hybrid with Regen braking. If I hadn't sold it in 2008 with 208k miles I would convert it!!!

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