It's not always about how many miles you can drive off the HV battery, but about how many MINUTES you can drive without the ICE burning gas.

Once, I took a stopwatch along with me.
I only ran the watch while my ICE was running.
For one hour of stop & go, city traffic, in mild weather, my gasoline engine burned gasoline for 14m11s out of 62 minutes IIRC for me to complete my round trip. My total miles traveled was about 20 miles. So my "average" speed was about 20 MPH. It was really many stoplights, with many sections of 0-40MPH.

My average for that trip was over 60 MPG.
This is close to ideal driving conditions for the FEH.
It is really a commuter car, for congested big city driving.

Over flat highways, I try to keep speeds 65 MPH in a 75 MPH zone, 60 MPH in a 65 zone, and 55 in a 55 zone, as 55 MPH is excellet for fuel economy. Slower speeds help with wind drag, since the gasoline is on all the time. With one passenger, and not much added cargo weight, 44psi in all tires, and roof rack removed, I regularly get 42 MPG at 60 MPH.

Mountains DO help with this car. Sure, just like most, I get 20 MPG going uphill, but I choose roads with slower speed limits when possible, and get 9999 MPG ( really infinite ) during long downhill sections. 20 MPG up for 60 miles, plus 9999 MPG for 30 miles downhill, ( EV ) plus 60 MPG for 30 miles ( ICE on, downhill ) nets a GREAT average. Again, often over 60 MPG round-trip.

I've done these experiments with THREE Ford Escape Hybrids, with consistant results. So it's nothing special with mine. How you drive has everything to do with it!
- John

P.S. I'm sharing what is totally possible with this car. If my average is not spectactular, it is because where I live I have summers that are 90-105'F and I NEED to run the A/C for about 60 days a year ( and I suspect the battery pack does too! ). Also, my winters are brutal. I have night time lows below -10'F 10 days a year, and lows below freezing about 100 days a year. The records for my town are -39'F to 108'F. That leaves me about half a year of good driving weather. To add insult to injury, my gasoline has 10% ethanol. While good for the environment & economy of the U.S., bad for MPG. Also, when I have friends or family in the car, I pay attention to them ( and the road ) vs. all my hypermiling techniques. And yes, I like to have fun driving in mud and snow just as much as the next guy, as long as it it my day off, and the snow is not on the way to work! Enjoy the most fuel efficient SUV on the planet! I enjoy mine!

P.P.S. Going ( mostly ) downhill, I70, my best ONE-WAY segment was 126 MPG for 44.4 miles. ( one reason I bought the ScanGauge is my stock display does not go high enough! )

 

Phillip, not tring to defend GPSman's statements because I have a hard time understanding some of his claims also. Noticed that you refferred to a 29mpg tank and John was just reporting a segment. At the bottom of his sig page, John states that his best tank was less than 54mpg already. Also, do you have the AWD or FWD?

Badfrog, you are too funny!

Bottomline, a stock FWD FEH can reach a 70.3mpg 20 mile segment and return with the same battery SoC. This is my best so far, but there is one hypermiler (Wayne Gerdes) that could most likely take the FEH to 85mpg on that same segment. Wayne uses some extreme techniques, but none the less, he knows how to squeeze a drop of gas.

GaryG

 

Just the guy i wanted to talk to, I am starting a biz, to put solar in homes but wondered about using to charge the 330 volt battery in the FEH. Are you using the solar panels to charge your battery, ( which one ) or provide power for appliances?

 

Yeah... like wearing an ice filled vest ( used when he works in hot spots in a nuclear power plant ) so he can keep the A/C off and windows up during summer in his car! Homer Simpson comes to mind. DOH!

But how much energy was wasted on the ice?
The ice in your cup took more energy to manufacture than the soda pop! DOH!

 

Its not gpsman's number so this isn't aimed at him... but I really wish people would get off this 100MPG banner..... its not even a reasonable measure for a plug-in hybrid. Even if I ignore the power coming from the wall the MPG achieved in such a vehicle is SOOOOO dependent on the driving conditions any estimates of its MPG is a number pulled completely out of one's ***. Say the battery is powerful enough to go 40 miles. Well then if you only drive 9 miles to work every day and plug in every night your MPG technically infinite since you could be in EV mode the whole way... If you drive on a freeway 100miles you'd see much less of the plug in effect and you'd probably get nowhere near 100MPG...

Its a number from thin air. I'm not against plug in's. The idea is great. I just hate made up performance numbers.

People think the EPA estimates are bad now.... I can't wait till the numbers for the first plug-in are issued and are compared to real world results....

 

Now, now John, Wayne is not here to defend himself. Besides, if Wayne did that, I'm sure he used a freezer that had to be running for other reasons anyway. No matter what you say about Wayne, he brought more hypermiling techniques to the table than any person I know. He sure helped me and others save a lot of money on gas, which helps save our planet also. I'm just sorry I didn't use his FAS technique long ago, and I'll always be thankful for his help with "N" coasting. Let also give him credit when he showed you how to block your radiator on that trip to Dearborn you guys took together. And don't try to tell everyone it was your idea again.

GaryG



You and I know that in our FEH, the compressor runs no matter what in hot weather to cool the battery when we use EV like we do.

 

Neutral coasting? Radiator blocking?

I think it's time for the FAQ to be updated! I could never reach your accomplishments, but I bet you have some knowledge to help me increase my lifetime average from 30.4 to something much better.

I can search the forum (and I probably will), but updating the FAQ will be helpful for all.

 

I currently charge a separate 12V AGM battery with my solar panels. This is then connected to a 1.5Kw 120V inverter so I can run both 12V and 120V loads.

Raven has his solar system connected to the Vehicle 12V battery (he replaced the stock battery with a Yellow Top Optima battery).

Raven and I both plan on charging the High Voltage battery in the future (which will require a LV/DC to HV/DC converter and a small PIC type controller, however we are also investigating driving the Block Heater/HV Wiring from the solar power/inverter also).

However, do not expect much distance to be added from the solar panels. If you figure about 500 watt/hours per mile (after vehicle is up to speed), my 62 watts of panels produce about 250 watt/hours per day = 0.5 miles/day, so if I park at the airport for 30 days, I could almost drive home.

 

Now I REALLY like your idea of saving up battery power (12v) via solar, and using that to run a block heater. Now that is the smartest idea I have heard in a LONG time!

Go for it!

Charging the HV battery from solar is difficult to do, and very impractical.
But I've always heard opponents say you are wasting fuel ( at the power plant ) if you use a wall plug-in block heater at night. The solar powered HEATER is the best idea I have heard in a looooong time.

PLEASE let us know how it turns out, and if the limited daylight hours in winter can povide enough 12v juice to make up for your block heater's discharge.

Sounds like BadFrog is adding electrical accessories WITHOUT decreasing MPG which is just as good as adding MPG in my book. Again, great idea.

-John