I found a nice quiet side street for my commute that's an alternative to a length of 55mph expressway. Speed limit on this street is 35, so I've been practicing a little P&G.

If I pulse up to 40-45 mph, and then glide down to 25-30, should I follow the glide with some EV? Or is it best to pulse up again?

 

The top end seems a little fast. I never go past 42 MPH.
For the rest, I'm going to say "it depends".

How are you kicking the FEH into EV mode?

I used to use L at 42 MPH all the time, then L would slow the car down to about 36-37 MPH and kick the engine off in the process. L gear will also charge up the battery quite a bit in the process. So if you use L gear to kick the engine off, then you can use some EV during the glide, to use up the battery charge L just made.

Recently, after 2 years and 35,000 miles, I have found my FEH enters EV more easily than ever. Now even a single light tap on the brake in Drive will kick me into EV at 39 MPH. And I do mean a slight tap. I can now start at about 41 MPH, do a slight tap, and be into EV at 39 MPH sometimes. I'm now going 2-3 MPH faster than before with my P&G. Which means a longer coast in most cases.

Thirdly, you can use a single or double tap of the brake in N if the HV battery is too hot, too cold, or too full to take a charge. I do this a lot in winter. I can usually evoke EV at about 39 MPH with the brake tap in neutral, but in this case you get zero regen, so once your battery is near empty, you won't want to try and use EV for the glide anymore.

Also, you can coast in N, or Drive or L. If you have the Navi, you can get into a "deadband" condition with zero energy arrows by pressing the go pedal 1 or 2 mm.

Keep up the good work and report back often!
-John

 

I trigger engine off by shifting to neutral and tapping the brakes (usually twice). I have noticed that the engine doesn't really turn off until the speedo dips just below 40mph, so you are probably right about my target pulse speed being too high.

I can't seem to use EV higher than about 30mph without the engine kicking back on, so I coast in neutral until I get to around 30 and then I need to make the decision whether or not to maintain 30 on EV or pulse back up to 40 for another glide. Thoughts?

 

I always look at the terrain ahead. If there is a small incline or flat spot, followed by more downhill, I try to get over that small "hump" with EV. Thus, instead of having two P&G I get away with one.

It also depends if there are cars behind me or not. I use more EV to maintain speed if people are following me.

 

Hi Brady

I pulse and glide from the moment I start warm-up till I park my FEH or my Explorer at home for the day whenever traffic permits. In my FWD FEH, I pulse only to 30mph in EV because you burn to much HV battery going higher. Your AWD may even be a little less than 30mph. Pulsing with the ICE at 1,800rpm's is the best, but if I'm starting to hold back traffic, 2,300 - 3,000rpm's is my limit. No 1,900 - 2,200rpm's if I can help it because of the torque curve.

With a speed limit of 35 - 45mph, I try to get away with up to ~43mph with a fake shift in "L" to go EV. Sometimes things are too hot and I can't go EV, so I must pulse it back to 40mph for a very light "N" tap or two to go EV. Depending on traffic is how I determine if I want to hold a speed in "D" (never "L") in EV or let her glide in "N" no lower than 25mph. At 25mph, I pulse in EV back to 30mph and glide back to 25mph in "N" and start another pulse in EV and repeat till I get a restart. After the restart with a low battery, I pulse at 1,800rpm's to 30mph for one fake shift in "L" which most of the time I can drop to 25mph without going EV and then pulse at 1,800rpm's to ~43mph for the second fake shift and go EV at 40mph and a "N" glide as soon as I see the tach bounce. If on the first FS it starts to go EV, I let it go and hold that speed or pulse back to 30mph till it restarts and start another FS at 30mph and pulse back to ~43mph for another glide in EV repeat. This is not where you will find the holy grail of MPG because it is to high of a speed. I use this same technique between 25-35mph for a 70mpg RT. Don't let your speed drop any lower than 20mph for the best P&G. I was doing a 20-25mph P&G behind this old fart the other day for about 4 miles and I may have some better numbers in the future with this new technique.

You can hold higher speeds (35-39mph) in EV to stay with traffic, but it's much harder to increase speeds above 30mph and it drains the battery to fast. So I prefer to kick the ICE on at 20mph leaving a stop and accelerate with the ICE to my target speed unless I have no traffic and a high enough SoC, then I will go to 30mph in EV. Two FS with the small generator charging gives me the fastest charge for the most overall time in EV. The longer in EV, the better the MPG! The ICE does suck the gas down with the generator if you have a low SoC, but overall with the faster charging, I get better MPG that way.

GaryG