I've had my HCHII for just about a month now and am half way through my second tank of gas. I read the article about hypermiling the HCH and have been using some of those techniques and I keep my eye on the instantaneous MPG gauge all the time. Everybody says I drive like a grandma now, but that's fine by me. I haven't exceeded the speed limit on the highway and I'm using a light foot on the gas, but I'm finding it difficult to keep my average MPG above 44. My commute is almost 20miles each way, half highway, half street, and I live in southern California, so it never gets too cold. I also bumped the PSI in my tires to 44. The dealer had it at 36, but my FE hasn't increased since adding more air, just a harsher ride.

I've read all the tips and tricks I could find on the web, so I'm hoping that you guys can help me out here? A lot of people post about how easy it is to get FE in the high 40's to 50mpg, but it seems tough to me. Are they any other articles/websites I should read? Or maybe I'm just missing something? I am a newbie to hybrid driving, but I did all my research and I'm trying hard to get better gas mileage.

Thanks!!

 

Where in SoCal do you live? I also live in SoCal and my daily commute consists of many hills on the I-5, 118 and 23 freeways. I noticed that the hills take a major toll on FE. My FE has consistently been around 47-48 mpgs. If driving completely on flat roads, I think I could pull off 50-55 mpgs.

I'm definitely not a hypermiler but I do watch my foot on the gas pedal. I like you have been told that I now drive like a grandma. Good thing is, my road rage (like when a car cuts you off) is pretty much non-existent. The power on this car and my mind on FE won't let me loose.

 

I'm in north Orange county, so pretty flat. The commute is half side streets, half 405.

I set the cruise control at 65 mph in the carpool lane this morning and the mpg gauge was reading about 50mpg. I was thinking it should be higher to compensate for the worse mpg you get when starting/stopping/accelerating?

I know a per-tank average of 44mpg is pretty good, but I want to hit the 50mpg mark!

 

As I've heard mentioned in various other places around here, you can expect to get worse mileage during the break-in period of your new car--until the first oil change. For a new owner, I'd say 44 is pretty good. I've had mine for almost a month, and the newness combined with the cold (for me, anyway) weather we've had settle in around Salt Lake (as well as the snow) hasn't helped my mileage. Of course, I don't do a whole lot of the hypermiling stuff. I do try to get good mileage, but I haven't been demoted to grandma driving status yet. But you know, coming from a 98 chevy truck with a 454, pretty much anything is an improvement (I was averaging 11mpg on my commute).

Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but you should see an increase in mileage after your first oil change, and also as the weather warms up--although in SoCal, that may not be as big a factor. As you get more used to driving the hybrid, you should also see slight improvement. Good luck!

 

I don't bother with the FE anymore. I have never gotten my car pass 33mpg. At this point if trying to get there is the difference between driving 20 in a 30mph zone or not, I will choose the not.

From what I read here on the forums, short commute kill FE... The Prius is suppose to be the better vehicle for short distance commutes.

I am not a Toyota person though

 

The colder temps may also be contributing to your lower FE. I know it's not too cold here in SoCal, but the slight change in temp definitely has a large impact on your FE. I was averaging in the high 40s and low 50s in the summer. Now i'm getting around 42 mpg or so. If you are getting 44 on your second tank, just wait until it warms up and your car breaks in! Not to mention as you get better at driving it.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought much of the hit on FE during cold weather driving was that the autostop didn't kick in. My autostop still functions with the current temps, ~50-65 degrees, except for a few minutes in the morning when the car is still warming up. Are there other factors other than the autostop that hurt overall FE in cold weather driving?

 

msantos probably has a much more in-depth explanation of all that goes on, but I believe part of the cold weather FE hit is due to the richer mixture the ICE is burning while warming up. Basically, it uses more gas until it gets warm, and then it can go into lean-burn mode. And yes, the autostop is a gas-saver. Having it not run due to the cold can be a big hit if the first part of your commute is stop-and-go.

 

Generally speaking, it's my feeling that you don't have to work *that* hard to get great numbers. What you have to do is use your brain, follow a few suggestions available here (which it sounds like you are already doing) and get into some good driving habits.

Specifically, I agree with the posters who think your trouble might be the break-in period and getting used to driving a hybrid, as well as cooler temps (even if you live in SoCal). Even drops to 40-50 degrees is enough to make a big dent in FE, as the engine takes longer to warm up, though if you don't run the heat much, especially when you first turn the car on, you can sometimes get stellar numbers even at those temperatures.

One thing I can tell you is that it just takes practice. All the little techniques that you're thinking of now gradually start becoming habits- a tank or so of gas just isn't enough to do it. I felt that I was doing pretty well in summer 06, but then this past summer my numbers were even better- I learned more about the car and I spent more time driving the right way without even thinking about it.

Good luck- you're on the right path and you've got a lot going for you- your long commute, warm and consistent weather, and a flat road. Though one more reaction to the bit about the flat road- it might not be as flat as you think. Using cruise control is one issue a lot of new hybrid drivers mention- it's going to get you better FE than many people are used to getting, because they start out as such lead foots, with a constant seesaw up and down of speed that uses up a lot of gas for nothing. However, the best hypermilers don't use cruise control, because it just isn't as efficient as DWL- that's 'driving with load.' When you're going up an incline, you tend to lose speed- it's a conservation of energy thing that you might remember from physics class, and if you accelerate on the uphill to maintain a constant speed, you'll just end up faster on the downslope - your cruise control wastes a lot of gas trying to keep the speed exactly even. When you drive without cruise control but with an eye on the instantaneous mpg meter, you'll see that a lot of places you thought of as flat really aren't, and you can use a little DWL here and there to find the best places to pick up speed, and the places where you can slow down a bit knowing you'll pick it up later. Again, good luck!

 

Leah, you are absolutely right about DWL. Cruise control on really flat land is OK, and perhaps better than not using it. However, in even slightly hilly country, the instataneous MPG meter tells the story. E-A-S-Y on the uphill to try and maintain a certain MPG while sacrificing some speed. Then you can pick up that speed on the other side. The fuel savings over time is considerable. If you attempt to maintain speed while climbing the hill, you won't even want to look at your mpg display, cuz it drops like a lead weight

Acceleration is terrible on fuel mileage, any vehicle, period. Physics always comes into play, and it takes a lot of energy to get a vehicle to speed, and considerably less to maintain that speed. If you have a Scangauge, monitor gallons per hour, horsepower, load, or instataneous mpg, and they all show the price of moving the beast from a stop to cruising speed. Factor in hills, and it's much worse.

DWL is just another of the many wonderful hypermiling techniques, and works on all cars, not just hybrids.