Electric Vehicle Forums - Accelerate and Coast driving

When I start up a hill using the cruise. I pulse the lever 'down' like one pulse ever few seconds. That ends up about 5 pulses on most hills to slow the car 5 miles per hour while going uphill. On the down hill side I slowoly pulse 'up' the cruise stick to regain my level highway speed.

I don't think the pulse & glide works with the 3750 lb Camry. I tried it a few times on a level highway and it seems to take more energy to get the car back to the original speed than the coasting benefits. The lighter Prius at about 3050 lbs seems to work well with P&G.

I read you have to be below 42 miles per hour for it to work. Something about coasting down to 30 miles per hour then accelerate back to 42 miles per hour then do it again. Sounds boring and my wife would throw a fit. Using the cruise on the near level highways works better for me. I also use the cruise from 25 miles per hour on up when driving in town. Driving 35 to 40 in town seems to give me my best city gas mileage. Out not that big of town is rather level with a few exceptions.

Anytime you coast then accelerate, it don't hurt the engine. The computer is smart enough to feed a little gas to keep the engine floating at enough rpm equal to the cars speed. That makes a smooth transition when the engine comes on to power the car again.