I pulled the following off of a Car and Driver review:

"Regenerative braking is the big payoff of hybrids, the ability to recapture the energy of vehicle motion that's ordinarily wasted as heat to the brakes. Feeding that "saved" energy back into forward motion accounts for 60 percent of the Accord's mileage gain in city and 38 percent in highway operation, Honda says. But there are many small losses besides braking, and Honda has attacked them, too.
Why run the engine at idle? The Accord doesn't, accounting for 25 percent of its improvement in city mpg.

Why fuel all six cylinders when three would be enough for much of your trip? The Accord doesn't, for another 15 percent of its city increase, 57 percent highway."


After reading this, I feel that I should be slightly punching it from a stop, enough to get the assist working before trying to maintain ECO mode. My strategy so far has been to accelerate as slowly as possible. The current tank I'm running is averaging 30.7 mpg but i have around 50% highway driving on it. Any thoughts???