I'm going to be a complete and total jerk for a moment, so I'm apologizing beforehand. (Bear with me, I'm just really irked at the moment, but I'm back to normal after this brief sidetrack.)
Once again, I apologize.
As Ray mentioned, there are a number of threads about this very topic, including at least 2 on the first page of this forum. While we're glad that you have a FEH, experiment and learn about it, and are sharing what you've learned/observed with us, at the same time, a quick search shows 61 threads about this, 6 in this forum. I don't mean this as an insult, just that in light of the fact that you even mentioned that you read one of the more recent discussions, the L gear advantage, makes this thread seem extremely redundant.
I don't want to disuade you, or insult your intelligence, and I look forward to further contributions and your FE to improve, but at the same time, it's a bit like asking someone to name different colors, someone says red, then you say red. It's just not helpful. I have little doubt that if we had a forum mod, this would be locked for that very redundant reason, and because it's bad netiquette.
Okay, I got that out of my system (I'll admit, it's something of a pet peeve of mine), and I once again apologize. Moving on:
Welcome! Glad to see you got a FEH, you're happy with it, and you're having fun learning! Welcome to the club, you'll probably find that over the next 3000 miles, you're going to learn more about it than it will learn about you, but don't worry, you can get some fantastic MPGs that way! I suggest that if you haven't, you do a search, several of us (myself included) have written brief guides about how to get great MPGs, some may be really new to you, and others may be common sense. Also, don't worry about your MPGs that much, you've got to break in, and it's got to break in, so there's a pretty big learning and comfort curve there. (Take my second tank at 29 MPG to a recent 34.7 MPGs)
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While in low gear, it is possible to coast (ie not charge the battery) so you do not slow down as much. All it takes is a very soft touch of the accelerator. I was able to make it charge a little less or not at all depending on the amount of slight pressure. Doing this, I was able to go all the way down a 12 mile grade mostly without touching the breaks, yet still range in speed from 5 MPH to 50 MPH (the speed of traffic). Before I realized this, I was pressing slightly more on the accelerator using the battery more.
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Yep, this is known around here as a powerless coast. Most of the L gear fans love using this combined with experience about when to let up to come to a stop without using their brake lights (Myself included). Also, you don't have to worry about double tapping or riding the brake in to a ICE off coast in.
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I also noticed on the fuel economy screen, that when the battery was full, and needing to have more "engine breaking" that power would flow from the motor to the engine, yet the engine wasn't highlighted (running).
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Yep, that's overflow spilloff. The battery software tries to keep it at 50% charge all the time, and when it gets around 75% charged, it will spill off that energy, especially if you're slowing down/stopping. (And you may want to be careful, if you're coasting in and it does it, there may be a slight acceleration jump.)
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When it takes 8 hours to drive 240 miles, it nice that my car can teach me more about itself....like, I learned that stop and go at 10 MPH yields horrible gas mileage once the battery is drained (ICE comes on to charge the battery often),
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It doesn't matter, you're going to get poor MPGs whenever the battery needs to recharge. However, the slower you go, and the longer you're stopped, the worse it will reflect in your FE display.
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slowing and going from 15 - 30 mph gets great mileage (ICE comes on but you're not stopped, so fuel is being used more completely I assume),
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I'm not sure I follow you there, but really, it's coasting that the vehicle really shines, especially if you have a flat nice surface to drive on, you can put the CC on (around 47
MPH) and watch those numbers go up! Some slight hills can result in even better MPGs as well, especially those downhills!
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and it's interesting to see the ICE come on just to cool the battery (lots of EV use, coasting downhill, battery full, ICE comes on).
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Actually, the battery has it's own air conditioner and heater that it uses itself to cool off, and prefers room temperature. The ICE was probably coming on for other reasons. (Warming up transfer mechanisms, battery spillover, battery recharge, power demands, etc.)
Enjoy! Feel free to ask questions (just not the questions already being asked in current threads in new threads
), and "get involved" here at GH.
Coasting in L and other observations
Don't worry, nobody discouraged me from participating in the forum. I do know what you mean about seeing the same things over and over in forums and I apologize for that. I think it would be great if there was a sticky FAQ that had things Pavus Prime said. Even reading through all 6 pages of posts in this forum I still don't recall saying all he said.
