Yes, I agree - with one exception. The only time you really WANT to use the EV assist is when getting up to speed. The debates will never end, but I get the feeling that most folks do better by accelerating moderate-to-briskly up to your cruising speed, rather than creeping up to it. Not jack-rabbit starts, mind you, but no grandma Sunday driver, either.

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL

you're right. in fact, there's no way to avoid getting up to speed, on a freeway onramp or in traffic for instance, without ev-assist, but ever since i began trying to avoid the white assist bars whenever possible, my fe has been up. its only been a few days, but it seems to be making a difference so far. time will tell.

Note to Self: Stay out of assist!

today, T=72
23/50
16/56
2/56
10/50
2/48
=51.8mpg
ok, today's numbers pretty much prove to me that staying out of assist whenever possible is an important part that i was missing before.

Note to Self: Stay out of assist!

today, T=70:
6/44
11/47
2/40
6/56
7/50
12/53
=49.2mpg
present tank avg=48mpg; last was 45 and change. stay out of assist when not accelerating rapidly!

Note to Self: Stay out of assist!

Matt - It isn't so much of staying out of Assist that improves your FE but many factors (most notably are temperature and terrain). I get EV Assist whenever I hit a downhill almost no matter how short the downhill is unless the SoC is at 4 or less as you do not get EV Assist at 4 bars or less. Around here there are plenty of downhills to charge the battery and on the uphills I typically try to keep RPMs below 3,000 rpms.

I bet that if you drive the same 5-mile stretch in the same 30 minutes with
one method being no white bars and the other method trying to get into EV Assist (i.e. 100+ mpg mode) that you will have a much-improved FE reading after the EV Assist method.

There are many times that the display shows that it is 100 mpg but it is not the uber-FE because if you hold the button that switches to Metric then you will see that it is not at the 1 L/km reading but more like 3 or 4 showing that the valves are not shut and you are ONLY getting 100 mpg instead of the infinite (100+ mpg) reading.

So if you are not getting the car into EV Assist mode then you are losing some FE. You don't have to give yourself EV assist but just get the car into that mode. Many times it is just as easy to hover around Neutral on the bars of Assist/Charge but if you don't get the car into that mode then you don't get as good FE as you are capable.

--> Averaged 685 miles/week and 49.0 mpg in first year (35.7k miles from Aug 7, 2006 to Aug 7, 2007)

all i know is that before, i used to try to use ev-assist to peg my mpg gauge at 100 whenever possible, and in normal driving, i didn't pay attn to how many assist bars were showing. my best tank using this method was 46.4mpg. ever since i started staying out of assist, i've had at least 48mpg. the weather on this tank has been colder than my previous tanks, from avg 80 to avg 70, which should work against fe. terrain has been same. i only had ~2200 miles on the car when i started avoiding assist. assist-avoidance when not accelerating has been the only change to my driving technique, and i attribute the improvement to this. try it yourself next week, and let me know your results.

Note to Self: Stay out of assist!

Trust me, Matt, I've tried just about every combination of driving technique. I have 17,000 miles on the car since August 8 so when you get to that distance you let me know if you are still doing your "no-EV assist bars" technique. I find that the FE at day's end is MUCH higher when using the "100+ mpg" technique than the "close-to-100+ mpg-though-no-EV assit-bars showing" technique. My terrain just does not make it smart to not get into EV assist mode.

I go through say 5,000 vertical feet of elevation change daily over 150 miles - this is a guess but about right I bet sometimes. I start at 900 feet, drive up to 1500 feet, back down to 300 feet, back up to 1000 feet, and lots of small 300-foot rises through the rest of the day. It makes no sense to NOT get into EV assist mode when going down a long hill and watch the FE go from 42 mpg to 48 mpg in a 3-mile downhill rather than from just 42 to 43 mpg when not in EV assist. Then, the 3-mile uphill zaps the FE from 48 mpg back down to 43 mpg but if I had only gotten the FE up to 43 mpg going down the mountain then it would be 38 mpg at the top or lower than when I started. This is why I am always trying to hit the 100+ mpg mode and increase my daily FE as high as possible whenever possible so that on the uphills it doesn't drop as low.

I don't have to worry about the SoC because there are so many hills around western PA that I cna go from full to 4 bars in just 5 miles and then right back to full charge in the next 5 miles. Some people don't change that much of their SoC in an entire week of 50 miles driving. I'm still averaging better than you in the Database (I'm at 48.5 mpg over 16.7k miles and you are at 45.1 mpg over 2.2k miles). Neener, neener, neener. =)

Edit: To clarify - I have enough hills during my day to charge the battery that I rarely see a Forced Regen and only an occasional Mild Forced Regen. I just find that on a level or slight downgrade I can coast longer/farther and get a better FE when using the EV Assist (white bars) rather than doing the same stretch in EV mode but with no assist bars. Some people have short trips, level terrain, etc. and it might not work for you but my techniques work well around where I live.

--> Averaged 685 miles/week and 49.0 mpg in first year (35.7k miles from Aug 7, 2006 to Aug 7, 2007)

granted, you have many more hills and miles than i do, and your fe is better, but i don't understand why you would use assist on a downhill when you are already being assisted by gravity. seems like needless waste of soc.

Note to Self: Stay out of assist!

Now that's just silly-talk. There are times on a downhill where I let off and charge the battery, other times I maintain it at a Neutral EV Assist because the SoC is too low to assist for very long but I'm still able to maintain the 100+ mpg mode, and other times I use EV Assist down a hill to keep up my momentum (rather than losing it to rolling resistance or regen braking) and this lets me roll farther once it levels out.

From the top of the hill where I catch the Interstate it is about 3.6 miles to Pittsburgh where the Interstate climbs up and over one of the rivers. My normal method is to get up to about 55 mph at the start of the downslope which is just past the entrance ramp end and with this head of steam I can then get the car into EV mode and add some EV Assist down this initial grade to get up to about 60-65 mph and stay in EV mode for the entire 3.6-mile stretch with two 1/4-mile sections in the middle that are mostly flat. If I do NOT get into EV Assist mode but get in EV mode only (or worse yet the regen braking mode) then I do not carry enough momentum to coast through either of these two flatter sections and the ICE kicks on and drops my ending FE in the high 40s instead of the high 50s (for the 4.5-mile trip -- the first mile to the Interstate is about 1 mile of steep uphill). If I DO get into EV mode + EV Assist then I can stay there until the trip odo for the day reads 4.6 miles and 55-68 mpg for the day. These are the times I use EV Assist heading down hills.

Now, if the next uphill is 2 miles long then it makes no sense to build up a head of steam but if the hill is 25 feet tall and rolling then you can coast over them while staying in EV mode. I keep testing myself when I take the same routes and see if I can coast from one hill to the next when the previous trip required the ICE. My own personal game.

I would say after your week of testing try to get the car into EV Assist as many times as possible and coast for as long as possible (it helps when no traffic is behind you though). Do this for a week and see what your FE is. If your car is warmed up then even some of those short 10-mile trips you make can be over 50 mpg. I have seen some of them that you note as downhill so I know you are doing it but it really takes concentration all the time to always hit EV Assist mode and time traffic lights and traffic patterns and things. I love the game. I'm sure you are doing fine though in your own area but I don't remember seeing a post after I wanted you to drive 100 miles in a single day and see what your ending FE was. =) Cheers.

--> Averaged 685 miles/week and 49.0 mpg in first year (35.7k miles from Aug 7, 2006 to Aug 7, 2007)

see, that's the thing. i was using your technique of maximizing ev-assist before, and the result was lower fe. so are you saying that you have tried both methods, and maximizing assist results in better fe for you than minimizing assist? can others weigh in on this?
now its 100 miles? it was 50 before. a little demanding, are we?

Note to Self: Stay out of assist!