We bought our Xiao Bai (Little White) HCH last month and we decided to drive it like a normal car the first month to see where the mileage would be. It became quite clear that the 42.7 MPG on the first tank that we were not driving it correctly.

Unfortunately, this tank is also not very good thanks to a trip down to Eugene by my fiancée' who, bless her heart, thinks that flooring it is the best way to drive a car.

So this morning, I reset Trip meter #2, filled up my tires to about 40, actively denounced everything I was taught by my father about maintaining a constant speed, and made fun of all the ultimate driving machines in my rear view swerving and jockeying for position only to be held up by yours truly driving the exact speed limit. (Ok, that last bit was fun... BMW drivers really bug me).

Portland, OR is about the furthest thing from flat as you can imagine. I have massive hills everywhere and there are relatively no flat areas on my commute to work. Frankly, I expected all the tips and advice that Steve had written here would be cancelled out by all the steep grades.

Fortunately, I was wrong. When I accelerated, I only used 4 to 5 bars on the assist. I tried to maintain at least 20 MPG on the FCD. The results:

53.6 MPG

We'll see how well it works on the way home as it's a bit more of an uphill battle, but I'm just extremely happy that I finally made my mileage in the 50's. I'll update you all on what I get on my trip back.

Thanks Steve.

 

You are surely welcome.
When I first bought my HCH last January I knew nothing of driving for efficiency.
My numbers showed that.
After scouring the web for, and finding tips here, there, everywhere, and help from Insighers like Wayne I finally made a central article.
I'm so happy that the article helped you.
Sounds like you have about the same terrain as I do, I'm in the foothills of the foothills in N. Georgia.

Good luck and please keep us up to date!

 

Rooba,

Good to hear about your improvement. I followed Steve's advice also when I first got my car. I had to modify a few techniques since I have really steep hills on my commute at the foot of the Colorado Rockies.

It would be interesting to see the MPG difference between a net increase in elevation and a net decrease in elevation on your trip. On my commute, the difference is a bit over 1000 ft. Going up, I can get between 42 and 49 mpg. But coming back down (depending on wind, temps, other drivers, etc.) I can get 53 to 75 mpg. In fact once going down in elevation, I was so close to 80 mpg, but a car in front of me had to make a turn and made me slow down pretty badly. Oh well.

Enjoy your Little White HCH.

jinno

 

Well, it was 4:00pm here in the Rose city and it was time for me to head home. I knew that this was going to be an uphill battle for me and Xiao Bai, but we were ready. I strapped myself in and Xiao Bai revved up her little lights and I swear I heard just a slight, faint, "bring it on" from the dashboard.

The path home is a treacherous one, it starts out with many side streets filled with ICE cutters reving their engines in wait to cut me off so I have to slam on my brakes to avoid giving Xiao Bai a nose job. After navigating cut-off land, we merge onto I-5 for a short, but taxing incline for about 5 miles. This wouldn't be so bad, but when we merge, traffic is always either stopped or moving at about 5 MPH... it then immediately increases to 60. Once we exit the harrowing I-5, we enter the gas guzzing corridor known as Multnomah Blvd. Speed will range from 40 to 15 MPH and agian, it is riddled with those evil "ICE cutters" who think that a 2 second gap of braking distance for Xiao Bai is their spot. Finally, we arrive to our neighborhood where Xiao Bai has to climb about 400 feet in less than 2 miles. Most times we avoid the short way home and take the longer way with less incline, but the result is the same. Our MPG is in the... dare I say it... the ICE range.

The results? 37 MPG on the way home. Average for the day was 45.3 MPG.

Jinno... The elevaton change for me is about 800 FT, not quite as bad as yours. Most of my hills are really long inclines that are just steep enough that I have to hold the accellerator at about 20 MPG on the FCD. I've tried doing a purge and coast method, but I get about the same results. Any suggestions. Also any tips on dealing with the 2 mammoth inclines would be helpful.

 

Rooba,
(first, sorry this post ended up so long)

For the description you gave of the type of driving for your uphill "battle," 37 mpg really isn't too bad. By the way, I enjoyed your literary style in portraying your drive home.

To work (the net uphill trip), when I face a series of hills, I usually gain momentum going downhill by allowing myself to go above the speed limit (as much as 70 mph in a 60 mph zone -- as long there are no state troopers around) while keeping the FCD around 60 MPG. On the next uphill (usually steep), as my speed starts to get back down to 60 mph, I accelerate but try to keep the FCD around 40 MPG. Some climbs are long enough that my speed may go down to 55 mph or lower, so I allow some electrical assist, but try to stay between 35 and 40 MPG.

Now I have a similar case to yours where sometimes I end up merging onto traffic and need to go from 10 mph up to 60 or 65 mph while also going up a hill. I have two methods:

1. If there is NO ONE around I accelerate until I start to get IMA at a few bars. Then I ease off the gas to get as close to 40 MPG on the FCD while still getting electric assist. The problem is that acceleration is really slow, and you should only do this if there's no one around when you need to merge or go up a hill.

2. If I know that there is other traffic to worry about, and the FCD will be below 30 MPG, I go ahead and use as much IMA as possible.

In other words, if I see the FCD at 20 MPG and the IMA only at half, I go ahead and accelerate to get full IMA -- reasoning being that I can hurry up and get up to speed in a short period of time, merge safely, then get back to steady FCD at 60 MPG or above after I get up to speed limit. In my case, I can get away with this since I know that the road ahead has some downhills that allow me to get my charge back up and to keep my FCD between 60 and 80 MPG.

I don't know if these are the best methods, but these are the ones that have stuck in the past few weeks.

If you come up with some better methods, please post. All us hilly-terrain drivers are willing to try different strategies in this HCH "game."

jinno

 

Hi All:

___I hope I can add something to the discussion although I do not own an HCH.

___I have a saw tooth 250’ climb out with a few 20 - 50’ drops in between over ~ 5 miles from the toll booth at I295 and I55 here in Chicago to Lemont Road on I55. With that, I never use assist except for initial acceleration from the toll booth if there is traffic at the toll gate. 4 bars is my own maximum limit of 20 bars available in the Insight 5-speed. Assist simply isn’t intended for long climbs but for acceleration from a stop or slow speeds and emergencies imho. In other words, use the ICE for climbing all by itself is my idea of maximum fuel economy through a climb. For the first climb of ~ 100’ in ½ - ¾ of a mile after the toll gate, I slowly accelerate up to ~ 40 mph (merging speed onto I55) and stick there to the first peak just as the merge lane disappears. On the downward slope of maybe 30’ loss in elevation, I try and accelerate up to 48 to 49 mph or so and bleed off what I gained through the next climb and again, sit at 45 mph through the next 50 + foot climb. I accelerate w/out assist on every flat and slight drop between the inclines until I have finally reached a 660’ elevation ASL at Lemont Road. I then have an ~ 80’ drop into a small bowl in which I gain speed to 56 - 59 mph in order to tackle (using the DWL technique) the next 110’ climb back at the peak at I355 and I55 at 670’ elevation ASL.

___I do not know how helpful this will be in any of your particular circumstances with the HCH (w/ a stick or CVT) because although these hills are killers to me, 250’ is probably nothing in comparison to what most of you have to climb on a daily basis. With the above, I can usually climb the inclines in the 70 - 80 mpg range in lean burn with the declines pegged at 150 mpg unless accelerating slowly where I try and hang in the 90 - 100 mpg range. I usually lose 1.5 mpg over this entire 10 mile ordeal out to I355 but can usually gain back what I lost in the next 5 miles or so. Slower speeds will help tremendously when climbing so don’t forget that there are minimum speed limits that you can follow too. With your eye on the rear view mirror of course!

___And the best climbing method … Slow way the heck down. My last commute out to work had me following a slightly disabled packing truck just after I had left the toll booth at I294/I55 at the beginning of the climb out. He had his emergency flashers on and I followed him for the entire 10 miles of climb/descent/climb/descent/climb … I had 104.x mpg showing on the segment display at the toll booth and finished the climb out at 105.x. He was driving with load given the disabled nature of his diesel truck and was climbing at between 33 and 37 mph. Across the flats and downward slopes, he would max out at 43 - 46 mph. In other words, if there is a slowly moving vehicle w/ emergency flashers or just a slow moving truck of any type in front of you on any climb, get behind him and stick there. Enjoy the fuel economy as you won’t see this but once in a lifetime and it might just happen when you have a record tank going and you really really need it

___And with the above, I am always in fifth so if I were to drop too much below 33 mph, I will have to downshift before I see 4 bars of Assist. An HCH w/ CVT might handle the above completely different so use your game gauges to help you find your own best methods. I do know that the slower you go, the less energy it takes to climb but with the idea of being in the tallest gear possible as opposed to first or second where you can climb anything but at the expense of a large hit in fuel economy …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net