Hi all, I bought my NAH a couple weeks ago. Since the manual seems to have minimal information and the dealer probably doesn't know what a hybrid even is (sidenote: I went to 4 dealers before settling, and not one of them mentioned the tax credit), I thought I'd come to the experts. I'm sure some of these have been discussed before so I apologize in advance:

- What is the standard time needed to warm the electric motor? My blue light turns off after only a minute or so, but I get little to no electric assistance for at least the first 10-15 minutes. The first few minutes of my commute is city (I live in Hoboken) but then I am on the highway for 25 miles.

- My mileage has seemed pretty poor, based on what others have reported on the site. My first tank was 31mpg (auto-calculated by the car), I'm halfway through the 2nd tank and am getting 31mpg again.
I might drive a bit more aggressively than average, but I've been making a conscious effort to drive smoothly and I doubt my habits contribute to -5 mpg of performance. Is this to be expected from mostly highway driving?

- A friend of mine recommended getting the FIRST oil change very early, say 1,500 miles. A good use of time/money, or an old wives tale?


Thanks!
Josh

 

The mileage you're seeing does seem a bit low, but it isn't wildly out of line with some of the other drivers here. A couple of possible contributing factors, besides the mostly-highway commute, would be

* systematic error in the trip computer measurements (some of us see a +/- 2MPG error on this, others see almost none). Maybe yours is reading low.

* air conditioning (or, I suppose, heater) running full blast

* high speed highway driving (mileage drops off sharply as speed increases).

* ethanol in the local gas supply could hurt mileage

If you want to get a feel for what kind of mileage the car is capable of, take it for a 20-30 mile drive on some suburban roads (somewhere you can safely drive 35-45mph, without too much traffic). Especially if the engine is already warm, I think you'll find the mileage average increasing.

Did you reset the trip computer's average mileage when you refilled? If not, at least some of that 31mpg is carry-over from your first tank.

 

Thanks for the reply, Jason. I did reset the gauge after gassing up, so it's not a carryover. The weather has been mild, so I don't think the A/C is affecting it much. I will have to do the math next time I fill up and see if the calibration is off, and try your suggestion on the suburban roads.

Josh

 

Don't forget the "break-in" factor. Until your engine breaks in and loosens up, you will not achieve maximum gas mileage.

 

You need to hand calculate the tank on a few refills to really see where you are. I reset now every tank... and it can be accurate... but it can also be WAY off. I haven't figured out the mojo yet of what makes it dead on one day and not another. If you are a lead foot driver... your MPG will reflect your driving style. We find nowadays that we do consistantly 35-36 mpg when we aren't too careful about how we drive.

Gripper made us all aware of the fact, also, that heat over 100 kills MPG. With this knowlege... I found that "time of day" actually heat conditions on the road really affect results. If I drive in the morning when the roads are cool... I got better MPG than when I drove at high noon on a hot day.

 

Thanks for the comments, all. What about the time it's supposed to take for the battery to be charged? Mine definitely takes 10-15 minutes, during which I get little to no electric motor use.

 

I think it is more like 5-10 minutes for me; I don't think the engine is really warmed up until at least 5 minutes into my commute (even though the little blue light goes off sooner). It takes longer if the heater is running - it seems to be running the ICE just to get the "waste" heat, rather than to charge the batteries.

It might take longer if your drive makes lots of demands on the electric motor as a booster. My commute doesn't require any strenuous climbs during the warmup period.

 

JoshP,

Welcome! The warm-up period is not for charging the battery but for warming up the catalytic converter so the engine can start and stop smoothly. It shouldn't take more then 5 to 10 minutes depending on how cold it is, however mine always takes a little bit longer then the blue light indicates. I think the car is ready when the light goes off, but because the computer is always scanning for the best times to charge or not charge the battery, there are many times that the car does not go in to EV mode below 40 even after long drives.

There is also no reason to wait until the battery indicator is full because that rarely happens. The system is balanced so that during normal operation the charge is usually around the top quarter give or take a little. During high AC usage or driving in EV mode for over a mile or driving in constant stop-and-go traffic you may drain the indicator down to almost empty, but then the engine comes on and charges it up for a while. The battery is never fully empty and the only time I have ever seen the battery indicator full was at the end of a long mile+ downhill with light breaking.

Hey good luck with your NAH. I really love mine.

 

I'm not supposed to wait until the blue light goes off to start driving, right??

 

No no, do not wait for the light to go off. You will be wasting gas and your mpg
will suffer as the engine will be on all the time but your miles driven for that
period will be zero.

The blue light just says that the engine is warm (not cold) anymore. It has some
correlation with the catalytic convereter (CC) temperature needed to shift to EV mode
but it is not the same.

Usually in summer I get into EV mode after about 2 miles driving at around
30 mph. (4-5 mins). Now in fall as temperatures are lower I find it is
taking 1-2 mins longer. This is to be expected as the CC is warming up from
a lower temperature and needs some more time to get to the required temperature.