Highly interesting.

I guess we take it where we can get it !

 

I have to drive 1.7 miles on a small rough paved road to get to the highway. I slowly accelerated to my usual 45 mph adding the CC.
I took these scan gauge readings just as it turned to 5 miles. These readings may not be as accurate as they could be. I had moved the SC from my wife's new pickup to the TCH. I set it to default then did the setup for the TCH. I may try this again to compare after I run though a tank of gas.

miles 5
gals .14
mph 35.8
avg mph 29.0
hours .1

 

Thanks, Jimmy, for going to the trouble.

Very interesting info.

The only way I get good mileage on a trip this short is to start out with warm engine (at least block heater warmed) AND with a very high state of charge.



Jack

 

I can get on a good exit from the oasis about 2 city blocks to get the car to 40mph, then I accelerate to 60mph (speed limit 55). I keep it at cruise for about 8 miles, then at the hill before the exit (about 1/2 mile before the exit) I let the car coast down to 40mph (usually about 100-200ft into the exit ramp), then I run in battery mode to the toll gate (about 3 city blocks). I come out of the gate slow and uphill and can usually make it to the next ramp on battery (about 1/2-3/4 mile) and then accelerate to 60mph.

 

Jack, I forgot to mention it was 101 degrees outside when we left the house. The engine heated up rather fast in this heat.

104 degrees at 3:10 mdt 11% heat index 98

Jimmy

 

Thanks for the extra details.

"oasis" ? Is that the gas station ?

Jack

 

Important temperature data, thanks.

And we think it's hot on Texas.

With that kind of sun load, did you ever consider solar energy ?

I bet you could run in EV all summer on the amount of energy you collect just on the roof of the car.

 

I wish they did make a high output solar panel to aid the traction batteries. It's really sunny out here almost year round. Some stats say, 358 sunny days a year for Southern New Mexico. Another stat says, 320..

 

I'll leave this poll open, but I think the likely responses are mostly in now.

Many thanks to all who responded, particularly to those of you who actually went out of your way to do a test drive specifically for the poll.

I'm discounting Darrel's 60 mpg data point. While extremely interesting in it's own right, the trip was too long for the conditions of the poll question.

From the 10 remaining responses, the result for the nominal 4 mile trip is that the average (mean) is 37.5 mpg. The mode and median were also in the range of 36 to 40.

I find it interesting that:
the average, here, of "best" mpg's for 4 miles is 37.5,
while Darrel's result for 8 miles is 60 mpg,
and my own typical experience for an initial trip of the day of 2 miles is about 20 mpg,
and for an initial trip of one mile or less sometimes less than 10 mpg.

It seems to me that it simply takes a definite amount of fuel to start up the car and get it through it's unavoidable initial warm-up sequence, and the shorter the initial trip, the less opportunity there is to average in that initial start-up penalty.

Finally, let's recall that the question asked for "best" experience. I'm wondering how different the response might have been if I had asked for "worst."

Perhaps I'll start a new poll on that.

 

Further to this, I will add that I, myself have sometimes done a 4 mile trip with the engine warm and a good SOC starting out and got approx 40 mpg, (above average in this poll) but today starting out with a warm engine and a low SOC I got 26 mpg (right at the low end of responses to this poll).

And, I further add that, first thing this morning, I started out with a cold (overnight) engine (albiet in 82F outside temp.) and a low SOC and did an initial trip of only one half mile. Result: 8.8 mpg.