To throw in my 2 cents about the AS coast, I have reached 25mph in long hills during patchy traffic. It's bloody fun! Made me a wee nervous about restarting the car at that speed, but the lurch weren't all that bad...

As for Neutral, I don't use it, primarily since it engages the engine. And while I understand the challenge involved, I suspect it is better for FE to feather the pedal and Glide.

 

So you AS coast in D?



And thanks for the tip from the mechanic!

 

Yeah, in D. Haven't tried in N. Can't imagine it would be much different either way.

 

John (Mr. Kite),

No harm intended if so....

Simple clarification to my point would be, "The trans in this car was not in any way designed to work as been discussed in this "Thread" & think otherwise seems to make the possibility of troubles/repairs arise. When a professional in his field told me to resist temptation I listened & don't belivie the risk is worth a few 10ths per gal. @ any speed.

Just to note as well, if things seems to "Be a joke" on my part it is with "Very good Reason". For yrs. I took life far too serious, a clarification on this would be far to complicated, lol . Except to say, "I have learned to life like a loose garment, and find myself more the better person for it. Giving it thought, I do hope the "PinBall" fits me well as the daily-commuter for a long time to come. "23,000 + miles & still overly Enthusied".

.... "Sorry", that's not my style.

John

p.s. Spell check, well maybe. J/K with ya bro. Perfection has never been one of the strong suites.

 

I've never tried, or even thought of using NC. I have no trouble getting into EV glide and we have a lot of rolling hills. It does take some practice but once you figure it out, you can put the car into EV glide at any speed under 60, or over 60 going downhill. What kills mpg is not the hills, but the traffic lights. I can never make more than 2 lights at a time, and most of the time hit every light. I don't care what people think behind me at a light... I don't punch it at all. I keep the RPMs under 2,000 and even try to stay at 1,500 until 20-25mph, then let off the gas for a few seconds, then accelerate slowly up to the speed limit, unless I'm going down a small hill then I use it to accelerate quicker. I'm always looking ahead to the next light. If it's red, I let off the gas and coast to the light. If the person behind me doesn't like it, he can always go around, but he can't get pissed at me because I'd just say "where do you think you can go... the light is red!". I used to be one of those that would just go around the slow person and just end up sitting at the red light! A lot of little techniques that will tremendously help your FE.

I am working on my best tank out of 7 so far (only have 3K miles on the car so it's not even broken in). I have 500 miles with at least 2.5 gal left in the tank (2 bars on the fuel gauge and no fuel light yet), so if all continues to go well, I will easily hit 600 miles this tank (my best so far is 525 miles @ 49.2 mpg and I still had 2 gal left in the tank, but I was with my family on a trip and didn't want to take any chances as to how much fuel was left in the tank). Even with 500 miles on the trip meter, I'm still able to move the mpg up every 1/2 to 3/4 mile while in EV Glide.

 

I almost been driving the car for a year and I can count on one hand the number of times I have been into EV Mode.

A couple of you guys are writing about it as if it was like flipping a switch.

What am I missing here?

 

Those of us who drive manual transmission cars have been aware of this "coasting" effect for years

 

I'm sure you've read tarabell's guide to the HCHII on cleanmpg.com. The gas pedal is the key. If you put your foot on the entire pedal, or push from the middle or lower part of the pedal, you will have a hard time. The best place to put your foot on the pedal is using the ball of your foot (just below your toes) push only on the top of the gas pedal. The pedal is mounted on the floor, not suspended from the lower dash.



The pedal is extremely sensitive! I can be cruising at 65 with iFE at 75mpg, and even a miniscule shift of my foot can make the iFE bounce up or down.

Get yourself up to a few mph over speed limit. Lift the ball of your foot off the gas pedal and watch the iFE climb at least to 75mpg (you should see regen bars as well, and your mph will start to decrease which is why you should get 3-5 mph above the limit). Ever so slightly put pressure on the top of the pedal - what you're looking for is to reduce the regen bars to 0. Your iFE will still continue to climb to 100 - You're now gliding. If you see the iFE start to drop, or remain where it is below 100, then you've pushed too hard on the gas pedal - as tarabell and others put it, it's a "feathertouch". If you continue to feathertouch on the top of the pedal, you will see the assist bars start to rise - 1, then 2, then 3, then as you approach 4 assist bars, steady your foot, otherwise you will feel the ICE kick in and the iFE will start to drop. Even if you only see one assist bar, then you are in EV Assist. You can't get more than 4 assist bars in EV Assist. If you try, it you'll feel the ICE kick in and the iFE will drop. While in EV Assist, depending on the terrain will depend on how fast or slow your mph will decrease (or increase if you're going downhill). Also if you try to keep it at 4 assist bars, you won't be able to hold EV Assist as long as if you try to keep it at 2 or 3.

If you follow the steps in tarabells guide for Regen --> Glide --> EV Assist, you should be able to drop into EV Assist after a few times of "feeling" what you have to do.

When I'm in EV Assist, depending on the terrain I can hold it for several minutes as long as I have enough SoC, and the degrading mph is slow. I will slightly adjust my foot so as to not push it up to 4 assist bars all the time. 1 or 2 is usually fine to have it maintain, or slowly reduce mph. I can usually drop into EV Assist with only losing 1-2 mph.

 

Thanks for that great write-up.

One question: At what ranges of speed are you able to enable EV Assist?

Thanks again.

 

The average (easiest) range to drop into EV Assist is 15-50mph. There are some that say they can do it at less than 15, but if I'm in EV Assist at 15mph and driving through my neighborhood, EV Assist will continue down to 10mph as speed decreases. I've also had it in EV Assist at 55-65 on a flat stretch of road (not many around here) or any downslope.

In the early miles of the tank (less than 200 miles) when the mpg fluctuates more often, I can increase my mpg by .5 to 1.5 in EV Assist in a 1-2 mile stretch. I just drove up the hill to Auburn, CA. From my house to Auburn it's about 28 miles. The incline is about 2-5% over a stretch of about 20 miles. Elevation change goes from about 200ft to about 1000ft. I had about 420 miles on the tank so I wouldn't think the mpg would move much. Going up the hill I was able to only drop the mpg by .2 (46.9 to 46.7). I kept the speed about 55-60. Coming back down the hill doing 65-70 while making the most of regen as well as gliding, the mpg increased from 46.7 to 47.8 (1.1 mpg)! From start to finish, only 1 fuel bar disappeared (about 1/2 gal?) for a 56 mile round trip! In my other car (2000 Chevy Cavalier 4 cyl) I would have used 1/6 of a tank (a little over 2 gallons) or so! I am going to have to time it one time where I fill up in Auburn before I come down the hill and see how high I can keep the mpg!