This is mostly about my new personal best, but I think
many of you will find this interesting.

I have a ScanGauge and some other instrumentation that
helps me monitor what's going on, but otherwise, my
FEH is stock.

I have a 2005 FWD with Nav
I have all tires at 45psi
I have roof cross bars removed
I drive with only myself in the car and a few books
and tools.

I recenty found out 70'F is too hot for optimum FE.
The battery heats up and turns on the A/C.
If it's too cold, the engine runs more to keep
everything hot. So where is "optimum"??? Think I'm
darn close to finding it.

Start of trip 55'F outside.
End of trip 54'F outside.
Start of trip with FEH engine at 145'F
End of trip with FEH engine at 170'F
Elevation 4700ft +/- 50 feet.
Net elevation change: zero ( complete round trip )
Fuel tank 3/4 full.
Night time, headlamps on, radio on, 1 window open.

The ScanGauge records useful info.
This is all one trip:

I had 75.5 MPG at 11.9 miles of a 20.2 mile round
trip.
This was the peak. I did so much charging and
dis-charging, that even with 55 degrees outside, the
battery warmed up and kicked on the A/C at this point.

With intermittant A/C after this, I had 72.5 MPG at
18.0 miles of my trip, and 68.3 MPG at the end of my
20.2 mile trip. I had one case of ICE running at a
stoplight due to A/C running.

Min. Battery temp (at start) was 68'F, max. was 90'F.
Min. engine coolent temp was 145'F. max. was 181'F.
Ave. speed was 17 MPH, max. was 39 MPH.
Max. RPM was 2824. Round trip took 1.1 hours.

As you can imagine, this was all stop and go city
conditions, with about 5-6 miles of back roads.
It was 10pm to 11:10pm and traffic was light.

So how do you get 70+ MPG in a FEH?

Mostly "Pulse & Glide" with L gear when the engine is
running, D or N when the engine is not running.

I would use EV to get zero to 20 MPH.
( D or L does not matter )

I would use the gas engine to go from 20 MPH to 40
MPH.
( Have car in L gear by 40 MPH ) aka "pulse"

Release go pedal = rapid drop of RPM, and soon after
EV mode. COAST AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE NOW! aka "glide".

You can coast in any gear, using your right foot to
keep zero arrows on the energy display. If you don't
have Nav, then shifting to "N" is your best bet.

Repeat.

Gary G also likes to "Fake Shift". That is, release
the go pedal to drop RPMs, then bring them back up
slowly, to set the eCVT to a higher virtual gear. (
like "overdrive" ) This is helpful at speeds over 40
MPH... even at highway speeds, but I really didn't do
that at all during my most recent trip around town,
and well, I think the results were awesome.

I would like to think I could keep 75 MPG around town
for indefinate periods of time, but due to rapid
battery heating, this appears to be unrealistic.
In warmer than 55 degree weather, the A/C comes on
sooner. In colder than 55 degree weather, the ICE
comes on sooner!

So I guess, so far, the most "idealistic" condition
I've found for fuel economy is, outside air of 55
degrees, speeds under 40 MPH, and about 12 mile trips!

I'm fortunate my commute to work is 9 miles each way,
on roads with 35-45 speed limits, and morning temps
are often about 55 degrees in spring and fall! :-)

Cheers, good luck, and happy motoring!

-John

 

you ROCK.

 

CONGRATS, GPSMan! Awesome and definitely adds fuel to my desire to increase my MPGs further. This tank hasn't been so great. Three relatives in the hospital (Mom, brother-in-law, and husband's uncle) for different reasons, and multiple speedy trips to get things for them or look in on them, is killing my normally relaxed driving. (But in the FEH, "killing" my mileage still just means 33mpg.

Did you remove your roof bars by yourself or did someone else (dealer? service station?) do that? Since I don't think I'll ever use them I am tempted to take them off, too. Easier to clean the roof that way, anyway.

Even our nighttime temperatures are in the 80s now so I can't fret about what I can change re: optimal environmental temps for battery, but everything else is applicable.

 

The bars slide back and forth in that track. There is just a spring tab to press down to get them off either end.

One person can do it, but it's difficult.
With two people, it's a piece of cake to remove.
Easy. No tools required. Takes 4 minutes with 1 person. 2 minutes with 2 people.

You can put them on at anytime.
Probably worth 0.5 MPG at highway speeds, and not much around town.


P.S. 70 MPG is not easy, nor my typical driving. Typical for me with no A/C is about 42 MPG highway, 48 MPG city now. I'll need A/C ( for ME! ) soon!

Enjoy! I think you are doing very well Shannon, and taking everyone's suggestions to heart when feasible. For the first 6 mos. I had mine, I didn't have much data nor experience, and I was getting about 32-35 MPG.

-John

 

I've been thinking about doing this. I don't have anything up there, ever, and I drive 82 miles of an 86 mile commute both ways on an expressway.

I'm wondering if it'll look funky without them.

 

I took mine off a few months back and I like the cleaner look. I never bothered to do any testing to see how much difference it made but I think it HAS to help a little during the 90 miles a day of highway driving that I do.

 

Whooo hoooooo!!!!!!!!

 

wow 75mpg in a FEH.......


you need to call up the folks at Ford who have PHD's in mechanical engineering , and let them in on what you have found.

Ford could not for the life of them get the mileage to go at or above 40mpg. I guess they never tried it with no roof rack and only one person. Perhaps they skipped the part about the temperature controls , and malipulating them would yeild 75mpg.

Talk about a missed marketing bonanza. Now the FEH gets 75mpg , about DOUBLE the best efforts of Ford themselves. What a bunch of dummies........


Congrats on your more than overwhelming breakthru.......

 

Tom- Keep in mind I intentionally tried to optimize every condition I could. This was basically an "experiment" and not your typical commute.

However, in ANY condtion ( except -15'F, I finally met my match then.... ) I always beat the EPA numbers. ( but then again, the EPA does not test at -15'F, so who knows what their numbers would be then!!! Ha! )

Denver's elevation helps, but I do WAY better than the 31 MPG Highway.
Going fast ( 70-75 ) I can squeeze out about 33 MPG.
Going moderate ( 65 ) I can do 36 MPG. The "city" rating.
Going slower ( 55 ) I can get 42 MPG, consistently... which is the speed the EPA uses to get the "highway" rating, by the way...

In city stop and go, 25-42 MPH, I can make 54 MPG under most traffic conditions and when weather is above freezing.

I've come to expect 54 MPG on a daily basis now, but 75? It will be difficult for me to hit that. To be fair, round trip ( only round trips count, so there are no gains from elevation changes... I could report 250 MPG if I only went downhill ) was 68.3 MPG. The segment that yielded 75.5 MPG was mostly flat, but could have been 50 feet lower than where I started, if you know what I mean... no easy way to tell, so EVERYONE should only report complete round-trips. ( which also balance out headwind / tailwind conditions if the RT is completed within a few hours... )

BTW... at the Ford "open house" in Dearborn last October for FEH owners, a Ford employee stated:

"On our city route that closely mimics the EPA test, our best engineer could get 50.3 MPG after about a year of practice. We don't expect our customers to be able to do that, but we hope all our customers will meet or beat the EPA published 36 MPG."

With 1000 pounds of cargo ( counting the 5 passengers, incl 2 Ford employee's and a newspaper reporter ) I got 54 MPG on my first try.

The rules were simple: You could drive as slow as you wanted, but you were dis-qualified if you were honked at or saw anyone waving fingers. No honks during my trip!

Take Care, and with a little effort, anyone can save a little gas.
With a lot of effort, one can save a lot of gas.

-John

 

Oh yeah, I wanted to add, in my experience, it seems that 65 degrees results in the best MPGs, at least in MI.