My commute is all Highway. I usually set the CC at the speed limit and get about 50mpg. It's the short trips around town in the hills that I have been NC'ing on (neutral coasting).

 

How do you handle the uphill portions of the hill? You will find that you can eek a lot more saving out of going up than going down.

When I first got the car, I would coast as long as possible up the hill and then apply the gas when I reached the "minimum safe speed" for the road. Since then I've learned to add gas early but very lightly to slowly let your speed decrease as you head up.

For example, on a half mile long hill with aproximately 200 feet of gain, I would try to enter at 55mph/100mpg and then add gas early trying to keep it over 50mpg and let my speed slowly decrease to 40mph/35mpg by the crest of the hill (this assumes a 50mph speed limit). My mileage has gone up noticably since I've been doing this, which is a good thing since I can't drive across the street without going over a hill around here.

 

I do a slightly less extreme example. I don't want to lose 15mph.

If I'm going 40mph, I will increase to about 45 into the hill, then back my foot of and hold the gas steady until just before the crest of the hill. At that point I let off the gas, crest the hill and find 40mph again.

I find learning the local topography helps the most. A typical route home required three up and down hills before. I have found a route that keeps me at the top of the hill most of the way home.

 

I tried this today on a long straight stretch today... knowing I can EV glide at effectively 0 L/100K. I tried a small stretch in Neutral noticing that the IFM would bounce around from 2 - 4 so I will assume that Neutral glides will utilize fuel vs. EV glide that without question does not use fuel. To me its effectively the same thing as using Neutral accepting the vehicle is designed for an EV glide and I would think NOT designed for shifting between Drive and Neutral on a regular basis during transit.

The idea of a Neutral Glide is to remove the degenerative braking feature that is present on a "normal" coast.... the idea of an EV glide is to remove the degenerative braking feature and in addition utilize limited horsepower from the IMA to help the inertia of the coast.

The only wrench in this is that what goes down must come up and there have been times that the EV glide has exhausted the Batter Meter and therefore putting me in a forced regenerative situation which provides terrible mileage..... Therefore I suggest coasting and perhaps even applying break pressure on the downhills.. EV gliding on the straight/slight downward slopes and light accelleration uphill!

Now if only I had the patience to do that I could move my 5.8 L/100KM to 4.7 L which I have done on many trips when actually paying attention to my driving habits.

Cheers!!!

 

Well, I am going to have to practice my EVG. I thought it was more of a novely, b/c I could only do it on a flat road, for a short distance, b/t 30-40mph, and with great concentration.

 

Hey bro,

Couple thoughts:

A) early on, as with in 1,000 miles of purchase I asked a few important questions of the Honda dealer's sevice tech & the shops long term mechanic. The one that was replied sololy by the mechanic that the rep. didn't know was regarding the manul shifting out of "D" to ther gears for the sake of "Fake Shifting" to dupp the computer to add a couple tenth's per gal. here & there. The dude was very antimant about doing as such. He said he has sen his share of stertched belts & failed "CVT's" over the years because of this. regarding the use of "N" he said ( & i paraphrase ), "Have fun untill the first big thump".

Hardly did it before this was asked & haven't done it since.

B) This ones a tadd shorter, lol . I have always been one to try & stay up periodicly on what the "Hypermilers" of these high mile machines do to amaze the rest of us. Can't recall any of them, or ( for that fact ) rest of us bringing this up as a grand scheme to "Play the Cruise". No doubt there are many things to opt for, but if the "Godz" aren't happy I can't see the point.

Really worth a few tenth's ????

John


p.s. Now if you want to put a little "Paaazzzazzzz in your Route", do the ignition switch off trick. Again I rarely do it, but for the humor of limited success.

 

Well, with a neutral coast, the engine is idling and consuming fuel.

With EV gliding, you are possibly draining the battery and you are definitely spinning the engine, which introduces a lot of drag and reduces glide distances.

If only there was a way to be in neutral and not have the engine idling...

Do you guys experience a lurch when shifting from Neutral to Drive at any speeds? When I key off and then key back on at relatively high speeds, I get a lurch when I am still in Neutral, and then another when I switch to Drive. Because of this, I prefer to keep it in drive and the engine on at higher speeds. At low speeds, maybe 35 and below, everything seems pretty smooth.

 

Well there ya go now....

.... the definative word being maybe.

 

When you guys talk about "lurching" shifting from neutral to drive while rolling, are you just talking about the auto-clutch engaging, or something additionally?

--doug

 

What's your point? Would it help if I replaced maybe with approximately? That was the intent. Also, you should try spell checking.

What a joke!