How to use more battery & less gas

[Shuttlecraft]

Hi,

This is my second week with my 2011 Insight and I was wondering if there were any tips/tricks to use more battery and less gas? I am doing the usual keeping it in the green, maximizing my breaking, not speeding up to lights, not speeding at all, letting my speed reduce slightly uphill and then slowly increase down the other side..... I always feather the gas pedal to try and keep my instantaneous MPG as high as possible but still maintain an acceptable speed for the given road. But how can I use more electricity and less gasoline?

Thanks,

Mike

[cworley5150]

I am a new Insight owner as well. It sounds like you are doing the same things I am doing and I am averaging 40-45 mpg so far with all city driving.

There is a way that the car will run strictly on battery power. They call it EV (electric vehicle) mode around here. You can tell when it does this by watching the battery/gas display on the MID. When you have been coasting, just barely press the accelerator and you will see the battery feed the little car on the display without any gas power being displayed. This is just barely enough to keep your speed on level ground, if that even. I have learned to be able to tell by the feel of the car when I am in this mode and when the gas engine kicks in. It is hard to keep the car in EV mode and it won't do it for long before the battery gets too low and it needs the gas engine for regenerating.

Try it. It's fun!

Man, I am such a nerd.

Chris

[circa1986]

For me sometimes if you hit the gas pedal with moderate force, then get off of it, and then go back on the gas pedal with very light force (as described above) you can get into EV mode. But it is very difficult to maintain and you will probably lose speed if you are going above 35 mph or so and/or are going uphill.

[Shuttlecraft]

Thanks for the tip.

I will try that on my drive home today. On a flat stretch or down hill I'll switch to the battery screen and see if I can gently press on the gas pedal and see if I can get the car to only run on battery.

[Shuttlecraft]

I was able to use the EV mode however I see you can't maintain your speed in EV mode unless you are going downhill or at very low speeds in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I found that driving on the LIE (495 on Long Island) you can go into EV mode going down hill however you sacrifice speed and you then have to accelerate to regain whatever speed you lost to get back up to whatever cruising speed you were at before. If not then you hit the next hill at the reduced speed. I was cruising at 60MPH and using EV mode let my speed drop down to 45MPH. The hills on the LIE aren't big at all by any means but just an annoyance when trying to keep the MPG up as high as possible.

Coming down the other side of the Throgs Neck Bridge I was able to use EV mode the whole way and keep an acceptable speed so that worked well.

On the Cross Island there was bumper-to-bumper traffic and when traffic picked up to 15 or 20 in some places I was able to maintain a speed of 11mph in EV mode for a stretch until the traffic came to a stop.

Has anyone else has had any better luck with the EV mode? Is there something I'm missing?

[mrkcohen]

Has anyone else has had any better luck with the EV mode? Is there something I'm missing?

No you're not missing anything. The IMA battery-only operation you describe is all the Insight is capable of. In my opinion it's not even really a true EV mode as the crankshaft continues to turn with the IMA motor (as indicated by the RPM gauge) unlike the Prius, Volt, etc., where the crankshaft is actually decoupled from the electric motor(s).

Also keep in mind any energy flowing from the batteries while decelerating or going downhill (as compared to energy flowing to the batteries via regenerative braking) will need to eventually be replenished using the engine anyways, so in the long run you probably don't gain much.

But I agree it's kinda cool to watch the car seemingly being driven by the batteries. I've found some spots where I can actually get a couple miles...

[Jayemtee]

Your true objective isn't to use more battery and less gas. It is to use the gas in your tank as efficeintly as possible. Perhaps if you paid less attention to where the energy is coming from and paid more attention to the MID screen that shows instant MPG, you could learn the sweet spots of how much gas pedal to use.

[circa1986]

Originally Posted by Jayemtee

Your true objective isn't to use more battery and less gas. It is to use the gas in your tank as efficeintly as possible. Perhaps if you paid less attention to where the energy is coming from and paid more attention to the MID screen that shows instant MPG, you could learn the sweet spots of how much gas pedal to use.

Precisely! It seems to me that the only benefit of the hybrid is that you are collecting some of the energy of braking as electricity which would otherwise be expelled as heat.

[mrkcohen]

It seems to me that the only benefit of the hybrid is that you are collecting some of the energy of braking as electricity which would otherwise be expelled as heat

Regenerative braking is certainly one of the benefits of the hybrids but I don't agree it's the only one.

1) The electric motor allows for a much smaller ICE. A big part of the fuel savings, at least in most of the Honda line is the small 1.3 liter engine which would be unacceptable to most people without the motor assist.

2) Don't underestimate the fuel savings from the autostop feature. Some red lights can be 2-3 minutes long and the fuel non-hybrids burn while not moving adds up over time.

3) Not really unique to hybrids anymore but the instantaneous feedback about fuel usage in immensely helpful in learning how to drive in an efficient manner. When I got my Civic hybrid in 2002 I didn't have the MID and fancy color schemes to guide me but the instantaneous fuel mileage gauge was all I needed to show me how to drive using minimal fuel.

[circa1986]

Originally Posted by mrkcohen

Regenerative braking is certainly one of the benefits of the hybrids but I don't agree it's the only one.

1) The electric motor allows for a much smaller ICE. A big part of the fuel savings, at least in most of the Honda line is the small 1.3 liter engine which would be unacceptable to most people without the motor assist.

2) Don't underestimate the fuel savings from the autostop feature. Some red lights can be 2-3 minutes long and the fuel non-hybrids burn while not moving adds up over time.

3) Not really unique to hybrids anymore but the instantaneous feedback about fuel usage in immensely helpful in learning how to drive in an efficient manner. When I got my Civic hybrid in 2002 I didn't have the MID and fancy color schemes to guide me but the instantaneous fuel mileage gauge was all I needed to show me how to drive using minimal fuel.

1. Very true.

2. Autostop can be enabled on any car. In Europe, many non-hybrid cars are fitted with this feature.