How to get good MPG without driving stupidly

[zurk]

Basically without hypermiling, slowing down traffic, annoying the hell out of everyone etc.
1. Put your mid into the battery/engine display. this shows when gas is begin used and when battery is used. forget about mpg and the blue green b.s. Keep econ mode on. let the car idle for 30s until the rpms drop a bit if the blue cold light is on. while blue light is on drive gently until it goes off.
2. Accelerate smoothly from stop lights. ideally you need to accelerate until the assist battery meter pegs and does not keep rising. This is the same acceleration as a pickup truck (unloaded) and does not excessively annoy people. it will turn your blue-green indicator to a cyanish color. keep it held there until you reach the speed limit+15mph.
3. Now ease off completely until you see the fuel off icon and then lightly (not more than 10%) press the gas pedal. you should see it begin to charge, then begin to assist. the fuel icon will still show off (no engine support, only battery assist). keep it there at speed limit + 10mph until battery is depleted halfway.
4. Once battery is halfway, accelerate slightly until speed limit+12mph. this will cut off battery assist and reengage the engine. now you should see only engine and no battery assist or charge. hold it there.
5. When coming to a stop, let go of the gas pedal and lightly apply brakes (10%) until charging indicator is pegged. do not go beyond that or friction brakes engage. you will need to keep an eye on the guy two cars ahead and brake when he starts to brake.
6. when stop and going with long waits, keep the rolling speed below 8mph and brake 1% pressed. auto stop will engage but the car will roll forward until it gradually stops. this prevents gaps ahead of your car and longer auto stops..
7. keep AC off (ac off is displayed in the climate control) and defrost off as much as possible with the vents set to outside air intake. an anti fog compound like rainx applied to the windows on the inside helps a lot. i also use a rain repellent on the front and rear windshields on the outside.
8. Drive until 0 miles remaining is shown in your mid range display and then fuel up to full tank (single click). this will bring your mid mpg to the same accuracy as gps tracking without the annoying 2mpg variation.
hope this helps.

[Ehetleos]

Great post, thanks.
I used to do all the above (almost exactly as described and get a best of 4.8 lit/100 km or about 700km per tank of fuel)
Lately, with ECON off, I get better mileage (4.4-4.6lit/100km and about 800km autonomy) and better car performance (do not drive slow enough to annoy the rest). I guess it is all down to personal "settings" and needs...
Be well

[regeya]

People who've done this before will get where I'm going with this: drive like you're driving a truck with a heavy load. When you haul a load, you can't do jackrabbit starts, can't stop immediately, and to do that you have to pay attention to what's going on around you and plan ahead.

I agree on largely ignoring the blue light. Keep it in the green when you're at cruising speed, but keep the MPG gauge on the MID when you're doing this...so nevermind the blue/green light

[Moviemike]

Originally Posted by zurk

4. Once battery is halfway, accelerate slightly until speed limit+12mph. this will cut off battery assist and reengage the engine. now you should see only engine and no battery assist or charge. hold it there.

This is, I think, a great state for high mpg which I think of as "free wheeling." In this state there is no drag due to battery charging and thus ya get a higher mpg at a given mph. Best free wheeling is when the battery is full.

A better state is #3, which I think of as "ev mode," but small battery capacity puts a limit on its use. Once the battery is drained some, there is reduced mpg as the battery regens - during acceleration or steady cruising.

On my usual route in my hilly area, I've set aside some downgrades for free wheeling -to get increased speed to help up the next upgrade: and other downgrades are set aside for max. battery regen.

Movement of the Chg - Asst meter, gas pedal pressure, and listening to the car give me input for doing 3 & 4 above. I keep the MID on the mpg slider. It helps me with my goal of cruising at 75 - 100 mpg, tells me when I'm in ev mode with 100 mpg and slight Asst with gentle gas pedal pressure, also helps me reduce my rate of acceleration to 50 mpg when at 30 mph or higher, traffic permitting.

[zurk]

BTW eco off cut my mpg by 10% vs eco on. but the car was more responsive.
YMMV.

[jpleong]

From the man who coined the term: Hypermiling is getting better than the EPA estimate. That's all... so what you're advocating here is hypermiling

JP

[weskm]

Originally Posted by zurk

BTW eco off cut my mpg by 10% vs eco on. but the car was more responsive.
YMMV.

I just got my Insight Ex last wek of February and read through the manual it indicates that the 'S' mode allows you to drive the car like a manual stick with no clutch using the paddles.....

Doing that with ECON mode, will it help get better milage then usinf 'D' and allowing the transmission to do it's own shifting?

[red1dr]

Originally Posted by jpleong

From the man who coined the term: Hypermiling is getting better than the EPA estimate. That's all... so what you're advocating here is hypermiling
JP

Sort of. But the man who coined the term wouldn't agree with:

Originally Posted by zurk

keep it held there until you reach the speed limit+15mph.

It does seem paradoxical to see that advice in the OP of a thread titled
"How to get good MPG without driving stupidly"

[Moviemike]

Originally Posted by weskm

I just got my Insight Ex last wek of February and read through the manual it indicates that the 'S' mode allows you to drive the car like a manual stick with no clutch using the paddles.....

Doing that with ECON mode, will it help get better milage then using 'D' and allowing the transmission to do it's own shifting?

No.

"S" mode continues automatic shifting through various "speeds" (or "gears" as they used to be, prior to the CVT). According to the manual "S" mode has "a more aggressive set" of speeds then does "D".

Using the paddles, is for the most part just like shifting a 7 gear manual transmission. I did alot of experimenting and found that using paddles for max. mpg lead me to the same "shift points", as did using "D" and devoting more attention to enjoying the CD !

[Beechjetn]

I've tried using zurk's advice above and found I have further questions:

When using #3 (EV mode), I see my speed consistently drop off no matter how carefully I apply the accelerator. On highway drives (even with a long-scale gentle down-slope), speed slowly decreases until I see traffic coming rapidly up behind me (around 45), and I feel it prudent to get back up to somewhere in the vicinity of posted limit. On city streets, I am able to maintain speed limits of 35 - 40 for short times, but as soon as I encounter any upslope, speed drops off again. Going down my own (quiet suburban) street, I determined to see what I could do without any gas engine intervention: speed stabilized around 19 mph. What (if anything) am I doing wrong?

Granted that I live in NE Ohio, and the terrain around here is gently rolling hills. The land very gently slopes downhill going south (generally) and vice-versa.

Also; once I have depleted the assist batteries and drive at the "zero-charge" point for an extended time ("freewheeling" as MovieMike calls it), assuming the assist batteries take some period of time to fully recharge, how do I assure that they are fully charged for my next drive?

Your guidance and advice is welcome!