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I don't think car uses EV mode as often (hybrid)

19K views 53 replies 15 participants last post by  InfinitiPlusOne 
#1 ·
Is it me, or does the EV motor not run as often as it should?

testing it in around my house, in eco mode, very light throttle increase keeps the car going in EV mode. god forbid you touch the pedal little harder to go from 5mph to 10 mph and engine kicks in... I was hoping in EV mode the battery would stay on longer for better savings.

or I don't know what I'm talking about, and it does this to charge the battery to 100% and accelerate the car and it all makes sense. lol

I'm curious what kind of range and power the car would have if we strictly drove it in EV mode.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Is the car warmed up?
When I leave for work in the morning I don't get EV mode for at least few minutes.
I never get it when leaving my 25MPH streets when I first leave.
I always get it in the 25MPH streets comming home...by then the car is obviously warmed up and has charge.


As for staying in EV mode, you can kind of guage as well when it will kick in the engine.
When your power needle moves to the far right on the white color side it will kick in the engine.
You can tinker with that by very lightly pressing the gas when in EV mode.
You willl see the power usage needle slowly move to the right until it is near the end and then the gas engine turns on.

It really doesn't take a ton of peddle to kick in the engine.

The electric motor is what.. mid 60's horsepower and around 200 ft/lb of torque.
It's not going to accelerate the 4000 pound car very much on it's own.
It looks to me like it's for a few things, no engine at a light, a push off the line at a stop light, cruising speed (below 63MPH), and when your stopping it shuts th eengine off to.

You can try the other trick to kick into EV mode.
Say you want to be going 40MPH.
Get the car up to 45MPH and take your foot of the gas.
Some people around here call it slingshoting into EV.
Punch it over your wanted speed and then foot off the gas.

I just drive normally to work and am getting around 33%-35% EV.
The car seems to figure it out just fine.
I don't slingshot myself or try anyting else to force it into EV.

The only place you might get very little EV is if your on the freeway.
If your cruising at say 75MPH unless your going downhill it will not drive in EV.
But it will use the electric motor in comination with your gas engine to help MPG when on the freeway.
 
#3 · (Edited)
The Q50 hybrid use a small battery. It is mainly design to assist acceleration to give you more horsepower and torque. The fuel saving is a bonus.
Here are some tips to get good MPG #:
1. Drive in Standard mode and try to put it in EV driving mode any opportunity you can.
2. When accelerate from complete stop; accelerate until you pass the speed limit and let go the gas pedal so it can go into EV driving mode. Once you saw the EV light turn on, immediately hold steady the gas pedal to keep it driving in EV.
3. If there is no traffic in the freeway, try accelerate to 80mph or more and let go the gas pedal and let it roll in EV. Once the RPM drop under 70mph, hold steady the gas pedal to maintain in EV as long as you can.

If strictly in EV mode, I think you only get 67hp. The range in a full battery is depend how fast you drive in EV. I heard someone manage to get 3 miles. But, I only manage to get 1.2 miles so far.
 
#4 ·
Even when the engine is running, it tends to stay at lower RPM when the electric is also supplying power, thereby providing better fuel economy, in addition to extra power when you need it. Not sure how many people notice it but I have been in a loaner (3.7) for a week now and you really begin to notice the difference.

For example, at the same speed and location on the highway, my hybrid will be at a very low RPM even when the engine is running but the 3.7 runs higher. Andrew mentioned this at the end of his post.
 
#5 ·
Very interesting... thanks guys!

Andrew, you say 63mph. is that a specific speed for the EV mode?

infinitiplus one, 1 to 3 miles on EV mode? I had no idea!!!! I figured at least 5-10 miles in strictly EV mode.

I guess I need to out of my head the fact that this hybrid is not like a accord/prius hybrid. It's primary mission isn't fuel efficiency, but performance booster instead. you just benefit from the ev when it kicks in.

how do I see how many EV miles I have driven? I thought there was a odometer that shows many miles miles I drove in EV mode. would be pretty cool to know how many miles I drove on a tank of gas with the engine miles vs ev miles.
 
#9 ·
Even 3 miles is really pushing it. I kind of doubt that person claim. So far, the best I can do is about 1.2 miles. 5 miles, I don't see it.
You can add the EV odometer from ... (craps can't recall from my head).
It's somewhere in the Intouch where you add more display information to your VID screen (the screen next to your RPM gauge).

infinitiplus one, 1 to 3 miles on EV mode? I had no idea!!!! I figured at least 5-10 miles in strictly EV mode.

how do I see how many EV miles I have driven? I thought there was a odometer that shows many miles miles I drove in EV mode. would be pretty cool to know how many miles I drove on a tank of gas with the engine miles vs ev miles.
 
#6 ·
I read the 63MPH thing somewhere.
Or at least I think it ws 63.


But if you going downhill at all it will go into EV at faster speeds from the downhill momentum.
Like if your on a freeway with rolling holls going 75.. going downhill you will go into EV.
 
#7 ·
I assume best way would be to put it on cruise control. it should use minimal throttle to continue at given speed.

I wish 63 was bit higher... speed limit here on the highway is 65. most people drive 65-75. I find 70-73 to be the perfect highway speed. would be speed if it continued at that speed in EV mode!
 
#8 ·
I think it's ok Z06.
Like Kazilla pointed out it still uses the electric motor on the freeway and looks like it's barely using the gas motor at times.
Even if your not in EV mode its still squeezing our better MPG for you with the electric motor.

The freeway though is the one spot where the Hybrid doesnt clobber the 3.7L on MPG.
3.7L 2WD is rated at 29 on the freeway and the 2WD Hybrid is 34.
 
#10 · (Edited)
On Straight parts of the highway on my daily commute, I've been on EV mode for 4 or 5 continuous miles and about 75-80MPH, as it has been mentioned before the trick is to go over your desired speed, floor it as you wish, and then let go off the gas, it will kick the EV on, and will stay like that until you get heavy on the gas pedal, so I've been able to even press the gas pedal a little to keep my speed and like I mentioned above, the most I've been is about 5 miles. However, this is not an easy task, as it depends a lot on traffic and other road type and conditions.

You will quickly learn how to maximize your MPG, I did in about 3 days, and as you can see in this other thread, I've been averaging over 43% of EV miles (over 1025 miles as of now in 2340 miles I have in the car) with an average of 33MPG, I've filled my tank just 5 times since I bought my car in November 9, and it'ss giving me about 480-500 miles per tank, what else you can ask for a car with this amount of raw power?
 
#13 ·
I still don't see how you can get 4 or 5 miles on strictly EV even with rolling for a good distance, then EV driving to maintain it. But, I do take your word for it since you are pretty good at it.

On Straight parts of the highway on my daily commute, I've been on EV mode for 4 or 5 continuous miles and about 75-80MPH,
 
#16 ·
erasat seems to be the king of ev mode.

Z06, do you even own your car yet? Are you doing it wrong? Yes, most likely. In my experience both with clients and with my own hybrid, there's a break-in period for both the car and the driver. You'll learn to better manager getting ev miles from the car, and it seems better able to get good mileage as it goes past 1200 or 1500 miles.

This is not a Prius. This car can actually accelerate. But hot acceleration costs you in gas.
 
#32 ·
Yes... Just bough it today and brought her home. I've (wife actually) been driving it for the past two days. I drove it around today to test it out. Put about 100 miles on the car so far.



I figured out how to do the EV Odometer as well. I see it has a tripmeter and an odometer. Cool... After begging her, she's gonna let me take it around for errands tomorrow instead of her taking it to work. LOL
 
#18 ·
I noticed Standard power train mode gets you into EV the fastest and most often.
The best way to get into EV is letting go of the gas. It will drop right into EV.

Also keep in mind the car won't go into EV mode right away after a start. You have to drive for maybe 3-5 minutes. After your first stop light or stop sign, the EV mode will start kicking in more frequently and stay on longer.

Don't expect to stay in EV unless you are on a flat road or going down hill. Going up hill in EV mode, you will lose speed so if you are still on the gas trying to maintain a certain speed, the engine will kick in.
 
#30 ·
I'm color blind. Could be purple or blue.
 
#36 ·
By "drive it like a Prius" people mean to use a series of steps that are proven to help with fuel economy on hybrid powertrains. It doesn't mean your car will perform like a Prius. It will not be as much acceleration as if you just drove without caring about economy but it will still be very good acceleration and way better than most hybrids on the road.
 
#37 ·
erasat is right. It all depends on how you drive. I have seen people come in for service averaging 33-35 mpg, but I have also seen 20-25 from the people that are hammering on it quite a bit. Our finance manager averages about 20 mpg because he drives the car like a f1 car. You will learn how to improve the fuel economy, it will just take some time to get used to.
 
#39 ·
the color is so **** close that I had to understand what color it was.

I can't find my DSLR camera bag, but once I do, I will set the correct white balance and post the picture. depending on your monitor's color balance, you will see the right color. lol
 
#41 ·
It wouldn't surprise me if it's worse in ECO mode for EV miles because it's a slog to get up to your cruising speed in ECO.
You only will go into EV at a steady cruising speed or when slowing down.

Try the slingshot method. :rolleyes:
Go 5 MPH over the cruising speed you want, and take your foot off the gas.
This doesn't always work, but if works quite often if you have enough battery.

Sometimes as well the car seems to just want to charge the battery.
So no matter what you do for a few minutes it's hard to get into EV mode because it puts more emphasis on charging.
 
#44 · (Edited)
I just filled my tank yesterday and today in my normal daily route, driving conditions were so great that I got 50% of EV Miles (12.7 EV miles of the 25.4), and when I looked at the display I saw a 41.1 MPG. You can imagine my surprise and happiness...:D

I'm not saying that it's a normal drive, but what's normal anyway? I mean normal for me is around 25 miles per trip, with a heavy traffic most of the time, that's my normal commute 5 days a week, 20 days a month and you can do the rest of the math...

So, knowing that my previous 2 cars (G37 and M37S) just gave me 18-19 MPG average, getting 33 MPG on this one driving in the same route in same conditions, for me is great and totally unexpected. Look in the Gas Mileage thread to see the pictures.
 
#49 ·
I noticed the EV mode is harder to get into since my October software update. It may be coincidental, but I noticed it change around that time. Could it be a software thing with the transfer between the two?
 
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