Woodchuck Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 When I got my FFH in May I was able to drive in EV mode at the advertised 47 mph. For the last couple of months I can not maintain EV mode above 45 mph, even if the high voltage battery shows full charge. Anyone else seen a drop off in maximum EV speed? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolder Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Mine has stayed the same at 45 on the speedometer since new in Jul. 09. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfruth Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Mine has stayed the same (little over 45) since day one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennisw Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 I have had mine go as high as 47 quite a few times; it takes just the right circumstances and a light foot on the throttle. It is fairly ease to maintain 45 when there is adequate battery charge but the distance you can drive at 45 is not a very large window. I have driven at 45 when my battery was at full charge indicator all green for about 1 mile. I have been able to drive at 35 battery full charge for over 2 miles and beyond. There is nothing wrong with your car, you will again see 47 if you are patient. Driving at 47 in my experience usually happens when you are coming into a slower speed zone from driving say 65 or so then slowing down to 47 with everything just right, battery, terrain and so on. Just enjoy driving 45 and smile when you pass a Prius or Camry with you in electric mode and the Toyota's sucking gas. As you own your FFH longer you will again on occasions see 47, this will be something you can use to fine tune your right foot to obtain. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodchuck Posted September 28, 2011 Author Share Posted September 28, 2011 If I put the dash in the empower mode you can watch at what speed the EV signal comes on. This does not indicate that the car has enough power to operate at that speed, just that the car is within the EV speed. Used to be that the EV indicator would kick on at 47 when the car was decelerating from say 55. Now even with a full battery charge and going down hill it doesn't come on until 45. Seems to me something has changed. I didn't have much trouble running the car at 45 mph in EV mode when it was new. Now its difficult. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennisw Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 (edited) If you have an owner’s manual it explains this pretty good. If the green indicator comes on at a certain speed this does not mean you can go that speed and it does not necessarily mean this is the top speed you are able to achieve. This green barrier is an indicator of the power you have and the larger the green barrier the further you are able to drive. The trick is to keep the power indicator within the green EV barrier indicator. The less power you use the closer to the bottom of this range zone your indictor will be. The empower mode helps you know how much throttle you have to play with, to gain or maintain speed while in EV mode. There is nothing wrong with your car you will find many little variations the longer you own your car. The longer you drive the car the more familiar you will be with the functions and the easier it will be for you to keep your power indicator within the EV green window and the better your mileage will become. I for the life of me cannot see how people cannot easily without even trying achieve 41 and above in town, I cannot get my car to get less than 40’s in town and this is without hyper mileing or creeping from a stop. My wife does not even attempt to drive in electric and she too never gets the mileage out of the 40’s. If I were the only driver of this car I would have no problems keeping the average above 50’s and most likely in the 60’s without hyper mileing or any other tricks other than normal fuel conservation methods like anticipating stops and driving constant speeds. Edited September 28, 2011 by dennisw 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfruth Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 hey Wood Is your MPG dropping - if so that would help document something may be wrong (not sure how you 'prove' is not the operator) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennisw Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Here goes the paranoia, there is nothing wrong with this car it is completely normal and for the people that can’t achieve high numbers it is caused by their driving style and habits period. It is just very difficult to drive at exactly 47 mph this is just the EV cut off mph and the fine line at 47 is hard to achieve. Like I said before just enjoy the great mileage even if you are not able to hit 47 on the head on each trip out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mort Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Hi Woodchuck, I have almost 30,000 mi on my 2010 FFH. I didn't pay close attention to my maximum EV speed when I got the car, but testing today the green EV bracket shows until 47 mph. And when the battery is near full charge I can drive at 47 in electric only. -mort When I got my FFH in May I was able to drive in EV mode at the advertised 47 mph. For the last couple of months I can not maintain EV mode above 45 mph, even if the high voltage battery shows full charge. Anyone else seen a drop off in maximum EV speed? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buster1 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 47 here 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonoreTn Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 When I got my FFH in May I was able to drive in EV mode at the advertised 47 mph. For the last couple of months I can not maintain EV mode above 45 mph, even if the high voltage battery shows full charge. Anyone else seen a drop off in maximum EV speed? I hope you guys all realize that your great FE is not because you are driving in electric mode. Yes, at that time you are getting infinite miles per gallon because you are using no gas. But the engine has to make that up at other times by charging the batteries. The process of running the ICE to charge batteries through the generator/motor, then running the motor with the batteries is less efficient than the ICE driving the wheels directly, at a specific and ideal engine rpm and car speed. The reason you get good mileage over the average of the tank, is the computer knows when to throw away waste power into the batteries, and also keep the engine at the ideal operating RPM. And yes, running on pure electric when the batteries are highly charged is part of the strategy, but only part. It's the computer strategy, not the electric running of the wheels that gives you great FE. So don't fret about how much time you spend in electric mode, it's effectively a moot issue overall. Just go with the light foot and enjoy. The Chevy Volt demonstrates dramatically that on a steady state basis, using the ICE to charge the batteries to run the motors does not give you Fusion level FE's. I know that several of you on this thread already know this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acdii Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 I dont know if anyone else has noticed, but the FFH runs on EV even at highway speeds. Thought that was pretty cool when I saw that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funny Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 I dont know if anyone else has noticed, but the FFH runs on EV even at highway speeds. Thought that was pretty cool when I saw that. Are you referring to the power assist that the HVB provides periodically? You will not be able to drive in pure EV mode above 47 mph. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennisw Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 (edited) I hope you guys all realize that your great FE is not because you are driving in electric mode. Yes, at that time you are getting infinite miles per gallon because you are using no gas. But the engine has to make that up at other times by charging the batteries. The process of running the ICE to charge batteries through the generator/motor, then running the motor with the batteries is less efficient than the ICE driving the wheels directly, at a specific and ideal engine rpm and car speed. The reason you get good mileage over the average of the tank, is the computer knows when to throw away waste power into the batteries, and also keep the engine at the ideal operating RPM. And yes, running on pure electric when the batteries are highly charged is part of the strategy, but only part. It's the computer strategy, not the electric running of the wheels that gives you great FE. So don't fret about how much time you spend in electric mode, it's effectively a moot issue overall. Just go with the light foot and enjoy. The Chevy Volt demonstrates dramatically that on a steady state basis, using the ICE to charge the batteries to run the motors does not give you Fusion level FE's. I know that several of you on this thread already know this. Yes what you say is correct to a point, but your explanation is totally misleading and mostly inaccurate. The computer algorithm is designed to maximize mileage as best it can in all modes of operation and yes when the ICE is running with the generator the mileage suffers. But the more you are able to maintain EV mode the greater your mileage will be. The amount of battery energy being used while in EV mode changes drastically from many differing conditions and the computer maximizes this the best possible, but that does not take away the fact that pure electric mode is going to increase your average. The big key is learning to expel the least amount of energy from the battery while driving in EV mode. Then when you need to replenish the battery you can use only the wasted braking energy. During acceleration do not use battery energy instead use the ICE to gather the driving inertia this in turn uses the wasted acceleration energy to replenish the batteries not depleating the stored energy. Always drive in EV mode whenever possible and you can achieve mileage as high as the record for a sedan FFH of 81.5 mpg or 1445 miles per tank of gas. It is driving in EV mode as much as possible that is going to return the best mpg. Comparing a Chevy Volt to a Ford Fusion Hybrid is comparing an apple to an orange. Edited October 20, 2011 by dennisw 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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