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I got a new FEHL in September 08 and have just got to the 5K mile mark. I have been working my driving habits to max my mileage. I just completed a round trip from San Diego to LA and back. On open freeway I average 55 mph and stop and go in downtown LA. Total trip length was 245 miles, temperature was 60 - 65 degrees and the MPG dispaly shows a 42 MPG average. I reset the MPG reading to 0 before I left home and had a full tank of gas. I am happy with the mileage but was wondering if I should bother to try to get more MPG's (and how I could do it)....Victor A

Garyg is getting upwards of 50mpg in his FEH, so that is completely within your range.

To get 50 MPG I would think you would need to be on a flat run at 50 mph or less. My trips are usualy rolling hills and a traffic flow no less than 55 mph because most cars are going 75 and trucks 55. I try to tuck behind a truck to not cause problems with the traffic. I guess I am looking for more info to get closer to 45 - 50 MPG but maybe that is not realistic for my traffic and road speeds. I have a 09 FEH with no mods, running 40 psi, 5,000 miles (so I think it is broken in), original oil, running boards (maybe I should add on the rear tire flap that ford removes) and no scan guage.

Hi Victor --

On trips between Milwaukee & Sheboygan (about 60mi. each way), I try to keep my speed close to 55mph, even in the 65mph zones (since even 65mph isn't fast enough to keep up with traffic :rolleyes:), & I can get ~42mpg if I don't have to fight the wind. This is in southeastern WI, with lots of rolling hills.

I've had 2 full tanks that came in at >50mpg, but those were mostly my commute, where I know where & how I can take advantage of terrain & traffic :)

Stop & go traffic, especially on the highway, can be a mixed blessing - on the one hand, you can take advantage of EV during the stopped/slow stretches, but on the other hand, repeated accelerations aren't good for FE :(

Check out GaryG's article "Hypermiling the Ford Escape Hybrid" here:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=350

- also read the ongoing discussion - new things to try & to understand (& to try to understand ;)) about your FEH keep showing up :) :)

I've had mine for 4 years :eek:, & my FE is *still* improving :) :) :)

I got a new FEHL in September 08 and have just got to the 5K mile mark. I have been working my driving habits to max my mileage. I just completed a round trip from San Diego to LA and back. On open freeway I average 55 mph and stop and go in downtown LA. Total trip length was 245 miles, temperature was 60 - 65 degrees and the MPG dispaly shows a 42 MPG average. I reset the MPG reading to 0 before I left home and had a full tank of gas. I am happy with the mileage but was wondering if I should bother to try to get more MPG's (and how I could do it)....Victor A

Hi Victor

I love my '09 FEHL W/navi and no sidesteps and I'm sure by now you love yours. My navi reads 4% high as far as MPG to gas pumped and that has been confirmed with other owners. I was cruising around thinking I was getting over 50mpg for the first few tanks because both my SGII's were reading more than over 13.5% higher than gas pumped. I blew it driving like a race car driver for the first bunch of tanks till I started seeing the real results after I started logging here in the mileage logs.

Once I seen I wasn't getting 50mpg on the highway I slowed down and choose my old routes I used in my '05 FEH. I could take more of those routes with 45mph speed limits because the '09 FEH allows a solid 40mph EV speed with cruise control even. The technique CarlD discovered restarting the ICE before the low battery has added to my MPG greatly. The article Wayne and I wrote here only applies to the '05 - '08 models and not the '09 model.

If you go to the mileage log and click on % of EPA you will see me 7th the highest EPA % in all the Hybrid section. You will also see me as labeled Skilled with all the Experts. Now look at the number of Elite in the gas version gas logs.

Sorry if you can't tell heads or tails on this site, I can't either.

GaryG

Gary, I know it is confusing but for now (until I can manage to update everyone's EPA ratings to the newer system) there is a conversion factor built into the calculations to counteract the effects of the "more realistic" rating system introduced in 2007. It isn't perfect but here is how it works:

The "old" EPA was used to build the ratings system you see in the logs with Skilled (100-125% EPA), Expert (126-150% EPA), and Elite (>150% EPA). Since the EPA ratings dropped across the board an adjusted rating for 2007 and newer vehicles was adopted to approximate the old rating scale. To explain that I have to remind you that the "EPA" rating on this site is calculated at 50% duty for city and highway (just for simplicity). The adjustment factor is 1.2 as a multiplier.

So... for your vehicle, the calculated EPA to compare to isn't:

(34mpg + 31mpg)/2 = 32.5mpg

but instead:

(34mpg + 31mpg)(1.2)/2 = 39mpg

The second number is meant to be reasonably close to what your vehicle would have been rated back in 2006. Again, it isn't perfect but it is a decently close approximation.

This means that instead of targeting 100%, 125%, and 150% EPA as thresholds, you must target 120%, 150%, and 180% EPA.

Doing the math, you are very very close right now as your average would need to exceed 48.75mpg to hit Expert rating. Scanning the logs as you suggested you can see that the two rated hybrids above you who have 2007 or newer vehicles are at 158.57% (Larry) and 161.26% (PookieSoup with the 48 World Record vehicle)... and both are rated at Expert rather than Elite.

I hope that explains it adequately? I'm sorry it is confusing and I can tell you honestly that I have specific plans for getting all vehicles in the logs on the same rating scale by converting all EPA ratings but I simply haven't had the time recently to tackle this (very LARGE!) undertaking. :o