Adapting Basic Hypermiling Techniques to the HCH-II

[Ohioguy]

Hey guys, I'm Dan. Picked up a nice low-mileage 07 HCH-II about 3 weeks ago.
I haven't seen much about how hills and grades of the road affect FE. My area has nothing but rolling hills and grades of 10-20% that may last for 1.5 miles. I find it very challenging to keep a minimum load on the engine without losing 10-12 mph when even going up a gentle grade on the freeway for instance. [I](Perhaps I just need to practice my accelerator touch!) Anyways. . .does this loss of mph sound excessive? The problem then is, I then need to get the car up to a faster (52 mph or so) to keep up with traffic flow. Of course this process repeats several times on my drives.

Does anyone have any suggestions about the long, steep grades? With a warmed-up engine, I find I can manage about 25-32MPG going at about 35 mph on a 10% incline that lasts 1. 5 miles.

Also, it seems that the car is too quick to give electric assist when not needed and sometimes too slow offer it when needed. Is this a function of my needing to be more gentle with the go-pedal? (I've read about the ICU flash-reprogram that may cause these conditions. Does anybody have any info?)


My overall mileage on three tanks has averaged about 45MPG. I have noticed on some loops that I can average 55-57MPG using the iFCE. At 45MPG I'm overjoyed considering, I got rid of a full size Ford P/U that averaged about 17MPG. Thanks.