2012 Sonata Hybrid Battery

[darrelldb1]

I wanted to get a feel for others experience and if this is typical.

1) The car only seems to use 25% of the battery. Anything below 50% and the car wants to charge the battery. It switches to EV as soon as it reaches 75% SoC.
Of course I can get it to go into EV at any point between 50 and 75%, but have yet to see it charge above 75% or go below 50% unless I'm "forcing" it to.

2) I take my kid to school every morning. It is a very short trip, approx. 2 mile round trip, about 50/50 uphill/downhill. I realize the car will get it's worst mpg at this point, BUT is 5 to 10 mpg what I should expect?

[darrelldb1]

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[ksstathead]

From my Prius experience, the range you state of 50 to 75% seems plausible.

5-10 mpg is low, but cold engine up hill, with possibly warm-up idling even on the downs, not too shocking. A Volt or an EV or in moderate temps a PiP would do it in electric.

If this is a significant part of your miles, it may be the wrong tool (though a perfectly fine tool) for the job.

[eric1r]

The battery range is normal.

Depending on outside temp and if you were calling for cabin heat the ICE may have been running during the entire 2 mile trip in order to raise coolant temp. Was the any standing time - waiting in line at school to drop your kid off? If so was the ICE running the entire time?

[darrelldb1]

Thanks for the replies. It seems all is normal. I've done some further reading on the battery usage and what's happening to me is typical. Maybe someone will hack these things so we can adjust them to our personalized needs. The conditions you describe eric are pretty much dead on. It is cool to cold in the morning so the heater is running, the ICE runs the entire time, even when gliding in N.

Would I be better off using one of my other cars for this task?
Hopefully it will warm up and stop raining soon so we can get back to walking to school.