I preface to say I do like my Rav4 PHV all things considered, it's great at doing city driving and swapping seamlessly for family vacations. However, when checking the OBD readouts, it seems like I need to put my foot pretty far down in order to load the engine to at least 80%, 1700 RPM. Which results in quite a lot of acceleration. Makes me need a bit more space in order to get an adequate pulse in, to the point I wonder whether it'd be worth draining a bit of the battery until I get the space and speed to run the engine longer. When compared to the Prius, the engine is loaded at 85% or more starting from 1200 RPM, and a very wide range of efficient engine operation for cruising all the way to 2000 RPM for merging or on ramping. I find it strange that Toyota designed it that way. Of course, maybe Toyota is way smarter than me and tuned the valve timing and engine map so that it's still fine at lower loads and RPM, but minmaxing, y'know. At least, from a cursory look at the BSFC charts for that engine, and set up the HSI bar accordingly.
I use the battery. Sometimes i don't light up the ICE in residential areas. I accelerate gently. I unlearned a lot of traditional hypermiling rules (or maybe just ignore them). My current tank has 168.5 miles, fcd = 72.2 mpg
I guess when the engine is that efficient, it's not too much of a loss to treat it as a generator when putzing around town. Something to ponder.
Different power train, different techniques, but how have the results been? Around town, you can't beat EV mode.
Of course, but when EV mode runs out, you're back in hybrid operation again, which is the question of how much of either powertrain to focus on.
When my SOC gets low, I look for the right opportunity to motor up and charge. I am constantly watching SOC. Speed, not so much.
I never drive over 40-50 miles in-town without a chance to recharge, but I hear you. (or whatever distance EV mode allows) If you have to live with blended mode due to longer daily driving, I guess that's why you're asking... You could run it the way many reviewers may report on usage, i.e. run down the battery in EV mode then rely on hybrid mode thereafter. I prefer never being forced to only have hybrid mode available, so I never run down the battery that far. In reserve EV for later mode, you can experiment with Edwin's approach. As you said, the engine is powerful enough to be more than needed in stop and go traffic. Moderate acceleration without highest LOD is fine. Allow the engine to shut off as much as possible. Cycle the process without the battery level going lower if you can. Once you're within predictable distance in the home stretch, use up the remaining battery for a full recharge.
You're right, most of the time EV modes covers most of the day's needs, but there are the occasional trip that's 80 or 90 miles round trip. I've managed really good MPG numbers on the freeway, but the city MPG is so much worse that it annoys me. From low 50s to high 30s. Yes this is a very first world problem, I still want to fix my skill issue.
You understand exactly what I'm doing, Bill. I don't have a plug-in car but I try to (wisely) balance using battery and CHARGING battery. And sometimes I arrive home with low SOC, sometimes higher SOC. Doesn't matter. If I did have a PHEV, my strategy would be a bit different. But at this point, my strategy is not fixed, it's more flexible. I look for opportunities, then capitalize on them.
I think I'm getting a handle on the operation differences between a PHV vs an HV, especially one with such a large HP difference. Maybe it's the same with the Rav4 HV since they both have similar engines, there's so much spare capacity that unless you're deep in the power zone, a lot of the power generated is spent charging the battery. I often notice it's running almost as hard as my V6 minivan (~2 gal/hr) even on gentle pulses, might as well use up the battery a bit. The battery charge level barely budges at all doing this, it recharges so quickly despite only running ~25% of the time. This strategy doesn't seem to work as well with Prius's engine, it's already fairly loaded just to get down the road with not much spare capacity to charge the battery between glides. I am definitely curious to see how the car operates if I intentionally let the battery get down to ~50%. Edwin, I'm surprised you figured out how well your strategy works without the capacity of a PHV, maybe it's a sign of increasing battery charging efficiency? Since 99% of advice I see is to avoid using the battery too much. My own experience is that if I lean on the battery too much in Prius, the battery level quickly drops below 45% and the engine turns on. The Prius doesn't feel like it charges very quickly.
Both Chris (@MaxxMPG) and Edwin have been showing the capability of the Elantra Hybrid. Fun to watch...
Not offhand in any precise way. They occasionally report in the monthly "daily grind" topics that Gord starts, and as you would expect, in the Elantra topics.
It does have a lot more battery than my 3rd gen Prius. I do lean on it and extend a glide, especially the part of my AM commute that is 30-35 psl. My commute in the morning is about 23 miles highway ( engine is mostly on ) and 10 miles surface streets ( a lot of engine-off). I don't take that route home, so my numbers are much better. For example, this morning I got 59.7 mpg. Coming home, 71.3 mpg. This tank is at 308.7 miles, 68.1 mpg.
