Another High MPG(e) Convert; A Work in Progress
 

Over some 75k miles, I've been able to maintain just over 50 lifetime MPG in
our "big car," a red, '08 Prius Touring, AMAPOLA, "poppy" in Spanish. In our
mostly urban driving it takes using hyper mileing tactics to get/keep that
number. OTOH, my wife never does much better than low/mid 40's MPG. Despite
my gentle urgings to follow my example, she just drives the Prius like the car it
replaced, an older Maxima. Since the Prius doubles the MPGs we got earlier, she
sees no reason to go all out. And since the gas gauge goes down so slowly, she
never felt any pressure to try. She found the ScanGuage distracting at best, and
more like no use whatsoever. (The only issue then and now is remembering to
glance at the "guess gauge" at least once a week to prevent running out of gas!)

Enter our red, all-electric, Think City, ESPERANZA, "hope" in Spanish, our little car."
http://media.treehugger.com/assets/i...r-photo-01.jpg

We got her in May '12 and since then my wife uses it almost exclusively. We
were very happy with the range we got through the summer and early fall,
IIRC up to 60 miles between 30% SOC and fully charged. As the temps dropped
in late fall, and more so in the winter, my wife started to notice increased SOC
use on her typical 15 mile round trip daily commute. With some careful observation
over time she was able to identify increased SOC use/reduced range
due especially to the heater, but also the headlights and even the wipers. I was
slack-jawed with amazement and pleasure. She was finally starting to "get it,"
as to energy use all on her own. So, we talked about things diverse about how
the Think was different from the Prius.

Later she reported the she had switched to using E(con) drive exclusively. This
was significant because earlier she had found the dragfrom regen when slowing
down in E unsettling, "weird" even. She had absolutely refused to use E, using
only D(rive), no regen, and the brakes as needed. This even though I had
explained that E would capture some small portion of otherwise about to wasted
excess potential energy through regen which saved $$, though realistically it was
only pennies. And on her own she discovered that by keeping plenty of distance
ahead between cars and planning ahead for lights and stops she could use regen
for most brakeng, just like I did. She really liked "driving with one pedal," her
terminology. So, we talked about the benefits of "driving without brakes" --
drifting is better than regen, regen is better than brakeing, and braking is infinately better than a collision -- and other tactics. I was careful not to mention
"hyper mileing" for fear of spooking her.

And what of our beloved Prius, the big car? We have to remember to use her for
the longest errandruns on weekends to keep the 12V battery topped up. Or on
the rare occasions when we both have to be on the road going separate ways.
My hope of course is that she will transfer her newfound realizations to driving
the Prius. And I'll have to wait patiently to see if she discovers on her own that
regen is mostly in the brake pedal, not the acceleraor.

We both like our little red Think immensely, and use her every chance we get,
literally every day of the week. My wife is looking forward to getting back to the
lesser SOC use that she saw in the "wine and roses" days of late spring and
summer. (For the most part we used the air cond. very little last sumer. I said
nothing about it's SOC hit and I am waiting to hear when she figures it out. I see no
need what so ever of trying to hustle things along and risk reducing the
excitement that we have both felt and shared.

Interesting story, evidently from someone with plenty of patience.

There's nothing like a little range anxiety to cause a person to pay attention to driving style vs. energy use.

Solution: replace the Prius' fuel tank with a 1 gallon unit!

A very good read, thank you.

Is it possible to coast by finding the "sweet spot" on the accelerator? If not, can it be shifted into "Neutral" for coasting?

Yes, but nowhere near as easily as in the Prius. The display for power useage
is an analog needle guage, and the no-power used, no regen zone is very,
very small. To find it/stay in it visually demands that you take your eyes off
the road far too much/long.

I can find the spot by listening carefully to the null sound zone between the
different sounds the direct drive motor/drive gear makes between the two
power used/made states. This is complicated by having to change the
accelerator position because the needle creeps out of the null sound zone as
vehicle speed changes.

Yes. The shift sequence is Park-Reverse-Neutral-D(rive)-E(con). You only
get regen in E, so you only have to go to D to get no regen at the zero
accelerator position. This is something that I use sparingly for very long
glides whch I see but rarely in our mostly urban driving. i'll be surprised if
my wife picks up on it.

LOL! But an excellent idea at first blush... But, given the high level of
computer monitoring of the tank/bladder venting and leak testing, mounting a
smaller tank would be quite an undertaking. Well beyond my meager skills at
any rate. :(

My Gen II Prius has the infamous fuel bladder in the tank. When fuel level
gets down into the last quarter of the tank, fuel readings are sketchy at best.
For this reason, just to be on the safe side side, it is best to refuel at "two
pips," out of the 10 graduations on the "guess guage," or 20%. The very low
fuel alarm is but a one time, single beep, very easily missed

But what really kills this idea with the full-size tank is that the guess guage
doesn't register any amount of fuel put in the tank/bladder less than 3 gallons!
I haven't the slightest idea why this is. Arguably I could work around
this with my ScanGuag. But what a PITA that would be, a 1 gallon refill being
solely the result of selfdiscipline as opposed to necessity. And then a one
gallon refill wouldn't register on the guage anyway.

Follow up question: is there any regen on the *brake* pedal?

I hope there is, but reading between the lines on your earlier posts - there probably is not.

In that case, I would drive it in D most of the time ans learn to coast, and then shift to E to get regen. And you could start up again in E (to take advantage of the presumably truncated power use?) and then shift to D once you get going, then coast ... and so on.

Any plans for aeromods? :)

Honestly, without checking the documentation, from my experience so far,
I don't think there's regen on the brake pedal. I tried driving mostly in D and
shifting into E for regen as you've suggested. Yeah, it worked. But maybe I'm
too undisciplined... or just too lazy. All that stirring about with the gears took
too much concentration to be in the right gear at the right time.

Ther's also a matter of some Neutral sensing micro switches in the shift
mechanism that are giving some folks problems. When one or both are on
the fritz the car won't move. At least when the problem first appears simple
switching over fixes it, but new switches are then in order too. Fortunately
this can be done DIY without too much disassembly hassel... once you get the
car flat bed hauled home that is! I think this matter is caused, or at least
accelerated, by doing the N-D-E dance.

So, I drive almost exclusively in E.

We now have the option of an enhanced firmware update for the HV
controller, or whatever it's called. It raises the top speed in D from 60 to 75
MPH. Of course, using the new top end speed results in significant SOC use
/range reduction.More meaningful to us, it also provides a steeper startup
torque curve and greater regen in E. So, it should be easier to find and keep
the glide point in E. Top speed in E remains to same or maybe reduced to 55
MPH. Most everyone who's had it installed likes the new profiles. And they do
say that they're using the shifting between D and E technique more than
before. I think that I'll have it installed too. I'll have to check if my local
dealer --qbout 20 miles away -- can do it, or it takes a factory rep -- from
Elkhart, Indiana. I'm hoping the former.

Funny you should ask. Immediately we got the car I was thinking along those
lines. Actually at the speeds we typically drive, up to 40 MPH, any benefit
would probably be at the margin. That said I've considered just about
everything:

* Wheel covers, preferably clear
* front and side air dams
* rear wheel spats -- but it would be really difficult to match the body color
and texture.
* rear roof line extension maybe 12-15 inches in either clear or smoked
plexy.
* under body fairing. The whole middle of the underbody is near perfectly flat
as it's the bottom of the battery box. I've gone so far as to get dimensioned
drawings of pieces of front and rear pieces. These from a Norwegian driver
who has also lowere his car ~2 inches. The car looks really good, but due the
suspension bits being from Pugeot and having to come from Europe, cost
wise that's way beyond what I'm likely to ever do.

Other stuff has come up and I've done nothing yet. But nothing definitely
ruled out either. :rolleyes:

When/if I do any mods I'll keep all you-all informed.

I think you might find that's not the case, if you have the numbers to plug into our aero & rolling resistance calculator.

I suspect you'll find that over half the car's energy is lost to aero drag at quite low speeds (25-35 mph).

Please do!

HV controler update
 

This doesn't rise to the level of warranting a new thread...

I had the HV controller firmware update done earlier today. Wow!

We rarely take our Think on freeways. But, I made an exception on
the ~20 mile trip home from Eurostar so I could experience/evaluate
the new Firmware. Comments:

D(rive) mode. Car accelerates like it has a turbo. Put your foot in it
and the car scoots forward with a firm push on the back/kick in the
butt. Car easily accelerates up to 70 MPH. I ran an informal "reality
check" on a ~1/2 mile long hill on a surface road. With the earlier
firmware, starting from a dead stop, I could get up to and sustain
40 MPH. With the new firmware I had reached 60 MPH and still
accelerating when I crested the hill. Wow! The energy use gauge was
down to the orange dots which I had never seen before. Top speed is
alleged to be 78 MPH. I saw 70, and could feel some acceleration
still available when I punched it.

E(conomy) mode. Allegedly, the starting from 0 MPH torque curve
and regen curves have been reprofiled to give more startup torque and
regen. This maybe so, but I'll admit if this it so, it's not a slap in the back
of the head like the changes to D. I believe that I can feel a greater
deceleration from regen, but it's subtle. Since I drive for minimum energy
use, before the upgrade I rarely used the full acceleration capacity of the
car. I can't say I feel greater acceleration from 0 MPH. If it's there, I guess
it will be useful from time to time. In E, the car tops out at a gutless 60
MPH on the flat.

I expect that I will continue driving in E for the vast majority of the time in
our mostly urban driving regime…
and waiting for -- or simply making up -- the most transparent/juvenile
excuses to drop into D and punch it just for the fun of it!

http://i.imgur.com/oRTxjcz.jpg

Remind me, what does GTO stand for…G(??) T(hink) O(??)

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Hahaha! ;-)