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Efficiency

1667 Views 16 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  Mr X
Sorry if wrong place BUT... I have a question. As most new Volt drivers are... I'm becoming obsessed with the best mileage. I will be about 75/25 electric/"fuel" miles. What is the optimal speed to "drive gas"? I'm sure highway is probably the most efficient time to use hold correct? Is there an optimal speed? 60, 65, 97, 70? I'm sure flat vs hills, slow grades vs steep all make a difference I'm just currious. Btw I've got about 70miles on gas and I'm at 40.2 :) around 215ish overall mpg with somewhere around 350 miles +-20.

Loving it btw :)
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I would use hold above 60 mph only if you want to reserve EV miles for your destination.

Here is the thing, at speeds above around 60 mph drag will be large and allowing the internal combustion engine to run in parallel will use less total energy than only using the electrical motors (depending on fuel costs it might still be cheaper to run EV only). Determining that exact point depends on a lot of parameters and might not be practical, but given that the genset is running, the car can use parallel mode at anything above 36 mph or so depending on torque requirements.

Again, if you want to reserve EV power for your destination, use hold, otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.
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