Hold vs Hybrid vs EV data collected

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Rpgonzalez

Active member
Joined
Dec 6, 2016
Messages
39
I commute 33 miles on one charge from Long Beach to Huntington, drive about 50% stoplights/traffic and 50% freeway.

Conclusions:
-Fuel economy is maximized when you use "hold" mode at steady speeds and "EV" mode when in stop and go traffic (avg = 120mpg)
-Fuel economy is minimized during the opposite conditions (avg 90mph)
-Fuel economy keeps dropping significantly after a 35 mile commute; expect to lose about 25%+ mpg for every 10 miles of commute over 35 miles up to about 60 miles where it seems you lose the benefit of the plug-in feature (data not included)
-Traffic patterns wreck havoc on day to day numbers when trying to maximize mpg.
-Hybrid mode is the most predictable and consistent, albeit not most efficient


You can peruse the data of you like:

https://hbuhsdedu-my.sharepoint.com...cef92eecd5e3d&authkey=AYg0M4RewNGWYfr4I85uhNQ

[/braindump]
 
Rpgonzalez":tbpb6px6 said:
I commute 33 miles on one charge from Long Beach to Huntington, drive about 50% stoplights/traffic and 50% freeway.

Conclusions:
-Fuel economy is maximized when you use "hold" mode at steady speeds and "EV" mode when in stop and go traffic (avg = 120mpg)
-Fuel economy is minimized during the opposite conditions (avg 90mph)
-Fuel economy keeps dropping significantly after a 35 mile commute; expect to lose about 25%+ mpg for every 10 miles of commute over 35 miles up to about 60 miles where it seems you lose the benefit of the plug-in feature (data not included)
-Traffic patterns wreck havoc on day to day numbers when trying to maximize mpg.
-Hybrid mode is the most predictable and consistent, albeit not most efficient


You can peruse the data of you like:

https://hbuhsdedu-my.sharepoint.com...cef92eecd5e3d&authkey=AYg0M4RewNGWYfr4I85uhNQ

[/braindump]

Is your MPG from the on-board computer data or manually calculated gallons consume from miles travelled? I commute from LB to DTLA and use "hybrid" mode.
-Ben
 
Why would you "lose" the benefit of the EV range after a certain amount of time? It's obviously better if you charge more frequently but it's still contributing to a low fuel consumption overall.
 
srwhitney":2tht30nf said:
Why would you "lose" the benefit of the EV range after a certain amount of time? It's obviously better if you charge more frequently but it's still contributing to a low fuel consumption overall.

It has been noted on occasion that the e-tron is not terribly efficient as a gas-only vehicle. If you never charge the vehicle, you may witness about 35-40mpg. At this point, it doenst make sense to a lot of people to purchase this car when an A3 sedan could accomplish about the same mpg.

With a 35 mile commute, the car borders on being efficient enough to warrant the added cost (over a TDI, which is what Ive been driving for a decade). Another member here gets about 45-50mpg for a 50 mile commute, and I would say that this is the break even point.

After a certain amount of miles on a single commute, the contribution that the battery makes towards saving gas diminishes. Why pay an $8000 premium to save 5mpg?
 
I agree. If you can't charge and make use of the EV mode, my recommendation might be to buy a Jetta with the same 1.4 TSI engine for probably half the cost of the e-tron. I seriously considered that as an alternative, because I feared the EV range might not be enough to justify the additional cost. As it turns out, my daily needs have been almost completely covered by EV range, so the e-tron makes huge sense for me. That won't be true for everyone.
 
Rpgonzalez":19m0ohlc said:
srwhitney":19m0ohlc said:
Why would you "lose" the benefit of the EV range after a certain amount of time? It's obviously better if you charge more frequently but it's still contributing to a low fuel consumption overall.

It has been noted on occasion that the e-tron is not terribly efficient as a gas-only vehicle. If you never charge the vehicle, you may witness about 35-40mpg. At this point, it doenst make sense to a lot of people to purchase this car when an A3 sedan could accomplish about the same mpg.

With a 35 mile commute, the car borders on being efficient enough to warrant the added cost (over a TDI, which is what Ive been driving for a decade). Another member here gets about 45-50mpg for a 50 mile commute, and I would say that this is the break even point.

After a certain amount of miles on a single commute, the contribution that the battery makes towards saving gas diminishes. Why pay an $8000 premium to save 5mpg?

There is also the benefit of HOV privileges! I already save lots of money by not paying the FASTRAK charges which can cost up to $16 one way from Carson to DTLA!
 
bruintoo":2bs1xqiq said:
There is also the benefit of HOV privileges! I already save lots of money by not paying the FASTRAK charges which can cost up to $16 one way from Carson to DTLA!

Completely agree. HOV privileges = time saved = value.

I bought a green HOV sticker. Attached to it is a pretty nice Audi.
 
It's also the only small hatch that Audi makes. I mean, it's about as fast as a Mk6 GTI, so there's that too. A GTI isn't that much cheaper today either
 
srwhitney":9xbn23ux said:
It's also the only small hatch that Audi makes. I mean, it's about as fast as a Mk6 GTI, so there's that too. A GTI isn't that much cheaper today either

True. To be my own devils advocate, I really wanted an 8V sportback too, performance is similar to an A3 sedan and after federal and CA state rebates I basically paid about $1000 for the hybrid powertrain. That is a pretty reasonable cost for the convenience the HOV sticker has gotten me...so alternatively you could say that the e-tron breaks even. So srwhitney you are correct, as long as you are plugging it in and gaining *some* mpg gain, then you are not "losing" the benefit of the EV powertrain.

But I was originally posting from the perspective of saving money on fuel/energy, and that wont happen if your commute is 60 miles per day per charge. (or if you spend more than 20-30cents/kwh for that matter)
 
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