PowerBoosts - Poll --> How far can you get on just electric?

[Tank]

It can go a mile on flat ground...
I've done it a few times..
I get 30 to 37mpgs on the highways, and Ive gotten a little over 1,000 miles per tank a few times..

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[DanielG]

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but I’m lucky to get one mile of electric driving and that’s with the AC on high on flat ground in Florida. The best mileage on a trip is 24 and with 2000 miles on my truck it’s at 19.9 for a total average. I’m hoping as I get a few more miles and the weather cools down I’ll get better.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Well, it depends... I got over 100 miles this summer. We came out the east gate of Yellowstone NP and the descent into Cody Wyoming was long and steep... On a level surface I've gotten about 0.8 miles with a light load.

 

[Oxford_Powerboost]

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but I’m lucky to get one mile of electric driving and that’s with the AC on high on flat ground in Florida. The best mileage on a trip is 24 and with 2000 miles on my truck it’s at 19.9 for a total average. I’m hoping as I get a few more miles and the weather cools down I’ll get better.

I try to avoid max A/C as it definitely runs the compressor hard using a lot of battery. I use max for a few minutes if needed, then put it back to auto at whatever temp I like. Usually 70

 

[DanielG]

My AC stays on auto but it’s been so hot here that the AC don’t slow down.

 

[Shooter56]

I saw this poll and I was surprised at the fact that so many people don’t even get 1 mile on all electric.

Here’s a pic of the results of my daily drive from home to office. It is mostly downhill with a few little uphills. All surface roads and stoplights. The ICE kicked three times for short periods of times on an uphill and starting from a red light. The three basic moves I make are to accelerate smartly from a stop and then tap brakes until it goes all electric, accelerate very gently from a stop, if traffic allows to avoid the ICE kicking on and when traveling with the ICE on tapping the brake much like reaching speed from a stop. Especially when approaching a stop ahead.

I also average about 24mpg, without towing, over 15000 miles. When I read threads like this and the mpg thread, I wonder how much of the variance is the truck, the driver and external conditions such as temperature, road conditions, etc.

 

[HammaMan]

Truck is ~5mo old -- this is lifetime. 9/10 trips are under a mile. Just got an electric vehicle I'm currently trading for a mach-e most likely that'll be used as the DD. I always set the air to draw from outside vs recirc which causes the AC to use ~ 4.5a more power (1.3kWh).

 

[CaptainAmericaRob]

my 21' PB FX4 i average about 25% electric driving per tank. Good... but could be better. A 1.5 kW battery is pretty small. If they just gave it a 10 kW battery, which is still small compared to an EV, think of good it the mileage could be!

 

[FrankThompson]

Truck is ~5mo old -- this is lifetime. 9/10 trips are under a mile. Just got an electric vehicle I'm currently trading for a mach-e most likely that'll be used as the DD. I always set the air to draw from outside vs recirc which causes the AC to use ~ 4.5a more power (1.3kWh).

It's the 9/10 trips that are killing your MPGs. The truck wants to warm up the engine first and I've found that the engine has horrible mileage under 45-50mph.

I average around 16ish lifetime (I'm at 1400 miles now), but on longer trips I can get 25-30mpg of mixed city driving on longer trips. (I'm rural so mixed city includes runs of 50-60mph). This one was 10ish miles the other day:

I've also found the trick is not always to keep the truck in electric mode as much as possible. That comes with a huge expense because it will them cap your mpgs on the gas to 25mpg so that it can recharge the battery. Once the battery is charged the 3.5l gets me about 28-30mpg at 50mph. I save the battery for low speed cruising or acceleration assistance which I think it's it's biggest benefit.


But again, as long as your trips are 1 mile or less you won't see great mileage. Also note its apparently important to take a long trip and work out the 3.5l Ecoboost. I try and take a good 20+ mile trip once a month even if it's just a drive in the country to clear the mind and work the engine.

 

[FrankThompson]

my 21' PB FX4 i average about 25% electric driving per tank. Good... but could be better. A 1.5 kW battery is pretty small. If they just gave it a 10 kW battery, which is still small compared to an EV, think of good it the mileage could be!

This line of thinking always make me wonder if it would in fact increase mileage. The truck is a closed system and it has to charge the battery somehow. It currently does that by increasing drag on the driveline to use the electric motor as a generator to charge the battery. It's either in the form of regenerative braking or just adding that resistance while driving (you'll see your real time is capped to roughly 25mpg while it's charging).

I agree that a plugin would increase mileage on a bigger battery because you are supplying external power besides gas.

I'm not saying it wouldn't increase mileage, but due to the nature of the system I wonder how much it would really help.

 

[CaptainAmericaRob]

well, by in large, a bigger battery pack will increase the overall mileage by running longer in electric mode.
True, it will require more regenerative braking to charge the batteries. However, the batteries get charged as the truck is driving in ICE mode too.
in city driving, there's more regenerative braking being done by the truck, than the batteries have capacity to retain.
the battery size in the PB is most likely a packaging issue. finding space under the truck for a larger pack.

 

[HammaMan]

Yeah, I've had a few trips, one ~160 miles, others ~50 miles. Sometimes I go way out of the way just to get some driving in. Love the truck, it's just not the right tool for my short stints. Love the bolt EUV for this however (was an impulse buy). It's like a golf cart in a good way unlike those who claim EVs to be like GCs. Hop in, hit go and drive my ~.9 miles. Needs no warm up, doesn't care about continued short hops and it's stupidly cheap to drive. The local POCO gives us .016 $/kWh 11p-7a to charge vehicles. It basically costs about $1.20 in fuel for 200 miles.

Granted when fuel is stupid cheap and 0-60 is mid 6 seconds, I give it hell which is fun in its own right. Thus I'd rather have the mach-e for such uses. 0-60 in the low 3 seconds and a couple cents of 'fuel' for my daily 'commute'

 

[HammaMan]

I've ordered some parts for the PB to be able to tap into the HV system without having to modify the truck's as equipped parts. Considering building a 20kWh battery to put in the bed and do some testing about trying to keep it in electric mode much longer as well as power the AC. This truck has some weird logic behind it like for instance if you run in accessory only mode, you drain the HVB as it's running the DC-DC converter to take the battery's 285v down to 14v to power the accessories. Run the truck in accessory mode with the blower on high for ~20m and you'll get to hear your little starter crank the engine. It typically uses the belt starter generator for parked starts or the clutch on the hybrid motor when in drive.

 

[FrankThompson]

well, by in large, a bigger battery pack will increase the overall mileage by running longer in electric mode.
True, it will require more regenerative braking to charge the batteries. However, the batteries get charged as the truck is driving in ICE mode too.
in city driving, there's more regenerative braking being done by the truck, than the batteries have capacity to retain.
the battery size in the PB is most likely a packaging issue. finding space under the truck for a larger pack.

But would it really? Not trying to be argumentative, but as you said the ice has to charge it if the brakes can't. There is a loss there and I would have to ask if it's worth the 3-5mpg you lose while it's charging.

I know why plug in hybrids have bigger batteries, but even the new sienna hybrid non-phev only has a 1.9kwh battery. The original non-plug in hybrid Prius only had a 1.78kwh battery.

From what I can tell most non-phev hybrids stay around the 1.5-2kwh range making me think anything above that and you lose more than you gain.

Now, make the powerboost a phev, and I'm with you! 20-30 miles on an initial charge with a bigger electric motor? I'd be in heaven!

 

[FrankThompson]

Yeah, I've had a few trips, one ~160 miles, others ~50 miles. Sometimes I go way out of the way just to get some driving in. Love the truck, it's just not the right tool for my short stints. Love the bolt EUV for this however (was an impulse buy). It's like a golf cart in a good way unlike those who claim EVs to be like GCs. Hop in, hit go and drive my ~.9 miles. Needs no warm up, doesn't care about continued short hops and it's stupidly cheap to drive. The local POCO gives us .016 $/kWh 11p-7a to charge vehicles. It basically costs about $1.20 in fuel for 200 miles.

Granted when fuel is stupid cheap and 0-60 is mid 6 seconds, I give it hell which is fun in its own right. Thus I'd rather have the mach-e for such uses. 0-60 in the low 3 seconds and a couple cents of 'fuel' for my daily 'commute'

(Emphasis added by me)

I wouldn't necessarily say it's the wrong tool for you due to the low mileage. I didn't buy mine for the gas savings. I don't drive much so the savings are minimal to me but that generator? That's why I got this beast. The gas savings on longer trips is just icing on the cake.

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