updat­ed 4/24/23

Just some gen­er­al notes from dri­ving elec­tri­fied vehi­cles I’ve owned

Hybrid — Ford Maverick

• Elec­tri­fied dri­ving oper­ates at low speeds/revs
• When coast­ing or sit­ting still, no fuel is used, mean­ing no emmis­sions
• If bat­tery runs out of juice, gas engine will kick in
• Nev­er needs to be charged by per­son, will charge via dri­ving or gas engine
• 2‑levels of brak­ing: regen­er­a­tive and phys­i­cal
• Bat­tery recharges with either coast­ing or regen­er­a­tive brak­ing
• Ini­tial thought was that hybrid would be great for sit­ting in com­muter traf­fic. How­ev­er, it would only be good in sub­urb traf­fic or light traf­fic where lots of coast­ing is pos­si­ble. Heavy traf­fic (where there is a lot of small, quick bursts of accel­er­a­tion) is NOT the best for rely­ing on pure elec­tric dri­ving
• Ini­tial elec­tric pow­er is high torque, so smash­ing accel­er­a­tor off a stop is impres­sive and fast (depen­dent on over­all pow­er)
• Haul­ing heavy items in trunk is also impres­sive in the Mav­er­ick where the hybrid pow­er is very help­ful
• High­way dri­ving is sur­pris­ing­ly effi­cient. End­ed up with about 20% of high­way trip miles elec­tri­fied
• Bet­ter dri­ving habits yield bet­ter effi­cien­cy
• Cut gas con­sump­tion in half com­pared to pri­or pure-gaso­line cars
• More effi­cient in cities than rur­al dri­ving, but still cuts reliance on gaso­line
• Just uses gas, no need to charge
• Main­te­nance: Need oil change, flu­id flush­es, and oth­er main­te­nance like pure gaso­line cars…but pos­si­bly at less­er inter­vals
• Best dri­ving tech­nique: Feath­er the accel­er­a­tor. Just keep tap­ping it enough at the low­est revs to uti­lize the elec­tric dri­ving in order to keep the car mov­ing while not jump­ing into the gaso­line con­sump­tion. All good-dri­ving rules will increase MPGs

1 year driving (January through January) Stats for 2022 Ford Maverick

• Total Run­ning Costs: $2,997.52
• Run­ning Cost per day: $6.56
• Run­ning Cost per mile: $0.37
• Dis­tance per day: 18 miles
• Total Miles Dri­ven: 8,050.6 miles
• Total Time: 1 year
• Aver­age MPG: 38.213 (Min: 31.5; Max: 43.6)
• Aver­age Price per Gal­lon Gaso­line: $3.83
• Aver­age Price per Fuelup: $26.72
• Aver­age Fuelup Quan­ti­ty: 7.01 gal­lons
• Miles per Fuelup: 266 miles
• Days per Fuelup: 12 days
• Total Ser­vice Cost: $2,222.59

Battery Electric Vehicle — Ford Mustang Mach‑E

• Smooth, silent dri­ve
• 2 lev­els of brak­ing: regen­er­a­tive and phys­i­cal
• Option for 1‑pedal dri­ving
• 3 dri­ving modes: Whis­per (low accel­er­a­tor response, extend­ed coast­ing, minor regen­er­a­tion), Engage (mod­er­ate accel­er­a­tion and brak­ing, regen­er­a­tive brak­ing), Unbri­dled (high accel­er­a­tion sen­si­tiv­i­ty, respon­sive brak­ing, high regen­er­a­tive brak­ing– halfway between reg­u­lar dri­ving and 1‑pedal)
• HVAC usage is big drain on bat­tery con­sump­tion
• High torque –> high accel­er­a­tion
• Heav­ier load –> high­er bat­tery usage
• Hard accel­er­a­tion quick­ly drains bat­tery
• Elec­tron­ics use only a frac­tion of bat­tery
• When not mov­ing, no pow­er used
• Fan­tas­tic for heavy traf­fic and heavy brak­ing (equals more regen­er­a­tion, less pow­er usage)
• Good dri­ving habits yield bet­ter effi­cien­cy
• In cold weath­er, dri­ving faster might mean bet­ter effi­cien­cy (have to eval­u­ate data more)
• No tailpipe emis­sions
• Min­i­mal noise pol­lu­tion
• My usage is about 50kWh a week. That’s 200kWh a month (for com­par­i­son an aver­age house­hold uses 877kWh a month in 2019). That’s $30 a month in fuel costs if price is $0.15 per kWh like mine res­i­den­tial
• Main­te­nance: No oil, no belts, no flu­ids to main­tain. Required for wheels, tires, and brakes

90 Day Driving (January through April) Stats for 2023 Ford Mustang Mach‑E

• Total Run­ning Costs: $84.71
• Run­ning Cost per day: $0.94
• Run­ning Cost per mile: $0.06
• Dis­tance per day: 17 miles
• Total Miles Dri­ven: 1,517 miles
• Total Time: 90 days
• Aver­age MPGe (Fuel): 95 (Min: 78; Max: 114; ADJ: 108)
• Aver­age MPGe (Trip): 96 (Min: 30; Max: 172; ADJ: 119)
• Aver­age Price per kWh: $0.14
• Aver­age Price per Fuelup: $3.39
• Aver­age Fuelup Quan­ti­ty: 29 kWh
• Aver­age Miles per Fuelup: 64 miles
• Aver­age Days per Fuelup: 3 days
• Total Ser­vice Cost: $0.00

Trip Comparison

Trip: A to B to C to D (same exact des­ti­na­tions, same exact route, same dri­ving mode)

March 20th (40F and windy cold): 39% to 34% to 31% to 30% = 9% charge used

May 8th (76F and humid): 36% to 35% to 34% to 33% = 3% charge used