I have the Powerboost and it doesn't seem to really run in electric only like I think it should and was wondering how others act. Example -I was on top of Monarch Pass in CO and its a long fairly steep road down the mountain and even with a warm truck the ICE ran the entire way down. It will kick off from time to time, usually when coasting down and trying to slow, but not nearly as often as I think it should. How often does yours kick on? I live in a very hilly area and lots of half mile down hills and the ICE runs almost all the time. I know this is kind of vague and hard to quantify, but would love to hear others experience.

 

For me personally when I first got the truck it hardly ever ran in electric mode unless I tapped the brakes and then it go into electric mode but only for a short period. It took a little bit for me to understand how the truck actually works and once I understood that and changed my driving habits it started going into electric mode on its own and staying there. It would even go into on the freeway going 75mph. The harder part for me is that 80% of my trips are under 5 miles so it hardly goes into electric on those as it is stop and go. I did just move from the small city in CA to a larger city in TX so I anxious to see if that changes my mpg at all since my trips will be a lot longer than 5 miles now.

 

Thanks for the reply, I've tried to be very conscious of the way I drive it, even using the gauges and screens to try and figure it out and doesn't really seem to help. I can't remember a time it kicked in going that fast unless I was going down hill, and it's rare then. Maybe I just need more time, it has about 6000 miles on it, but almost all of those were a trip from KY to UT

 

I can try to explain it but I'm sure someone else can do a better job. In order for it to go into electric mode the battery needs to be charged. The battery uses the engine and regenerative braking to charge. If you use the braking coach to stop and stay within the green it charges the battery. Once I started following that to keep the battery charged I noticed it would go into electric mode more often and stay there. It took me probably 3-4 months before I figured it out. If you drive it like a normal truck the battery never gets charged enough to take full advantage of the electric motor.

 

What is your typical split for city (<50 mph)/highway (>55 mph) miles, and what is the total vs electric only miles on your truck when you fill up? If you are mostly highway mileage, your typical electric only miles are probably going to be <5-10%, and city driving you could see 15+%. If you have a lot of hills, you're never going to get electric only going up hill, and if you're going downhill over 45-50 mph and not braking, you're not likely to see electric only. Once the battery is fully charged, the engine will kick back on to help keep the vehicle from speeding up to fast.

 

if I downshift going down that steep hill for a mile, will that cause it to go electric-only or do I have to be tapping the brakes?

 

When I first picked up my new Powerboost back in early December, I had a LONG ride home at high speeds (always in a headwind it seemed!) so my MPGs and initial impression was not great. The first couple of weeks around town I was expecting it to improve but again, I wasn't getting even close to the EPA ratings (and I generally do, on most vehicles). It wasn't until I put that little "hybrid" or "EV coach" as my default screen in the middle of my dash that I started seeing some better numbers. You have to add this to your "MY VIEW" menu then select it. Then you should see a little green and blue bar that slides as you drive. Green is charging, blue is running on battery only and when it turns white and says "hybrid," that's when the fun has temporarily ended and the engine is on. It's fairly intuitive if you leave it on and watch it for a while. The blue graph will grow wider when you have a good charge state in the battery. As you press the pedal, a solid bar fills the area from left to right. Provided you keep it from passing the right boundary of the blue area, it will stay in electric mode. As you deplete the battery, the graph ends will narrow but you can respond (if appropriate - watch traffic behind you) by letting off on the pedal and play "stay in the zone."

The green bar is when you're putting energy back in the battery. Coasting and braking do this. When braking, watch the solid bar as it moves right to left and try to stay inside the lines (just like with the blue above). When you brake too much and go outside of the lines you'll see on the left side it's a white bar. That's braking that is NOT going into the battery because you've reached the saturation point for the regenerative braking. The white part is conventional braking that's occurring along with as much regenerative as you can get. Depending on how you set your dashboard up, after you stop you'll get a report of the percentage of energy recaptured. If you stayed completely inside the green lines the whole time, it will say 100%. Of course don't get too fixated on this or you'll be meeting your airbags in an angry way!

Since turning on the EV Coach and putting that bar graph thing in MY VIEW (I believe they are two separate things you turn on and I apologize for not knowing all of the nomenclature) I've been getting much better results, sometimes getting way over the EPA ratings.

 

I have so many questions about the PowerBoost. I'm no tree hugger but when I am stuck at the border coming back in the U.S., I'd want it to run in hybrid mode because it's about two miles long and I'd drive a car's length then stop for 30 seconds to a minute, then it's another car's length, then repeat, can take three hours until I am finally at the border.

I am hoping it will stay in all-electric mode when I do that. The auto-stop in my Cheyenne would stop doing that after the 20th or 30th stop because the battery's depleted.

 

Its a smaller battery, so I doubt it would last a 3 hours, especially if you have the AC on. When I first got mine I tested on my camper which has about a 15,000 BTU A/C, probably about the same as the truck. It would run for 60 seconds then off for about 5 minutes, then start over. The good thing about the hybrid and what you're wanting is that while it may not last the entire time, it would start up and recharge in about a minute, then shut back down for a bit.

 

I'm actually kinda nerdy about that stuff and been watching those graphs, I think my problem is I live in an area that is either up or down, very little level (Eastern KY).