I am a brand new 2018 Accord Hybrid owner and want to know all there is to know about the tech of this car. For example, what tricks have owners learned about squeezing the highest fuel mileage out of these cars? How do you read the power gauges on the left side of panel? Anything you can tell me about this car would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hybrid Info
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I also am new... got my Accord Hybrid just 3 weeks ago, only about 750 miles on it so far. Any tips are so welcome.
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Mine is 5 weeks today. I’m still learning as I go. It’s obvious of course but one thing is keep the needle as close to the green as possible on the power/charge gauge. I don’t think mine has ever gone out of the solid blue segment that’s roughly 9-10:30 equivalent on a clock face.
Congrats on the new car. Welcome to the forum.
Congrats on the new car. Welcome to the forum.
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Welcome! Fuel economy is going to vary quite a bit depending on your route and driving characteristics. I would expect that over time you'll learn the best driving style to maximize the cars efficiency.
New hybrid owner here as well as of 10 days ago!
In the last 2 days i've been testing the ECO mode and i'm averaging well over 50 mpg. I really don't notice a difference in responsiveness or torque when driving around town and on the highway for my commute.
Super impressed with the car all around. So much technology to learn and fiddle with! just yesterday I found out how to disable the voice prompt to step on the brake to take off the parking brake! I hated that prompt, it made my friends laugh at me that I didn't know how to work my own car
BTW I got the EX-L in blue.
In the last 2 days i've been testing the ECO mode and i'm averaging well over 50 mpg. I really don't notice a difference in responsiveness or torque when driving around town and on the highway for my commute.
Super impressed with the car all around. So much technology to learn and fiddle with! just yesterday I found out how to disable the voice prompt to step on the brake to take off the parking brake! I hated that prompt, it made my friends laugh at me that I didn't know how to work my own car
BTW I got the EX-L in blue.
41 MPG ............. That is all my 2 month old Hybrid Accord is getting. And I live in a un-congested area with level roads. In town, getting 39-42 mpg. On Interstate highways at 70 mph, getting 38-40 mpg. My average is consistently 41 mpg. AND, I always confirm the car's readout of mpg with the old fashion way of of checking mileage by filling up fuel tank. I am 70 yrs. old so I am not a lead foot by any means.
PLUS, if I select electric only mode when the battery gauge shows full charge, and drive at only 25 mph, the car will only go 4/10 of a mile before the battery is dead and switches to gas engine.
What MPG are you other Hybrid owners getting and how long can you drive on battery only ???
Honda seems like they are not concerned about my MPG complaint. So I will probably end up in court.
Thank you.
PLUS, if I select electric only mode when the battery gauge shows full charge, and drive at only 25 mph, the car will only go 4/10 of a mile before the battery is dead and switches to gas engine.
What MPG are you other Hybrid owners getting and how long can you drive on battery only ???
Honda seems like they are not concerned about my MPG complaint. So I will probably end up in court.
Thank you.
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It is in the way you drive. Yes, sometimes you need to "punch it" to keep up with traffic or slam on the brakes because the @ssh0le in front of you stopped quick. These are Anti-Hybrid actions. The hybrid seems to love stop and go traffic versus doing 85 MPH for 60 minutes - at least mine shows this.
Here are my suggestions:
#1 Ensure you are in ECON mode (duh) - you will see a green leaf on your dashboard
#2 Set your headunit (radio) or dash to power-flow so you can see when the engine is doing the work, when the battery is doing the work, when the battery is charging and when both battery and engine are running together. This will help retrain you to drive.
#2.5 Set you HUD (head up display) to power/charge (the green and blue meter thing), try to keep the meter at the mid point - where the blue and green bar meet. Again retrain yourself to drive.
#3 Use cruise control often. When I am at a red light and it changes green, I hit resume and let the car do its its thing. It may not be as fast as me pressing the gas but also is optimally getting up to speed in ECON mode (I am assuming this)
#4 When coming to a stop (stop sign or red light), ride the brake a long way until you have stop. This will charge the battery (making energy not wasting it)
I live in Florida where it is flat. If you live in the hills, you may have more stain to get from point A to point B which could affect your MPG
My best trip, confirmed with fill up method like you do, was 51.8 mpg. I utilized cruise control and did not floor it from a dead stop.
My worst trip was 38 MPG and I used SPORT mode often, to cut in to tight fast moving traffic and to see what kind of mileage I'd get driving this way.
And yes the EV mode (battery only) only goes a short distance. The hybrid uses that generally to keep momentum of the vehicle, not really a long distance option (hence the word hybrid).
As I said in my original thread opening, I am 70 yrs old, and not lead foot by any means, live in Gainesville, FL where there is very little congestion and the Interstate is level. There is absolutely no way to keep the "power/charge" meter at mid point (where green meets blue), at least on my car. The moment you touch the accelerator, the meter rises off the green and I have even kept the meter from rising above the first increment (line) which results in very, very slow acceleration.
My car has never averaged anywhere near 51 mpg like yours (always about 10 mpg less regardless of conditions).
I wonder where one could obtain true technical data about the hybrid system.............such as battery capacity, how far the car should travel on a full charge before switching to gas, and exactly, how does the Sport setting work as compared to the Economy setting (you know, exactly what are the commands from the computer to the power systems).
I owned 2 different Nissan Leafs and learned a tremendous amount of knowledge about how the systems worked. Once you know this, you can pretty much make an analysis about what might be going wrong, if anything.
Thank you so much for your responses.
My car has never averaged anywhere near 51 mpg like yours (always about 10 mpg less regardless of conditions).
I wonder where one could obtain true technical data about the hybrid system.............such as battery capacity, how far the car should travel on a full charge before switching to gas, and exactly, how does the Sport setting work as compared to the Economy setting (you know, exactly what are the commands from the computer to the power systems).
I owned 2 different Nissan Leafs and learned a tremendous amount of knowledge about how the systems worked. Once you know this, you can pretty much make an analysis about what might be going wrong, if anything.
Thank you so much for your responses.
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I know my father is a leadfoot and he is in his 80's (watch out world!!!)
Of course you cant always keep the meter at dead center but if you are constantly showing lots of BLUE, that is your issue.
The vehicle maximum load is 850 lbs. So if you are carrying heavy items, or large people, your hybrid is straining.
The last thing I can suggest is set your dash to display ECO DRIVE. This will show a circle with a car in the middle with lines in the center. Try as best as you can to keep those line even.
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Hey - try this...
#1 Coast with brake (or use paddle) to stop signs/lights and get at least to 50% battery level
#2 Accelerate to your speed limit and set cruise control
#3 If you don't see EV on the dash, click cancel to cancel the cruise control until you see EV, then click RESUME to resume cruise control
This should (depending on terrain), run in EV mode until battery gets low, then the motor will kick in and charge the battery
Repeat
I got an area by my home that I got a 45 mph stretch of road that I can ride the brake 1/8th a mile, and charge my battery up above 50%
Anyways, I did this yesterday on a 8 mile trip and my power-flow on head unit showed 60.1 mpg and I used sport mode once to merge into traffic.
#1 Coast with brake (or use paddle) to stop signs/lights and get at least to 50% battery level
#2 Accelerate to your speed limit and set cruise control
#3 If you don't see EV on the dash, click cancel to cancel the cruise control until you see EV, then click RESUME to resume cruise control
This should (depending on terrain), run in EV mode until battery gets low, then the motor will kick in and charge the battery
Repeat
I got an area by my home that I got a 45 mph stretch of road that I can ride the brake 1/8th a mile, and charge my battery up above 50%
Anyways, I did this yesterday on a 8 mile trip and my power-flow on head unit showed 60.1 mpg and I used sport mode once to merge into traffic.
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Here’s the total trip B since I brought my car home. I probably should have said 50-51mpg at a steady 60-62mph, based on the optimismeter. Over 90% of my driving is short hops near home and I average what you see here.
I should add 99% plus of my driving is with the needle below the solid line by the R on Range and probably 95% is below the first line beneath that.
I should add 99% plus of my driving is with the needle below the solid line by the R on Range and probably 95% is below the first line beneath that.
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I have owned my Hybrid for 7 weeks now, and put over 1,200 miles on it. The gauge giving me the "guesstimate" MPG has changed a lot over the course of time... I saw 61 mpg one time... did not last long. But lets face it the mpg figured "at the pump" will always be the most correct. My first fill up (half tank) worked out to be 38 mpg, the second was 44 and my last fill up today (after a short day trip to the mountains of VA) worked out to be 51 mpg. I was very happy. Going up the mountains sure used a lot of fuel... but going back down... very little indeed. Going down was the first time that I actually saw the battery gauge go all the way up to FULL! I can't seem to make it do that on flat ground. The company only claims 47 mpg, and most testers have agreed. If you are not getting close to that when you are driving conservatively (and the "pump figures" agree) then you certainly have a car that should be looked into by the service dept. Honda has not released the capacity of the battery... they are keeping that info "very close to chest". Most reviewers have guessed that it is a little smaller than the Toyota Camry Hybrid LE (that's the cheapest hybrid but with the largest battery) which is said to have about a 88 kw hour lithium-ion battery. But at this point with out Honda confirming the battery size it is only a guess.
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I recently found some info on the battery capacity... no idea how accurate it is and the info may have been taken from the 2017 model which had a very different battery shape. Can anyone confirm or refute that the battery is a 1.3 KWH Lithium Ion? If info does come from the '17 specs the '18 battery is likely different as the battery is of such a different shape '17 may be a little larger in capacity than the 2018. Someone out there knows the capacity if we can just find the person.
Car and Driver's test article agrees with you that it's a 1.3kW pack.
Going back to Windsor's claim of lousy gas mileage. I'll echo that you have to drive this car differently to really get the stated mileage. I have a 30 mile commute to work each way, and I've never been under 42mpg, with a best of 48 on the dashboard. It's mostly expressway, half in a 65 zone, half in a 70 zone, with about 1.5 miles of surface streets on either end (25-35 zones). I try to use the paddles a lot to maximize regen. One trick if you want to get the battery charged higher is to go into Sport mode temporarily, then back to Eco. I do that right before I get off the expressway, and with the regen from the offramp to get the battery gauge up to 80% or so, I can make it 1.5 miles on the battery.
Speed makes a huge impact on fuel economy. If I set the cruise for the 70mph zone at 70 versus 68, I lose about 1-2 mpg. Wind resistance is proportional to the square of the velocity.
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