How To Drive A Hybrid Car Efficiently
(How to Provide a More Efficient Driving Experience?)
Find out what you need to do, to make the most of the already existing advantages of hybrid cars.
You have taken the first step by becoming a hybrid car owner or deciding to own a hybrid car. What about the second step you need to take to get the most out of your hybrid? From battery maintenance to cruise control, from acceleration techniques to fuel economy awareness, we go over the second step with all the details. Let’s drive together.
Introduction
Hybrid cars, which are produced as a hybrid of gasoline and electric vehicles, make the difference especially in urban uses. There are some driving techniques that should be considered in order to benefit from the advantages of hybrid cars at the maximum level. There are many suggestions you can implement to get the most out of your hybrid car you own or intend to own.
By understanding the working principle of hybrid cars and applying driving techniques more effectively, you can improve your hybrid experience and get the most effective performance.
What to consider when driving a hybrid car and how to achieve a more efficient driving experience. Let’s find the correct answer to these two questions together.
Limiting Your Driving
First of all, if you are thinking about a hybrid car, you probably have two important points in mind: The desire to save fuel and environmental concerns. Then the first and most basic way to gain the right driving habits with your hybrid car is to use the car as little as possible. If you have the opportunity, walk to your destination. No, get on the bike. If that is also impossible, use public transport such as trains and subways. Get your hybrid car out of the garage if it’s really necessary. This will be our most effective recommendation for the health of both your pocket and the world.
In situations where you need to use your car, try to drive it within the battery range. So what does this mean? We’re talking about driving your hybrid car as far as its electric motor will allow. Staying within the driving distance allowed by the electric battery without allowing the car to switch to the gasoline engine… In short, take care to use your hybrid car as close to your home as possible. It is important to stay close to home in order to maximize efficiency in hybrid vehicles.
Developing Good Hybrid Driving Habits
As a hybrid driver, if you want to increase the efficiency of your driving, you may need to completely rebuild your current driving habits. For example, watch the speedometer, use cruise control, check the fuel economy screen if available. Monitor your fuel efficiency on the screen.
Using the Brakes
Yes, use your brakes. Because hybrid cars use a technology known as regenerative braking. This technology enables the energy produced by the brakes, and normally wasted as heat in internal combustion cars, to be used to charge the battery in the hybrid car. When you want to slow down, press the brake pedal gently and gradually. Give yourself enough distance for effective braking. In this way, you can ensure that more energy is produced and therefore better charging of the battery. The longer you extend the stopping distance, the more your hybrid battery will be charged.
Keeping the Speed Low
When driving a hybrid car, try to set yourself an upper speed limit for the highway. And this limit should not exceed 120 kilometers per hour if possible. Because the fuel efficiency of hybrid cars generally starts to decrease after 110 km/h. Therefore, when traveling in your hybrid car, try not to stray from the middle lane. Let other cars pass you by.
Also try not to accelerate too fast or too slow. Accelerating the car suddenly causes both the gasoline and electric motor to work simultaneously. It is best to accelerate neither too fast nor too slow. Find an optimal acceleration level and stick to it.
Press the gas pedal of your hybrid car gently and steadily. This way you can keep your car running in EV mode for longer.
When taking off with your hybrid car, do not step on the gas when the road is available. When you lift the car without pressing the gas, only the electric motor is engaged. And in this way, you can increase fuel economy. Keep in mind that the gasoline engine will kick in as you step on the gas and continue to accelerate. At this point, if the road conditions allow, you can use the cruise control to avoid pressing the accelerator pedal. Constant speed is the most efficient speed for your vehicle. In this way, you can disable the gasoline engine.
If you are driving a hybrid car, be careful not to put the gear in neutral. Note that the car cannot generate electricity when the gear is in neutral. It cannot produce electricity, but it also causes energy output from the battery.
Determining the Most Appropriate Acceleration Technique
As you use your hybrid car, you can discover the most accurate driving technique yourself. Monitor the fuel efficiency of the car. For example, try slow acceleration for a few weeks. Then try accelerating the car a little faster. Compare your mileage results. Thus, you can make the technique with the highest fuel economy a habit.
Choosing the Right Driving Mode
Your hybrid car will likely have 3 or 4 driving modes such as EV, ECO, Normal, Sport. It is possible to achieve very good results in terms of fuel economy by choosing the appropriate driving mode while using your hybrid car. Your hybrid car will likely give you the choice of when to switch from electric to gasoline. The lowest running costs are of course possible with the EV mode. For this, switch to EV mode wherever possible. Where it is not possible (for example at higher speeds), then switch to ECO mode and entrust the car to gentle driving.
For highway driving, hybrids can often automatically switch to gasoline engine. On such high-speed roads, try to keep the car in ECO mode as much as possible. ECO mode reduces the sensitivity of the accelerator pedal and the level of acceleration. This means less fuel consumption. For short distances, try to use the car in EV driving mode whenever possible.
Battery and Charge Management
Managing Battery Charge
Did you know that fully charging your electric car battery will cause faster wear? Similarly, it is not good to run out of battery completely. This will reduce the efficiency of the battery. Therefore, it would be good to pay attention to the indicator of your battery while charging. Try to finish charging when it is at about 80 percent. Likewise, do not let the battery power go below 20 percent.
Today, some automotive brands that produce hybrid cars include systems that prevent the battery from completely depleting, into their car designs. This is also a necessary safety measure for hybrid cars.
Take Care of Your Battery
As the battery cools, the amount of energy you can draw from it decreases. This is one of the worst aspects of winter and cold weather for electric cars. To protect your car’s battery, keep it in a garage if possible during cold weather. You can even warm up your battery by idling the car for a while.
Like cold temperatures, excessive heat can also be harmful to your battery. Therefore, try not to keep your car under direct and effective sunlight too long.
Get to Know Your Hybrid
It is important that you thoroughly familiarize yourself with your hybrid car in all its details. By learning the functions of the hybrid information display in the vehicle, you can easily understand how much electricity and fuel you consume while driving.
In addition, in order to drive more efficiently with your hybrid car, you should avoid unnecessary and/or intensive use of equipment such as air conditioning, headlights and windshield wipers that increase the vehicle’s energy consumption. In order to minimize energy consumption, you should pay attention to such usage details.
Enrich Your Knowledge Before Stepping into the Hybrid World
Educate yourself on hybrid before you buy or before you start to drive a hybrid.
Today, different types of hybrid cars are produced. If you are thinking of entering the electric world through hybrid cars, it would be in your best interest to learn about different types of hybrids such as Mild Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid, Series Hybrid, Parallel Hybrid, Series-Parallel Hybrid. Some hybrids make external charging possible and necessary, while others’ electric motor charges only with regenerative braking and does not need external charging. Some hybrids have systems that enable only gasoline or only electric engines to operate at a certain time or in certain situations. While all-hybrid cars can run electric alone, in mild hybrid cars the internal combustion engine is always on. The electric battery just provides an extra boost. You can learn about all these hybrid types in advance and analyze the models comparatively. You can weigh the pros and cons of each and make the right choice this way.
When deciding what kind of hybrid you want to buy, your motivation will be the determining factor as well as your budget. If you want to enter the electric world relatively quickly and/or if you consider yourself an ecological warrior, you may want to choose an all or parallel hybrid. If you are a long-distance person but still want to save fuel, a mild hybrid car may be for you.
In short; before buying a hybrid car, it would be very helpful to educate yourself a little about the hybrid world.
Similarly, you should educate yourself about the hybrid car you’ve already bought before you get behind the wheel. You should familiarize yourself with the car you bought, with all its technological features and details about usage. In this way, you can fully master the hybrid you will use and it will be possible to use it in the most efficient way.
If you have recently switched from a diesel or petrol car to a hybrid vehicle, or if your near future plans include owning a hybrid car, keeping operating costs to a minimum will be among your top priorities. To get the most out of your new hybrid and save money, we strongly recommend that you implement the above strategies and hybrid-specific driving tips.
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