Keeping the hybrid battery charged

One thing you realize quickly with the FusionH (and Prius and Escape and Insight) is simply this: the more charge in the battery the better your MPG is gonna be. So part of the art of maximizing your mileage relates directly to keeping your battery charge up.

I'm still figuring out all the nuances of how the battery charging works and will devote an upcoming post with more details soon. However, I've come up with one trick that is easy to do and helps keep the charge up.

Here's how it works:

Remember that the braking system on the FusionH is really a generator that feeds power back into the battery. Every time you use the brakes you are recharging your battery. In fact you can see this on your battery gauge, especially after a few stops right in a row. Now, the way I use this to my advantage is going down long hills. If you have a good size hill that you are going down, and you are at the speed limit and no one is behind you, then you can lightly "ride" the brakes so that the battery charging symbol comes on. In many cases this isn't riding the brakes at all, it's simply engaging the generator. As the car tends to pick up speed going down a hill, you can hold it back to the speed limit and the generator will send power right back into the battery. If you are on a good size hill, the gain can be quite significant.

As always, one needs to use normal good judgement and care in any type of driving technique, including this one. For example, if I'm coming down a hill and there is an aggressive driver right on my bumper I would not use this technique so as not to aggravate the driver behind me, who is in a rush and perhaps not really focusing as much on safe driving skills as he or she should. It is always critial to be aware of other drivers who are distracted or aggressive or not careful and stay as clear of them as possible.