Down Shifting In Econ Mode to gain MPG (CVT)

[dntower85]

I noticed that in Economy mode that the engine lugs badly when accelerating. This uses more batteries and thus more fuel to recharge them.

I have improved my MPG form 41.5 to 44 just by hitting the paddle shifter once or twice when I need to get the car up to speed.

In my commute to work the averaged hwy speed is about 50mph with a lot of 40-60-40 speed changes. The quick down shift gets me back up to hwy speed faster with less use of the batteries. So I'm back off the gas sooner and getting the mpgs back up.
Works on hills too. I think Honda could reprogram the CVT to do this in Economy mode and that would help there EPA ratings.

[wicked1]

Same w/ 6mt.. It's got indicators that tell you when it thinks you should shift. I was listening to the car. I finally decided to drive the way I want and it's the same observation you've made. The car wants to bog down the engine too much. Once I started leaving it in a lower gear for longer, I had more power and better MPG.

[a2011crz-ex]

would just leaving it in normal and then switching it to econ once you started cruising on the highway or wherever have the same effect as downshifting?

[dntower85]

Originally Posted by a2011crz-ex

would just leaving it in normal and then switching it to econ once you started cruising on the highway or wherever have the same effect as downshifting?

I tried this also but the transmission doesn't change modes quick enough.
I will leave it in normal if I am doing a lot of starts and stops and entering the freeway. but once I get to cruising speed I change to Econ and just down shift when needed.

I also use normal mode when i see the batteries getting near the half charge mark.

Again my average is 44mpg but on just the hwy I have managed 49mpg

[lldsandsll]

the reason they do this is that they assume you will accelerate VERY slowly in eco. should you actually increase speed that slowly, then you will maximize efficiency. remember, eco is intended to allow you to obtain max efficiency, hence retardedly slow acceleration.

[Kenny Carwash]

I'm a little puzzled that there's even paddles on a CVT. Surely by definition it has no gears?

But yeah, I always flick over to normal if I want to speed up. I find the throttle response low in Econ for anything but cruising or heavy traffic.

[crzsuzuka]

Shifting down two gears with the paddles works much better than moving from Econ to normal.

[a2011crz-ex]

yea i can kinda see how that would be easier. I just started doing that instead of constantly being in normal mode and i get better gas mileage with the same acceleration as normal.

[Storm Crow]

I've experienced poorer gas mileage from drives in which I downshift 2 gears while accelerating from stoplights in the suburbs. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong though. I am hitting the gas while accelerating to get up to speed as quick as possible. Perhaps downshifting while still maintaining a smoother acceleration would work better?

[ants73]

Originally Posted by lldsandsll

the reason they do this is that they assume you will accelerate VERY slowly in eco. should you actually increase speed that slowly, then you will maximize efficiency. remember, eco is intended to allow you to obtain max efficiency, hence retardedly slow acceleration.

True until you get over 3K revs, I was coming of a roundabout floored the accelerator, changed gear between 5k & 6k revs, never droped below 3K revs and it felt as though it was in normal. I was shocked / surprised when I realised I was eco......

shocked eco didn't bog down as it does around 2k revs. surprised eco could accelerate and returned marginally better MPG when I began to cruise.