I am about to hit my longest stretch of not refuelling my Phev ( plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) and quite excited about the realisation of not regularly burning fossil fuel.
My SUV goes for about 45 kms on full charge and then the petrol engine kicks in and starts burning fuel. I followed some of the following self imposed restrictions to get to the 3 month mark.
I will try to wait out a trip till the car is fully charged , as opposed to just flooring the pedal irrespective of the battery situation. As you can imagine if I have to multiple trips , I space them out 3-4 hours so that I can recharge and go again with full battery.
I will not modify any plans for longer trips , of which , I have made 3-4 trips of almost 80-100 km range in last 3 months.
I will try not to drive in middle of the day as the air conditioner sucks up almost 10 kms from the 45 kms range.
Try to avoid uphill roads as the amount of torque needed for some of the steep roads turns on the petrol engine. There is a road near my place with 50 meter drop so I try to go around that even if I have to go 1 km extra.
I am not going to drive overly cautiously to save battery as that can be frustrating for other drivers on road and can be risky as well.
I am about to head out to petrol station as my wife pressured me that we are teetering on the edge of the empty tank but its been an exciting 3 months ( almost) of stretching it as far as it could go. Once (read if) I get the solar setup done this goal would become a real $$ saver , nonetheless it still comes out cheaper then petrol ( i think 1/3x) and it is good for environment.
@mazzle - thanks for the post idea.
great idea. could save a lot of money not burning through much fuel. try go for a year with no filling up on petrol :)
Technically , I could stretch it that far but it becomes impractical at some point.
@itstime, now this is cost effective and as you rightly said environment friendly. That's great.
I try :)