After all the online discussions and debates related to the usable size of the Prime's fuel tank I took it upon myself to be the test case. The road trip home would be the perfect proving ground.
After picking up my new XSE I topped off the tank at the nearest gas station (only needed half a gallon, 1 click after auto stop).
The following are the various milestones:
1) @ 415.5 miles, fuel light on, fuel gauge at 1 1/2 bar, avg mpg indicated 36.4, DTE HV 32, DTE EV29
2) @ 448.4 miles, "refuel" light message appears on line where DTE HV usually appears, fuel gauge under bottom bar, DTE EV27
3) @ 524.6 miles, "engine stopped" message, "stop in safe place within 10km (6.2 miles)" - I felt a slight shudder and the engine had stopped, car continued to drive normally under EV power, last known avg mpg indicated was 35.8 mpg
4) @ 527.0 miles, pulled into gas station under EV power
5) filled tank, 14.669 gal @ auto stop, to 14.928 gal with one additional click
I only performed this test because I knew as a newly delivered vehicle I didn't have concerns about any contaminants entering the fuel pump. Secondly, given the temperatures in the upper 20's and non aggressive driving I was not too worried about damaging an exposed fuel pump.
Backing into the numbers I would estimate that we have approximately 3.5 gal of fuel in the tank when the fuel light first comes on. And we certainly have use of ALL 14.5 gallons and then some.
Each vehicle may behave differently and have the fuel light come on at different gauge levels. Once you get accustomed to your cars' nuances you now have a good way of estimating how soon you really need to fill up and know you always have the safety net of EV miles if needed. I suspect the message of stopping in a safe place in 6.2 miles relates to additional miles available in the HV battery that are normally not usable (just a guess on my part, otherwise it should have indicated that I still had over 20 miles of EV range per my DTE EV indicator at the time.)
Let me know if you have any other questions about my experiment. Happy driving!
After picking up my new XSE I topped off the tank at the nearest gas station (only needed half a gallon, 1 click after auto stop).
The following are the various milestones:
1) @ 415.5 miles, fuel light on, fuel gauge at 1 1/2 bar, avg mpg indicated 36.4, DTE HV 32, DTE EV29
2) @ 448.4 miles, "refuel" light message appears on line where DTE HV usually appears, fuel gauge under bottom bar, DTE EV27
3) @ 524.6 miles, "engine stopped" message, "stop in safe place within 10km (6.2 miles)" - I felt a slight shudder and the engine had stopped, car continued to drive normally under EV power, last known avg mpg indicated was 35.8 mpg
4) @ 527.0 miles, pulled into gas station under EV power
5) filled tank, 14.669 gal @ auto stop, to 14.928 gal with one additional click
I only performed this test because I knew as a newly delivered vehicle I didn't have concerns about any contaminants entering the fuel pump. Secondly, given the temperatures in the upper 20's and non aggressive driving I was not too worried about damaging an exposed fuel pump.
Backing into the numbers I would estimate that we have approximately 3.5 gal of fuel in the tank when the fuel light first comes on. And we certainly have use of ALL 14.5 gallons and then some.
Each vehicle may behave differently and have the fuel light come on at different gauge levels. Once you get accustomed to your cars' nuances you now have a good way of estimating how soon you really need to fill up and know you always have the safety net of EV miles if needed. I suspect the message of stopping in a safe place in 6.2 miles relates to additional miles available in the HV battery that are normally not usable (just a guess on my part, otherwise it should have indicated that I still had over 20 miles of EV range per my DTE EV indicator at the time.)
Let me know if you have any other questions about my experiment. Happy driving!
