Driving on the highway in a Panamera

The other day, I was in Nagoya on a weekday for some business.Take the Panamera from home to Nagoya via expresswayI decided to go there. However, I had an image that there were many trucks and cars in Meishin and Shin-Meishin areas.I wonder if it would be easier to drive with adaptive cruise control (ACC) all the time."I was thinking...

if you insist (on something)"I'll drive normally on the way there and use adaptive cruise control (ACC) on the way back, and compare how much difference there is in fuel economy."I thought it would be interesting to try it. I know it is said that "ACC with constant acceleration generally tends to improve fuel economy," but I wondered how it actually works.

However, the highway on the way there and on the way back is slightly different, such as downhill and uphill, so it is not an exact comparison...well, I just thought I would give it a try.

First, drive yourself.

I just set the navigation system to go.Meishin Expressway → Shin Meishin Expressway → Higashi-Meihan Expressway → Nagoya Expressway Inner Ring Routebut decided to take this route because it was the fastest route to reach the destination in about 2.5 hours.

On this run, the

Do not accelerate, do not brake, and cruise at the same speed as much as possible.
If the number of cars decreases, stay in the travel lane and use reasonable acceleration when overtaking.

I tried to(Is that so obvious? But I wasn't always very aware of that.)

I set off immediately, but the downhill road from my home to the Meishin Expressway is always busy, so I lost a lot of fuel efficiency there. Once on the expressway, however, the ride was relatively smooth. We arrived at Nagoya in less than two and a half hours as scheduled, without taking any breaks along the way.

At this point, fuel consumption is 8.3L/100km.(My husband always sets it in European notation.)". In other words.Approx. 12km/LIt is.

That's so cool!

Usually on long-distance trips with the Panamera, fuel economy is usually between 9.0 and 10 km/L, but this time it was quite excellent. After arriving in Nagoya, it took some time to find a parking lot near our destination, but we found an indoor underground parking lot and parked the car.

But, to my surprise, I forgot to take a picture of the fuel consumption gauge, turned off the engine, and walked out on the ground. It was already too late.

I've done it. (；P....)(I'm sorry to say that the evidence...)

I only remember the fuel consumption, so I don't know the average speed, but I think it was 8.3L/100km by the end.

This time, driving in ACC and heading home.

After finishing our errands, we set the same route for the return trip as we had taken on the way there, and off we went. The return trip was not too crowded, but there were quite a few cars.I guess I was right about the ACC."After an hour and a half, we entered Otsu SA and took a short break.

Even though it's ACC, you can't fall asleep... (-_-)

Moreover, I had completely forgotten to buy souvenirs for my children from Nagoya, so when I went inside and started rummaging through the souvenirs...Mixed in with the Kyoto/Shiga souvenir section, to my surprise, there were Nagoya souvenirs!Good W.

Then, after safely buying souvenirs, we headed home again.

Around the east of Kyoto, there were two lanes and it was a little crowded, but after passing Kyoto South, there were three lanes and the driving was smooth. However, there was a lane restriction near the Nishinomiya Interchange on the Meishin Expressway, which brought the car to a complete stop, and we had to drive at a sluggish pace.

Once again, I thought that ACC is really useful in such situations. However, the traffic jam did not last too long, and we arrived safely near my home. In fact, the uphill in front of my house is so steep that my fuel consumption usually drops by 0.2 to 0.3 here, so I decided to finish the fuel consumption measurement before the uphill. The fuel consumption I was concerned about was

Average fuel consumption: 8.5 L/100 km (11.7 km/L)
Running time: 2:39h
Distance: 185 km
Average speed: 72 km/h

It was.

Is ACC really fuel efficient?

This was the first time I drove a long distance with ACC, but I was left with the strong impression that "as soon as the car in front of me disappears, it accelerates hard to close the distance. When I was driving by myself, even if the car in front of me disappeared, I would still be able to drive "as fast as I can".If I keep going, I'm going to catch up with that car in front of me soon, so I'll just cruise along.Even in a situation where the driver judges that the car is "in front" and does not particularly accelerate, ACC will accelerate, and when the driver sees a car ahead, he or she will again step on the brake.

For all that, the fuel economy was not much different from what I was getting driving by myself, and I got this mileage in spite of traffic jams on the way home, so I guess that means that ACC is driving in a car-friendly way. Above all, it's easy when there are a lot of cars.

However.It was not so much fun to drive 370 km, about 5 hours, to and from this time, worrying about fuel consumption all the time.So I thought again that if I were to drive a Panamera, I would like to enjoy driving without thinking about that.