New Hybrid MPG

[Ktowntimmy]

Picked up my new HPR Hybrid last evening. Drove it home, about 6 miles, didn’t pay any attention to the MPG dash reading. This morning, I ran some errands. Initially, I was showing 14 mpg. As I drove around, the number climbed up to about 27 over about 40 miles of city travel. I guess the computer has to “learn” from the first tank of gas?

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[Techcar]

Yes , it will take a while to learn , plus it's cold weather and wont get as good of mileage as in warm weather. Give it time to settle in and everything break in .

 

[Ktowntimmy]

Yes , it will take a while to learn , plus it's cold weather and wont get as good of mileage as in warm weather. Give it time to settle in and everything break in .

That’s kind of what I thought, especially since the number kept climbing. I’m in East Tennessee and it was almost 60° today. Yay.

 

[RedRider]

Picked up my new HPR Hybrid last evening. Drove it home, about 6 miles, didn’t pay any attention to the MPG dash reading. This morning, I ran some errands. Initially, I was showing 14 mpg. As I drove around, the number climbed up to about 27 over about 40 miles of city travel. I guess the computer has to “learn” from the first tank of gas?

Its learning how things work the best, what fuel you're using, etc. Its also training you how to get the best mileage, so there are two things being altered as you break in the new drivetrain.

 

[RockHoundTX]

Best bet is to just push and hold the OK button to reset the MPG. After about 5-10 miles you should have a decent baseline that will go up or down slowly based on driving conditions/speed. That will happen every time you reset the MPG after filling up. I drive like a granny and try to get the most MPG I can (I use the little blue bar religiously). For my XL Hybrid, I get roughly 35-36mpg at 65-70mph, 38-39mpg at 55-60, and 43-47mpg at 35mph. Over the last 5000 miles, I have basically been getting around 40-41mpg in mixed driving (driving to town on a 60-65mph state highway and taking my kids to school which is mostly 35mph back-roads). Been trying to get the mythical 45+ in mixed driving that some claim but just haven't been able to in central Texas (combination of hills, wind, and pretty close to sea level) even without running the AC (and running the AC or defroster seems to cause a 2-3MPG hit). My best so far on a 500 mile tank has been 42.2mpg.

After about 2 fill-ups, you can see if the truck is telling you the same MPG as when you "hand calculate" at fill-up. For some, the numbers may be close. For others (such as myself), the truck was giving me about 3-4 MPG more than actual. I then went into the maintenance mode and changed the calculation number to 950 (that seems to be the most commonly used) and now it seems pretty close. Do a search and there will be 4 or 5 posts showing exactly how to do this.

 

[Ktowntimmy]

Its learning how things work the best, what fuel you're using, etc. Its also training you how to get the best mileage, so there are two things being altered as you break in the new drivetrain.

One of the things that surprised me is how much battery is used while braking. I’ve got a lot to learn.

 

[daschmidty]

Also if you didn't reset the trip odometer when you picked it up, the mpg for your current tank probably includes tons of idle or near idle time from the dealer shuffling it around the lot, burning fuel without going anywhere

 

[Connect]

One of the things that surprised me is how much battery is used while braking. I’ve got a lot to learn.

If you are trying to get good MPG, someone on here suggested using the EV coach and it helped me to see what I needed to do to get it to kick into EV mode more. I usually will also reset the trip after each tank to see how it is doing. So when you fill up next reset it and it will give you a better idea of what you are actually doing. It is optimistic though by about 2-4mpg

 

[Maverick2023]

Mine did the opposite. Started with 999 mpg because it was in battery then down to 53.

 

[Ozarkbeard]

One of the things that surprised me is how much battery is used while braking. I’ve got a lot to learn.

It's charging the battery, when braking. Aka, "regenerative" braking. This not only recharges the battery, it's using the drag from the motor/generator for braking, instead of using the brake pads (to a point). You'll find your truck's brake pads/rotors lasting well over 100k miles.

Read/learn how to bring up the EV Coach screen on your instrument cluster. It can teach you how to stay in Electric mode longer, which can increase MPG considerably. Also, many on MTC have found that putting the Hybrid's drive mode in Slippery Mode at the beginning of each trip will contribute to higher MPGs - even more than "eco" mode does.

 

[Cactusgrayinny]

Best bet is to just push and hold the OK button to reset the MPG. After about 5-10 miles you should have a decent baseline that will go up or down slowly based on driving conditions/speed. That will happen every time you reset the MPG after filling up. I drive like a granny and try to get the most MPG I can (I use the little blue bar religiously). For my XL Hybrid, I get roughly 35-36mpg at 65-70mph, 38-39mpg at 55-60, and 43-47mpg at 35mph. Over the last 5000 miles, I have basically been getting around 40-41mpg in mixed driving (driving to town on a 60-65mph state highway and taking my kids to school which is mostly 35mph back-roads). Been trying to get the mythical 45+ in mixed driving that some claim but just haven't been able to in central Texas (combination of hills, wind, and pretty close to sea level) even without running the AC (and running the AC or defroster seems to cause a 2-3MPG hit). My best so far on a 500 mile tank has been 42.2mpg.

After about 2 fill-ups, you can see if the truck is telling you the same MPG as when you "hand calculate" at fill-up. For some, the numbers may be close. For others (such as myself), the truck was giving me about 3-4 MPG more than actual. I then went into the maintenance mode and changed the calculation number to 950 (that seems to be the most commonly used) and now it seems pretty close. Do a search and there will be 4 or 5 posts showing exactly how to do this.

My experience performance wise has been similar here in much colder upstate NY. It appears to be that the reported MPG's on the dash are only slightly optimistic. If you have a week of below freezing temperatures it will impact these numbers. I have a question however about the ELECTRIC MILES which are reported. Having discovered this forum only a few days ago and have not been able to find a discussion regarding the relationship of ELECTRIC MILES and the "bottom line" efficiency MPG figures. For example, sometimes I get as low as 10% electric miles, then sometimes it will be 40%. Certainly cold temperatures and vehicle speeds are going to be a factor for both. Is there anywhere in these forums where this is addressed?

 

[Cactusgrayinny]

I think what is curious here is that the Electric Miles % is not directly related to the MPG figure, which varies from trip to trip, on a much smaller range than the Electric Miles. This is fascinating to me. I have been using the EV Coach mode. Has anybody else figured this out?

 

[OLT]

Picked up my new HPR Hybrid last evening. Drove it home, about 6 miles, didn’t pay any attention to the MPG dash reading. This morning, I ran some errands. Initially, I was showing 14 mpg. As I drove around, the number climbed up to about 27 over about 40 miles of city travel. I guess the computer has to “learn” from the first tank of gas?

Check the display settings. There is a wide variety of choices.

 

[Darnon]

I think what is curious here is that the Electric Miles % is not directly related to the MPG figure, which varies from trip to trip, on a much smaller range than the Electric Miles. This is fascinating to me. I have been using the EV Coach mode. Has anybody else figured this out?

You can have a fairly consistent % of time on electric, but how much work the ICE is doing and at what speeds when it is running can affect the MPG average lot. For instance, if you're stopped but the engine starts to generate heat because you have the climate control on that's time at effectively 0 MPG that needs to be made up.

It's also why, somewhat counterintuitively, when the ICE does start it can be more efficient for hybrids to accelerate more briskly at lower speed. Then the ICE isn't having to run as long before you reach a steady state speed where it can transition back to electric.

 

[dldjtad]

It takes an average. So, say when you fill up, you reset your trip odometer to zero. Initially, it will fluctuate wildly, but as more and more miles are put on it, it will stabilize.

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