Cold temperature fuel efficacy drop Hybrid?

[Waterick]

Shorter trips in any vehicle during colder weather will be at reduced mileage. Even in warmer weather, mileage is reduced til full warm up, it just happens faster and is less noticeable. We're just being hypercritical of our mileage as for many, the hybrid is a new thing to us.

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[GPSMan]

Crazy Ford had planned an E85 hybrid…… ten years ago. Didn’t pan out sadly.
https://www.drivingthenation.com/ford-escape-hybrid-e85/

Funny you brought that up!

I had an E-85 capable Escape Hybrid.
I affectionately called it a "Tribrid".

After Ford came out with 25 demonstration units, I investigated and learned the only thing different between the 25 and the 50,000 others sold that year was electronics. Nothing mechanical was different.
The stock fuel injectors would handle the extra output needed for ethanol.
The car would automatically adjust the A/F ratio. It would just take a long time. (Any car today adjusts for altitude changes but it is a slow change, over minutes and maybe hours.) E85 Flex Fuel cars have additional fuel sensors and different programming to make QUICK changes, if you make QUICK fuel changes. I bought a third party fuel injector controller for like $200 and that was it. It had a trim screw where I could manually boost the injector output. The "box" was invisible to the car, and since the "box" was boosting the injectors, it kept the check engine light off.

I can attest it ran great on ethanol. Lower MPG, but lower price in the midwest for ethanol. In the 2000's ethanol excitement was about like today's EV excitement. 15 years ago I'd find all the E-85 grand openings and get E-85 for 85 cents a gallon. Like 10-15 years ago they were doing that.

P.S. I also found E25 was a sweet spot. Not as high MPG as neat gasoline, but the MPG was about the same as E10, but with a cost per mile savings over both neat gasoline and E10.

P.P.S. I also found out any Escape Hybrid (2005-2009) would run fine all the way up to E40 with zero changes. No extra controller needed. No check engine lights.

 

[Hack]

Here in the mountains in New Mexico, the temperatures have dropped - as low as the midteens overnight. My driving hasn't changed much, but I've been using the steering wheel heater, heated seats and cabin heater a lot. My mileage has dropped from above 42 to below 39 so far on this tank. It could be the state has changed the fuel, too.

 

[dph1980]

Since it has been cold here in Middle TN my hybrid mpg has dropped like a rock. Last night at below freezing on a 50ish mile trip mostly interstate I only got about 31 mpg. When it was warmer I was getting about 35-37 mpg on the same trip.

 

[Hybrid Nut]

Since it has been cold here in Middle TN my hybrid mpg has dropped like a rock. Last night at below freezing on a 50ish mile trip mostly interstate I only got about 31 mpg. When it was warmer I was getting about 35-37 mpg on the same trip.

Same here. Cold weather hard on mileage.

 

[TedTX]

Expected the worse this morning, scheduled start to warm truck, drove to pickup groceries and waited about 10m idling then home. About 30m total time truck running. Got a 53mpg!!! Strange.

 

[TedTX]

Note that 53mpg was with the heat left on MAX High. Based on research that does save gas by heating with defrost electric strips running on the extra electricity generated on engine warmup cycle that would just blow out the tailpipe otherwise.
Did have to turn it down a few miles into trip because too hot.

 

[jicajust]

Has anyone noticed the hybrid running cooler with the shutters removed for the recall? It is in the 20's and on short local trips the engine temp gauge doesn't make it to normal.

 

[MLA62563]

I think the attached photos document the hybrid's Winter efficiency drop pretty well. These are from my daily commute to work of just short of six miles. The first photo is from a 30 degree morning with a little frost, so the extra couple of minutes came from the scraping I had to do. The second was from an afternoon of about 60 degrees. It's all on fairly level ground, so the big difference is all down to temperature. Short commutes like this impact efficiency under any circumstances...but particularly in cold weather. By contrast, during the summer months, the numbers are typically closer to 40 on the morning side. Afternoon numbers are comparable.
Once warmed up though, the cold doesn't seem to matter much at all, so it's gotta be the short commute that does the deed.
The third photo shows the lifetime average to date (You can subtract a couple....the computer always overstates it a bit.), so winter drop or not, this thing is still crazy efficient. I'm not complaining by a long shot!

 

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Designed to fail…. Just leave this here.

you do know that the block of the 2.0l Ecoboost was redesigned before the Maverick Launch? this is not a point of failure for the Maverick.

*corrected for typo

 

[Jonny44]

Yep. Went from 45 mpg last summer to around 38 mpg now (single digit temps F in the Near Great White North). It improves slightly if I can delay using the HVAC system until the truck heats up. Thank God for the heated seats and steering wheel!

 

[MLA62563]

Yep. Went from 45 mpg last summer to around 38 mpg now (single digit temps F in the Near Great White North). It improves slightly if I can delay using the HVAC system until the truck heats up. Thank God for the heated seats and steering wheel!

Oh yeah...LOVE those heated seats and wheel. Even in our relatively mild winter I find myself using them constantly.

 

[GPSMan]

Yep. Went from 45 mpg last summer to around 38 mpg now (single digit temps F in the Near Great White North). It improves slightly if I can delay using the HVAC system until the truck heats up. Thank God for the heated seats and steering wheel!

For the truck to shut off the engine and allow EV only miles, the water coolant gauge needle needs to be just off the "C".

However there is an electric water pump to give heat to the vents. On a cold day, you can watch the temperature needle fall at a 1 minute stoplight.... IF you are blowing heat to vents. If not, it stays pretty level and you can stay in EV mode.

 

[Egz]

I don't know if my MPG dropped because of the temperature, or I'm just fed up with all the other drivers on the road and abusing the go-pedal.

 

[pac87]

Yep. Went from 45 mpg last summer to around 38 mpg now (single digit temps F in the Near Great White North). It improves slightly if I can delay using the HVAC system until the truck heats up. Thank God for the heated seats and steering wheel!

38mpg is still better than the ecoboost at it’s best. I’ve ordered a hybrid and live in Canada. I’m concerned with the mpg during our cold weather but it seems as though it’ll still be more efficient as it’s worst than the ecoboost.

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