Disappointing 31.5 mpg on 850 miles trip: LA-Arizona-LA

[Guv]

Its the AC, I have a 2014 C Max with almost 100,000 miles on it, mostly highway. I have always gotten my worst mileage in the hottest months. I usually get around 35-36 in the summer and sometimes just over 40 in the mildest months. Recirculating air helps and turning the temperature up a little.
My speeds are 80-70, if I can slow it down to 65-55 she makes gas

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[davnau]

As I took delivery of my Maverick in December last year, the gas mileage was great. With the first tank I almost got 600 miles and moving forward I was averaging always 40mpg+. I had done all the software updates 2 or 3 weeks ago and noticed that the city mpg had gone down significantly but my overall mpg on my last tank of gas seemed to be unchanged. I still got great gas mileage when I drove freeway routes within LA. In the meantime I have 8k miles on the truck.
Now I took my first longer trip and drove with my Dad from LA to Arizona (a small town around 80-90 miles beyond phoenix) and back in one day. Total of 850 miles. The gas mileage was super disappointing. I got around 31.5 mpg average on this trip. I don't know if it was the strong side wind, the fact that I had my dad in the truck (I usually drive alone) or the fact I had to go up and down the hill, but this is not what I am used from this truck on the freeway. Until now, I actually got the higher mpg on the 30-40 mile trips of the freeway. I would get 50 or 60 mpg on some of my freeway rides. Anyone an idea what was happening here?

Just took a 3300 mile trip from Akron, OH to Kansas City, then to Spring Hill, FL, then back to Akron. Averaged 37 MPG, while averaging 70-75 MPH. On one stretch doing 80-85 MPH, mileage dropped to 33 MPG. Very happy with this mileage. I get 40 MPG in mixed driving near home. AC on the whole time, in my XL Hybrid, with just me on board.

In my book, all right on the button. Truck ran perfectly, with no hiccups.

 

[James D]

This video show a hybrid with a round trip from SoCal to Park City at 37mpg, which is the EPA combined rating.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Why does this continue to confuse people? It's only rated 33 on highway. You had an extra person. High winds. And up and down hills.

Up hills at 62mph, down hills at 80 with Regen braking and no cruise seems to help mpg.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Just took a 3300 mile trip from Akron, OH to Kansas City, then to Spring Hill, FL, then back to Akron. Averaged 37 MPG, while averaging 70-75 MPH. On one stretch doing 80-85 MPH, mileage dropped to 33 MPG. Very happy with this mileage. I get 40 MPG in mixed during near home. AC on the whole time, in my XL Hybrid, with just me on board.

In my book, all right on the button. Truck ran perfectly, with no hiccups.

Is your book a documentary or a Fairy Tale?

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Why would you think you got something different in Mav, different driver, yes, different environment, yes, different terrain, yes, different fuel, yes, however different Mav?....i dont think so.

Reminds me of the cross country mpg "racing" in the 1960's (?) In which some of the entrants would clean even the hints of dead bugs, etc and apply fresh wax at least once every day!!!

 

[MakinDoForNow]

You guys that are not getting reasonable fuel economy, are you getting the sleep mode errors? I am trying to correlate (have a theory here) to see if there is a connection between the lose of the electrical connection of the 12v system and loss of or reduced usage of HVB.

Any input will be appreciated.

Voltage measurements to report activities/conditions are everywhere. I remember in one of John's deep dive videos on a batter, not in a Ford that there were multiple grounds within the battery and included controls (maybe 12 or more) to ensure a good ground with backups was there. Really interesting was a big fuze (1000 amps, am not sure of size but it was huge). There was a resistor attached to circuit near the fuze to allow measurement to allow notification to computer when fuze was getting close to blowing. It's possible that unknown resistance variation in many circuits and devices can cause computer to respond differently from one vehicle to the next I suspect that possibly some acceptable measurement ranges were either moved or changed to cure a problem and may in some vehicles have adversely also been detrimental.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

I wouldn't be disappointed with that. It is rated to give 33 Hwy, you got 31.5. Sounds fair to me. Speeds, hills, temperature, wind and many other conditions factor into it. Hybrids really only shine in the city/around town mileage. On the highway road trips the engine should be running almost the whole time.

In 103-108°F with strong headwinds 91 octane AC at 73°F and 75mph cruise for 336 mile trip 700+ pounds passengers and luggage I was happy with 30.8 mpg and 12.6 electric miles.

 

[davnau]

Is your book a documentary or a Fairy Tale?

No book, just the facts. Also, this is the base model truck, with only a Ford DIBL as an accessory. So, lighter weight than a more heavily optioned Hybrid.

It was also measured by actual gas used and miles run, not using the dashboard calculated MPG reading.

 

[Mav as heck]

I've done LA to Phoenix and back many times. It's a stretch of road usually traveled at very high speeds with many elevation changes. Add in high temperatures and unfavorable wind conditions and it's a perfect recipe for running the ICE the entire time.

The 2.0 Ecoboost is the better engine for highway driving. Only slightly reduced gas mileage and a whole lot more power.

 

[Mach 1]

Mav, i dont know if i agree, i am getting very good at highway driving now, and i am closing the gap btween backroads and highway driving fuel economy.
I dont drive 100mph though.

 

[JimParker256]

One gentleman made an interesting video comparing mpg over the same 13.5 mile stretch of highway, with the only significant variable being the speed he drove. He drove at 80, 70, 60, and finally 50 mph (though the 50 mph speed probably had him in fear for his life, given everyone else was driving WAY faster).

Here's the link to the video: Improve your gas mileage up to 25 MPG!

And here's a summary of his findings:

Speed	MPG	Improvement
80	28.3	N/A
70	36.2	~ 28 %
60	45.9	~ 62 %
50	53.6	~ 89 %

So it's a fairly linear reduction as the speed increased... Driving 75 mph versus even driving 70 would have an impact - probably around 14% reduction. And ditto for headwinds - even 5 mph would have a similar impact.

Can't wait until I can run my own experiments! LOL

 

[BEC]

I just joined today (this is only my second post). My wife and i have ordered a 2023 Lariat hybrid. I am also a retired engineer and I have kept a logbook on all my cars (and before that motorcycles) with gas milage hand calculated at every fill up (almost never do a partial) along with maintenance, repairs, etc. The only vehicle I've ever owned where I didn't do this is our 2016 Kia Soul EV....since I charge almost always at home and have no setup to measure energy input to the car. Also almost no maintenance in 56 K miles.

Anyway, if/when we actually get our Maverick I will certainly be logging it that way and will know how my particular vehicle actually does on a fill up by fill up basis relative to how it reports.

The discrepancy folks have noted in this thread is interesting. The car the Maverick will eventually replace (assuming it comes anywhere near expectations) is a 2013 Mazda3 Hatchback with a six-speed. It's lifetime MPG (a little over 100 K miles on it now) have been in the 32 range, both computed by hand and the overall reported by the car.

We shall see....

 

[KSC Grey Ghost]

I agree 100% with Mr Parker My XLT Hybrid I drove from west Tennessee to just before Flagstaff Arizona at different speeds between 70 to 85 miles per hour and got an average of 33 MPH with air on and 95 degrees from just before Flagstaff Arizona to Las Vegas Nevada same temperature 95 + with air on set the cruise control on 67 mph and got a little over 42 mph it was amazing how slowing down a little bit picked up the mileage tremendously and the cruise control works like a charm no problems at all watched the temperature going up to Flagstaff and when I got to Kingman Arizona watched it going up the hill from there no problem at all

 

[erikdev]

My Maverick is still just record in a database for now, but I can attest that our Honda Civic's mpg falls off a cliff once it gets over 70mph.

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