Gas mileage suddenly significantly lower in Hybrid

[timctaylor]

Cold weather. My average is 36.7 per tank and I just clocked a tank at 24.6 MPG. Bitter cold, wind and full freeway driving on that one.

Me too. Frozen Tundra here in Minnesota

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[LtCasual]

Me too. Frozen Tundra here in Minnesota

Twin Cities to Fargo and back. Brutal!

 

[Deweyordeweynot]

My '24 Hybrid XLT with 6,000 miles on it has suddenly dropped in MPG from 43 to less than 30 in last two fillups. No changes in driving habits ( no towing ever) , only two variables I can think of are 1) cold winter weather, 2) just noticed tire PSI is around 32 even after 50 mile trip in 35 degree weather. The door sticker says 35psi Cold~~~~ can that be causing such a difference? Or does anyone have a good answer to what's causing the huge drop in MPG?
No Snarky answers please, and thank you

My '24 has 16k miles and my mileage began a slow decline after I added a cap, but I expected that. Winter is not the best time of year to track MPGs, especially if you remote start it on frigid mornings (as I do, twice a week); I also notice the gas engine runs longer on winter mornings (presumably to warm up the battery). I was getting 47 MPG before adding the cap last fall and I'm at 35 MPG, and slowly falling. My tires' PSI are at factory spec and I drive a mix of city and highway.

It's still the highest-MPG vehicle I've ever owned and I still love to drive it!

 

[Spartan]

No Problem getting 50 MPG in Tucson AZ..

Maybe it's the outside temp. killing your MPG?

My Maverick is doing fine, hoping to join the 700 mile per tank club this month.

 

[Top Truck]

My '24 Hybrid XLT with 6,000 miles on it has suddenly dropped in MPG from 43 to less than 30 in last two fillups. No changes in driving habits ( no towing ever) , only two variables I can think of are 1) cold winter weather, 2) just noticed tire PSI is around 32 even after 50 mile trip in 35 degree weather. The door sticker says 35psi Cold~~~~ can that be causing such a difference? Or does anyone have a good answer to what's causing the huge drop in MPG?
No Snarky answers please, and thank you

I own a 2022 XLT Hybrid with 32000 miles and each winter my MPGs go down pretty significantly, especially on short drives. I monitor my fuel economy for the whole time between oil changes. Right now I'm averaging an even 43.0 MPG for the last 7000 miles, but it has gone down a half mile (0.5) per gallon in the past 2 weeks due to unseasonably cold weather. I'm pretty sure my reading is off some, but if it's off 3 MPG, that's still 40MPG which makes me very happy. Hang in there, Brother! It only gets better as you get some more miles on your Maverick. I absolutely LOVE mine!

 

[vandeda2024]

Cold weather can suck the fuel economy out of hybrids. I find in my Prius (that I'll hopefully be trading in this week for a hybrid Mav), I can get significant gains by selectively using the heater, or should I say minimize it's use at speeds where electric is likely to kick in, since heat will kick on the engine frequently when it's real cold. Afterall, as I told my wife in the past, "it's a hybrid, you're meant to suffer" lol.

 

[DougK]

mine dropped from 43 to 35 with the cold weather, about 19% worse.
This surprised me, my old gas Ford would drop from 19-20 down to 16-17 in winter, so about 16% worse. I guess it's in the same ballpark, 16 or 19..
Do notice the engine runs a lot more in winter, it will start up immediately in the cold where in summer it won't start until I'm accelerating.

 

[Whitty1]

The three phase electric air conditioner in the hybrid is outstanding it got to 117° last Summer generally over 112°. That meant when entering the truck it was probably 147°-150° inside the cab and it worked flawlessly. Even in auto mode set at 72°
Heating the Maverick seems to be a more energy consuming endeavor
Especially if you are not driving any kind of distance for the engine to get hot. I think it's below 37° there is a heater booster that is electrical but that electric has to be replaced by the gas engine.

Short-distance driving is hard on any car. Not just a hybrid. If the vehicle isn't driven enough to get the motor hot, sludge will build up in the engine. It needs to get hot and stay hot long enough to vaporize any condensation in the engine. The mileage has dropped on mine too since it got colder and I live in SC. 2 miles to the grocery store and back just isn't enough

 

[Bill S]

I feel better reading everyone's helpful replies~~~Good to know it's not something that needs repairing. Thanks to all.

At least nothing on the vehicle that needs repairing. (Maybe repair the climate, but i don't want to get political here.)

 

[HoiToid]

Just went to post office which is less than 10 miles roundtrip with no hills and 4 Stoplights each way which i caught all but one "green"; noticed mpg on dash said 30mpg after backing into driveway; air temp was @ 35degrees F ; even turned heater off on way home. That same trip in Spring-Fall would indicate @ 43 mpg. Amazing, again thanks for everyone's feedback

 

[Phimosis]

I've not seen this in the replies yet, so here's another thing to consider - summer gasoline blends (by federal EPA law) are 1.7% more energy dense than winter blends so we all get less MPG in the winter, regardless of the ambient temperature.https://blog.amsoil.com/the-difference-between-winter-and-summer-blend-gas/

Where I live, (California) winter blend gasoline is not only increased in butane content (more volatile to improve cold temperature starting capability), but it also has 10% ethanol, an oxygenating agent to reduce particulate emissions. Ethanol has 76,330 BTU per gallon. Straight gasoline has 120,214 BTU per gallon (EIA.gov data). Doing a little basic math shows that a 10% ethanol winter blend would be 115,826 btu per gallon, which would be a 3.7% decrease in energy per gallon, which should be an equal decrease in mpg.

The flip side is that I’m pretty sure California mandates oxygenated fuels year round, where places like Texas get to run straight gasoline year round, which means California MPG will be lower than other parts of the country.

 

[HeyBales]

I also notice the gas engine runs longer on winter mornings (presumably to warm up the battery).

Annoyingly I thought this was happening quicker too, but alas my remote-start warmup didn't do anything for battery temp by the time I left. 14 F which was outside temp, despite slight warm air starting out of vents.

By the time I got on the highway after 6 min mostly downhill engine running it was warm enough to allow electric usage, but coming down my 1st hill with HVB already slowly charged up due to engine running - I'm guessing gearing changed to allow engine to take the brunt since no regen available.

It'll start using the battery for more and more Amps to the motor, instead of the engine to generator power going over - I guess to help warm HVB up.

But charging stayed very low, and temp stayed 14 F for awhile, of course cold airflow.

Finally on highway, actually surprised, traffic kept me under 65 and wasn't even flat or downhill yet, electric only mode came in - HVB temp at 21 F. Cabin air and engine coolant temp much better already for a bit - 147 F engine. So battery stayed low temp, not sure how much warm coolant getting to it.

And before that it had increased charging rates back up to normal 160 A level.

All to say - it doesn't seem the engine running warms up the HVB as much as just just slowly getting used.
Not sure where the temp sensor is for PID HVB Temp, but there is a different PID IIRC for battery coolant temp. And motor temp, ect.

My 2005 Rav4 actually gets warmer air out of the air vents sooner with my normal gentle driving I do on both when starting out on cold days. Disappointed the extra features to help with that don't make an improvement. Shutters, exhaust system heat, close converter, ceramic heater, ect.

 

[dsford]

My '24 Hybrid XLT with 6,000 miles on it has suddenly dropped in MPG from 43 to less than 30 in last two fillups. No changes in driving habits ( no towing ever) , only two variables I can think of are 1) cold winter weather, 2) just noticed tire PSI is around 32 even after 50 mile trip in 35 degree weather. The door sticker says 35psi Cold~~~~ can that be causing such a difference? Or does anyone have a good answer to what's causing the huge drop in MPG?
No Snarky answers please, and thank you

I think its the cold weather. I'm experiencing less MPG as well. I was 47.1 MPG by Dec, now I'm at 45.7 and I noticed my MPG per trip (work and back) is down as well. I used to get between 47-50 MPG during the summer months driving to and from work everyday. Now I'm getting between 38-43 MPGs. I'll see if it improves when spring hits to confirm whether or not it's the cold.

 

[JimG1127]

You will get worse MPG with winter blend gas.

 

[Phimosis]

Many Factors, Winter fuel has anti hydrolysis chem's :
Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction in which a chemical compound is broken down by reaction with water. In simple terms, hydrolysis of a substrate can be defined as its reaction with water. It is a chemical process in which a molecule is cleaved into two fragments by the addition of a molecule of water. to put an ounce of chem's in a gallon of gasoline an ounce has to come out.
More Important, remember all those dead Tesla's last winter ?
Li-po batteries and cold weather don't play well together.
It's weather related, and I bet you spend time at Idle warming things up. More fuel, less mpg's.
Hybrid drivers, relax, summer is coming.

The dead Teslas were a completely different issue. The batteries were completely discharged, cold soaked and wouldn’t accept charge. If they had say, 10% charge remaining, the owner could go and do acceleration runs, accel, regenerative brake, accel, regen. This will warm up the battery. Then put it on the charger and it will charge normally. Once the car is being fast charged, the battery will heat up rapidly and even though it is sub zero temps outside, the battery will be at its normal operating temperature and will function normally. In 2024, 89% of Norway’s new car sales were EV’s. EV’s work just fine in the cold. Just don’t expect to fast charge them when the battery is completely discharged, sitting overnight, in freezing temps.

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