Learning how to drive my hybrid

[MavGeek]

2026 Maverick XLT hybrid. Purchased it 8 days ago. Driving it around town and 2 trips to my cabin. Today was the first day, going home from my cabin (about 82 miles), that I felt I was beginning to get it.

It seems to be a lot about having a soft touch to both the accelerator and break. Am I right? Half the trip is highway and the other half is slower stop-and-go through small towns. I used normal mode today through the small towns and Eco mode on the highway. I achieved 51.5 mpg. I tried to keep it under 65 mph on the highway.

I figured, with today’s gas prices, I’m saving about $15 round-trip from my previous non-hybrid vehicle. Not earth shattering but interesting nonetheless. Free money is always good!

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[El Kabong]

"ECO" mode gives a very soft pedal feel, it mutes your throttle inputs and gives a little bit more aggressive regeneration. Some folk here like it, I experimented with it and found it to be useful when in the city. It does not do much for you on the highway as the ICE will be running most of the time on the highway.

You can train yourself to "hypermile" if thats your thing. Search for the "pulse glide" method or similar, lots of threads about this

I've only had the Maverick since April. Now I just leave it in Normal mode all the time, works pretty well.

 

[MavGeek]

"ECO" mode gives a very soft pedal feel, it mutes your throttle inputs and gives a little bit more aggressive regeneration. Some folk here like it, I experimented with it and found it to be useful when in the city. It does not do much for you on the highway as the ICE will be running most of the time on the highway.

You can train yourself to "hypermile" if thats your thing. Search for the "pulse glide" method or similar, lots of threads about this

I've only had the Maverick since April. Now I just leave it in Normal mode all the time, works pretty well.

Thank you for your input.

The same drive in normal mode netted me 40.6 mpg. Quite a difference.

I will not “hypermile” as it’s dangerous to me and other drivers.

 

[El Kabong]

Thank you for your input.

The same drive in normal mode netted me 40.6 mpg. Quite a difference.

I should mention that it's been mentioned that your hybrid won't actually be broken in until it has a couple of thousand miles (or around 5k miles or something like that). Once you get there you should be seeing what your MPGs really will be like. At the moment I don't recall my lifetime average MPGs but it's around 39.x I think, just under 40.

Some trips net me 70MPG or more (running errands to local shops, ~2 miles at low speeds it runs mostly on battery).

Just remember: do NOT overfill the gas tank. Pump until it clicks off, wait ~30 seconds, pump until it clicks again, and STOP pumping gas. Continuing to force gas into the truck can cause evap system problems resulting in a trip to dealer service.

Welcome to the hybrid gang and enjoy the truck!

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