Hybrid average MPG in Normal, ECO, & Slippery modes

I drive a route that starts and stops at the same place and is 16.5 miles long, so I decided to document the mileage I was getting in normal, ECO, and slippery mode. Some of the variables..... traffic and traffic lights, can't very well be quantified, but weather can be. The surprising thing was that the temperature seemed to cause the largest MPG swing. The min temp so far was 35 degrees and the max was 55 degrees, which coincided with the min MPG of 42 and the max of 56.1. Both the min and max MPG was in slippery mode, which happened to have the highest average MPG of 5 trips of 49.7. While the average MPG in ECO for 5 trips was 48.5, average MPG in Normal was 46.5. Average temperature for Slippery was 43, ECO was 44, and normal was 42. So for this trip the cost per mile in slippery is 8.5 cents, in ECO it is 8.6 cents and in normal it is 9.0 cents.

The Honda Ridgeline I had before averaged 16.5 MPG, which makes the gas consumption easy to calculate on a 16.5 mile trip. So at 49.7 MPG in slippery mode, driving the Maverick cost the equivalent of driving the Ridgeline when gas was $1.41 / gallon. Makes you feel a lot better about $4.19 / gallon gas now. By the way I was using the EV coach aggressively to get the above MPG's.

Lower outdoor temperatures definitely gives your MPG a big wack in the first 5-10 minutes of driving before engine (and battery also I guess) heats up to optimal working temperatures. That's why my mpg is on the bottom of the curve at 34mpg since my normal commute is just 5 minutes. I often had 20-ish mpg early morning commutes to work during the winter, but a longer drive on errands or into the city usually showed 40+. Getting better now with warmer weather!

clavicus said:

Lower outdoor temperatures definitely gives your MPG a big wack in the first 5-10 minutes of driving before engine (and battery also I guess) heats up to optimal working temperatures.

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Cabin heating results in most of my lower MPG numbers that I have gotten as the ICE engine has to kick on for heat to be available when first starting out.

On very short trips on cold days of 1.5 miles or less I leave the climate control off as that trip would not even get the engine warm enough for heat and having the ICE engine running on those trips results in abismal MPG numbers.

Here in Baja Arizona the temps have been in the 40s at night and up into the 70s, 80s, and 90s in the daytime.

Driving a mix of about 25% interstate and 75% city for the first 1000 miles resulted in 44.09 mpg.

I used the ECO mode sporadically during the last 500 miles but can't really say what difference it made.

In Normal mode, I average 42 (Hybrid). I always forget to turn Eco mode on but I didn't last night and my trip computer said I got 66mpg on a 6 mile drive (city driving only from light to light).

huunvubu said:

Cabin heating results in most of my lower MPG numbers that I have gotten as the ICE engine has to kick on for heat to be available when first starting out.

On very short trips on cold days of 1.5 miles or less I leave the climate control off as that trip would not even get the engine warm enough for heat and having the ICE engine running on those trips results in abismal MPG numbers.

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Yeah, I should have mentioned it, I did the same. The only time I turned the heater on was when climbing a hill and the engine had to run for power anyway. After it warmed up the heater could run while in electric mode, but if it ever made the engine start I shut the heater off.

I should have mentioned too that the max I got in electric miles was 10. I did that in both Slippery & Normal mode. The min electric miles I got was 8.8, and I got that once in all 3 modes. The average of all trips was 9.5 electric miles. I did try the tow haul mode once just for the fun of it, and got 0 electric miles and 41.4 MPG. Apparently tow haul won't allow electric miles.

I always got better mileage and performance in normal instead of Eco on my Fusion. Normal will use more battery/electric motor but as long as its not hot out and you have good regen stops and don't floor it it will perform better overall.

n0maverick said:

I always got better mileage and performance in normal instead of Eco on my Fusion. Normal will use more battery/electric motor but as long as its not hot out and you have good regen stops and don't floor it it will perform better overall.

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Holup why do you say ECO uses less battery/electric than Normal? I would imagine it's the other way around.

Does anyone know if the seat heaters draw off the 12v battery or the high voltage battery? I'd assume the 12v but an not positive.

Also, it seems to me the seat heaters warm a person with less energy than climate heat but I suppose that's probably hard to measure.

n0maverick said:

I always got better mileage and performance in normal instead of Eco on my Fusion. Normal will use more battery/electric motor but as long as it's not hot out and you have good regen stops and don't floor it it will perform better overall.

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The Hybrid Maverick in ECO mode has more aggressive regen braking than Normal mode which almost always results in a 100% regen braking report and no actual usage of the physical brakes.

That means the brakes will last for a very long time and the additional regen power going back to the HV battery means less ICE engine running and overall better lifetime MPG numbers.

clavicus said:

Holup why do you say ECO uses less battery/electric than Normal? I would imagine it's the other way around.

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on the fusion, it supplies more electric motor on accelleration. so drains battery faster than eco. but if you are in a lot of regen senarios and can keep it charged, this actually saves gas. in my experience on a fusion. sounds like maverick is tuned differently.

I saw no appreciable difference with eco mode, but that may just be due to my driving style and traffic conditions I typically see. The extra regen braking is nice, but I didn't care for the sluggish throttle response. I found myself having to give more throttle to compensate for the reduced response, and the extra regen didn't really change my overall electric mile total. Might be a good option if you have a heavy foot.

A recent trip.

Never thought about trying slippery mode, For my driving normal gives me about 1 mpg more than eco, but I live rural and most of my driving is at faster speeds with few slowdowns and stops. Averaging 38.5 mpg at 2500 miles, very happy but going to give slippery a shot and see what happens. Does anyone know what slippery mode is suppose to change?

BTW on a trip to my kids school this week. This is not normal driving for me was watching my speed and keeping it in eclectic as much as I could.

I've been in eclectic my entire life! ;-)