[Chest Westerson]

Relatedly, does anyone else notice a subtle drag when they take their foot off the gas? I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it until I drove a rental car recently. Does the battery charge when you coast? Might also be more wind resistance in a van vs small car. I’m trying to exclude the possibility of it being some sort of mechanical issue.

 

[BearInStPete]

Relatedly, does anyone else notice a subtle drag when they take their foot off the gas? I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it until I drove a rental car recently. Does the battery charge when you coast? Might also be more wind resistance in a van vs small car. I’m trying to exclude the possibility of it being some sort of mechanical issue.

Watch your hybrid gauge when you lift your foot off the gas, you will notice it dip a small amount into the blue "charge" zone, this is normal. If you can lightly feather the accelerator pedal to counteract the charge - keep it right at the charge/eco demarcation point you will be coasting fully. Ideally use the hybrid gauge maximize your breaking, like approaching a far off red light, lightly feather the breaking to maximize the charge amount, but just below maximum charge, then you are using the full regenerative breaking to slow the car and charge the battery, modulate a bit more pressure to come to a full stop with the regular friction breaks.

 

[Sienna9816]

Cold weather mileage drop-offs are not unique to hybrids - all cars will show evidence of this for many reasons. Hybrids tend to have higher mileage potentials, the higher the potential, the more impact to raw MPG numbers during cold/inclement weather. The biggest culprits are winter formula gas (you can't control this), road conditions (wet, ice, snow - you can't control this either), excessive warm-up and HVAC settings (you can control most of this). In extreme cold, traction battery performance may be impacted which is unique to hybrids, but usually not a huge impact. All of these factors are well known for years and well discussed, there is no conspiracy on the numbers, the mileage figures are controlled by standardized testing.

I follow this, now.

Let me phrase this differently. I suspect I am not the first one to feel I got tricked, nor I will be the last one. Depending on where someone lives, for may be as much as 1/3+ of the year, they may be getting 20%-33% less MPG. That is no spare change!

Btw, I do see the irony in me expecting a gov. agency to tell me the truth, and not be in bed with the companies they are supposed to keep honest

 

[Abusouk]

Tonight I took a 38 minute, 11.8 mile in-town trip around southeast Grand Rapids, speed never over 35 mph, and the trip computer read 43 mpg for the trip when I backed into the garage.

 

[Sienna9816]

Update: Hate to be the party pooper but my most recent fill-up was 349Mi/13.9Gal. That's just about 25MPG even.

 

[EricD]

Relatedly, does anyone else notice a subtle drag when they take their foot off the gas? I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it until I drove a rental car recently. Does the battery charge when you coast? Might also be more wind resistance in a van vs small car. I’m trying to exclude the possibility of it being some sort of mechanical issue.

This is standard behavior any hybrid or EV. You end up accelerating/decelerating more with the accelerator pedal and only use the brake when you really need to stop. We have a pure EV for our 2nd car where it is much more pronounced.

 

[kjburns]

I follow this, now.

Let me phrase this differently. I suspect I am not the first one to feel I got tricked, nor I will be the last one. Depending on where someone lives, for may be as much as 1/3+ of the year, they may be getting 20%-33% less MPG. That is no spare change!

Btw, I do see the irony in me expecting a gov. agency to tell me the truth, and not be in bed with the companies they are supposed to keep honest

It's all about your driving conditions, not the government ratings. Here in AZ, I rarely get down to the EPA rating. I've filled my van three times with calculated mileage of 36.1, 37.4 and 40.65. My current computer reading is 39.4. Twenty years ago, I lived in Bellingham, WA and I never got close to the EPA rating for my F-150 4x4. In the winter, 12.5 was normal. I got 19 mpg on the freeway once. That house was at the top of a long steep gravel road where the winters meant lots of rain, snow and ice, so my gas mileage was lousy at best. Now, my roads are relatively flat with warm weather and it's reflected in my fuel mileage. The government rating looks way too conservative. I've never failed to exceed the rated mileage. My mileage might fall in the summer when temperatures get over 100° and the AC is constantly running.

 

[CAADet]

I follow this, now.

Let me phrase this differently. I suspect I am not the first one to feel I got tricked, nor I will be the last one. Depending on where someone lives, for may be as much as 1/3+ of the year, they may be getting 20%-33% less MPG. That is no spare change!

Btw, I do see the irony in me expecting a gov. agency to tell me the truth, and not be in bed with the companies they are supposed to keep honest

No, not just you. Not the only so don’t feel bad.

Toyota did this 10+ years ago with another car called the Prius. Claimed 50mpg across all cars. We only got 35 highest. I guess I call it fool me twice.

I wonder why other manufacturers got caught falsifying mileage claims and Toyota has not? Is it because they do designing and manufacturing in the US so the EPA looks the other way ? Conspiracy I say!

 

[CAADet]

Update: Hate to be the party pooper but my most recent fill-up was 349Mi/13.9Gal. That's just about 25MPG even.

Having said what I just posted, you do take the crown for having the lowest mileage I’ve seen so far.

 

[Sienna9816]

It's all about your driving conditions, not the government ratings. Here in AZ, I rarely get down to the EPA rating. I've filled my van three times with calculated mileage of 36.1, 37.4 and 40.65. My current computer reading is 39.4. Twenty years ago, I lived in Bellingham, WA and I never got close to the EPA rating for my F-150 4x4. In the winter, 12.5 was normal. I got 19 mpg on the freeway once. That house was at the top of a long steep gravel road where the winters meant lots of rain, snow and ice, so my gas mileage was lousy at best. Now, my roads are relatively flat with warm weather and it's reflected in my fuel mileage. The government rating looks way too conservative. I've never failed to exceed the rated mileage. My mileage might fall in the summer when temperatures get over 100° and the AC is constantly running.

I understand all the "Ifs", "Elses" and "Buts". Mine appears to be an outlier in non-scientific small sample here. I am not driving aggressively by any definition. Anyways, let's see what summer brings me.

No, not just you. Not the only so don’t feel bad.

Toyota did this 10+ years ago with another car called the Prius. Claimed 50mpg across all cars. We only got 35 highest. I guess I call it fool me twice.

I wonder why other manufacturers got caught falsifying mileage claims and Toyota has not? Is it because they do designing and manufacturing in the US so the EPA looks the other way ? Conspiracy I say!

You're gonna get me going again

Having said what I just posted, you do take the crown for having the lowest mileage I’ve seen so far.

It appears so