Thanks obrienklm for sharing your thoughts.
I live in province called Saskatchewan in Canada where of course winters are very cold. In this province block heaters are mandatory. They are not factory installed but dealer will charge additional CAD 170 and installed it before you take delivery.
My understanding is that like in non-hybrid car, block heater just keeps engine oil little warm for easy start. I am just wondering in hybrid if it also helps in bringing the engine temp little faster resulting in better FE.
I took delivery of my TCH on April 04, 2007 and I just filled-up my tank first time after 716 KMS on ODO meter. When I filled up, little display in the instrument panel (I don't have NAV) says I could cruze for another 132 KMS as I still had 1/4 tank gas left. I will describe below my driving situation here in small city and my first tank mileage.
First fill up: 43.482 Litres
Actual ODO meter reading: 716 KMS
ODO meter reading on delivery date: 16 KMS.
So calcualated KMS on 43.482 KMS=700 KMS (435 miles)
calculated L/100 KMS = 6.21
calculated MPG: 45.48 (Imperial) and 37.87 (US MPG)
TCH display reading: 6.4L/100 KMS
TCH display MPG: 44.13 (imperial) and 36.75 (US MPG)
So I am not sure why my calculated MPG is slightly higher than TCH MPG. Most of the people have reported that they usually get less calculated MPG. I will know on my next (2nd) fill.
My driving situation is not idle for hybrid so I think I should be happy with above MPG.
Here is my driving situation for first 5 weeks of TCH:
Temp in April here: Low from -2 C to + 8 C. High: from +8 to +20 C (average)
Regular week day driving to work: 7 KMS one way (4.35 miles)
In this 7 kms of driving to work, I go through 8 left and right turns, 6 lights (signals), all flat roads and only about 2 kms of possible coasting distance. Not much traffic or wind.
Above 700 KMS includes about 25 KMS of driving on highway at speed of around 90 KMH (56
MPH). Rest of the mileage in city as described above.
Driving to work and back with 3 people including myself and nothing in trunk.
Regarding instant heat, what I meant is that Is it possible to run heater on battery power?
Thanks and again looking forward for lots of comments on this post for the benefit of TCH owners in cold weather.