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Originally Posted by AKM
The folks achieving 40 MPG numbers are not driving what I (and probably a large percentage of other drivers) would consider normal.  |
I would disagree with this, I think it highly depends on your driving environment. I live on the outskirts of my town, and in my limited city driving, I've found that if I'm headed away from town into the flat rural/suburban countryside, I can easily average 50mpg, because I only have to stop once every 5 miles for a stop sign, and I can't travel faster than 35mpg due to the small roads... perfect "city driving" conditions for the EV-mode to take over. However, if I head thru urban downtown (like on my daily commute), I stop every other block for a stop sign, and I have about 20 blocks to get to the highway. This kills my city driving mileage. I have a gas station 1 block from my house, and whenever I gas up there and head off to work, I see that my tank avg is only at about 25mpg by the time I reach the highway on-ramp. So if this short-trip was my primary driving, there is no way I would see anything close to 40mpg. I even think NYC driving would be better, because when you can catch the street lights correctly, you don't stop for a couple of miles. And when you are in heavy traffic, you are just coasting along in EV-mode. Both will help your TCH mileage.