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Originally Posted by FisherJ
I have been noticing that as it has gotten a little colder out and my heater has been running, that my mileage has gone down. I have now had the car for about 7 weeks and driven a little over 3,000 miles. My mileage has averaged somewhere around 39 (just over on the display and just under when calculated). With the heat on it seems to be closer to 38, not a big difference but a little confusing. I am used to a car whose air conditioner lowers fuel economy, not the heat. On the TCH, the air conditioner doesn't seem to effect the mileage, just the heat.
Any ideas what may be causing this???  |
Fisher. I actually find that the A/C has a big effect on efficiency, about 3 - 4 mpg according to my very unscientific observations.
I know what you mean about heat, but it may make sense in a hybrid. Normally the engine stays on all the time, but that's not the case in a hybrid. The engine will come on to get the TCH to operating temperature. Perhaps the ICE needs to run longer on start-up to reach the temperature and it's also possible the engine is cooling down requiring it to again start up because of temp.
I do have to say that for the few minutes at a time the ICE might be off it doesn't seem likely that it would cool down enough to have a big effect on temperature.