I have only had the car for 4 days, but it just seems like something is not right. I am getting about 37 miles per gallon, and that included a great deal of highway driving. It seems like I am getting little or no assist from the electric motor. In reading the documentation, it makes it sound has if the car can run on electric motor only up to 35 miles per hour. That has not happened yet. Also, the car seems to operate much differently than my Toyota Highlander Hybrid, where you actually do get the electric engine to power the vechicle up to about 10-15 miles per hour and you then can hear the gas engine kick in. Am I doing something wrong or perhaps is there a problem with my car?

 

Of course is is a Hybrid, not a Hubrid :-)

 

Driving the HCH is a very different strategy than the HiHy (or any other Aisin based e-CVT system). To get your best mileage, you should use the assist as little as possible. Go to www.cleanmpg.com and search for Tarabell's article on driving the HCH. It's a long read, but it will help you learn how to drive the car to its fullest.

The HCH's engine is always spinning, but if you enter into glide mode, you are not using any gas. While in glide mode, you can add assist which is enough power to propel you at about 35mph on flat ground (or faster on slight downhills). The problem is that once you drop below 5 bars of battery, you will enter into forced regen mode which saps more gas than you just saved by the assist. The trick is to glide without either the regen or assist lights coming on and your mpg meter at 100mpg (which is really 0gpm with the valves closed). This will quickly become second nature to you on the downhills and flat coasts.

Other things that are important:
* Top off your tank and reset your tank mpg display--you might have excessive iding at the dealership hurting your averge.

* Reset either your trip A or Trip B every time you go somewhere--this will give you better feedback on what works for your commute and what does not work.

* Increase your tire pressure up to about 40psi. They are rated to 44psi, but personally I like a little wiggle room since I live at altitude.

* Remember that the temperature is getting colder which will hurt your economy. I usually average 55mpg in the summer and it drops down to about 45mpg in the winter--this is a bigger swing than most "gas" cars I've owned. You might consider an grill blocker to keep the heat in, or even an engine block heater if you live somewhere really cold.

Your mileage will improve significantly once you get used to driving the car, once it breaks in (which arguably takes as many as 15,000 miles), and once the weather warms up. Try the stuff above and any advice from other posters. If you have any questions, keep posting and we'll try to help you out. Good luck!

Edit: another important thing is to keep your speed down. Anything above 65mph on the highway and your mileage drops off quickly. I average 60mph on the highway and usually get 55 to 60mpg. It's a tiny little engine so once you force it out of it's comfort zone, it really starts to hurt your mileage.

 

Thanks for the reply and the tips. It definitely is different driving this car than driving my Toyota HIghlander Hybrid!
One thing I am confused about is the tire pressure. I thought the dealership told me that the tires should be inflated to 32psi and I think that is what the manual says, yet you are recommending 40psi. Maybe I need to read the manual again.

Thanks again and I look forward to learning how to drive this new car!

 

Your tires have a safe range of 32psi-44psi. Running on the softer side will is more comfortable and generates nominally less road noise. Running on the harder side will increase your fuel efficency. Dealerships will almost always recommend a lower pressure because it improves the comfort of the car, although I personally don't notice much of a difference at 40 vs. 32.

Those are the facts, but there are also several opinions debated here. Some people feel that running higher pressure will improve your handling while others argue the opposite. Some feel that higher pressure improves poor weather handling as well, although again, others disagree. The last debate point is on tire longevity--some feel that running too high will lead to faster wear of your center treads.

Like any other advice you read online, you should probably do a little research and find out what makes the most sense to you. Personally, I think 40psi is a good compromise between extremes (I've seen people advocate as high as 50psi here), and I haven't noticed any real changes in the handling. These tires have lasted me longer than any set I've ever had on a car so the longevity seems good at 40psi, but my driving style has also changed a lot with the HCH.

 

Manufacturers think Americans have soft tushies, and can't handle a little extra bumpiness in their ride.

Edit: Linkage to a chart I've been keeping of mpg as a function of temperature/time of year, along with the resulting lifetime average. I update it every other month or so.

 

Welcome to your first tank.

That is prob avg for every HCHII owners' first tank.

Your car needs to break in and so do you.

There are just tons of things you can do to dramatically increase your mileage. You can search this website for all of them.

Kristian is absolutely right, your first easiest step is to increase your tire pressure to at least 40 psi. There are also several discussions here on that, but I can tell you there is no degradation in safety by doing so. Your car will actually handle much better. The only negative is slightly increased ride harshness.

If you decide to get really serious about mileage search for Tarabell's article on hypermiling the HCHII.

Honestly, this is like the 100th post I have read here to the effect of "My new hybrid's mileage sucks!" Trust me, it gets better.

Cheers, nf

 

Yeah, but not until it warms up again

 

To the original poster (melzzz), your initial expectations seem to be way off from the reality of the car. Maybe you were a poorly informed consumer. Any ways, 37 MPG isn't bad; What did you want to see?

 

I'm not one of those anti-Goldilocks types who will tell you the manufacturers are wrong and everything is set wrong on the car. It is a cruiser, not a sports car, and it handles a little different anyway despite the tires.