22.5mpg=WTF?
 

Hi all

I just bought a '10 FFH. My measured consumption for the first tankful was 22.5mpg :omg: This is crazy, yes? Granted, most of my driving over the 420km / 260m was on freeways with the cruise control set at 130kph/80mph or a little more, although some of it was very careful in-town driving. I know hybrid efficiencies aren't really operating at those speeds, but I would still have expected better from a reasonably aerodynamic vehicle with an allegedly super-efficient engine. One thing that worries me and might be relevant is the frequent appearance of the little yellow wrench symbol during high-speed cruising. Obviously, I'm going to get it checked out ASAP, but I still wonder if anyone has any thoughts about this fuel consumption.

All comments welcome!

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

At 60 deg. F. and 82 mph., you may get less than 30 mpg. You have a problem as indicated by the warning wrench light. I figure the car gets 45 mpg. at 50 mph. and 60 deg. F. Add or subtract 0.2 mpg for each 1.0 deg. F. increase or decrease. Subtract or add 0.6 mpg for every 1.0 mph. increase or decrease. Cold, high speed, headwinds, slight hills, rain, noisy roads, low tire pressure lower mpg. Get the car checked first.

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

Many thanks, Lolder, for the quick response and very interesting information. May I ask if it is based on personal observation or something more extensive and rigorous?

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

Personal observations but many others report similar effects. Heater and air conditioning use are on top of these effects. Moderate to heavy high speed highway traffic creates a tail wind-drafting effect good for several additional mpg. even when you're not tailgating. Instead of the leaves, activate the bar graph on the right side of the display for 10 six minute intervals. You will see all these effects clearly.

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

Thx. I've never used the leaves, but I've got the chart set for one minute intervals, possibly too fine a resolution to be really useful.

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

Hmm...I have been driving a mixed of highway...mostly city in excess of 50km/h with sometimes frequet stops. I am getting 5.7L/100kms.

Highway, I was driving between 100-120kms average.

It was also in headwinds as well most of my drives as it is quite windy lately in Toronto.

Kindly detail me a little more about how you drive the car. Since I own 2 hybrid cars, I have a good idea how they should be driven to have maximum fuel economy.

Let me know if you need any assistance and I can help for sure!

In short, I love my new purchase of this Ford Fusion Hybrid! I also own an Accord Hybrid as well.

Let me know if I can help...like I said! :)

All the best!

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

Hi Tedson

Thanks for the reply. I think the problem is that most of that tank was on a run from TO to Ottawa with the cruise control set at 130kph. As others have said, high-speed cruising is not what hybrids do best. My long-term consumption has settled down to around 7.5kph, which is not as good as I'd hoped but still far better than my 2.3l Mazda3 was getting. I suspect that if I did more stop-n-go driving around town it would be better, but I live in Nepean so quite a bit of my driving is shortish bursts on the freeway, which entails a lot of accelerating up to freeway speeds and never entirely recovering it on the off-ramps. I practise quite a few fuel-saving techniques, especially pulse and glide, when I can. My driving has changed dramatically from when I used to drive the Mazda most of the time. That's really a little sports car, by comparison, and it does encourage hooning around if you don't watch yourself closely.

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

I see....well then good luck with the milage...yeah every 10kms more in speed over 90kms increases fuel economy by about 10%...so if you can slow down a little, you may see significant improvements!

In city, make sure EV is on most of the time. I usually accelerate gradually and also kept the same pressure of the pedal at all time...contant. Decent ascending acceleration will be achieved around 2-3 bars on the Power gauge.

Then when I reached my crusing speed, you can let the pedal go so that it goes to EV mode (below 71kms) and slowly again apply pressure to encourage the car to stay on EV with the same cruising speed. I find it to have no problems doing this when I cruise around 60kms in the city. Always I can keep the EV long enough before the next set of lights hits.

Always remember to brake gradually so that you can maximize the benefit of the Regenerative braking on the motel in reversal mode.

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

All good advice, although I'm afraid you lost me at "on the motel in reversal mode" ... :D I wasn't aware that recharging was more effective if done slowly, so I'll definitely try to practise that in future. I generally just tromp hard on the brakes and watch the circles go around the battery icon.

Re: 22.5mpg=WTF?
 

Obviously don't have to tell you the wrench and bad mileage # are telling you there's an issue with the engine, hybrid system, or both, which explains your horrible mileage.

Just driving on engine alone should net you somewhere closer to the non-hybrid's 31 mileage #, even at 80mph, and even with the extra weight. Call it 27-29mpg at those speeds/weights as a best guess.

Please let us know what codes the car is throwing once you get it diagnosed and/or fixed -- very curious what your issue is.