Cold weather mpg in Hybrid 230

[peteh]

For context, car was bought in early March this year, so weather just getting warmer by the month back then.

Used 5/6 days a week by my wife on short journeys (3 miles or so several times a day), barely reaches operating temperature before being switched off again. Despite this, it generally returns about 40-42mpg, and on a recent long drive (Edinburgh to London return in October) it returned 52mpg over the week.

These last few weeks with temperatures hovering around 0 degrees here, the mpg has dropped to 28 which although understandable is still quite a large difference and I was just wondering if that fits with other users experiences? *Needless to say, in this very cold weather the EV light does not come on at all for the first 15/20mins of the journey.

Thanks

[Dark Angel]

Yep, that seems about right and in line with what I get. The engine needs to generate heat for the climate control in the car and it cannot do this in EV mode so it keeps the ICE going even if there's plenty of power in the batteries. When doing small journeys and not getting the engine warmed up quickly by driving at speed you'll be drinking a lot of petrol.

[alan sh]

That's my experience from last year and (so far) this cold spell. I expect to lose between 5 and 10mpg unless I go on a long (>20 miles) journey.

[TWPC]

The mpg does plummet in cold weather. One way to delay the petrol engine starting and improve fuel consumption is, if you have them, to use the electric seat heaters rather than the fan heating and air con to warm yourself up.

[GCS27RC]

Hi there,

I've had my Tuscon petrol hybrid 230 bhp for a couple of months now. Been checking my mpg based on the miles covered v petrol filled in tank. First month I was getting 34 mpg. Last month 31mpg. Quite a bit off of the 49 mpg advertised.
I'm a town driver doing about 9,000 mile p.a.a

Cheers

[roadster]

Same here with the plug-in. During a relatively short sub-zero journey I saw the consumption dip below 30 mpg. But I did deliberately use hybrid mode so that the engine warmed up properly and the air-conditioning defrosted and demisted everything including me! After the cold snap I went back to 999 mpg using battery only and shivering a bit.

[peteh]

Thank you for the replies, and the tip about using the seat/steering wheel heating rather than the heater. My family in London would get a heck of lot more miles for their buck that us lot shivering up here in Scotland

My other car is a 2002 Citroen Picasso 2.0 Diesel (yes 23yrs old) that I can't bring myself to get rid of.

148k miles on the clock and last week in -2 degrees freezing weather it gave me 55mpg on a motorway drive. Crazy I used that instead of the Tucson ( don't remind me of the cost of a litre of diesel mind you).

These are relatively early days of Hybrid technology and I am sure future generations (of car) will not have these same cold weather issues.

[PhilHornby]

These are relatively early days of Hybrid technology.

I thought the same, but it turns out not to be the case.

Take a look at this video of the 2011 Sonata Hybrid
The Tucson's drivetrain is fundamentally the same...

[TWPC]

And don't forget their grand daddies from the other side of the Sea of Japan...

[PhilHornby]

That Honda is still on the road, 22 years later.

Only one MOT fail in all that time! It had only done 65,165 miles at its latest MOT though.