Canesguy

You should try driving all in sport mode for a few days, or a tankful, and see what your difference in mpg would be. I found there wasn't much of a difference, at least, from normal mode.

MissyBissy

The difference between Normal and ECO mode was about 5 mpg. I'm a little scared to risk Sport mode.

I checked fuelly to see what 2004 Honda Odysseys are getting and it looks like between 17-20 mpg so I feel better about my 35 MPG.

Canesguy

Sport mode is really a pleasure, so I have two questions for you: where did you get the "5 mpg" from, and why is it a "risk" to try sport mode for a week or less? It's not like this choice is irreversible or permanent.

Sandollars

Eco 100% of the time

MissyBissy

This is my fuelly page - http://www.fuelly.com/driver/MissyBissy

If you look at the fill ups, you can see where I switched from Normal mode to ECO mode.

I may give sport mode a try and see if I can play with it and still get decent numbers.

Briano7

I also drive in ECO 99% of the time and am getting 35 mpg. Every once in a while I'll put it in Sport at a light and stomp it.

Canesguy

My point is this: I drive in Sport mode almost 100% of the time and average 37+ actual mpg., often with the a/c going. With the added performance, it makes no sense for me, at least, to drive in ECO. I wonder if in ECO mode if the increased pedal effort/frequency could be actually decreasing mpg ??

MissyBissy

I think the layout of the land makes a bigger difference than anything. I can drive in sport mode on a straight shot and get decent mileage but my actual day to day stop and go on hills for 17 miles each way is just not going to be very fuel efficient.

This weekend Lexi went in for her 5K service and I got to drive a 350 for a day. I put about 200 miles on it and averaged about 27 mpg (no traffic, majority freeway driving in sport mode, ECO in town). The car average was 24mpg so I figured I was doing pretty good.

Briano7

I agree. I often wonder of is more economical to get up to speed quickly or stay on Eco with the gauge in the white zone a bit longer. All my driving life I’ve only had one choice be it 3rd gear, 4th or D. Now I have 3 choices and I really don’t know what the reasoning is. So I’ll just stay in Econ because psychologically it seems to me the best place for the best mpg.
I do like Sport though especially if I want to get the jump on someone at a light. I’m very impressed with its pep considering it’s just a lil ole 4 cylinder.

lesz

I think that with any vehicle with multiple driving modes, whether hybrid or not, the driving mode that is used is likely to make a small difference in gas mileage, but much bigger differences in gas mileage are going to be the result of several other factors, including how much stop and go driving is done, whether terrain is relatively flat or hilly, whether most trips are short or longer, what the ambient air temperature is, and, perhaps as important as anything else, whether the driver has a lead foot or not. The less time that is spent idling and the less frequently the transmission is dropping to a lower gear ratio, the better the gas mileage will be, and lower the percentage of total miles driven before the engine is warmed up to normal operating temperature, the better the gas mileage will be. And these differences in driving patterns/habits account much more for the differences that different drivers realize in fuel economy than does the driving mode used. And, if you are driving with a lead foot in Eco mode, gas mileage will be worse than if you are driving more conservatively in Sport mode. I'm sure that we would all like to think that there is a magic wand that will allow us to drive with a lead foot and still get great gas mileage, but, like with most things, there is no free lunch.

jhbhatia

i average close to 65-75mph on the highways and close to 35mph on city streets. I like 1 mile away from a major highway...so my city driving is limited.
I attain close to 37mpg's on the whole...and always over 600 miles per fill-up. It's serving its hybrid purpose.

Mhobizal

I've had my 2014 ES300h for a week now. First tank I averaged 36 MPG in Normal Mode. Yesterday, after I put only 11 gallons in the tank, I decided to run in Eco Mode. I am now averaging 40 MPG in city driving. I usually drive upwards of 70 and 75 mph with the flow of traffic.

I am really pleased with the performance of this car!

merich

I switch between the three quite a bit.

It seems to me, and I have sometimes read, that too slow an acceleration actually reduces mileage. Flooring it to accelerate is also a mistake, but a reasonably brisk, firm acceleration seems to use less gas than a very gentle but drawn-out acceleration. Mileage is a little worse while accelerating, but that is outweighed by getting it done so much quicker. (This is also part of the theory of pulse and glide.) To the extent this is true, ECO mode actually harms mileage because you spend so much more time accelerating.

Arty101

Interesting, since I was in this camp earlier. My thoughts were, during any acceleration I was showing 10-20 mpg. So why not accelerate a little faster (even in ECO mode) to reduce the time you were in acceleration mode and more time in the glide mode even. But my overall FE was going down, down, down, as the song goes. I was going from 39 mpg to around 35-36 mpg. So reading through some of the comments on this forum about what others were doing to increase their FE, I tried being more gentle in the acceleration (not a quick jump, but not a slug). Also, I tried to accelerate with just the electric motor only, or the ICE only (especially on the freeway) to build up the battery and glide as much as possible. Gliding or accelerating in electric mode increases the FE the most, but then your battery starts to drain and your ICE will kick in to regenerate.

With those techniques, I've actually gotten 40+mpg for the last two tankfuls. In the overall scheme of things, I'm still happy to be in the mid 30's to 40 mpg with the ES300h, compared to my previous vehicles.

mikez0

2013 w/ 14k. After experiment with sport or eco, it is always in normal mode now. Our car is used mainly in home to work stop & go commute where no highway driving involved. I found it seems to get high FE if I tried to accelerate as much as I can while keeping the green 'EV' light on. avg ~44mpg except in winter avg ~37mpg. I would love to switch to 'sport' mode but then I can not monitor the 'EV' green light anymore (due to display change) which I use to gauge my acceleration & speed. 'ECO' is just too sluggish for acceleration even during rush hours.