jrobe

Here is my mileage for the last 2000 miles on my 2008 Rx400h – 32.5 mpg.



I think my mileage success is related to having hybrid-friendly driving patterns and also to good driving technique. This 2000 miles included about 75% city driving and 25% highway - freeway driving. I use the cheapest, lowest octane gasoline that they sell.

My work commute is about 20 minutes on country and city roads with a maximal speed limit of 55 mph. I only have a few stop signs and stoplights so I don’t have a lot of stop and go driving. I rarely need to take 5-10 minute trips, which reduces mileage considerably. My usual 20 min commute is ideal for getting the battery charged up and then being able to maximize the use of the electric motors for the last 10 min at the end of the ride.

My driving technique is quite different now than it was in the past with non-hybrid vehicles. You definitely have to earn good mileage with a hybrid. The dealers won’t tell you this.

For example, I almost always have the energy screen on and am conscience of maximizing efficiency. I would guess that I am able to spend about 15-20% of the time running entirely on the battery system (with 99 mpg on the monitor). I always try to run the battery down as far as possible at the end of every trip. My goal is to get the battery charge indicator down to 2 bars (the 2 purple bars) when I park the vehicle. When you restart the vehicle the next time, the engine is going to run anyway for the first 5 minutes so it might as well be charging the battery also. I can usually get 1-2 free miles at the end of every trip by forcing it onto the battery system as much as possible before I park the vehicle.

I also just try to drive the speed limit as much as possible. Anything over 65 mph is a mileage killer. I live in central Wisconsin so the traffic is usually pretty light so I rarely need to speed just to keep up with traffic. I also rarely have anyone behind me on my routes (if I do, I increase my speed to about 5 mph over the speed limit). Driving the speed limit is a big change from how I drove in the past. From a practical standpoint though, on any trip under 2 hours, I only spend a few extra minutes and it makes a dramatic difference in mileage.

This summer, I only needed to use the air conditioner for a few days (fairly cool summer in WI). The AC reduces mileage quite a bit. On hills, I also try not to use the cruise control. It reduces mileage when the engine revs up to maintain speed on the uphill and then doesn’t take maximal advantage of the downhill. At stoplights, I accelerate at a normal, moderate pace up to speed and then try to get on the battery as soon as possible. I don’t do any of the more advanced “hypermiling” techniques – pulsing, etc..

There are a couple advantages to “hybrid-friendly driving” that I would have never anticipated. First of all there is the fun factor. It is kind of fun to try to manipulate the car to maximize efficiency. It makes driving more interesting for me to watch the monitor and try to maximize the time I spend on the battery.

I also am much more relaxed driving a hybrid. I use to be the aggressive driver – trying to get there as fast as possible, pushing the speed limit to the limit, aggressively passing slower vehicles, fast starts from every traffic light, trying to always be in the fastest lane, etc.. Now I have a much more relaxed attitude about driving. Maybe I get there a few minutes later but I don’t care anymore. I have a fast paced, hectic job. Driving can actually be relaxing. It took a hybrid to teach me this.

The bottom line is that it is definitely possible to get very good mileage with the Rx400h is you drive it properly and if you have hybrid-friendly driving routes. Knowing what I know now, I would not buy another hybrid if I spent most of my time on the freeway. I would also not buy a hybrid for my wife because she wouldn’t be interested in driving it properly. I bet the dealers get lots of complaints about poor mileage from people that haven’t figured this out. Even for me, the financial payback for the hybrid is pretty long with current gas prices. My mileage also drops to about 26-27 mpg for about 3-4 months in the Wisconsin winters. I will be very satisfied though with the vehicle if it remains dependable and if the batteries last 10 years or so.

barry_s

That is terrific mileage. I have a 2008 also with 6300 miles on it. My overall mileage is 27.3 on the computer and 27.2 calculated using premium fuel. I am actually quite pleased with this as I traded in a 2007 RX350 which got 19 MPG overall. Do you have an actual mileage as calculated (miles driven/gallons consumed)?

jrobe

I didn't do a calculation on this entire 2000 miles but in the past, my calculations were pretty close (within 0.5 mpg or so). My vehicle now has about 18,000 miles on it and I think my mileage improved a little bit after the first 5,000-10,000 miles (maybe this was just because my skills improved). I have never seen any improvement with premium gasoline so I switched back to the cheap stuff.

New2RX

This post is far after previous posts, so I don't know whether others will see this or not. After achieving a 30+ mpg this past weekend on a trip through the VA and NC mountains, I wanted to see if others had experienced very good mpg in certain cases. I've had my '08 RX400h for about 3 months and I'd been seeing about 25-26 mpg with the routine driving we do -- still trying to be fairly careful with starts, acceleration, etc. So when I went into the mountains this past week, I thought my mileage would probably go down.

But as I drove, I realized that there were long stretches (declines) where I could be on the battery for a surprisingly long time and still maintain a high speed (55-65). And fortunately, since there weren't too many other vehicles on these mostly rural roads, I could speed up to 60-65 going down hill and slowly decelerate (down to 55-60) going uphill and not using cruise control. I went through numerous small towns and could go half battery most of the time.

In the end, I averaged slightly over 30 mpg for 500 miles. I'm sure had I used the cruise more that the engine would have remained on more than the way I drove. But it's good to know that it's possible to achieve significantly higher mileage just by tweaking your driving style a bit -- probably not enough to even effect the travel time. It seems that jrobe discovered this, too, in his driving in WI. It may not be for everyone, but I found it fun to try to drive this way.

MadloR

You can achieve over 30 mpg quiet easily on the highway, and if you want to get into the 30+ range, you will always outperform the vehicle on Cruise Control.

I recently drove in 90+ F temps, with AC on all the time, and managed a very respectable 29.8mpg with 4 passengers, using cruise, and driving at 65mph.

On the way back, drove somewhat slower, 55mph (i figure, do to the fact I was coaxing as much back from the traction batteries as possible), same 4 passengers with AC on, and using intelligent drive mode (no cruise control, only human intervention) and managed 32.6 mph.

Oh, and I always use regular octane for when I want maximum mileage. I cannot achieve similar results using super unleaded.

Cheers,

MadloR

ColdLexus

The reduced octane improves mileage, but does it affect performance?
Is there any possible problem with the engine?

Scott1258

We just got an '07 400h and we are trying to learn all the tricks: ... so how do you "maximize the time on the battery?"

Let me know. thanks,

Scott