I bought my 2017 ES300h in Oct 2017. After about 4 months I am getting 22.5 MPG in-town driving. I’ve brought the car into service three times, and they have made a few adjustments including rebooting. But the mileage never varies.

Here are the factors I can think of: it’s been a fairly cold Connecticut winter, but it was no different in the warm fall. A lot of my driving around town is about 15 to 20 minute trips. I drive with a very light foot, trying to bump up the mileage, but the car never goes into EV until I’ve driven for over 10 minutes, and then only sparingly. At a traffic light it only goes into EV about half the time unless I think to press the EV button. It’s not clear to me why it does sometimes and not others. Driving, it only goes into EV sometimes when coasting downhill, or creeping along at 10 MPH or less, and then only sometimes.

I’ve noticed that after driving for about an hour on the highway, the car starts using EV more often on city streets. The engine, and maybe battery, seems to need to be *very* warm before EV mode is used the way I think it should. But still not enough to bump up the mileage.

I know my driving style (short trips) is the worst for mileage, but 22 seems completely unacceptable for a hybrid. Anyone have thoughts?

I appreciate Chromedome’s perspective, but with the gas blends in North America, especially the northern states, you won’t see the mileage figures he is getting. Most NA fuels now contain Ethanol which harm the mileage, plus our octane figures are lower. However, with that said I still think you should see better mileage.

Keep in mind, there is no magic to a hybrid and you are correct that short cold weather trips are the worst possible scenario for a hybrid. The gas engine has to completely heat up to normal operating temps before it will transition to electric. This is to run the heater (which requires hot water in the heater core) and for safety of your gas engine as you don’t want to strain a cold engine. Now with that said, we have a similar driving style, mostly 15 to 20 minute trips. Our average temp over this winter has probably been 35 to 45 degrees F and our worst tank was just over 33. Last winter when our weather was much colder I don’t believe we dropped below 32. Last winter our NX 300h, which has the same drivetrain as the ES 300h (except it has an electric motor for the rear wheels) became our goto vehicle when the snow was too deep for the ES and the temps dropped below zero. Our worst tank even in those conditions with that heavier vehicle and winter fuel blends was just shy of 30 MPG.

The ES is our third hybrid, and the NX is our fourth. So I am very familiar with their benefits and limitations. In my opinion, there is definitely something wrong with your car. Even in the worst possible conditions, you should be getting 8 to 10 mpg better. In the best conditions (summer with gentle driving in eco mode) it isn’t unusual to get 37 mpg. I have seen 40 MPG but only once. I have seen 38 MPG several times in the 16K miles driven in our ES.

While it shouldn’t account for the huge mileage differences you are seeing, are you sure you are driving in “eco” mode. From you description of the driving characteristics, it almost sounds like the car is behaving as though it is in “Sport” mode. Sport mode is definitely more fun but it has a detrimental effect if you are trying to nurse the best mileage from your car.

As if my long-winded post above wasn’t enough, another thought occurs to me. It generally only takes about five to eight minutes before our car has warmed up enough that the gas engine will begin cycling off and on. This of course is dependent on ambient temps and the driving mode selected (eco/normal/sport), speed, etc. In extreme cold weather it doesn’t cycle off very often, but you will still see mileage benefits due to the electric motor which is always active if the batteries have a charge.

Again, in my opinion, there is definitely something wrong with your car and the dealer likely knows it. I just can’t imagine how I could possibly drive, even aggressively in Sport mode and get such poor mileage.

Thanks all.

The 22.5 MPG is from two half tank fill ups and computing exact actual mileage each time. Both times the display was saying 24.5. In between the two, the shop foreman at Lexus hooked the car up to a computer, rebooted the car and made some adjustments. Don’t know what he actually adjusted, but it made no difference. And now that I’m writing this, I realize that the weather made no difference either. The first time was that very cold spell in January (teens), and the second time was last week where it was at least 20 degrees warmer: mid-30’s.

So, don’t know what the next step is. This car is not getting much better mileage than my 2010 ES350 — about two mpg better. Btw, I drive in normal mode, not sport or ECO. I really don’t like ECO.

Again, thanks all.

I tried an an experiment this past Saturday, and drove a mixed environment for about two hours: Fifteen minutes of highway driving, mostly to warm up the engine, followed by fifteen minutes of city driving, then an hour of country roads, and finally another half hour of city streets to complete a loop. The display on my car showed 42 MPG!

Since then I’ve gone back to my normal schedule of ten to fifteen minute rides (office, grocery, gym, etc.). The mileage is dropping, now down to 33 MPG in three days.

So it seems that the car is capable of hybrid performance but will barely use battery on these short trips. Does anyone know if there is a computer adjustment to address this?