I set my A/C on ECO, reset the FE stats in my nav, and started using the gas pedal as recommended on this forum. The screen below represents my full commute, about 15-mins in each direction with one stop to drop off my kids at at school.

26.7 MPG is not why I bought a hybrid and I suspect I would get better mileage in a non-hybrid car. I don't think my driving style or terrain is so unusual, and I predict Toyota is going to be facing a raft of complaints regarding their MPG claims on these Camry Hybrids.

 

Your result is far from typical.

The lowest MPG on gh.com for any TCH is 32.6

Where are you located? What is your commute like, city vs hwy miles? Are you setting the A/C on LO the whole time?

most important question:

Are you driving the TCH just like you did your last vehicle?

What are the tires set to?

My guess is the Toyota is NOT going to get a high level of complaints. Most people are getting great MPG out of the car.

Something may be wrong with your car.

 

Nathanso,

I can understand why you're upset, but based on this board I don't think there'll be a raft of complaints. My currrent tank's average is 38.7 mpg. But that doesn't help you.

Looking at the profile you posted I notice that you often have times when your mpg is low, but so is your kw regenerated. I don't have the NAV system so I'm not that familiar with it, but it seems to me when the mileage is low the ICE is running and you should be regenerating the batteries. But you're not. That may shed some light on it. Or is it that the regen shows passive (non-ICE) regen?

I've never had seven minutes of barely or less than 20 mpg. Could you shed some light on speed travelled during this time (extreme left of display)? If it's a speed where only the ICE should be on (above about 40 mph) then you should at least be averaging 30 mpg. If it's significantly less than 40 then you should be running part of the time on battery only. If the latter is the case the only thing I could think of is that your foot is too heavy and the ICE is running constantly at low speed. But this goes against your earlier comment of feathering it.

 

Tires all at 35psi, just as vehicle was delivered 4-days ago. The A/C is on ECO; not sure if it's on LO or not, it's automatic and I have it set on 72F L+R.

Re 'driving just like my last vehicle', I first tried driving it with a very light touch on the gas. Now-- per recommendations here -- I accelerate more like a normal car and then I strive to maintain constant speed. I brake early and lightly to stay off the pads as much as possible. I also take my foot off the gas just before cresting a hill as the car has great 'roll' and easily finishes climbs on its own.

I'm located in Martinez, CA, a rural area 20mi NE of San Francisco. It is hilly where I live and drive. My commute is 100% on surface streets; the fastest speed limit I encounter is 50MPH on a 2-lane winding country road which is 3-4mi of my commute. I seem to achieve sub-20 MPG during this kind of driving, both according to the real-time analog MPG needle and the min-by-min display in the nav.

One observation I've made is that the ICE turns on when I feel it shouldn't, like this morning when I was backing out of my garage which is perfectly flat terrain. I was trying to see if I could do it all on battery, *barely* touching the gas, but then the ICE cut in. I'd seen it do this when the A/C wasn't in ECO mode but I though ECO was supposed to stop that.

Indeed, the only time I seem to get high mileage is when I'm coasting downhill.

 

I'll add my 2 cents too... Although my mileage is slightly better than the average on the GH database I can certainly understand how easy it could be to turn your TCH into a pig. Climbing hills, lots of turning thru residential streets (lots of slowing, turning, accelerating), frequent traffic lights, and stop and go traffic (except for electric creeping) all waste a lot of gas even on a hybrid. From your consumption screen, it doesn't look like you get to do much cruising except maybe at the end. A hybrid is still better at this kind of driving than a normal car of the same size/power but obviously it can't get the numbers that are more typical (Maybe a Yaris would do better in this kind of driving with it's tiny engine, but thats a different animal). Part of my driving is like this and sometimes I don't get any indication on my ECOLevel MFD screen, but then part is cruising and I quickly fill up the 3 bars and often max it out. When cruising you always have to be thinking about E-mode if possible. There have been times when I've been cruising at 40mph and the FE gauge is showing about 20mpg. I say "what the ...", lift my foot off the pedal for a sec, get e-mode, and continue on. Big difference in MPG with no difference in speed, just by remembering to always always always use E mode whenever you can. My TCH rarely goes into E-mode when my foot is on the go pedal. Also, I've found that the more often you drive in E-mode, the easier it is to convince the Camry to go into E-mode. If you are constantly needing the engine due to driving conditions, the TCH becomes reluctant to use E-mode. I think this might be part of the learning mode the electronic control has.

I'll also add that I'm not terribly surprised that you get poor mileage on windy hilly roads at 50mph. Windy and hilly usually means lots of use of the go pedal, and 50mph is kind of a dead zone betwen the high MPG sweet spots of 40mpg and about 60-65mph

 

Unless the engine is warm the ICE will kick on to bring it and the emissions control components to operating temperature. So it's normal for this to happens.

Elaborating a little more on what Droid said.

I find that at 38 - 40 mph it is very difficult to keep it in E mode. Don't press down far enough on the accelerator and it stays in E mode but loses speed. A little more gas and the ICE kicks on. It can be very frustrating at that speed. Below 35 mph it becomes a lot easier.

Regarding the sweet spot. The TCH has a CVT meaning that the ICE spins at an almost constant speed. So if you speed up from 40 to 45 to 50 to 55, etc. you're moving a greater distance per second, but the engine is moving at the same speed and using approximately the same amount of gas per second. Therefore until wind resistance really starts to set in the TCH will do better at higher speeds. Below 40 and you should be using the E mode a bit more and mileage improves. Between high 30s and high 40s is the range where the ICE stays on constantly and gives the lowest mpg.

Last night I was on a section of road I haven't taken in the TCH before. Lights every couple of miles, reaching a speed of 40 in between. I used the ICE to get up to speed, eased off the gas and went into E mode. I then started coasting as the invariably red light showed up in front of me. This allowed me to increase the SOC so that I could continue using E mode after a brief burst from the ICE brought me back up to speed. The ECO indicator (41 mpg) was maxed out for this trip.

 

Ok last things first:

On backing out of your driveway in the morning -

With the TCH HSD system, the gas engine starts 9 seconds after turning on the power and getting the READY light. REGARDLESS. NO MATTER WHAT. Has nothing to do with the ECO button. That starting of the ICE will happen, even if the battery is at 100% charge. The only way you can back out of your driveway in the AM on all EV mode is if you REALLY HURRY!!

OK , now onward: As far as your commute....other than the hilliness, it should not be a problem. You should be getting MINIMUM about 35 MPG.

Here's something to try. I have noticed that 34 miles per hour is a "sweet spot" for the cruise control. I seem to get excellent MPG at that speed, as well as another reported "sweet spot" of 52 miles per hour. Try those two speeds and watch your real-time MPG meter.

As far as the LO temp and the ECO button: If you have ECO engaged, and you then place the A/C temp control to LO, that will TURN OFF the ECO mode !! Be careful with that.

I would conside also upping the air in the tires. Mine are at 46 PSI right now, and I have averaged about 37 MPG since I got the TCH, with, like you, an all-city commute.

Good luck !!

 

OK, that explains the ICE coming on, thanks. My A/C is set to 72F, not LO. I can try airing up the tires from 35psi to 45psi but I don't think that will improve things by more than a percent or two. Cruise control is something I've not yet tried as it's not really appropriate for the terrain I drive.

Perhaps I should take my car back to the dealer for a systems check.

 

I love lars' suggestion of setting the cruise control. When you do it at 35 mph make sure the battery is charged. The analog mpg gauge should go to the blue E mode. I would then see how long it can hold the E mode.

However, I would hold off with upping the tire pressure. I'm not looking to debate the benefits/trade-offs of different tire pressures. I'm just thinking that many people are getting great mileage without (myself included) raising the pressure. So I wouldn't introduce that variable at this time.

 

I think your mileage will come around as you get more familiar with your car. One thing I'll say, though. I took the "getting up to speed quickly" comments a little too seriously on my first two tanks of gas and ended up at 35.1 MPG for both tanks. I now try to get up to speed with steady, moderate acceleration. I don't floor it, nor do I try to keep the ICE off while I accelerate (unless sometimes if the speed limit is 25). I'm getting 38.4 on this tank, according to the display. (I have a non-nav model.)

Like many others here, I'm puzzled by some of the really low MPG segments on your display. You said this is 30 minutes drive time, but what is your total distance covered? Are there lots of poorly-timed stop lights? Are they close together?

One question for you nav-enabled folks: what's the difference between the blue and green bars on the consumption screen?