MPG observation of a 35 mile 17 F cold start trip

Hermann

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Last Saturday night on my 35 mile drive home was with a dead cold engine at 17°F . Usually on this drive on the combo of 8 miles of 60 mph country highways, 25 miles of Interstate that I drive with the cruise set at 68 mph and 2 miles of intown to get to my address. I set the heat to 68°F. There was a slight headwind.

Normally this drive results in 38 to 40 MPG. When I got home and shut off the truck, it showed 30.7 MPG with only 1.3 miles of electric driving. Pretty sure that electric driving was in the last 2 miles after getting off the interstate.

My 2¢ on this:
Cold and speed are not a good combo for good MPG"s. My truck 90% of the time starts out from a heated garage. Had visions of worse figures, so I am pretty happy as this same tank of 87 oct E10 is half gone now, still showing mid 40's MPG (actual probably 41 mpg or so). Lots of intown driving this tank.
 
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Last Saturday night on my 35 mile drive home was with a dead cold engine at 17°F . Usually on this drive on the combo of 8 miles of 60 mph country highways, 25 miles of Interstate that I drive with the cruise set at 68 mph and 2 miles of intown to get to my address. I set the heat to 68°F. There was a slight headwind.

Normally this drive results in 38 to 40 MPG. When I got home and shut off the truck, it showed 30.7 MPG with only 1.3 miles of electric driving. Pretty sure that electric driving was in the last 2 miles after getting off the interstate.

My 2¢ on this:
Cold and speed are not a good combo for good MPG"s. My truck 90% of the time starts out from a heated garage. Had visions of worse figures, so I am pretty happy as this same tank of 87 oct E10 is half gone now, still showing mid 40's MPG. Lots of intown driving this tank.
Fairly common on Hybrids and EV's - there is a significant loss of range at colder temps. My hybrid usually sees a 10% loss in the "winter," sometimes more.
 
Tires inflated for the colder temperatures?
Yes. 35 psi out of the garage although they showed 30 psi when I checked the display early in the trip.

Basically I posted this to show how the Maverick fared in a less than optimal situation
How long of a warm up? Usually I only wait 20-30 seconds & start babying it down the road, seems to warm up faster that way.
probably about 15 sec of warm up.
 
Fairly common on Hybrids and EV's - there is a significant loss of range at colder temps. My hybrid usually sees a 10% loss in the "winter," sometimes more.
Yes my DTE estimate dropped a 100 miles during my voyages that day. 30.7 / 39 equals a 21.7% difference.
 
Another descriptive rich piece on Hermann's Maverick. Keep 'em coming. The next Ford dealership I see......

We BITOGers are detail oriented.

If the entire nation was so, we could halve our per mile costs and double our fuel mileage.
 
i finally see YOUR TRUCK is a Maverick, only ever seen ONE in my area. even at lower #'s they typically beat overpriced oversized trucks most owners rarely NEED IMO!! years ago a fellow worker driving a 2xxx VW DIESEL complained of ONLY low 40's mpg in the winter!!! of course todays overly gouged diesel fuel prices CHANGE things!!! many owners MOAN about fuel costs BUT drive a TANK-truck they rarely need + popular SUV's prolly give up 10 mpgs compared to a modern sedan, not to mention their higher cost to own!!
 
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My Ford f150 with the 2.7 loses mpgs during the cold weather.
All ICE engines lose MPG's in the winter. My 2018 F-150 with the 3.3L na engine went from 22 to 20 or so during the winter months.
 
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All ICE engines lose MPG's in the winter. My 2018 F-150 with the 3.3L na engine went from 22 to 20 or so during the winter months.
Some of that may be due to winter fuel blends. I drive a Jaguar X-Type up north and it's MPG is improved in the winter. But that is gas station dependent.
 
In a ICE engine in the winter the extra time it runs in open loop will also hurts mpg's
 
Keep an eye under that oil cap for nice nice white slime. I imagine a hybrid would be more prone to condensation in cold temps than a strictly ICE vehicle.
 
An observation from a 120 mile drive yesterday, in ambient temps that ranged from 22° to 27°F over the course of the sunny afternoon. Most of the time when I stopped after driving to the next destination, the trip MPG's were between 30 and 34. (Figure 5-8% optimistic) The worst stretch was 30 miles of 65mph into a 25 mph direct headwind, which was showing 24-26 mpg on level pavement . All through the driving the water temp never got up to full normal for this vehicle. The indicator was showing about 1/4 lower than normal, in the first half of the gauge. It was a chilly day for this early in the season.

The 29°F high temp yesterday at KCI airport, tied a record for the lowest high temp on that date since 1889. At least Im getting 30+ a little MPG. My 2018 F-150 with 3.3L n/a would not even would not even get 20 mpg in those conditions, probably around 17mpg.
 
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Fairly common on Hybrids and EV's - there is a significant loss of range at colder temps. My hybrid usually sees a 10% loss in the "winter," sometimes more.
Totally agree. There’s a balance - I often drive without heat (I like the cold), and recover some MPGs. However, I like to set the heat up in the winter to force a start of the engine to help it to “warm up”.
 
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