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Why Full Hybrid Cars Get Better Gas Mileage in The City April 2005One of my co-workers claims that there is no way a hybrid can get better gas mileage in the city than on the highway. His argument is that city driving inherently takes more energy due to the starting and stopping and, while the hybrid recaptures some of the energy otherwise lost by charging while braking or coasting, whenever energy is converted from one form to another, there are always losses. My husband says that fuel efficiency at the higher speeds is so much reduced by wind resistance that this is what makes city mpg better than highway mpg in a hybrid. Can you please explain if and how a hybrid gets better city mileage than highway mileage?Annette Dow San Jose For this I turn to Matt-The-Mercury-Auto-Man: I can only give you the simple-man version. The so-called full hybrids (the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape now, and the Lexus RX 400h and Toyota Highlander soon) have two things that allow them to get better city than highway mileage. First, like most every other hybrid, they have an engine stop-start or on-off feature. Essentially, when you coast into a stop light or come to a complete stop, the engine turns off (not to make this too complicated, but it usually doesn't do this if you're running air conditioning). So at a 90-second stop light, you burn no gas, emit no emissions, etc. What the full hybrids also can do is run at low speeds (usually less than 25 mph) and run on only batteries and electric motors. So, in this mode, you're burning no gas but you are moving. That equals higher city mileage. SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News | ||
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