2017+ Chrysler Pacifica Minivan Forums banner

What's Your Average Fuel Economy (HYBRID ONLY)?

3313 Views 150 Replies 21 Participants Last post by  js607191
Vehicle Gauge Speedometer Measuring instrument Font


I think average fuel economy is limited to 99 based on the artificial ceiling set by Chrysler. Also not sure if it can be reset or resets with the trip odometer.
And yes I need to clean my instrument panel.
See less See more
1 - 20 of 151 Posts
We can’t really calculate gas mileage in town since most of that sort of driving is electric only. But on our road trips the van consistently gets 32-34 mpg driving the speed limit (65-70).
What does the "Energy Economy" display on yours?
It’s usually around 34 when I’m on road trips. But I’ve had it at 99 when driving around town.
By the way you can reset energy economy by holding the “OK” button down for a couple of seconds.
Yeah I was hoping for screenshots of the Hybrid Energy Economy display. That's the only way to work from the same yardstick.
My displayed mpg varies greatly depending on whether I’m driving cross country (~33) or if I’ve been driving in town a lot in EV mode (~80-99).
  • Like
Reactions: 2
Realistically though, I think it is fairly easy with the PacHy to reach the EPA numbers of 32 mpg on gas only and 84 mpge on electric only. Other vehicles I’ve owned did not easily attain those numbers.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Real world conditions. Yesterday I drove from Philly to Columbus. So I had to drive through some mountainous area and against a slight headwind. I reset the MPG at the start of the trip with 0% on the HV battery so this is true gas mileage. Driving was mostly at 70 mph with a few exceptions.
Vehicle Speedometer Car Gauge Automotive design
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 1
That's a good reading.

Do you know if resetting the MPG resets this Energy Economy? From what I can tell it's aggregate, although over what timeframe I'm uncertain.
Yes. It is aggregate. However I don’t know how far back it goes. Resetting will apparently erase all historical data and start calculating with new. You can tell because the average number will change rather quickly after resetting it but then as you drive it settles down.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
While everyone has to make their own assessment about use case for a hybrid vehicle, the last sentence is really the unheralded reality. It's such a better driving experience that when we drive the gas model it feels downright primitive.
We were driving last weekend with some friends in the car that had never ridden in it before. They were ladies and they were all chatting as ladies like to do. We were all in the car for maybe a couple of hours driving around in town to several places. At the end of the ride one of the ladies said, “I like your van. It runs so smooth.” So even people that aren’t really paying much attention notice how smooth and quiet the PacHy is.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
They say the same of my 3/4 ton avalanche.
But I assume that when you accelerate you feel the transmission shifting through the gears and hear the fatigue of the engine…
Polite praise does not a factual statement make.
Well, I wasn’t saying it as a fact. In fact, the feeling of “smooth” is somewhat subjective I suppose. But regardless of that I know what she is talking about and what she means because I drive the van all the time.
Be careful not to confuse individual misinterpretation of the standards with lack of implemented standards. There's no doubt the hybrid is far more energy efficient. It's just a matter of individual cost-benefit analysis which is highly subjective, even if the data isn't.

That aside difference between the 9 speed transmission and Pacifica Hybrid transmission called the Si-EVT, can't be over-stated. It is a fully electronically controlled, variable speed transmission…The transmission provides quick and smooth shifts and is one of the smoothest CVTs on the market.
Actually it isn’t even a continuously variable transmission in the traditional usage of the expression. It’s just called that for marketing reasons. And it actually doesn’t provide quick and smooth shifts as there are no shifts. There is a link to a video floating around here that you may find interesting if you want a basic understanding of how it works.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Yes. Definitely an outlier. YMMV.
Well I’m just giving my opinion on things I may notice about the van. I’m not trying to convince anyone they should buy it. Every person has their own circumstances and desires and that will determine whether they decide to buy one. But if someone asks me, “what do you like about your van?“, I’m going to give them my opinion. After all, that’s what they asked for. If they want to know what kind of MPG I get, I’ll tell them and maybe even post a photo of my instrument panel.

I bought our van in 2018. At that time the general public was not well educated as to how a PHEV works. They didn’t understand how a vehicle can be plugged in and run on gasoline. A few of us bought the PHEVs because we understood full well how advantageous such a vehicle can be under the right circumstances. Our postings on this forum as well as information spread by word of mouth and some education by the marketing people has helped people to understand the PHEV a little better.

In addition to that, even if you buy this van with no intention of ever plugging it in, you will likely find that there are certain benefits to owning it as opposed to its gas-only cousin. And it is exactly those benefits that some people may tout here on this forum. I think ‘newbies’ are smart enough to ask the right questions and get the information they want and need without being misled. If I were doing research on buying a PHEV, I’d ask questions like: What kind of mileage do you get in gas only mode? How many miles can you drive in electric only mode on a fully charged battery? How much does it cost to charge up the battery? etc, etc.
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 2
That's the interesting about this thread. It started off about mileage but as we discuss it many PacHy owners have found they appreciate the vehicle as much or more for the experience that it offers as a result of the engineering decisions made by Chrysler to achieve the higher mpg that resulted in more than simply mpg gains.

Yes it's technically "off-topic" but it's interesting even so.
I believe that is quite true. We bought the higher end Limited with most of the bells and whistles. We bought it mostly for fuel economy but have found that we like other nice features about it that we didn’t realize existed at the time we bought it. Apparently there is even an Automatic Noise Reduction system in the van. I didn’t even think much about it until I took it out on the highway and realized how quiet it is. I’m sure other vehicles have similar equipment but compared to my 2002 Honda Odyssey this PacHy is a step up toward a slightly higher level of luxury. And another thing, the Harmon Kardon sound system is the best OEM system I’ve had in any car I’ve owned before. So, just lots of nice little things to comment on and give my opinion on. But I can also say it’s probably not a car I would have bought in my younger years. My needs and desires were different then.
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 1
It's based purely on consumption. It doesn't know from where the power is derived between plug in power and recharge power. Give yourself more credit for thinking it through and give the system way less credit for not being that sophisticated.
That’s true. When the hybrid battery has been exhausted and you are driving in hybrid mode the “electric” miles continue to accrue. The problem is that they could never accrue had you not used any gas. The energy recorded as “electric” miles actually came from energy that was expended by the gasoline engine.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
We drive the vehicle hard.
No gas mileage care.
(It's not a hybrid but it does reflect a base and a truth, with no manipulation, pandering, suggestion or ommision, justification, lack of understanding or trust)

What GAS mileage does a hybrid get?
Mine is 22.8 for 4700 miles.
And of course that means very little until you give us at least an approximation of highway vs in-town miles.
Ok. Here is my pic showing MPGe (electric only). Had the van fully charged this morning, reset the MPG average and drove around town today on electric only. If you drive conservatively it’s pretty easy to get 99.9 MPGe (probably closer to 115 MPGe in actuality). If I drive without really thinking about it the average is probably down in the 80s. Also helps that the temperature is about perfect at around 70° today.

Green Automotive tire Gadget Audio equipment Plant
See less See more
  • Like
  • Helpful
Reactions: 3
There are a lot of variables in the energy use. The major ones are the speed and elevation changes. My EV range can easily be over 40 miles at the highway speeds when I lose 400' of altitude over this distance. I drove a low speed limit flat road on the Florida Gulf coast in the hybrid mode and achieved 45MPG. Driving on the highways I can see the rated 33MPG if I keep my speed in check. The economy starts going down noticeably above 50MPH. This is a square function, and the economy drops faster than the speed raises. Driving 75-80 I get maybe 27MPG.
So true.
If the car is being powered by a combination of energy from the grid and energy from gasoline, it is meaningless to divide miles driven by gasoline consumed. It would be like figuring the Celtics' points per game by dividing total points scored by all teams in the NBA by the number of games the Celtics played.
As long as you have exhausted the HV battery then the van is being powered only by energy from gasoline regardless of whether the gas engine is running at any point in time. Once its charge is depleted all energy is being supplied by the ICE. So at that point you can calculate mpg by simply dividing miles driven by gallons used. Even if the ICE stops running and the electric motor is motivating the vehicle, that energy came from the ICE.
  • Helpful
Reactions: 1
It’s not quite that simple.
Once the battery is depleted, the Pacifica, still counts miles that the gas engine is not running as electric miles, even though that energy was generated by the ICE. I wish it worked like my Volt where once grid power is exhausted, all miles from that point are registered as gas miles, engine running or not.

The best way to get the MPG of a Pacifica for gas only operation is to reset the trip odometer at the moment that grid power has been used up (or start with an empty battery). Then whatever the display tells you will be the MPG since all power from that point, electric or not was generated by gasoline.
I have found that method to be pretty accurate in comparison with tracking the actual miles (after HV battery exhaustion) and then recording how many gallons it took to refill the tank.
  • Like
Reactions: 2
All I can say is that if you take a road trip with the PacHy on a fairly flat road with no wind and you deplete the HV battery first you’re going to get pretty close to 32 mpg as long as you maintain your speed at 70 mph or less. It remarkably is very close to the EPA numbers for highway driving. The 80 MPGe figure for electric only is a little harder to achieve on the highway but doable in town if you don’t jack-rabbit start or slam the brakes a lot.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
1 - 20 of 151 Posts
Top