Geek Habitat

Not to add to the already choking levels of “smug” emanating from hybrid owners (see South Park’s hybrid episode), but I have to gloat a little bit. Missed the episode? Download!

You see, I’ve already been scolded by the owner of one hybrid discussion forum. My offense? Admitting I was perfectly happy to get 30-33mpg in my Ford Escape Hybrid if that was the best I could do without angering the majority of my fellow drivers by driving too slowly, and/or feeling as though I was endangering myself and my vehicle. Among the truly smug hybrid drivers, you’re “not doing your part” if you are not willing to crawl off stop lights slower than I ride my mountain bike, or drive 10 mph under the speed limit (or 10 over, if trying to “maintain momentum”), or ride perpetually on the outer white lane markers to “signal” to drivers behind that they should pass (nevermind bike lanes, roadside debris and appearances of inattentiveness!)

So, I take a bit of giddy pride in the fact that just by driving my Ford Escape Hybrid normally in the past month and several days, my mileage has been steadily increasing, such that I can happily report that today, for the first time since I took ownership of our hybrid, I have not only consistently met but exceeded its EPA mileage estimate of 36mpg city/31mpg highway during today’s driving.

Of course, “hypermilers” get far more miles per gallon out of their vehicles, hybrid and non-hybrid alike, but they also do a lot of things that may increase driver workload or are not practical or attractive options to some of us. I take some joy in the fact that without altering my driving greatly, and with a tremendous increase in my enjoyment of driving, I’ve exceeded EPA estimates and foresee getting even better numbers as the vehicle gets fully broken in and my comfort with the vehicle increases further. Many “hypermiling tricks” are quite reasonable and applicable to non-hybrids as well as hybrids, so I’m not knocking the laudable goal of achieving the highest mpg possible in one’s vehicle… I just have caveats to that which, apparently, some of the hard core hypermilers do not have.

36+ mpg in a vehicle that weighs significantly more than my 1992 Toyota Corolla (which gets 27mpg; Added Later: Actually, she gets 27.67mpg!). Gotta love it!

PS: Although the graph shows the last 15 minutes of data, all avg MPG reported today were in the 32-36+ mpg range.

I still have 120+ MTE (Miles To Empty) before I refuel. At that time, I will compute my mileage for this tank — I fully expect it to be in the 32-34mpg range.