I have a 2007 Camry Hybrid,I live il the north east and find that I get 7 mpg less in the cold weather then I do in warmer weather. What can I do to remendy this.Ed
Move south! Seriously, cold weather will reduce your mpgs because of the effect on batteries (less power output), and regular cars drop, too. Not much you can do about it.
In order to get heat into your car in cold weather, the engine has to run ALL THE TIME. That alone cuts your gas mileage. Additional losses are due to more friction to overcome, and poorer battery performance, as mentioned.
A pure gasoline powered car also gets worse gas mileage in the winter. Are you new to the Northern states? Or is this your very first car?
The primary forces a vehicle must overcome when traveling straight and level are rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag.
Tire flex harder when cold and thus increase rolling resistance. Air is more dense when cold and thus increases aerodynamic drag.
In addition, you are using your heater… where do you think that energy comes from?
I have found that running the heater on high makes my Camry’s engine run almost continously. So, once the car has warmed up a bit (5 min of my 20 min commute), I turn the heater knob to the spot right by the white/red dividing line. The engine’s heat keeps my car and me warm, and the electric motor keeps the eventual mpg high. I validated this on Monday, driving through a blizzard that hit Iowa and at the time I got to my office, my battery level was 0 and car awarded me an “excellent”. I have verified this exact result on my highlander hybrid as well.
There is also discussion about how the gas sold during winter months has its octane lowered that results in drop of mileage, but I am not any authority on that topic and haven’t researched it.
It’s the weather.
But you raise an interesting question: does cold weather affect mileage more on hybrids than on non hybrids?
I’m going to start a thread on this subject. Enquiring minds want to know.
I am not sure of the authority of this article, but ideas seem to be plausible…