Brand new Rav4 Hybrid owner here (bought at 8 miles last week) and I have consistently been getting a very low mpg over the last week, averaging 19 mpg. It's been extremely cold where I live - average of 10 F - and I'm forced to park outside...not ideal I know, but I don't have a garage. Still, I'm frustrated by the low mpg since a key reason I bought this car was to improve on my old gas mileage (2011 Nissan Pathfinder), and family members who also own Rav4 hybrids and live in similar climates have not had the same issue. The car's EV mode is "unavailable," and even though I've been driving short trips to and from work I would have thought I'd be earning better gas mileage on such a new car. My eco scores have been consistently in the 80s/90s, and my parking brake is most definitely off, lol. What's the deal? Should I take this back to the dealer and ask for service, or is this expected?
Brand new Rav4 Hybrid Low mpg
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Fritzy17
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Brand new Rav4 Hybrid owner here (bought at 8 miles last week) and I have consistently been getting a very low mpg over the last week, averaging 19 mpg. It's been extremely cold where I live - average of 10 F - and I'm forced to park outside...not ideal I know, but I don't have a garage. Still, I'm frustrated by the low mpg since a key reason I bought this car was to improve on my old gas mileage (2011 Nissan Pathfinder), and family members who also own Rav4 hybrids and live in similar climates have not had the same issue. The car's EV mode is "unavailable," and even though I've been driving short trips to and from work I would have thought I'd be earning better gas mileage on such a new car. My eco scores have been consistently in the 80s/90s, and my parking brake is most definitely off, lol. What's the deal? Should I take this back to the dealer and ask for service, or is this expected?
High 20's is a tipping point for the battery, as well as a trip that is 10 to 15 miles......both help immensely with fuel economy.
Also, those of us with Li-ion batteries will see slightly more of an impact than those with NiMH do.
Have you had a hybrid before? If you drive it like a regular gas vehicle then you won't get great mileage. The cold does effect the mpg as well. If you are going too fast or the ev battery is charging then the ev mode won't be available. Sounds more like you need to adjust your driving habits, js
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Never owned a hybrid before but I have driven them several times. I've made sure to watch my accelerations and braking, and have driven the speed limit. Unless this new car's evaluation of my driving is off, I've received good scores after most (if not every) drive.
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Thanks for the reassurance. Did this also affect how the vehicle went into EV mode? I haven't been able to use EV mode yet, all I can manage is "EV Unavailable" despite the battery appearing charged.
Only a week old? I assume you are going by the MPG display on the instruments. There is a good reason it is called a guess-o-meter. It is only a guess, and on a new car, a very poor guess.
First, reset the MPG display to zero. That will give a bit better guess on your actual MPG.
Second, for more accurate MPG, calculate it when you fill up (miles traveled on that tank divided by the gallons purchased).
Don't worry about the EV mode. The car will switch between modes as needed.
For best MPG on the hybrid, learn to anticipate stops, i.e. when you see the light change far ahead, get off the gas and coast into the stop with only light braking. That will maximize regeneration -- using the car's momentum to generate electricity to store in the battery for future use. Also, don't accelerate fast, but not real slow either.
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I would give it some time, and see what the average is over the next couple of weeks. What trim do you have? For the newer US models LE and XLE have NiMH battery while the higher trims have Li-Ion. The Li-Ion batteries tend to be more affected by cold weather, and that will definitely pull down MPGs.
All else aside, 19mpg is REALLY low for this vehicle - the lowest I've seen was 23 and that was driving 85mph on the highway. If you continue seeing numbers like that when it warms up it would definitely be worth having checked.
All else aside, 19mpg is REALLY low for this vehicle - the lowest I've seen was 23 and that was driving 85mph on the highway. If you continue seeing numbers like that when it warms up it would definitely be worth having checked.
EV mode unavailable is a very common message, for a few (background) reasons. Are you at parking lot speeds when you attempt to utilize it? Is the car up to full temp? You mentioned a short commute, but how short is it?
Like FKHeath mentioned, I wouldn't get hung up on the EV mode being unavailable, particularly in the super cold weather. The logic that Toyota put in there is likely locking you out.
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Best way to calculate your actual mileage would be to track your miles and compare it to how much you put in at the pumps. The hybrid system works okay in the cold, but it'll depend on how short your short trips are. I find the gas engine generally runs for the first five to ten minutes upon starting, especially in cold weather if you're using the defrost/heat, which will cause your mileage to look pretty bad if you're only driving for ten or fifteen minutes each time. EV mode on the hybrid is only useful if you've got a nearly full battery charge, and also only usable if you're intending to crawl along under 30-40km/h. Anything over that, or if you accelerate too hard, it'll kick back into normal driving mode. It's not the same battery capacity or motors as the Prime, which actually allows you to drive normally on EV mode alone.
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It is all about the distance you drive. My grams had adveraged about 12 mpg on her last 4 Lincolns - mark3,5,7 and her Chrysler 300. They were used for grocery runs, Church and short trips.
I took the Chrysler for a 50 mile run and got 29mpg.
bottom line… newer vehicles can get excellent mileage once they get warmed up/ transmission also.
For optimal mileage they want optimal temps.
My previous ram 1500 Ecodiesel netted me a 812 mile tank, and providing 31.24 mpg running from Orange County most of the way through AZ and back with 212 miles left on the 26gallon tank. There was a modest mountain range also.
Running around town I would get 19mpg until the trans warmed up.
I have a R4p that can get 46mpg on hybrid mode after the EV support runs out. If I drive like an ass… I can get 30mpg. I am sure in the snow on short trips it would be in the low 20’s
We just bought a 2025 Mazda cx50 hybrid which you probably know has the same RAV4 hybrid power train
The Mazda is a slightly heavier car but similar to the RAV4 the mileage people are getting seems to vary just as widely as with the RAV4s reported here
Ours is averaging 24-26 mpg (in mild climate and driving habits aimed at getting good mileage) which is 25-40% below the 39/37 rating for the car.
One of the biggest draws was the good results from real-world drive tests showing mileage in the high 30s to low 40s.
Given the tried and true history of this powertrain it seems like maybe the issues would have to do with computers or tuning. Toyota is king where hybrids are concerned and this one seems to be the rule
Anyway we are a week and a half into it and trying to sort out what the problem is. I will be filling up and resetting the mpg average and see what happens.
The Mazda is a slightly heavier car but similar to the RAV4 the mileage people are getting seems to vary just as widely as with the RAV4s reported here
Ours is averaging 24-26 mpg (in mild climate and driving habits aimed at getting good mileage) which is 25-40% below the 39/37 rating for the car.
One of the biggest draws was the good results from real-world drive tests showing mileage in the high 30s to low 40s.
Given the tried and true history of this powertrain it seems like maybe the issues would have to do with computers or tuning. Toyota is king where hybrids are concerned and this one seems to be the rule
Anyway we are a week and a half into it and trying to sort out what the problem is. I will be filling up and resetting the mpg average and see what happens.
To corroborate what others have already shared on this thread: Driving in cold weather does reduce the fuel efficiency very dramatically. This happens to all types of powertrains.
The graph below from Fuelly charts all my fuel-ups since May 2021 (this is a Sienna and not a RAV4, BTW, but the powertrains are very similar and their behavior in cold weather is similar).
You can see significant dips every winter, and the last and very cold (still on-going) winter has seen the mpgs drop to 30 vs. 40.5 long-term average. When driving in ideal driving conditions (65-75F = HVAC off, 45-55 mph, level terrain, good quality road surface, conservative driving style) you can expect the RAV4 Hybrid to push 45 mpg.
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The graph below from Fuelly charts all my fuel-ups since May 2021 (this is a Sienna and not a RAV4, BTW, but the powertrains are very similar and their behavior in cold weather is similar).
You can see significant dips every winter, and the last and very cold (still on-going) winter has seen the mpgs drop to 30 vs. 40.5 long-term average. When driving in ideal driving conditions (65-75F = HVAC off, 45-55 mph, level terrain, good quality road surface, conservative driving style) you can expect the RAV4 Hybrid to push 45 mpg.
The CX-50 does have Toyota's hybrid system, but the engine, I believe, is Mazda's Skyactive rather than Toyota's A25A-FXS. The full-time Atkinson cycle A25A-FXS has the highest thermal efficiency of all gasoline engines; I imagine the part-time Atkinson cycle Skyactive is probably 20% less efficient from the get-go.
I own a 2023 RAV4 Hybrid Limited (non-plug-in), made in Japan. It’s 1 year and 9 months old with 19,000 miles on it. The typical temperature here is a humid 89°F. My driving mix is about 70% highway and 30% city, averaging 40 miles daily with occasional long drives. My default is Normal mode and occasional Eco mode.
When my RAV4 Hybrid was 7 months old, I was only getting 20–25 MPG, and I thought I had a lemon. However, after more than a year, my MPG improved to 47–52 thanks to fuel-saving driving techniques. Eventually, I got bored and returned to my usual driving style, which now gives me around 35–39 MPG. If I drive aggressively, I get about 28–31 MPG.
So, your fuel efficiency will improve over time.
This has been beat to death on here, its the cold weather. Give it 2 months and make sure you are coasting as much as possible.
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