Does fuel economy drop when the battery is low (25-50%) because I was driving around at 25mph (flat road), with light throttle, and the computer was only showing around 40mpg-50mpg with the battery at/below 50%. Any ideas? Thanks... for helping a newbie hybrid illiterate person.
:welcome:to PC! You want to stay off the battery as much as possible as if it gets to low the ICE needs to run to replenish it. Experts suggest that replenishing the battery is not very efficient due to loss of energy in conversion.
Your FE might be lower than usual if your engine is recharging your battery, which may occur if your battery is below 6 bars. Once your battery reaches 6 bars, your FE should increase as the engine will stop recharging it.
