I bought the 2019 Kia Niro PHEV about April this year. For the first 4 months, until roughly August, it showed 999 mpg when driving on the 24-mile range of the fully charged battery. I did not have to do anything to get this great mileage, just had to keep the battery charged. I got over 1200 miles on the first tank of gas and would have gotten even more but made a 500-mile trip on that tank.
But since August it has started getting much less mpg, usually starting at 8 mpg when starting up and driving first few miles. It slowly rises as I drive it, maybe getting to 200 mpg at best. (I know that's great mileage and much better than our 2010 Prius.)
However, we bought the car because our usual around-town driving is about 25 miles or so, thus theoretically we should be using very little gas and emitting very little, if any, CO2. That is not the case, however. When I talk to any mechanic or service tech about it, including at the dealership, I get the usual runaround about stomping on the gas, using the A/C a lot, not much of which I do. Besides, the occasional heavy pedal or auxiliary use (A/C, etc.) was happening during the first four months as well, with no drop in the 999 mpg on battery.
So what's the deal? Why the drop, and how do I get the much better battery mileage again?
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I bought the 2019 Kia Niro PHEV about April this year. For the first 4 months, until roughly August, it showed 999 mpg when driving on the 24-mile range of the fully charged battery. I did not have to do anything to get this great mileage, just had to keep the battery charged. I got over 1200 miles on the first tank of gas and would have gotten even more but made a 500-mile trip on that tank.
But since August it has started getting much less mpg, usually starting at 8 mpg when starting up and driving first few miles. It slowly rises as I drive it, maybe getting to 200 mpg at best. (I know that's great mileage and much better than our 2010 Prius.)
However, we bought the car because our usual around-town driving is about 25 miles or so, thus theoretically we should be using very little gas and emitting very little, if any, CO2. That is not the case, however. When I talk to any mechanic or service tech about it, including at the dealership, I get the usual runaround about stomping on the gas, using the A/C a lot, not much of which I do. Besides, the occasional heavy pedal or auxiliary use (A/C, etc.) was happening during the first four months as well, with no drop in the 999 mpg on battery.
So what's the deal? Why the drop, and how do I get the much better battery mileage again?
- dankline75, Bothell, US