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Low MPG/EV concerns 2025 Civic Hybrid

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#21 ·
I’m in the Phoenix area and just purchased the ST a few weeks ago and just about to fill up for the very first time at almost 600 miles.

I mostly do city driving with an occasional hop on the freeway for about 5 miles. My average has been around the 50+mpg range, so quite happy.

I believe that Hybrids & EVs thrive in more moderate climates, where you won’t have to rely on climate control, and areas with very minimal elevation changes. So if you’re in areas outside of this, I can see where you would not get the normal ranges.

FYI - I’m sure this current range will change for me in the Summer months. I don’t even want to think about it but I’ll milk the good desert weather this time of year lol
 
#22 ·
i think there's some folks out there with an unrealistic expectation how good hybrid fuel economy is ;) and also some with a realistic expectation about it.

in the end, there's only so much energy inside a gallon of gasoline or diesel. you can burn the diesel inside your car or burn it in a power plant and then move it to the car via electricity, but that energy can only do so much work. this reality hasn't changed since the days of the first Civic HX or Toyota Prius..

in my experience, the most efficient types of cars can easily achieve over 40mpg in a steady state, slow highway type cruise (say 50mph). there's no benefit to a hybrid here - you're moving a heavy box through atmosphere and against friction, and a hybrid and ice and EV use however much that amount of energy is, with the only difference being powertrain friction. That's your theoretical max for any given car.

where hybrids are awesome is: they recover a lot of the energy you normally throw away as heat in your brake rotors, and deploy it again when it's time to accelerate after a stop. if you hypermile and normally coast to a stop without much of any brakes, then the hybrid won't help you a ton on top of that; but most people accelerate towards a red light and then slam on the brakes (let's be realistic, America) and a hybrid helps these people a TON ... but only in the city-type driving where you are stopping and going repeatedly. I drove my Dad's first-gen Civic Hybrid many times (2003 MT), and it was able to get 40-50mpg, but not in all situations.

Combined, it seems like ~35mpg combined is where a lot of ICE-only cars optimized with a CVT are ending up these days. This is what my Outback does. It's what my Civic Sport does. They have different sizes and weights but end up around the same. Making a jump to hybrid drive, will improve the city portion dramatically. (Some current hybrids fully decouple the ICE engine, which improves friction everywhere!) Without hybridization, 35mpg is about how much can be eked out without making the car lighter or driving it slower.
 
#23 ·
Fujisawa said:
Combined, it seems like ~35mpg combined is where a lot of ICE-only cars optimized with a CVT are ending up these days.
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to 2nd this, I ended up with 34.9mpg in my 22 Civic Touring and it hit just over 45,000 miles on it. In that car I did a trip from CT to VA Beach where I covered 4XX miles with an avg speed of 65mph (including the 1 fuel stop / bathroom break in NJ), with a calculated mpg of 37.8... I don't think I can beat that in this hybrid, but I haven't done long highway driving with it yet.

Another time with the 22, I did the trip a bit slower, but started with a full tank and didn't stop, but that was really pushing it and I was pretty nervous towards the end.
 
#24 ·
1000FC said:
to 2nd this, I ended up with 34.9mpg in my 22 Civic Touring and it hit just over 45,000 miles on it. In that car I did a trip from CT to VA Beach where I covered 4XX miles with an avg speed of 65mph (including the 1 fuel stop / bathroom break in NJ), with a calculated mpg of 37.8... I don't think I can beat that in this hybrid, but I haven't done long highway driving with it yet.
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plenty of chance you will be able to beat it, imho. the engine disconnected from the drivetrain, and the regen, should eke out (just a guess) an extra 5-10% highway.

that's a very good mileage for an AVERAGE speed of 65mph ...
 
#25 ·
Fujisawa said:
plenty of chance you will be able to beat it, imho. the engine disconnected from the drivetrain, and the regen, should eke out (just a guess) an extra 5-10% highway.

that's a very good mileage for an AVERAGE speed of 65mph ...
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overnight trip, in the late spring, no traffic, no weather, it was one of my favorite times i've done that drive, and my 2nd fastest. My fastest trip, I was much younger and dumber, and only cared about mph, not mpg haha

I suppose your right though the car would be able to beat it, but I just don't have as much desire to maintain that total avg of 65mph... moving avg sure, but not total avg!
 
#28 · (Edited)
For comparison my 2023 Rav4 Hybrid LE AWD over 13000 miles is showing a lifetime average of 44.7. It is driven daily by my wife on her 12 mile backroad commute and we use it exclusively for weekend travel as she is not a fan of smaller cars like my Civic. Worth noting is that figure includes daily 10 minute warmups during a New England winter.
 
#29 ·
rokonman said:
For comparison my 2023 Rav4 Hybrid LE AWD over 13000 miles is showing a lifetime average of 44.7. It is driven daily by my wife on her 12 mile backroad commute and we use it exclusively for weekend travel as she is not a fan of smaller cars like my Civic. Worth noting is that figure includes daily 10 minute warmups during a New England winter.
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Your empirical data is surprising. Given that Honda has one of the highest thermal efficiency engines in a vehicle and the fact that the RAV 4 is both heavier and less aerodynamic than the Civic, one would think that the Civic would win the fuel economy prize.
 
#30 ·
Winter cold weather and winter tires are taking a toll on my MPG, as expected. Still I would never be in the 5s in the winter on my old 10th gen civic.

In city only driving, I still get really good fuel efficiency. The pic below is combined.

I think that's the make or break - if you're primarily highway, you're not going to see anything outstanding.

Image
 
#31 ·
azgman9 said:
Your empirical data is surprising. Given that Honda has one of the highest thermal efficiency engines in a vehicle and the fact that the RAV 4 is both heavier and less aerodynamic than the Civic, one would think that the Civic would win the fuel economy prize.
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You made my point for me! Also much more comfortable and AWD. Add to that the fact that my wife hasn’t a clue how it works, She just drives it! Toyota does own the Hybrid market.
 
Discussion starter · #32 ·
After my third fill up after using 8.9 gallons it mathed out to 43.8mpg which is up from high 30s followed by about 40mpg on the last tank.

this included 3 highway trips. Definitely seeing an improvement but not quite hitting that 45-50 that im hoping to reach.

which also makes me wonder how the gas tanks work since its supposed to be 10.9 gallons but ive never even hit 9 gallons on any of my fillups thus far.
 

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#34 ·
Kikimyste said:
After my third fill up after using 8.9 gallons it mathed out to 43.8mpg which is up from high 30s followed by about 40mpg on the last tank.

this included 3 highway trips. Definitely seeing an improvement but not quite hitting that 45-50 that im hoping to reach.

which also makes me wonder how the gas tanks work since its supposed to be 10.9 gallons but ive never even hit 9 gallons on any of my fillups thus far.
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I believe that the zero miles indicator is to the "reserve" quantity. It is not a good idea to run a DI engine dry (of gas).
 
#35 ·
azgman9 said:
Your empirical data is surprising. Given that Honda has one of the highest thermal efficiency engines in a vehicle and the fact that the RAV 4 is both heavier and less aerodynamic than the Civic, one would think that the Civic would win the fuel economy prize.
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toyota has been doing the hybrid game longer than anybody.

we should also remember that the dash display for calculated MPG is almost always overly optimistic, vs measuring it yourself ;) across all brands of cars I've owned, that's always been the case. there is no regulatory requirement to be accurate so which direction do you think they'll err on? :p
 
#36 ·
Fujisawa said:
toyota has been doing the hybrid game longer than anybody.

we should also remember that the dash display for calculated MPG is almost always overly optimistic, vs measuring it yourself ;) across all brands of cars I've owned, that's always been the case. there is no regulatory requirement to be accurate so which direction do you think they'll err on? :p
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I believe that Honda actually beat Toyota to the "hybrid game", but not by much.
 
#38 ·
21Piloteer74 said:
1999 Insight vs 2000 Prius. (y)
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... unless you consider the japanese market, where the prius went on sale first in 1997.

but realistically, my point is not who started first but has accumulated most experience. and it's definitely toyota.

my dad owned a 03 Civic hybrid with a 5MT. amazing car, super comfortable and controlled to drive. but Honda sold few of them before temporarily giving up.
 
#39 ·
Kikimyste said:
I have a 2025 civic sport touring hybrid that I purchased on 11/19 (just shy of two weeks ago). Since then I am already going to have to fill up a second time.

it says my average fuel is 44.4mpg but I have only driven 350 miles on the second full tank.

I have also noticed it sometimes takes quite awhile for ev to kick in even in instances when i have full charge and drive steady at 55mph.

i live in California, do mostly city driving with two trips on the highway at 75mph top speed for only 60 miles round trip. I also have been very conscious of my foot, making a concerted effort to drive steady and brake even.

I can clearly tell the readings are off but even if they were accurate id be averaging well under 40mpg which is no better than my 2007 corolla.

just need to know if im overly concerned and if possible, any explanation why filling up a few times increases mileage.

this is mt first new car and first hybrid so i am very inexperienced.
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That seems pretty low to me. I live in Los Angeles and I am averaging 57 mpgs. I drive 60 miles a day
 
#40 ·
MikeAlfaTango said:
I have had my '25 Civic Hybrid Sports Touring Hatch for around ~2000 miles, since late October. I drive smoothly and mostly stay in 'Normal' drive mode. Driving so far has been with 25f-50f outside temperature and climate controls set to Auto at 73f-75f. Overall average so far is around 41mpg.

Most of my driving is commuting to/from work, 70% highway with ACC set to 74mph most of the time and 30% off highway on mostly 55mph roads with a few traffic lights mixed in. Car is garaged before trip to work and sits outside at work in 25-50f temp before drive home. I get around ~37-39mpg most of the time for the commuting travel depending on temperatures and driving conditions. I have not found a big difference in mpg between garage temp and outside temp when starting car from 'cold', but I do usually get better mpg if the engine is already/close to temp from a previous trip.

On a recent road trip with outside temps of 30f-43f and 90% highway driving I got ~39mpg over 550 miles.

So far I have found it pretty much impossible to get over 40mpg for steady state highway driving, at least in these kinds of temperatures. It is a little frustrating that when cruising on the highway the system seems to continuously charge battery to about ~50% and then run on EV mode until ~25% (all of about 10 seconds when going highway speed on flat) which seems to make negligible difference to mpg, yet uses many partial charge/discharge cycles, which surely cant be all that good for the life of the battery?

City driving it does much better and getting 45-50+mpg is common/easy. Highest single trip average I have seen was 65mpg for an 8 mile journey where I probably never got over 45mph and it included multiple traffic lights, it was around 45f outside, but the engine was already warm from previous driving.

I will be interested to see after winter when temps warm up, if the mpg improves, or how the AC in summer temps will affect mpg, but I think the highway mpg is likely to stay similar.

Overall I am between meh and happy with the mpg, as i think the 50mpg city rating is certainly achievable, but I do wish it got closer to the highway rating of 45mpg. With the driving I have done so far, I don't think 45mpg will ever be achievable for steady state highway driving over 65mpg.

My impression of the car overall though is great. Comfortable, stylish, great usable interior, rides well, handles well, roomy.
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This post here confirms all my observations. I'm at 2000 miles and hitting 38.9 mpg. My best hwy mpg has been 38 mpg, well below 47 hwy mpg as advertised. The recharge behaviors cruising the highway is the same. That baffles me.

I'm in Wisconsin, a much colder environment than others have been reporting. A lot of details have been shared by others such as the cold and winter blends and what not. But I can't believe they have that much impact when the 2014 Corolla ECO that I traded in achieved 43 to 47 mpg hwy most of its life. (2014 Corolla ECO advertised mpg was 42.) No one can convince me that 38 mpg hwy is acceptable for a vehicle advertised at 49 hwy.

Our Civic Hybrid was expected to be an mpg improvement, but feels like it was a lateral move or a step back. I really want this to work out.

I love this car. It's style, size, power, how quiet it is. I want it to achieve what was advertised. My wife and I have discussed trading it in on a Corolla Hybrid. We have a long history with Corollas.
 
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