Just back from a visit to Alberta with the '09 Escape Hybrid. Each leg of the trip included some or a lot of side trips or urban driving. Where convenient we avoided Hwy 2 and used 100kph secondary roads. This mileage is consistent with last summer's similar trip. Winds probably averaged neutral, and elevation balances out over the whole trip. Lots of a/c use due to the hot weather. Speeds were around the limit.
Abbotsford to Golden
636km, 51.6L, 8.1L/100km, 35mpg
(Coquihalla)
Golden, Drumheller, Red Deer
732km, 52L, 7.1L/100km, 40mpg
Red Deer, Edmonton, Hinton**
756km, 54L, 7.14L/100km, 39.6mpg
Hinton, Jasper, Lake Louise, Vernon
703km, 46L, 6.6L/100km, 43mpg
Vernon, Kelowna, Abbotsford
416km, 35L, 8.5L/100km, 33.3mpg
(Coquihalla + stuck in massive traffic jam due to accident closing Hwy 1 all day)
(**I thought I had a handle on how much gas was left when the low fuel warning lights up and when the DTE says zero. I figured we couldn't make it to Jasper, but Hinton would be easy. In Hinton, some silly "service road" sign put us into a mess of dead ends on the wrong side of the highway from the gas stations. While getting out of that, the Escape emitted a loud alarm tone, and the dashboard said: "Stop Safely Now". I started to sweat, not just because the air conditioning and the engine quit, but because SSN is the worst message the Escape Hybrid has. It really means: "Pull off the road immediately and arrange to be towed to the nearest Ford dealership for expensive repairs."
Running out of fuel was low on my list of possible problems, since I was sure we still had a few litres. Luckily the Escape would still move, at 30kph, on just the electric system. Far enough to get us a kilometre or so to a gas station. Filled up, and it ran fine. Phew. But I only put 54L into a 56.8L tank. Lesson learned. My wife thought it was rather excellent that the electric system bailed us out, but I knew this is useful only if you're within 2-3km of a gas station.)
