UX economy

[EvilRacer329]

I realise that I'm reviving an old thread here, but in case it proves useful to others I thought I'd post my findings after 5,000 miles in my UX.

In general, speed doesn't make as much of a difference as how quickly you accelerate in the UX. I've confirmed that a motorway run in good conditions with cruise set to 70mph averages around 50mpg. I've also found that I can return very similar numbers on my 60-mile round-trip commute, which includes high-speed dual-carriageways, 60mph A-Roads, a mixture of B-Roads and even some stop-start town driving. Eco mode doesn't seem to help me much vs Normal mode, and as some posters have commented can actually hurt economy when you press your foot down harder to get the acceleration you want and overshoot. Ultimately, the trick to good economy in the UX is to keep the throttle indicator in the "Eco" section as much as possible, and ideally, keep it within the electric-only range whenever you can. Putting your foot down to build speed quickly spends extra fuel for the sake of immediate power, and means the hybrid system only ever gets to work its magic as a glorified stop-start system.

I encourage everyone to try driving with the recent economy display on, and the average mpg readout on the dash. You'll quickly get an idea for what sorts of behaviours trigger the petrol engine, and as a result, hammer efficiency. One quick squirt can put a serious dent in your average economy, and over time that all adds up.

Now, I chose my UX because it also has 180bhp, can get to 60 in just over 8 seconds, and can actually be thrown around a tight set of bends surprisingly well. But when I put myself into 'Sport' mode, I also don't expect to get much more than 40mpg. That's my choice to make.

As for range...a rough guide is that 45mpg equates more or less to ten miles per litre. At 43 litres, you're looking at 430 miles. That also means that more careful driving could easily put you over 500 miles' range - bearing in mind that the reserve is 6.4 litres, according to the internet. You should never run a tank completely dry, of course, but that's more than 60 miles of range, and quite a bit more than the trip computer's pessimistic estimate.

 

I hope that helps!

Nick

[Navnan2]

4 hours ago, EvilRacer329 said:

I realise that I'm reviving an old thread here, but in case it proves useful to others I thought I'd post my findings after 5,000 miles in my UX.

In general, speed doesn't make as much of a difference as how quickly you accelerate in the UX. I've confirmed that a motorway run in good conditions with cruise set to 70mph averages around 50mpg. I've also found that I can return very similar numbers on my 60-mile round-trip commute, which includes high-speed dual-carriageways, 60mph A-Roads, a mixture of B-Roads and even some stop-start town driving. Eco mode doesn't seem to help me much vs Normal mode, and as some posters have commented can actually hurt economy when you press your foot down harder to get the acceleration you want and overshoot. Ultimately, the trick to good economy in the UX is to keep the throttle indicator in the "Eco" section as much as possible, and ideally, keep it within the electric-only range whenever you can. Putting your foot down to build speed quickly spends extra fuel for the sake of immediate power, and means the hybrid system only ever gets to work its magic as a glorified stop-start system.

I encourage everyone to try driving with the recent economy display on, and the average mpg readout on the dash. You'll quickly get an idea for what sorts of behaviours trigger the petrol engine, and as a result, hammer efficiency. One quick squirt can put a serious dent in your average economy, and over time that all adds up.

Now, I chose my UX because it also has 180bhp, can get to 60 in just over 8 seconds, and can actually be thrown around a tight set of bends surprisingly well. But when I put myself into 'Sport' mode, I also don't expect to get much more than 40mpg. That's my choice to make.

As for range...a rough guide is that 45mpg equates more or less to ten miles per litre. At 43 litres, you're looking at 430 miles. That also means that more careful driving could easily put you over 500 miles' range - bearing in mind that the reserve is 6.4 litres, according to the internet. You should never run a tank completely dry, of course, but that's more than 60 miles of range, and quite a bit more than the trip computer's pessimistic estimate.

 

I hope that helps!

Nick

A very interesting read, thanks Nick

[EvilRacer329]

No problem! I've spent way too much time playing around with engines to not pick up a thing or two. Maximum power in a piston engine is generated at a richer fuel/air mixture than is chemically ideal, so if you ask most fuel injection computers for too much they'll richen the mixture to give you that extra 10%. Whether Lexus do the same in their Atkinson engines I don't know, but I've noticed the same behaviour in every vehicle I've driven/ridden - accelerate slowly and you'll use far less fuel than if you nail it.

Nick

[ALAW]

Ive not had my UX long done around 300 miles in total. If my memory serves me correctly i think the tank is 44 ltr. I havent filled up but kept it topped up with a premium fuel (shell V power). My commute is only a couple of miles and the onboard computer reading is 18mpg approx. If i go on a run say 20miles motorway and A roads it reads around 45-47. What i find interesting on this subject/thread is Colin Barbers post about driving in normal mode. This is exactly what my dealer said to me, just leave it normal. I'm enjoying the car by the way.

Brent

[EvilRacer329]

If your commute is that short the engine will spend most of its time warming up, when injection computers richen the mixture like crazy to compensate for clumping fuel droplets that don't properly vaporise in the low temperatures of a cold engine. The UX warms up pretty quick, but even so, the first couple of miles will get terrible fuel economy. All joking aside, have you considered a bicycle...?

Nick

[ALAW]

If your commute is that short the engine will spend most of its time warming up, when injection computers richen the mixture like crazy to compensate for clumping fuel droplets that don't properly vaporise in the low temperatures of a cold engine. The UX warms up pretty quick, but even so, the first couple of miles will get terrible fuel economy. All joking aside, have you considered a bicycle...?

Nick

Yes Nick i have a bike and have gone to work on it for many years. In 2007 i had a quadruple heart bypass and last year i was diagnosed with COPD. My condition sees me use the bike less and less. No offence taken though i would love to go on the bike more the bike is a Claud Butler by the way Hybrid. Ive considered walking but it is to a remote location unlit and you cant be sure of what you would encounter in the dark of the night. Yes the UX does warm up very quickly.

Brent 

[EvilRacer329]

Oof, sorry to hear that Brent, and if you've already got a hybrid electric bike then you've already thought of my next suggestion! I also agree on the unlit streets thing - it's not always a great idea...

I think you've already considered all the other options, so it may just be a case of living with lower fuel economy. An all-electric or plug-in hybrid would, of course, solve the problem completely, and there is now an electric UX. Something to consider, perhaps!

Nick

[IMc]

On 4/26/2019 at 12:48 AM, AA3751 said:

So can anyone tell me how many miles they are getting out of a full tank? It seems absolutely tiny and isn’t even lasting me for a weeks worth of commuting. Seems to get to 275 miles with 40-50 left on range....

appreciate other UX owners feedback 

Hi.  First 3 months I've been getting 55mpg consistently across mixed driving in Normal mode.  When I fill up, the Range (to reserve) says 420 miles, but I'm usually on about 450 when the Refuel light comes on, and there's 5L (so about 60 miles) left in the 43L tank.

[EvilRacer329]

That's impressive economy! My last fuel-up of commuting and a bit of enthusiastic leisure driving was 49MPG, which by my calculations means 460 miles from a tank. The couple of more relaxed long-distance runs I've done have averaged 55MPG, with Road Trip estimating 520 miles from a tank at that rate. Would a larger tank be nice? Absolutely - but it's still better than my motorcycles! 😄

Nick

[corpjones]

On 4/26/2019 at 2:35 PM, olliesgrandad said:

Interesting that you use eco mode as I was advised to drive in normal mode when aI had my  IS300h. I have tried a mixture of normal and eco modes with the 3 hybrids I have owned over 60000 miles and reckon using the normal mode on all of them gets betttmpg. I have been in a loan 68 plate CT200 for 10 days and that was showing between 54 and 56 mpg so am very surprised at the UX consumption. 

I found the the Lexus Hybrid driving technique video on YouTube very useful. 

Have you got a link to this? I did a search but dont think i've found the one your referring to 🙂

[olliesgrandad]

4 hours ago, corpjones said:

Have you got a link to this? I did a search but dont think i've found the one your referring to 🙂

Sorry I haven't got a link to it. 

Just search in YouTube Lexus hybrid driving tips. I just found it easily 

Currently I own a 2017 RX450h and rarely use eco. Over 10000 miles my phone app says I have averaged 36mpg. Over 2000 miles fully laden in Scotland I managed just shy of 37mpg. I have driven a loan UX and certainly the computer showed great mpg. 

 

 

[EvilRacer329]

I think the logic behind the Normal mode being better for economy goes like this. Eco mode's throttle response is so unresponsive that, after realising they're not getting what they were expecting from the drivetrain, people don't put just press a little harder or wait a little longer, they push down hard, and end up accelerating quite aggressively, dropping out of electric mode and revving the engine up more frequently. In Normal mode, the drivetrain responds more generously, so people don't react in this way.

If you've got a light foot and use the efficiency meters in the dashboard to stay in EV mode as much as possible I suspect it doesn't make too much of a difference which of those two modes you're in. Eco also turns down the A/C, but it would be hard to tell just how much of a difference this actually makes in isolation.

It makes sense that the CT200h would get better economy - although it's an older hybrid system, it's a lighter car with a smaller frontal area. It's also a significantly less powerful engine - I believe it's around 130bhp vs the UX250h's ~180bhp. Conversely, I should be disappointed that the RX is only managing 36mpg, but that's a big, heavy SUV with a relatively powerful engine. My partner had a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV for a little while as a company car. When plugged in and driven around town that thing got almost 200mpg. Take it out on the motorway and rely on the 2-litre petrol engine and it turns out that a 2+ tonne rolling brick struggles to best 30mpg. Quelle surprise.

Nick

[RiverG]

Hi, I have just picked up my UX250h from the dealership after the first service. I have done only 3,500 miles in the year I have owned it from new and today I received the best info from a garage I have ever had. I have been getting an average of 42.5 to the gallon and this was mostly on wonderful French toll-roads. I have never got more than 45 to the gallon. I was very disappointed. Today the service manager told me the following: Use eco in town, use normal on ordinary roads and short stretches of dual carriageway but, and this is the really surprising and counter-intuitive advice, use Sport on the motorway! I zeroed the speedo and followed his advice for the 18 mile journey. To my absolute amazement, the economy when I reached home was 60.9 mpg. The motorway section was largely a 50 mph drag which I always do at 55; I can understand that this would give the best fuel economy but in eco mode, which I mistakenly believed would give the best consumption, I had been getting about 43 mpg. I am impatient to continue this experiment as I hardly believe it. Why don't we get easily accessible advice on driving techniques from Lexus when we pick up the car?

[royoftherovers]

55 minutes ago, RiverG said:

Hi, I have just picked up my UX250h from the dealership after the first service. I have done only 3,500 miles in the year I have owned it from new and today I received the best info from a garage I have ever had. I have been getting an average of 42.5 to the gallon and this was mostly on wonderful French toll-roads. I have never got more than 45 to the gallon. I was very disappointed. Today the service manager told me the following: Use eco in town, use normal on ordinary roads and short stretches of dual carriageway but, and this is the really surprising and counter-intuitive advice, use Sport on the motorway! I zeroed the speedo and followed his advice for the 18 mile journey. To my absolute amazement, the economy when I reached home was 60.9 mpg. The motorway section was largely a 50 mph drag which I always do at 55; I can understand that this would give the best fuel economy but in eco mode, which I mistakenly believed would give the best consumption, I had been getting about 43 mpg. I am impatient to continue this experiment as I hardly believe it. Why don't we get easily accessible advice on driving techniques from Lexus when we pick up the car?

Have you read the Owners Manual ?

[Fred the Red]

Best I've been able to achieve is 45mpg, after 1100 miles on the clock, mainly motorway driving plus town/A roads. Had an NX 200t (great car) which managed 38mpg on long journeys, prior to changing to a new UX hybrid in January 2021.

So an improvement but not as good as I expected. Early days, so hoping for better fuel consumption with more use.

[RiverG]

14 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

Have you read the Owners Manual ?

Hi John, I had read the owners manual and could find no practical advice on driving technique. Obviously, you have read it. Instead of patronising me you could have told me where the advice is in the bloated 560 pages of this book. But then, you have a 10 year old GS and so have no reason to read the UX manual.

[paulrnx]

The only way to get really decent economy from a Lexus hybrid is to treat the accelerator like it has an egg underneath it 😀

[royoftherovers]

31 minutes ago, RiverG said:

Hi John, I had read the owners manual and could find no practical advice on driving technique. Obviously, you have read it. Instead of patronising me you could have told me where the advice is in the bloated 560 pages of this book. But then, you have a 10 year old GS and so have no reason to read the UX manual.

Thanks Roger. Never assume anything my friend.

I merely enquired if the manual had been referred to. I had not read it, but from experience I find that approx 80% of so called problems can be resolved by reference to the Owners Handbook ( Manual ) and approx 80% of owners never read it or refer to it. I will now try to read your UX Manual.

You might find this useful Roger. https://www.google.com/search?q=driving+a+lexus+hybrid&oq=driving+a+lexus+hybrid&aqs=chrome..69i57.18438j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_ACM6YPrkDIWR8gLY247oAw14

[RiverG]

Thank you for the link John. It is one I had seen yesterday prior to joining the Lexus Owners' Club and it did not cover the best conditions for switching between Eco, Normal and Sport. The advice from the man at Reading Lexus remains the most useful. The purpose of my post was to see if others had received the same or even better advice. I've been out today on normal roads and am getting a much more realistic average of 51.9. My apologies for the terse initial response. 

[ColinBarber]

19 hours ago, RiverG said:

The motorway section was largely a 50 mph drag which I always do at 55; I can understand that this would give the best fuel economy but in eco mode, which I mistakenly believed would give the best consumption, I had been getting about 43 mpg.

You should be getting 50+ mpg in which ever mode you use at that speed. If you aren't accelerating the mode makes little to no difference.

[EvilRacer329]

This is very interesting. Assuming your dealer is correct and your anecdotal results aren't being affected by some other aspect, this suggests that perhaps there is more to these modes than meets the eye. Perhaps the hybrid strategies change depending on the modes - in other words, the computer makes different decisions around when to use the Battery vs when to charge the Battery.

Driving in Normal mode on steady 70mph dual carriageways, it seems like the system will use the Battery to take the strain off the petrol engine until it gets down to 3 bars of charge. From there, it cycles back and forth between charging the Battery and discharging the Battery as I drive along. Next time I'm doing a longer run, I shall try Sport mode and keep an eye on the Battery charge behaviour, see if I can determine what's happening.

Nick

[paulrnx]

I’ve always found I get better economy in Sport mode on longer motorway runs. Definitely the case with both NX I’ve had. A little less noticeable in the two IS hybrids I’ve had but still there. Possibly the way I drive and the way I want to drive. I find I don’t have to bury the accelerator into the carpet every time I want moderate acceleration. I can always feel the extra electric shove in sport mode in part throttle conditions. Foot to the floor and there appears no difference between sport and normal. It’s the part throttle response that is so much better in sport. Hate eco mode with a passion.

[Zotto]

The better way to fuel economy for hybrid cars but for  every car also is to drive in a way you do not need strong braking; if you predict that you have to stop, as approaching to a red traffic light, leave the pedal and let the car "flow", and press brake pedal lightly so to stay in "charge" zone without intervention of brake pads: the smoothest driving is the most fuel efficient.

[paulrnx]

Most of the time I prefer to drive fairly normally and not concern myself with trying to achieve the best economy. I do a couple of journeys where I’ll try to better my best figures just as a bit of fun but nothing more than this. I find it boring to be honest.

[royoftherovers]

30 minutes ago, paulrnx said:

Most of the time I prefer to drive fairly normally and not concern myself with trying to achieve the best economy. I do a couple of journeys where I’ll try to better my best figures just as a bit of fun but nothing more than this. I find it boring to be honest.

Paul, do you remember or have you heard of The Mobil Economy Run ?

It was a game many of us played in our younger days, trying  to extract the maximum number of miles from one tank of fuel. I always chickened out when the fuel reserve light had been on for one week !