Real time MPG for Superb IV

[carliv]

There are lots of conflicting reviews regarding Skoda claimed MPG figures and what it's like in the real world. I felt confused and wasn't a 100% sure I would see a good MPG with the battery flat on a relatively long return journey. This is the reason I thought some stats from my first descent run would be interesting for prospective buyers.

 

116 miles with a 95% full charge from beginning I managed 62.8 mpg. Lots of traffic and an early morning start.

 

The return Journey was 109 miles with a 1% percent battery and after initially feeling a little anxious, I returned 55.4 mpg, which is far better than I expected.

 

Clearly, everyone's driving style is different and I drove conservatively about 65mph on the motorways in the ECO setting on the driving mode selection.

 

The car automatically switched to electric only when close to the destination and used what charge there was stored to help maximise the efficiency. The car uses the navigation route calculation to workout when to kick in the battery, innovative thinking from the German engineers.

 

The verdict is you can achieve a good MPG on a flat battery when driving longer distances. This is because the combustion engine is continuously charging the battery through out the motorway stints.

 

How does the above compare with the economical diesel versions of the superb?

 

My colleague drives a Passat that is a few years old and the quoted MPG is 50. I wonder if this figure is close to a typical driver's experience..

 

[Ootohere]

@carliv

Are you getting the MPG's from a brim to brim of the tank or from what the car is showing the MPG was?

[carliv]

The figures are what the car showed me on the driver status. I used a quarter of a tank, approximately 12.5 litres of fuel. The outward journey hardly moved the fuel guage, but the return journey was a different story.

[Ootohere]

You have to be aware of that, the gauge does not move for a long time on many cars when the tank is full.

[carliv]

That's interesting, VW leading me into a false sense of security over what was in the tank! 😉

[Ootohere]

It is in the tank then up the tube. So it can cover a lot of miles before things get real.

But you should be getting good economy.

 

This was a 1.4 TSI Fabia it liked showing 62.8 mpg.   Funnily so did my 2.0 TDI. 

Then 66 mpg was another common figure. or 53.2.    Both Averaged out at around 42mph over a few years.

Edited 10 March, 2020 by Roottootemblowinootsoot

[BriskodaJeff]

Really helpful review @carliv - thank you. I do a lot of motorway miles so had completely ruled out moving to the iV. FYI I get c50mpg from my 2.0 TDI 190 in winter and c55mpg in summer on my commute so it sounds favourable even with little charge remaining. Will have to reconsider...

 

I'd welcome any further updates 👍.

Edited 10 March, 2020 by BriskodaJeff

[carliv]

👍 Welcome Jeff, this is the info I searched for previously but couldn't find a definitive answer. I'd like to try and charge the battery during a pitstop, although I don't think much juice can be gained with an hours charge, but I think it will be interesting to see 🙂

[RickTT]

Sounds like some good figures, however just note, in my 2.0tdi sitting at 65mph on a run will return top 60mpg to best 72mpg, however increase that speed by 20mph and that drops to easy 50mpg or lower if loaded. 

 

Would be good to see the impact of speed has on the mpg with a flat battery and if the recharge can offset the weight v a 1.4tsi.

[carliv]

1 hour ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

It is in the tank then up the tube. So it can cover a lot of miles before things get real.

But you should be getting good economy.

 

This was a 1.4 TSI Fabia it liked showing 62.8 mpg.   Funnily so did my 2.0 TDI. 

Then 66 mpg was another common figure. or 53.2.    Both Averaged out at around 42mph over a few years.

Good point there root RE fuel left in the pipe run, and very good MPGs indeed 👍 I'll hope the figures being the same are just pure coincidence lol

[carliv]

9 minutes ago, RickTT said:

Sounds like some good figures, however just note, in my 2.0tdi sitting at 65mph on a run will return top 60mpg to best 72mpg, however increase that speed by 20mph and that drops to easy 50mpg or lower if loaded. 

 

Would be good to see the impact of speed has on the mpg with a flat battery and if the recharge can offset the weight v a 1.4tsi.

Good points and sounds like fun 😉I'm used to flexing the accelerator pedal normally but for the short term, I'm driving like my ol man while running the engine in. At around 50 miles I achieved 90mpg on the outward journey. Length of commute makes a big difference, but like I mentioned I was driving a bit too reserved for my comfort.

[2wheelsgood]

Our 2018 2.0TDI  estate long term avg 48mpg with Mrs commute of B roads and MK roundabouts. Down to Cornwall absolutely loaded to the roof 57mpg.looked into plug in when we change next year but boot too small now and lease prices WAY too high .poss going rav 4 hybrid as we test drive at the weekend and Mrs loved it. 

[KeteCantek]

I am not expecting the IV to do significantly worse than a standard 1.4 or 1.5 tsi version when running on ICE only. The electric drivetrain helps coasting, regeneration, etc so it might even be similar or better depending on driving situation. 

[MiniEggs]

You can slice and dice it how you want but you are basically carrying a passenger and a gallon of fuel in electric form

 

Long term average if you say 12,000 miles at 40 mpg  is 300 gallons. 

 

You have to do an awful lot of charging of the small low capacity battery to convert  a significant number of those fuel gallons to electric gallons

 

A fuel gallon is about £5 and electric gallon at home about £5-6 (gallon = 33-40 kwh US/imperial)

 

For me all hybrids are neither one thing or the other.

 

Go full EV or not at all and for the moment I am a not at all

Edited 12 March, 2020 by MiniEggs

[Q102]

I think 63mpg is pretty poor for a PHEV

 

[KeteCantek]

On 12/03/2020 at 11:00, MiniEggs said:

You can slice and dice it how you want but you are basically carrying a passenger and a gallon of fuel in electric form

 

Long term average if you say 12,000 miles at 40 mpg  is 300 gallons. 

 

You have to do an awful lot of charging of the small low capacity battery to convert  a significant number of those fuel gallons to electric gallons

 

A fuel gallon is about £5 and electric gallon at home about £5-6 (gallon = 33-40 kwh US/imperial)

 

For me all hybrids are neither one thing or the other.

 

Go full EV or not at all and for the moment I am a not at all

40kwh equivalent per gallon of petrol won't be all converted into motion. 40% tops at the crank optimistically if it was a super duper Toyota Atkinson cycle engine. 

 

40kwh of electricity will more than 80% at the crank which is conservative. 

 

PHEVs do work out better financially in specific circumstances just on its own. Now throw in BIK advantages it will work for more. 

 

The takeaway I get from this is that on the return journey, the economy is good enough that even if one do long journeys, you won't get spanked like how a Mitsubishi outlander phev will spank you. 

[Pesmog]

3 hours ago, Q102 said:

I think 63mpg is pretty poor for a PHEV

 

 

Me too. I am getting slightly better than 64mpg long term out of my 2.0 diesel. Driving conditions, journey length and driver style make a big difference though. 

[MiniEggs]

Yes I agree

 

Any tax incentives aside (which will go eventually)

 

All i'm saying is I think the Superb battery is 13kwh so every three charges you have put in a 'gallon' of electricity and that gallon or part there of is twice as efficient as a fuel gallon but how many of the 240-300 gallons per year someone uses are going to be electric ones ? 10%-20% (180 charges) ?

 

The iV is about 3.5-4k more expensive than an equivalent spec diesel

 

You have to do an awful lot of  saving to make up that kind of difference saving the odd pound every few charges

[MiniEggs]

If you commute 240 days per year and charge once per day that would be 80 electric gallons which if you say they are £2.50 a gallon because they are twice as efficient as ICE that would save you £200 for the year

[Q102]

Many company car drivers will get a PHEV as the BiK is lower than equivilant petrol/diesel engined car.

 

For me it wouldn't work as I'd only get 11p/mile for business mileage. My Suberb will be replaced by a cash allowance funded petrol engined car.

I just wish someone would realise that for high mileage drivers, a diesel will always be cheaper to run and be more efficient

[Pesmog]

11p per mile is horribly tight fisted.     My last Superb including depreciation, insurance, tax, fuel, servicing , tyres plus every single other cost over 125k miles ownership cost me 22 pence a mile and I had absolutely nothing go wrong.  You would think that they could do better than 11 measly pence.   I mean, I get 25 pence a mile for my bicycle...…..

[xman]

The main reason this hybrid exists is simply so VAG can reduce the EU penalties on fleet emissions and MQB allows them to easily transplant this power unit, so why not? If the public takes a shine to them, VAG is buying time.

 

As a private purchase, I would not be keen to be an early adoptor, god only knows what problems this power unit might throw up in a few years time, the DSG is more complex with yet another clutch for the integrated electrical motor and the motor is cooled by the DSG oil iirc. DSG problems are expensive, this one could end up being too expensive to repair.

 

Some dealers are simply hopeless at solving electrical problems

 

Some users will be running the ICE on very short cycles.

 

Rear disc brakes used even less, see the threads regarding Superb rear disc corrosion.  

Edited 13 March, 2020 by xman

[stephenlumley]

Yes it makes sense using the electric gallons analogy at about half the price of a gallon of unleaded.

 

My on order L and K IV will be a company lease so the BIK saving is the main reason for my choice. Its going to be 10% as opposed to over 30% for a petrol or diesel L and K.

 

I expect the overall fuel cost per mile will be comparable to the petrol 1.4Tsi. As i will pay for all my own fuel and then will claim back 12ppm I will need to get about 46 mpg to break even on business mileage which is mostly longish distances so should be doable. As for private local mileage I will be running mostly on battery so expect to save especially as the petrol mpg here will be much lower than 46 mpg.

 

[IanJD]

All "mild hybrids" (with small batteries) have 2 basic purposes; the first is to help the manufacturers meet their official all-model C02 targets, and the second (in the UK) is company cars where the user gets a huge BiK benefit -- at least, for the time being. Both are basically emissions/tax fiddles rather than genuinely reducing emissions, few people see anything like the fuel consumption claimed, and if they're plug-ins many people don't even plug them in after the first flush of enthusiasm. And the manufacturing costs (and attendant CO2 burden) are hideous because you have to make and pay for both the IC engine/gearbox and the electric motor/battery/controller.

 

I used to have a Mercedes E300 (non-plug-in) diesel hybrid, fuel consumption was more than 20mpg worse than the official figure -- yes I know most cars don't reach this either, but hybrids are well-known for having an even bigger gap between theory and reality. And before you asked why -- it was a company car and the BiK benefit was huge, but I didn't get it expecting any massive saving in fuel costs and I wasn't disappointed...

 

If you're serious about C02 emissions and saving the planet (and charging it works for you) go electric or don't have a car. If it's a company car with big BiK savings (which might disappear...) you could go for a hybrid, but don't pretend it's for emissions reasons, for most people that's greenwashing. And anyone with any pretence to caring about emissions shouldn't be driving a big heavy SUV, even if it's a hybrid...

 

I'm sure there are some people who'll say "I've got a PHEV and I charge it religiously and hardly use any petrol" -- well good for you, but you're in the minority of PHEV owners, a large number of who *never* plug them in.

Edited 16 March, 2020 by IanJD

[IJWS15]

Hybrids are tax break specials, if the makers were really interested in reducing oil use and emissions the hybrids would be diesel and not petrol but the greenies who buy them don't like diesel.

 

If I can stand the boredom 65 mph on a long run mine gives me about 70+ mpg on the trip computer, probably about 70 real.  Over a tank mine is averaging low 60s but my commute involves the M5/M6 junction in the rush hour so it will never be good.

 

For most motorists, who rarely go more than 15 miles in one go, a pure battery vehicle will be fine.  They have been available for 20-30 years but the market didn't want them.  You then hire a real car when you want to go a long way.  

 

I am still trying to persuade my wife that she should get a battery car.