Why is my Mileage so BAD???

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michaelbarr

Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
Messages
8
We have had our 2017 e-Tron for almost a year now and I have yet to get more than 27mpg... And that was with 2 full charges mixed in. We don't have a place to charge it at home so we primarily run it on gas only. We drive it mostly in stop and go traffic.
And we are only getting 23 to 24 Mpg when we dont' charge it.

Is this common? I haven't seen anyone else having such issues. Is it possible we have a lemon or something is not right with our car?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Please direct message me or shoot me an email if you have a similar problem. Thanks.
 
michaelbarr":2l4b272c said:
We have had our 2017 e-Tron for almost a year now and I have yet to get more than 27mpg... And that was with 2 full charges mixed in. We don't have a place to charge it at home so we primarily run it on gas only. We drive it mostly in stop and go traffic.
And we are only getting 23 to 24 Mpg when we dont' charge it.

Is this common? I haven't seen anyone else having such issues. Is it possible we have a lemon or something is not right with our car?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Please direct message me or shoot me an email if you have a similar problem. Thanks.

Hard to say really.
What EV mode do you typically drive in?
What is the AER/GOM saying when it's fully charged?
 
michaelbarr":2jy9v89q said:
Hard to say really.
What EV mode do you typically drive in?
What is the AER/GOM saying when it's fully charged?

I've driven it in every mode... Literally. There seams to be little to no difference. And since there is little or no difference I now typically drive in Sport mode because it's the only mode that will charge the battery as I drive, and I like the acceleration!

As for AER/GOM... Not sure. We don't charge it very much but the few times we have fully charged it we get about 12 to 15 miles in EV mode. The most we ever got on a tank of gas was a hair over 27mpg and during that tankful the car was fully charged twice. All other times without charging we average about 23 to 24 mpg. This is not good. The car is a hybrid and I expected to get at least 30 to 35mpg without charging it.

BTW... What is AER/GOM?
 
I'm picking up my e-tron tomorrow, but isn't the answer to your question self-evident? You're not charging the battery consistently, so you're not using EV mode. That HAS to be the major factor in aggregate fuel efficiency. I've been doing a lot of reading in the last week about the different drive modes, how to extend EV range... If you're going to use it mostly as a gas car I'm not sure why you went hybrid.

The first thing my sales associate asked me was what was my driving picture like week to week. When I told him that it was 2/3rds city driving under 40km per day, is when he really started selling me on the e-tron.
 
Charging an EV (BEV or PHEV) is essential to getting the best economy.
Drive the car in EV mode only (for short trips) then switch to Hybrid if you're out of charge. I find Hybrid uses less fuel (when the ICE kicks in) than Hold. Sport mode is nice and responsive, but I find it also uses more gas than Hybrid.
Longer trips, keep it in Hybrid mode and let the computer do the thinking. It'll use charge when possible and ICE when needed. It'll also provide charge to the battery when possible.

I charge at home (overnight) and during work hours (there's a CS <5 min walk from my work). I only use the ICE for about 10 mins during my DD.
The last fill up was April 27, I've driven over 1,100 km and still have 15L of gas remaining (some days I don't get to charge at work).

AER - All Electric Range
GOM - Guess O'meter
 
hangtime10":3adpmfcs said:
Charging an EV (BEV or PHEV) is essential to getting the best economy.
Drive the car in EV mode only (for short trips) then switch to Hybrid if you're out of charge. I find Hybrid uses less fuel (when the ICE kicks in) than Hold. Sport mode is nice and responsive, but I find it also uses more gas than Hybrid.
Longer trips, keep it in Hybrid mode and let the computer do the thinking. It'll use charge when possible and ICE when needed. It'll also provide charge to the battery when possible.

I charge at home (overnight) and during work hours (there's a CS <5 min walk from my work). I only use the ICE for about 10 mins during my DD.
The last fill up was April 27, I've driven over 1,100 km and still have 15L of gas remaining (some days I don't get to charge at work).

AER - All Electric Range
GOM - Guess O'meter

I tried using EV mode and hold mode and hybrid mode. All on seperate occasions and in conjunction like you suggest but all with the same result... Really poor mileage for a hybrid.

It really doesn't make any sense to me that you need to plug it in to get good gas mileage. It was and still is my understanding that a Hybrid by definition uses the reclaimed energy from the cars braking system to charge a battery that in turn helps the car go using less gas.

I'm actually surprised that I'm the only person out here that is having this issue. I can't be the only e-tron driver that doesn't plug the car in every night.

By finding people with similar driving/chargine habits I was hoping to see if it's worth complaining to Audi about or if it's just another case of being inflated mpg estimates.
 
I believe your expectations of the e-tron is that of a conventional Hybrid car, i.e. Toyota Prius.
A PHEV has a much larger battery (extra weight) and has the ability to drive independently on the batteries, whereas a Prius will only utilize the battery at lower speeds (under 20 km/h) before the ICE kicks in.
The regular Prius is not designated as a "green" vehicle (in Ont) where PHEVs are. PHEVs purpose is to use the battery as often as possible and reduce (and for some), eliminate gas/fossil/petrol consumption.
The e-tron will no doubt get poorer fuel economy than a Prius if driven without regular charging just because it's a more powerful engine and carries more weight and more performance.
Unless you're driving long distances at highway speeds, you won't be able to recharge the battery to 100%.
If you had the Prius Prime (PHEV) it would be the same as the e-tron.
Sounds like what you really wanted was a conventional hybrid.
 
michaelbarr":1w00d1nr said:
We have had our 2017 e-Tron for almost a year now and I have yet to get more than 27mpg... And that was with 2 full charges mixed in. We don't have a place to charge it at home so we primarily run it on gas only. We drive it mostly in stop and go traffic.
And we are only getting 23 to 24 Mpg when we dont' charge it.

Is this common? I haven't seen anyone else having such issues. Is it possible we have a lemon or something is not right with our car?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Please direct message me or shoot me an email if you have a similar problem. Thanks.

So the 23 to 24 MPG is what you are reading off the on-board computer right? Because that is fairly accurate. If so, then maybe it's your driving style? Speaking personally, I plug in every night and my commute from Long Beach to Downtown LA and back is around 50 miles and I usually get between 45 to 55 MPG. If I don't plug-in at night, and there is no juice for EV mode option, I usually get around 35 to 39 MPG.

I would say there is probably something off about your on-board computer's calculation.

BTW, I have a 2016 e-tron with 20,387 miles.
-Ben
 
hangtime10":1ykdhei6 said:
I believe your expectations of the e-tron is that of a conventional Hybrid car, i.e. Toyota Prius.
A PHEV has a much larger battery (extra weight) and has the ability to drive independently on the batteries, whereas a Prius will only utilize the battery at lower speeds (under 20 km/h) before the ICE kicks in.
The regular Prius is not designated as a "green" vehicle (in Ont) where PHEVs are. PHEVs purpose is to use the battery as often as possible and reduce (and for some), eliminate gas/fossil/petrol consumption.
The e-tron will no doubt get poorer fuel economy than a Prius if driven without regular charging just because it's a more powerful engine and carries more weight and more performance.
Unless you're driving long distances at highway speeds, you won't be able to recharge the battery to 100%.
If you had the Prius Prime (PHEV) it would be the same as the e-tron.
Sounds like what you really wanted was a conventional hybrid.

Finally a solid answer that makes sense to me. Thank you.

Don't get me wrong. I like my A3 e-tron. Not as much as my 2010 A3 but it's a good car. I just wanted to know why I'm getting such shitty gas mileage in 2017 with a Hybrid. My father's '02 Chevy Impala got 24 to 30 miles to the gallon and it was a v6.

I guess it's just never as good as you think it should be.

Well thanks again for all the info. I really appreciate it.
 
hangtime10":3rsqwieg said:
So the 23 to 24 MPG is what you are reading off the on-board computer right? Because that is fairly accurate. If so, then maybe it's your driving style? Speaking personally, I plug in every night and my commute from Long Beach to Downtown LA and back is around 50 miles and I usually get between 45 to 55 MPG. If I don't plug-in at night, and there is no juice for EV mode option, I usually get around 35 to 39 MPG.

I would say there is probably something off about your on-board computer's calculation.

BTW, I have a 2016 e-tron with 20,387 miles.
-Ben


Hey there, Ben.
When you drive it without a charge what modes and driving styles are you using? Please let me know. Thanks.
MB
 
We just did our first big drive in our new A3 after picking it up today. I had a lot of running around to do during the day, and mostly relied on the EV to do it, so I'd burned down my battery by the time I got home to pack.

Don't have the 240 plug installed yet, so I was only able to get back up to about 12km of pure EV range before we left for a 200km drive. I put it into Hybrid mode from the start, and used the Dynamic driving mode, which I read here was good for regeneration.

While I had a good surplus of EV power, I was able to maintain and actually add additional EV range, from 12km to 15km in the first half hour of driving in Hybrid, with ACC on for much of that time.

But once we had exhausted the pure EV range, I was never able to get it to build range again in Hybrid mode.

My impression is that if you start a drive in Hybrid mode with a full charge, the A3 can be very efficient about using that power. That first leg of our trip I got down to 3.2L/100kms. But once EV range was at zero, it was constantly playing catch-up, and I think that restricts it's ability to be efficient. So the second leg went up to 4.8L/100km.

First day, first drive. So, big caveats.
 
michaelbarr":274gekv4 said:
hangtime10":274gekv4 said:
So the 23 to 24 MPG is what you are reading off the on-board computer right? Because that is fairly accurate. If so, then maybe it's your driving style? Speaking personally, I plug in every night and my commute from Long Beach to Downtown LA and back is around 50 miles and I usually get between 45 to 55 MPG. If I don't plug-in at night, and there is no juice for EV mode option, I usually get around 35 to 39 MPG.

I would say there is probably something off about your on-board computer's calculation.

BTW, I have a 2016 e-tron with 20,387 miles.
-Ben


Hey there, Ben.
When you drive it without a charge what modes and driving styles are you using? Please let me know. Thanks.
MB

Hybrid driving mode and I either have the driving dynamics in "Auto" or "Dynamic" (I don't see any MPG difference between the two).
-Ben
 
That uncharged city mileage sounds about right. Even worse if engine is cold with my sport package. This is not the etrons's strength.

But perfectly for those of us who can regularly charge and make lots of short city trips - and great on the highway at 37-38 mpg. My overall mpg at 4K miles including some long trips is close to 50 mpg.
 
If you don't charge the car it defaults to hold when you turn it on, which nets you the worst possible mileage. Try switching to hybrid every time you get in the car for a week.

My commute is 38 miles each way, mostly highway. I do not charge at home. I have free charging at work, when other EV/PHEVs don't beat me to the limited plug in spaces. I drive almost exclusively in hybrid and get much better mileage than you. Unless your commute is a bunch of hills and high speed sweepers, something is not right.
 
Ive noticed that the e-tron is terribly inefficient when accelerating using the ICE. I gather its the 150hp ICE and the 3600 lbs.

To give an example for the detriment of weight, the Prius V (large wagon) loses about 8-10hp over the regular Prius. The e-tron is even 300lbs heavier than the Prius V. The additional 50hp over the Prius engine and its easy to see where the hits are coming from. Also, the e-tron doesn't charge its battery like a Prius does.

I have gotten 20-25mpg with all city driving and no charge. Its about the same spec as a Q3 (3600lbs and 200hp with 20mpg city). I would say you are probably getting about the same or slightly better than your old A3.

Its sucks, but imaginable. 1-2 charges per tank is almost insignificant.
 
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