Since there are roughly 3X more RLX P-AWS owners than RLX Sports Hybrid owners, here is a thread for them to share their fuel economy readings. My car is a 2014 P-AWS Advance.

 

Just did a 130 mile trip this morning. Virtually all highway, only a couple slow spots
Got 33 mpg and thinking average speed was 70+

 

MPG is one of the few things the RLX does well.
For interstate driving, going with the flow, 32 is rarely seen at the low end. 37-38 has happened on many occasions! (Hit 40 a couple of times, but that was on trips around 150 mi - pretty cool to see that number start with a 4!.) And these numbers are the average MPG over at least 250mi - sometimes up to 500+ mi. A side benefit is some good range between fill ups.
If it drops below 34 I am wondering about bad gas or something, and around 36 seems to my best estimate of 'average' for interstate driving.
.
But I do notice at temps below about 45F, the MPG does seem to drop 1 to 3 mpg.
Of course City and Mix driving results in numbers solidly in the low 20's. But I rarely drive the car like that.
For my driving situation, I would say I am doing a better average than a SH, but my case is likely not that common.

 

I've never seen anything above 35 at speeds 65 an up

 

We just finished an 8300 mile, five week trip through the West, visited 8 national parks, three state parks and a couple of county parks. Also drove some scenic routes in Colo, Wyo, Mont, Utah and S Dak. We averaged right at 29 mpg for the entire trip.

 

Like getakey, the best I've seen is 35 mpg at interstate speeds. My 2006 RL's best interstate consumption was around 28. Pretty neat design work by Honda to increase highway mpg by 20 - 25% while also making the car a bit larger, yes?

 

YES!
My experience the same as I had an RL as well

 

My vehicle is always in the mid 30's on highway trips. I believe that I hit 37 once. Great cruiser ! I could get 30 on the RL, but not consistently.

 

Here is a link to the original PAWS Fuel Economy Thread: https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...ileage-933834/

As it was with my TSX, my mileage has improved with time/break-in. Lately, I have been getting ~26-27 MPG, which is impressive for a vehicle this size with 310hp. This is ~ 1-2mpg more than before traveling the exact same paths everyday.

 

The Sport Hybrid's highway mileage is very similar to the PAWS since the electric motors are used very little when cruising down road at 65 mph. The biggest mileage difference is in city driving where the electric motors come into play. My overall mileage in my Sport Hybrid had been 29 mpg for the 18,500 I have on the car. Only about 20% of my driving has been on highways. For both RLX models this is quite remarkable and a testament Honda's engineering.

The hybrid part of the Sport Hybrid is primarily about performance and handling, not gas mileage.

 

Good eye and good memory, too, TSX69 regarding the older threads discussing the same subjects!

NeuronBob, can this mileage thread and the previous P-AWS mileage thread be knitted together? The same question also applies to the two RLX sighting threads. Thank you very much!

 

Some RLX PAWS MPG numbers........

 

those are incredible numbers. Do you only drive 55 mph?

 

A reasonable question. As I mentioned, i do go with the flow of traffic.
I am wayyy too young to be caught dawdling in the geriatric lane...
But you won't find me closing in at 25mph in your rear view mirror either,,,,
I just keep it steady...averaging the speed limit and a bit more depending on traffic.

Tongue firmly in cheek,, maybe it was the set of pedals I installed on the passenger side so the wife has something to do on these trips......

 

I do a 130 mile round trip almost every week. The outbound is 100% highway. Return is mixed due to traffic I have to avoid.
On the outbound I generally drive ~70 to 75, slow to 65 in some stretches. Never aggressive. Best I've averaged is 33 mpg

 

KenRLX, those are some outstanding mileage numbers. Congratulations, you are approaching early Prius road mileage territory in a much larger, more comfortable and better handling road cruiser!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius_(XW10)

 

the acceleration from a stop is a big drag on mpg compared to Hybrid
I do a 130 mile trip every week
outbound I go all highway and average 33 mpg going 70 to 80 mph
return I go different route. First 20 mile is on a back road where I can go ~60 to 65 except there are about 6 stops
I only get 23/24 mpg on that segment

 

Overcoming the inertia of the stopped car is the biggest mpg penalty. Likely the most efficient component of the SH is launching from as stop in e-mode. That said, all the power of the SH tempts you to greatly reduce that efficiency. Still I like the balance of power and resulting efficiency along with the refinement of the SH system. Honda, IMHO, has delivered this first version of SH with the refinement bar set pretty high, compared to most all other hybrid systems out there. Once the initial inertia is overcome, the two cars are very similar in efficiency when cruising. The SH may have more power overall, but also extra weight of the batteries - making the PAWS model achieve higher mpg when cruising. Where the SH has yet to be acknowledged in the marketplace is, while significantly improved mpg over the PAWS model, the power benefits and the refinement of the system whole also offering SHAWD with dynamic braking regeneration integrated into the SHAWD properties (as in regen on one wheel creating electrical juice while also creating SHAWD yaw - a win win engineering dynamic).

 

Agree Tampa. The target objective for SH was performance not mpg.

I can see the energy requirement for acceleration in my EV as it shows energy used dynamically. Even when accelerating fairly slowly from a stop, the energy use is near the top of the scale while cruising at 70 is maybe 1/3 to 1/2.

 

Regarding energy use while cruising, here is a technical treatise providing hp needs for overcoming wind resistance using a C4 Corvette. Not much hp needed below 50 mph, but hp to overcome wind resistance ramps up quickly from there on up:
Part 6: Speed and Horsepower

 

yup - goes up by speed squared

 

I question the real world benefit of wind resistance testing. How often is there ONLY head on wind resistance? Canter the wind direction anything of direct head on, and the aerodynamics change differently per car. So in my theory, a car that has least resistance may be exceeded by another car, which may not have lowest wind resistance head on, but in a crosswind (or some direction off head on) it may be more efficient than the car with the lowest head on resistance.

 

there is a huge benefit - the primary wind resistance is the speed of the car though the air, not wind per se

 

This is correct....just don't defeat all the design work by driving around in reverse!

 

I know Tampa is smarter than that. Maybe some early afternoon cocktails

 

This is the message that Acura never really effectively marketed....hybrid/electric motors = performance, acceleration and handling not fuel economy. I guess it is hard to overcome the zeitgeist of the Prius hybrid which has been around for almost a decade and out sells out other hybrids by a large margin.

Oh well, I am happy with my Sport Hybrid and don't care whether or not others are "in the know".

 

^^^ I'm in the know with you, my friend, and proud of it!

 

Its not the cocktails! It's the 360 camera!