Tag: maintenance

Gasoline vs. Hybrid vs. Battery Electric (BEV) Fuel Statistics Comparison

writ­ten 06/10/23, updat­ed 01/31/25

What

Fuelup com­par­isons among three vehi­cles owned by me for the dura­tion of own­er­ship: 2020 Sub­aru Out­back XT Onyx Edi­tion, 2022 Ford Mav­er­ick XL Hybrid, & 2023 Ford Mus­tang Mach‑E AWD Stan­dard Range

Cal­cu­lat­ing: MPG/MPGe, Cost per Gal­lon of gaso­line (or equiv­a­lent), and then by month to even the odds

Comparison Chart

2020 Out­back (Gas)2022 Mav­er­ick (Hybrid)2023 Mach‑E (BEV)
Time Owned29 months12 months23 months
Total Miles Dri­ven18,503 mi8,051 mi15,0007 mi
Total Fuel Vol­ume 941.0 gal203.3 gal154.8 gal‑E*
(5,216.2 kWh)
Total Fuel Cost$3,243.92$774.93$1,229.31
MPG/MPGe19.7 MPG39.6 MPG97 MPGe
Cost per Gal­lon (or kWh)$3.45$3.81$0.24
Miles Dri­ven per Month638 mi670 mi653 mi
Fuel Vol­ume per Month32.4 gal16.9 gal6.7 gal‑E
(226.8 kWh)
Fuel Cost per Month$111.86$64.58$53.54
Total Main­te­nance Cost$596.62$362.54$465.39
Fun Cost (Addi­tions)$2623.03$2536.99$1032.88
*gal‑E = gal­lons gaso­line equiv­a­lent

Basic Vehicle Statistics

2020 Out­back
(Gas)		2022 Mav­er­ick
(Hybrid)		2023 Mach‑E
(BEV)
Engine2.4L F‑4cyl Tur­bo CVT AWD2.5L I‑4cyl FHEV
FWD		1‑spd DD Elec­tric
AWD
HP260 hp @ 5,600 rpm162 hp @ 5,600 rpm*266 hp
Torque277 lb-ft @ 2,000 rpm155 lb-ft @ 4,000 rpm428 lb-ft
Fuel Capac­i­ty18.5 gal13.8 gal70kWh
Fuel Econ­o­my
(city/hwy/comb)		23/30/2642/33/3799/86/93
Range (EPA)481 mi511 mi224 mi
Weight3,884 lb3,674 lb4,498 lb
Wheel­base108.1 in121.1 in117.5 in
Length191.3 in199.7 in185.6 in
Width
(with mir­ror)		82.0 in83.5 in74.1 in
Height66.4 in68.7 in64.0 in
Tow Rat­ing3,500 lb2,000 lb-
*191hp total hybrid pow­er deliv­ery; DD = Direct Dri­ve; Fun fact: 70 kWh = 2.1‑gal gaso­line

Analysis

Easy to see that the data favors elec­tri­fied vehi­cles: cheap­er, less fuel con­sumed, bet­ter MPGs

Cost per gal­lon of gas (or equiv­a­lent) goes increas­es the more elec­tri­fied the vehi­cle. Keep in mind, over­all cost is less

Main­te­nace costs decrease with increased elec­tri­fi­ca­tion. How­ev­er, both elec­tri­fied vehi­cles were owned for less time than the gaso­line car

Electrified Driving Notes

updat­ed 4/24/23

Just some gen­er­al notes from dri­ving elec­tri­fied vehi­cles I’ve owned

Hybrid — Ford Maverick

  • Elec­tri­fied dri­ving oper­ates at low speeds/revs
  • When coast­ing or sit­ting still, no fuel is used, mean­ing no emmis­sions
  • If bat­tery runs out of juice, gas engine will kick in
  • Nev­er needs to be charged by per­son, will charge via dri­ving or gas engine
  • 2‑levels of brak­ing: regen­er­a­tive and phys­i­cal
  • Bat­tery recharges with either coast­ing or regen­er­a­tive brak­ing
  • Ini­tial thought was that hybrid would be great for sit­ting in com­muter traf­fic. How­ev­er, it would only be good in sub­urb traf­fic or light traf­fic where lots of coast­ing is pos­si­ble. Heavy traf­fic (where there is a lot of small, quick bursts of accel­er­a­tion) is NOT the best for rely­ing on pure elec­tric dri­ving
  • Ini­tial elec­tric pow­er is high torque, so smash­ing accel­er­a­tor off a stop is impres­sive and fast (depen­dent on over­all pow­er)
  • Haul­ing heavy items in trunk is also impres­sive in the Mav­er­ick where the hybrid pow­er is very help­ful
  • High­way dri­ving is sur­pris­ing­ly effi­cient. End­ed up with about 20% of high­way trip miles elec­tri­fied
  • Bet­ter dri­ving habits yield bet­ter effi­cien­cy
  • Cut gas con­sump­tion in half com­pared to pri­or pure-gaso­line cars
  • More effi­cient in cities than rur­al dri­ving, but still cuts reliance on gaso­line
  • Just uses gas, no need to charge
  • Main­te­nance: Need oil change, flu­id flush­es, and oth­er main­te­nance like pure gaso­line cars…but pos­si­bly at less­er inter­vals
  • Best dri­ving tech­nique: Feath­er the accel­er­a­tor. Just keep tap­ping it enough at the low­est revs to uti­lize the elec­tric dri­ving in order to keep the car mov­ing while not jump­ing into the gaso­line con­sump­tion. All good-dri­ving rules will increase MPGs

1 year driving (January through January) Stats for 2022 Ford Maverick

  • Total Run­ning Costs: $2,997.52
  • Run­ning Cost per day: $6.56
  • Run­ning Cost per mile: $0.37
  • Dis­tance per day: 18 miles
  • Total Miles Dri­ven: 8,050.6 miles
  • Total Time: 1 year
  • Aver­age MPG: 38.213 (Min: 31.5; Max: 43.6)
  • Aver­age Price per Gal­lon Gaso­line: $3.83
  • Aver­age Price per Fuelup: $26.72
  • Aver­age Fuelup Quan­ti­ty: 7.01 gal­lons
  • Miles per Fuelup: 266 miles
  • Days per Fuelup: 12 days
  • Total Ser­vice Cost: $2,222.59

Battery Electric Vehicle — Ford Mustang Mach‑E

  • Smooth, silent dri­ve
  • 2 lev­els of brak­ing: regen­er­a­tive and phys­i­cal
  • Option for 1‑pedal dri­ving
  • 3 dri­ving modes: Whis­per (low accel­er­a­tor response, extend­ed coast­ing, minor regen­er­a­tion), Engage (mod­er­ate accel­er­a­tion and brak­ing, regen­er­a­tive brak­ing), Unbri­dled (high accel­er­a­tion sen­si­tiv­i­ty, respon­sive brak­ing, high regen­er­a­tive brak­ing– halfway between reg­u­lar dri­ving and 1‑pedal)
  • HVAC usage is big drain on bat­tery con­sump­tion
  • High torque –> high accel­er­a­tion
  • Heav­ier load –> high­er bat­tery usage
  • Hard accel­er­a­tion quick­ly drains bat­tery
  • Elec­tron­ics use only a frac­tion of bat­tery
  • When not mov­ing, no pow­er used
  • Fan­tas­tic for heavy traf­fic and heavy brak­ing (equals more regen­er­a­tion, less pow­er usage)
  • Good dri­ving habits yield bet­ter effi­cien­cy
  • In cold weath­er, dri­ving faster might mean bet­ter effi­cien­cy (have to eval­u­ate data more)
  • No tailpipe emis­sions
  • Min­i­mal noise pol­lu­tion
  • My usage is about 50kWh a week. That’s 200kWh a month (for com­par­i­son an aver­age house­hold uses 877kWh a month in 2019). That’s $30 a month in fuel costs if price is $0.15 per kWh like mine res­i­den­tial
  • Main­te­nance: No oil, no belts, no flu­ids to main­tain. Required for wheels, tires, and brakes

90 Day Driving (January through April) Stats for 2023 Ford Mustang Mach‑E

  • Total Run­ning Costs: $84.71
  • Run­ning Cost per day: $0.94
  • Run­ning Cost per mile: $0.06
  • Dis­tance per day: 17 miles
  • Total Miles Dri­ven: 1,517 miles
  • Total Time: 90 days
  • Aver­age MPGe (Fuel): 95 (Min: 78; Max: 114; ADJ: 108)
  • Aver­age MPGe (Trip): 96 (Min: 30; Max: 172; ADJ: 119)
  • Aver­age Price per kWh: $0.14
  • Aver­age Price per Fuelup: $3.39
  • Aver­age Fuelup Quan­ti­ty: 29 kWh
  • Aver­age Miles per Fuelup: 64 miles
  • Aver­age Days per Fuelup: 3 days
  • Total Ser­vice Cost: $0.00

Trip Comparison

Trip: A to B to C to D (same exact des­ti­na­tions, same exact route, same dri­ving mode)

March 20th (40F and windy cold): 39% to 34% to 31% to 30% = 9% charge used

May 8th (76F and humid): 36% to 35% to 34% to 33% = 3% charge used