Thomas Smith

Pacifica Hybrid Real-World All Electric MPG and Range Test

Introduction

In this blog post, we’ll be taking an in-depth, real-world look at the performance of the 2022 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan. Specifically, we’ll be focusing on the vehicle’s performance in terms of fuel efficiency (miles per gallon) and all-electric range.

To give you a realistic perspective, this will be based on my actual morning commute experience – dropping kids off at school and driving on surface roads, up and down hilly terrain, with the heater running.

Here’s a video I made about it:

Impressive Fuel Efficiency

The first thing to note during this drive is that the Pacifica Hybrid managed to stay on battery power the entire time, covering 11.5 miles without relying on any gasoline. The effective miles per gallon achieved during this morning drive was approximately 50 – an impressive number for a minivan, especially when compared with the 16 to 18 miles per gallon typical of a non-hybrid minivan.

While the vehicle’s stated blended mileage is around 80 miles per gallon, getting 50 mpg in these challenging conditions (hilly surface roads with the heater running) is pretty impressive. It’s likely that drivers could achieve closer to the stated blended mileage of 80 mpg in more favorable conditions, such as a day with less use of climate control and more highway driving.

Real-World Electric Range

Moving on to the vehicle’s electric range, the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid’s 2022 model is stated to have a 30-mile range on all-electric power. To test this, we started with a 47% battery level and completed the 11.5-mile drive mentioned earlier. When the drive was over (I didn’t go over the Bay Bridge or anything, but I do have CA’s clean air decals), the vehicle’s battery was at 53% – meaning the 11.5-mile drive used up around 22 miles of electric range.

Despite the real-world electric range being somewhat lower than the stated 30 miles, it’s important to consider the effect that factors such as the hilly terrain and climate control had on the battery usage. In less taxing conditions, the 30-mile electric range might be more achievable. That being said, the 22-mile electric range was more than enough to accommodate the 11.5-mile round-trip commute on this particular day.

Conclusion: A Promising Performance

All in all, this real-world look at the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid’s performance on a typical morning commute has provided some promising results. Achieving around 50 miles per gallon and a 22-mile all-electric range in challenging driving conditions is no small feat.

If you’re considering a hybrid minivan for your family, these findings indicate that the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is capable of delivering impressive fuel efficiency and electric range in everyday scenarios. Be sure to subscribe to this channel if you want more insights and updates on life with a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan!


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Key Takeaways

  • The effective miles per gallon for Thomas’ Pacifica Hybrid minivan was 50, which is excellent for a minivan.
  • The battery range for the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid 2022 model is 30 miles on battery only.
  • Thomas’ actual electric range was 22 miles on a 11.5 mile round-trip commute.
  • The range could be higher under less taxing driving conditions and without using climate control.

Video Transcript

I’m Thomas Smith and this is a real-world look at how my Pacifica Hybrid minivan is doing on full electric driving for my actual morning commute. This is the drive to drop my kids off at school and you can see here a couple of things. So it stayed on battery the whole time, 11.5 miles on battery and a really encouraging stat there – the effective miles per gallon was about 50.

To get that with a minivan is pretty excellent. I mean, that’s really good given that my previous minivan was more around 16 or 18 miles per gallon on gas. So, really good information there.

This was a, just to give the context, you can see the temperature outside is 43 degrees, chilly morning, so it’s using the climate the entire time and it was also a pretty hilly drive. This was not highway driving. This is surface roads going up and down a lot of hills.

So, 50 miles per gallon with the heater blasting and going up and down hills, pretty good. I think it could probably get higher, closer to the stated blended mileage. I think it was 80 miles per gallon. I think you could conceivably get maybe as high as 70 or something in normal driving if you were doing this on a day where you weren’t using climate and also where you had more highway driving versus this.

So, really still very good though. 50 miles per gallon. Now it’s dropping because I’m just idling, but 50 miles per gallon or thereabouts when I’m driving on these hilly roads with the heater up.

The other statistic to look at here is range, the electric range. Now the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, this is the 2022 model again, the stats it has about a 30 mile range on battery only. And in my driving, I did 11 and a half miles when we started here. It was at 47% battery. After that, that means I used 53% of the battery. That works out to a range of about 21 or 22 miles on all electric if I kept driving, if I wasn’t done with my commute at this point. So, that’s less than the 30 again.

I think it probably has to do with the hilliness of the drive and my climate was using about six or seven kilowatts of power to warm up the car on this chilly morning. So, really I think that’s probably gonna drain the battery a bit more. So, I think the 30 mile range would be reasonable here if it was a little bit less taxing driving and I wasn’t needing to use the climate as much.

That said, you know, 22 miles obviously was plenty to accommodate my 11 and a half mile round-trip commute this morning. And, you know, I drove for probably 25 minutes or more just totally on electric there.

So great to see this real-world example. 50 miles per gallon, about a 22 mile all-electric range, and pretty challenging driving conditions. Very happy with that. If you found this helpful, please subscribe to the channel. I’ll share a lot more about my new Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid.