2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid: Real-World Gas Mileage

Potty training has gone poorly in the Mays household, so our daughter, just shy of 3 years old, was still in diapers when we took to western Michigan for a weekend trip in Honda’s new CR-V Hybrid. On the return leg to our Chicago-area home, we’d stopped at a strip mall for a quick bite some 30 miles short of the Indiana border. With temperatures in the 90s and restaurants closed to dine-in eating amid COVID-19 restrictions, we — and other motorists — snarfed burgers and Mexican grub in a sweltering parking lot, engines running and air conditioning blasting. That’s when the incontinence hit.

My family seems to have a knack for this.

Related: 2020 Honda CR-V Review: A Little Better, a Lot More Hybrid

Idle Time

Needless to say, the bite was anything but quick. Including dinner and a diaper disaster, I tallied about an hour of idling for my test car, a 2020 CR-V Hybrid Touring, which needed heavy engine cycling to eke out 70-ish degrees from the automatic climate control. Add to that lengthy idling otherwise — some 20 minutes at a beach parking lot, another 15 or so while my wife ordered ice cream at a walk-up window and more — and the CR-V Hybrid racked up nearly two hours of idling atop some nine hours of driving.

Lackluster MPG

Given such conditions, its trip computer readout, 31.0 mpg after 527.2 miles, seems understandable — if well short of the model’s EPA-estimated 40/35/38 mpg city/highway/combined and just a few ticks north of what we observed in a non-hybrid CR-V during a separate, 200-plus-mile drive.

Driving Conditions

But it’s fair to say this journey subjected the CR-V Hybrid to challenging conditions for fuel economy. Consider:

• My drive to Pentwater, Mich., and back saw temperatures in the 50s and 60s on the way out and 80s and 90s on the return leg.
• Overall speeds averaged 48 mph including the estimated idling time, or 58 mph without it.
• Weather-station readings along my route, per Weather Underground, indicated sustained crosswinds or headwinds of 6-9 mph during the leg out and headwinds of 13-18 mph returning.
• I had roughly 700 pounds of occupants and luggage, or more than half the CR-V Hybrid’s calculated 1,197-pound payload.
• I set cold-tire pressure to the recommended amount before the trip, drove with the windows and moonroof shut, used plenty of A/C and cruise control, and avoided the SUV’s driver-selectable Econ, Sport and EV modes.

The Weighting Is the Hardest Part

The extra weight exacerbated a complaint we have of the CR-V Hybrid: powertrain lag. The SUV combines a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with an electric motor for a combined 212 horsepower, but passing slower traffic required patience: The drivetrain took its time kicking up revs, and power felt modest even at full bore. Drivetrain hesitation is a problem in the gas CR-V, too, but the SUV’s benefits — namely, lots of cargo and storage space — largely carry over to its hybrid sibling.

More From Cars.com:

• 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid: Lower Price, Lower MPG Than Escape, RAV4 Rivals
• 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid Is a Safe Choice for Eco-Friendly Families
• Honda CR-V: Which Should You Buy, 2019 or 2020?
• 2021 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Puts a Plug in It
• 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid: 7 Things We Like and 2 Things We Don’t

Stay tuned to see how the CR-V Hybrid stacks up against its likeliest direct competitor, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Fellow Cars.com editor Jennifer Geiger spent plenty of time in both SUVs, including this CR-V around Chicago, and she’ll offer a verdict separately.

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