Friends kept asking so what is the real world consumption of my Tiguan eHybrid, and I kept thinking how to define it. Finally after 10000km I’ve got a better understanding of this car and what to expect of it when travelling locally as well as on a long trip. This post is about VW Tiguan’s eHybrid real world efficiency and figures.

Intro

Recently I’ve been on a rather short Euro trip, covered a bit more than 2000km, and because I consider having done my engine brake in, I allowed myself to enjoy highway speeds more. Having said that, I was more enthusiastic, and really tried pushing the car harder, even holding 200kph for a little while to form my impression about how this car feels and handles ad such speed. It does surprisingly well, and having the duo of electric motor and internal combustion engine creates an impression of a bigger engine than it actually is. It’s only 1.4TSI, however with electric motor, with all the torque and the horses delivered instantly, it’s not so easy to catch up for the older cars when driving on the highway. I’m still trying to figure out, how this system works so efficiently and creates such a nice acceleration. 245ps – that says it. You shouldn’t think about this car as a compact SUV with a 1.4TSI engine – because it isn’t! Well physically the engine is small, but hybrid powertrain delivers the unbelievable (thinking from a perspective of 1.4TSI).

Highway/motorway efficiency

140-160kph, with unrestrained enjoyment of the throttle pedal it consumes closer to 9L/100km on 98 octane petrol. This is aa little bit imprecise, as the real figure I’ve had was 8.5L, but to make this number I drove at low speeds and covered part of a distance through the small towns and B roads down the mountains, then majority of a distance on the motorway, including spurts up to 200kph. Taking any other internal combustion engine, I would not expect the figure to be any lower, unless the car is lower and has smaller aerodynamic footprint. I am sure figure would’ve been quite similar in a 3.0V6 Macan S diesel I had before. Verdict: long road trips at a highway speeds are 8-9L/100km.

Highway/mixed trip Trip 1 Trip 2 Trip 3 Trip 4
Distance 734km 102km 419km 423km
Conditions 20ºC – 32.5ºC, mostly dry, some rain
Air-con temperature 21.5ºC – 22.5ºC
Average speed 87km/h 43km/h 82km/h 84km/h
Consumption /100km 8.1L, 0.3kWh 7.1L, -3.2kWh 8.2L, -0.2kWh 8.5L
Driving time 8h 25min 2h 24min 5h 7min 5h 2min
Load 2 passengers and full back

Local trips in E-mode

It’s always tempting to go with the GTE mode and do more overtakings, nice accelerations which feel effortless and peaceful without revving up high, however last weekend I’ve finally put myself together and went to try real world efficiency of the E-mode. I was driving the ordinary “road 141” from my home to the summer house in the countryside, and chose to do that with electric mode only (with the bicycles on the back). I’ve left home fully charged, did 40km drive with hills and towns, couple of overtakes trying to be gentle with throttle and not exceed 100kph when getting past another car. Tiguan eHybrid was still showing 10km range left when I arrived (computer stated trip average of 18kwh/100km). And so I did charge fully again and drove back home the same route. Driving style was very similar, and so when parked at home I’ve ended up with 10km range left again and computer stating same average. My personal conclusion: 40-45km non-motorway trips with sensible acceleration are totally realistic. It may wary based on weather conditions, as if the outside temperatures differ drastically from the inside, you’ll use more power for air conditioning. Worth mentioning, that my trip was done at around 20ºC with air conditioning set to 22ºC, in addition to tools and other things in the car I was loaded with three bikes on the tow-bar. I got into rain storm on the way back when windshield wipers were working it’s max and the car was additionally fighting the water on the road plus winds. I was the only passenger though. Under 20kWh/100km is not a bad figure for such a rather tall car.

E-mode trip Forward Back
Distance 40km 40km
Elevation gain 251m 251m
Conditions 18ºC, dry 24ºC, heavy rain storm
Air-con temperature 22ºC 21.5ºC
Average speed 52km/h 49km/h
Consumption /100km 17.9kWh 19.8kWh
Driving time 34min 46min
Load on the tow-bar 2 bikes 3 bikes

All I’m missing in this post is now local city drives and hybrid local trips. To be continued…