[jyl]

In city driving, I average about 40 mpg on the gen 2 Prius, and can average 45 mpg if I'm careful and use mileage tricks. Wife routinely averages 35 mpg. She is a leadfoot, believes in accelerating to a red light, also thinks the car should be full of stuff all the time.

On the freeway, I can average about 50 mpg at 65 mph. If being a mpg geek, drafting semis in the slow lane etc, I can average well over 60 mpg for the period, but I've never been able to do that for long so don't have a solid whole-tank number. Wife averages 45 mpg, she drives 70-75 mph. This is 1-2 occupants, no luggage, summer time, low rolling resistance tires.

I used to get better mpg but then Oregon switched to ethanol blend gasoline year-round, that costs me a couple mpg. When we have a roof rack and pod on the car, the mpg is a bit worse. On short trips and cold weather, the mpg is notably worse (the engine runs to warm itself up, even when it doesn't need to propel the car). My winter tires hurt some too).

I think the US hybrid mpg champ may be the original Honda Insight (not the current one), because it is a small, light, aero, 2 occupant car, skinny tires.

If you want to include plug-ins, then the potential mpg goes way up, even if you convert the electricity into gasoline equivalent dollars. But only for trips done entirely or mostly within the battery range.