What Is Our 2021 Ford F-150 Hybrid’s Average MPG Over 12,000 Miles?
One of the selling points of the 2021 Ford F-150 hybrid is its impressive EPA-estimated gas mileage of 25/26/25 mpg city/highway/combined for rear-wheel-drive versions and 24/24/24 mpg for four-wheel-drive trucks. Those are the highest combined mpg estimates for the 2021 F-150, but the hybrid is also the most powerful drivetrain the F-150 offers — at least until the redesigned F-150 Raptor arrives. The hybrid is rated at 430 system horsepower and 570 pounds-feet of torque, and a large 30.6-gallon fuel tank gives this full-size pickup an estimated driving range in excess of 700 miles.
Related: Owning the 2021 Ford F-150
We’ve owned our F-150 Limited hybrid for nearly seven months and have put around 12,000 miles on it. For 2,793 of those miles, the truck was towing a trailer with the majority (1,872 miles) accumulated with a 25-foot Airstream travel trailer in tow. We also towed a lightweight Taxa Cricket camper and used a U-Haul auto transport to tow a car on two different occasions. Additionally, we tested our truck’s optional 7.2-kilowatt Pro Power Onboard generator system, which consumed some fuel that otherwise would have been used to move the truck.
In other words, we’ve been using the F-150 like a lot of owners might: towing trailers, taking road trips and driving on city and suburban streets. It’s a far cry from the regimented testing procedure the EPA uses when calculating fuel economy, particularly because EPA tests don’t include efficiency-sapping trailering, but it can give you an idea of what kind of gas mileage the F-150 hybrid gets in the real world.
So what kind of gas mileage is our F-150 hybrid getting? Over the course of 12,015 miles traveled, we’ve added 722 gallons of fuel, which works out to an average of 16.6 mpg. That’s 31% lower than our truck’s 24 mpg combined estimate, and it illustrates the effect towing can have on overall fuel economy. While towing the Airstream 1,872 miles, for instance, the F-150 averaged just 10.9 mpg.
Based on the truck’s trip computer, our best tank average was 22.4 mpg and our worst was 8.7 mpg, the latter occurring while towing the Airstream and running the onboard generator overnight. The longest distance we’ve traveled on a single tank has been 621.7 miles.
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The total cost for that 722 gallons was $2,711.42, for an average cost per gallon of $3.75. The F-150 hybrid can run on 87-octane gasoline, but Ford recommends 91-octane or higher premium fuel for best overall performance. We’ve followed that recommendation, which is reflected in our average cost per gallon — and also a handful of $100-plus fill-ups of the F-150 hybrid’s large fuel tank.
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- Test-Driving the FordPass App With Our 2021 Ford F-150
While our F-150 hybrid has proven itself a comfortable road-trip vehicle and a confident tow rig, we’re disappointed we have yet to record a single tank of fuel that’s achieved the truck’s combined rating of 24 mpg. However, our best 22.4-mpg tank average was also our most recent, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on the truck’s fuel consumption for the rest of our ownership to see whether we’re able to hit the EPA mark.
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