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eTorque impact on mpg

nimbus

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How can eTorque increase the rated mpg by 10%? Is it just from the auto-stops or is there anything else it is doing to impact mpg while driving?
 

tgwill

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My 2020 Laramie came with e-Torque (couldn't find any in the trim I wanted without it) and I don't really see any mileage benefit to it. Perhaps it's because I have less than 1000 miles.

One thing I have noticed is that shifts are waaaay smoother with the e-torque and it feels quicker off of a stop. I had to have the passenger switch repaired yesterday, and they gave me a non-eTorque Hemi loaner and it was a noticeable difference. Not enough to make me want to jump fully on the e-torque bandwagon.
 

JF19Longhorn

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From what I've read / experienced, the mpg increase is negligible. My truck gets **** mileage with the Etrq and I'm sure it would get **** mileage without it. :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:

Only reason I have it, is because this truck had the options I (the wife :sneaky:) wanted / needed.
 

flyfingers

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From what I've read re; eTorque the way it works is via a 48v (430 watt) air cooled battery pack, it spins a belt connected directly to the crank. It only comes into play during the very first one half of tire rotation when leaving from a stop. In addition, it features the start / stop (love it or hate it) feature which can save a few ounces of fuel per day depending on how many times and for how long you are stopped at lights. I can almost see it saving fuel in heavy city driving. It also has some regenerative braking capabilities as well thus potentially saving on brake wear.

For the 2021 MY it only adds $200 to the MSRP but for me personally, I don't need the potential extra headache years down the road as the system just isn't beneficial enough.
 

mikeru82

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From what I've read re; eTorque the way it works is via a 48v (430 watt) air cooled battery pack, it spins a belt connected directly to the crank. It only comes into play during the very first one half of tire rotation when leaving from a stop. In addition, it features the start / stop (love it or hate it) feature which can save a few ounces of fuel per day depending on how many times and for how long you are stopped at lights. I can almost see it saving fuel in heavy city driving. It also has some regenerative braking capabilities as well thus potentially saving on brake wear.

For the 2021 MY it only adds $200 to the MSRP but for me personally, I don't need the potential extra headache years down the road as the system just isn't beneficial enough.
^^Couldn't agree more with this. I haven't seen any benefit from it, but I don't do any real city driving on my regular commute. In fact, my 2020 Laramie with etorque gets worse average fuel economy than my 2017 Rebel did. I have yet to read any real world instances where people have seen much of a fuel mileage benefit. But then again, how many etorque owners are first time Ram owners? It's hard to know if there's an improvement if you've never owned one without etorque.
 

JF19Longhorn

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It also works to allow the truck to stay in ECO/MDS mode longer, saving cruising/highway fuel. I get about 16-16.5 pure city mileage and 22-24mpg highway. YMMV
My truck cannot maintain MDS above 40mph unless I'm going downhill with a tailwind. ..and I have the 3.92s. :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 

SpeedyV

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How can eTorque increase the rated mpg by 10%? Is it just from the auto-stops or is there anything else it is doing to impact mpg while driving?
This is documented in earlier threads and by FCA. A primary benefit is stop/start, of course. FCA shows that a certain number of ounces of fuel are burned at every 90-second stop, and that eventually adds up. But at speed, eTorque also enables the truck to remain in MDS longer than a non-eTorque truck.

As for those who don't believe it does anything, please see my earlier reports based on Fuelly data. 10% might be optimistic, but there is a measurable gain. We're not comparing 4th gens to 5th gens; we want to see the net benefit of eTorque on 5th gens (i.e. apples-to-apples comparison). Here are the numbers I pulled for 2020 trucks, per posts I shared on July 6th and 7th on this forum:

"There are currently 90 2020 Ram 1500s with HEMI engines being tracked on Fuelly. Of those, 46 have eTorque, and they are averaging 16.2 mpg. The remaining 44 do not have eTorque and are averaging 14.5 mpg. This tells us that (1) 2020 Ram 1500s with HEMI engines are averaging 15.4 mpg across the board, and those with eTorque are averaging 12% better fuel economy."

I did a similar comparison with a larger sample size back in July 2019:

"I just happened to surf over to Fuelly a few minutes ago, and it looks like we’ve got a reasonable dataset to work with (400+ trucks). Out of curiosity, I checked to see how many of those are HEMI eTorque trucks (104), and then I checked to see if they’re actually doing any better on economy. I ignored options, cab configurations, the likely bias of trucks with eTorque (especially early builds) being heavier due to having more options on average, etc. The bottom line is that all 2019s (including V6s) are averaging 15.37 mpg. HEMIs without eTorque are averaging 15.15 mpg. HEMI eTorque trucks are averaging 15.86 mpg. So far, then, eTorque adds roughly .71 mpg or 4.7% better V8 fuel economy."

So a 10% fuel economy advantage is within range, but it might be more likely to see somewhere a 5-10% advantage in fuel economy for eTorque in real-world use. This is not an infomercial for eTorque; you can decide for yourself whether it's a worthwhile option to add to your truck. And we should update the numbers above once we have a few thousand trucks reporting.
 

NorthStar

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My truck cannot maintain MDS above 40mph unless I'm going downhill with a tailwind. ..and I have the 3.92s. :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
Interesting...could it be the additional weight the Longhorn carries? I too, with my 3.92s, have noticed my eTorque stays in ECO/MDS mode longer than my previous non-eTorque 2019 which had a 3.21. And yes, I do notice like tgwill is the shifts are much smoother. Love my eTorque.
 

JF19Longhorn

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Interesting...could it be the additional weight the Longhorn carries? I too, with my 3.92s, have noticed my eTorque stays in ECO/MDS mode longer than my previous non-eTorque 2019 which had a 3.21. And yes, I do notice like tgwill is the shifts are much smoother. Love my eTorque.
Highly possible! She's a heavy girl.

It does shift very smooth, but I don't recall the nonEtrq trucks i test drove being harsh. It also has the best Start/Stop system I've driven. I actually leave this one on 95% of the time.
 

JimD007

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I drive a 2019 Classic V6 with no eTorque and my cumulative average over >7500 miles is just over 22 mpg. I've almost gotten 26 on the highway when I wasn't going much over the speed limit. Doesn't seem like I need etorque to get decent mileage.

The EPA mileage test has LOTS of start stop instances. If they assume more than you have in your driving, your mileage will be less.
 

devildodge

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The start/stop system on vehicles is for a reduction in emissions at a stop. The lack of need for fuel is just a plus.

The eTorque helps with fuel mileage by making the stop to start seamless and the shifts and acceleration seamless behind the scenes.

See above for more technical and data driven explanations
 

Zig10

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I wasn't very impressed with mine until I started changing my driving habits lately...and it has paid off. On the highway I get 17-18 MPG generally, which is not great in my book. Around town I was getting 17-17.5.

One of the posts on this site mentioned accelerating a little harder off the line to get better efficiency from the engine, which was part 1 of the change in habits (and an enjoyable one!). Part 2 was playing with the throttle to figure out how to keep it in Eco mode longer. In general for me, I can only use about the top 1/2" of pedal travel to keep the light on, but I have found that if I play the game correctly I can even accelerate slightly while keeping it in ECO mode. The result has been a bump in my lie-o-meter from 17.5 to 18.2 MPG (hand calc is ,17.82 MPG).

That's with the e-torque and 3.92 rear. I think I can get it a little higher still, and might be able to get the highway mileage up with the same game.

All that said, I really wish it didn't take this much effort to get the mileage up...
 

Wsmith

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I avoided the e-torque. I don't tow, I don't drag race and I didn't buy the gas savings BS. One more piece of tech to cost me money in the long run.
 

mikeru82

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This is documented in earlier threads and by FCA. A primary benefit is stop/start, of course. FCA shows that a certain number of ounces of fuel are burned at every 90-second stop, and that eventually adds up. But at speed, eTorque also enables the truck to remain in MDS longer than a non-eTorque truck.

As for those who don't believe it does anything, please see my earlier reports based on Fuelly data. 10% might be optimistic, but there is a measurable gain. We're not comparing 4th gens to 5th gens; we want to see the net benefit of eTorque on 5th gens (i.e. apples-to-apples comparison).
My point in comparing the 2017 Rebel with my current Laramie is that I'm seeing worse mileage with the Laramie, which has etorque, than I saw in my Rebel which (obviously) did not have etorque. Definitely not an apples to apples comparison, but if anything, an etorque equipped 5th gen should get better mileage than a 4th gen, especially a Rebel. The Rebel was heavier and had worse aero. It is a valid comparison for me because I use/used them both for the same commute. The fact that the 5th gen with etorque gets worst mileage than a 4th gen is telling for me.

It doesn't matter how much fuelly data you throw up, it doesn't reflect what I've seen on my commute. I've driven with MDS and stop/start enabled for 5 tanks, and with both disabled for 5 tanks. I saw an improvement of less than .5 mpg, which I would consider to be within the margin of error. I wish it made a difference for me but I'm just not seeing it.
 

SpeedyV

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My point in comparing the 2017 Rebel with my current Laramie is that I'm seeing worse mileage with the Laramie, which has etorque, than I saw in my Rebel which (obviously) did not have etorque. Definitely not an apples to apples comparison, but if anything, an etorque equipped 5th gen should get better mileage than a 4th gen, especially a Rebel. The Rebel was heavier and had worse aero. It is a valid comparison for me because I use/used them both for the same commute. The fact that the 5th gen with etorque gets worst mileage than a 4th gen is telling for me.

It doesn't matter how much fuelly data you throw up, it doesn't reflect what I've seen on my commute. I've driven with MDS and stop/start enabled for 5 tanks, and with both disabled for 5 tanks. I saw an improvement of less than .5 mpg, which I would consider to be within the margin of error. I wish it made a difference for me but I'm just not seeing it.
...and if you had the same 5th gen Rebel without eTorque, you’d see even worse mileage, based on real-world data. The “eTorque effect on mpg” (the title of this thread) is still positive. I don’t doubt your observations about 4th gens vs 5th gens, but that’s not a drawback of eTorque.
 

mikeru82

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...and if you had the same 5th gen Rebel without eTorque, you’d see even worse mileage, based on real-world data. The “eTorque effect on mpg” (the title of this thread) is still positive. I don’t doubt your observations about 4th gens vs 5th gens, but that’s not a drawback of eTorque.
When I compare the fuel economy my wife is seeing in her Limited (without etorque), she's seeing pretty much identical fuel economy I'm seeing. Her truck has air suspension, 33 gallon fuel tank, and the MFT, otherwise they are comparably equipped. We both work at the same place and have the same commute. We just work different hours. I'd like to believe what you're saying. But I just don't see it.
 

BowDown

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My eTorque 2020 Limited is averaging 17.8-18.5 in 80/20 city/highway driving. I'm currently at 5000 miles and overall fuel economy has been 415-430 miles per tank (26 gallon tank) consistently. I've been on a purely highway drive once so far and it was 24mpg at 70mph.
 
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