The 2017 Chrysler Pacifica has closed the fuel-efficiency gap with the segment-leading Honda Odyssey.
Redesigned and renamed for the latest model year, the Pacifica has received an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 28 mpg rating for the highway cycle, 18 mpg in the city and 22 mpg combined.
The highway benchmark is good enough to match the Odyssey, however Honda’s offering maintains a marginal lead in the city cycle with 19 mpg. Both share the same 22-mpg combined rating.
The figures are said to represent a 12-percent increase in fuel efficiency over the fifth-generation Town & Country, which had remained on the market for more than eight years without a major redesign. FCA credits its Pentastar V6 engine and nine-speed transmission as primary contributors to the mpg jump. Engineers and designers also achieved a drag coefficient of .300.
The Pacifica will receive engine stop-start technology at a later date, followed by a hybrid variant in the second half of the year. The electrified minivan is expected to travel for 30 miles on battery power alone, with an estimated relative efficiency rating of 80 MPGe.
The 2017 Pacifica will be headed to showrooms across the country sometime this spring.
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