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You didn't indicate what speed you were travelling on the highway. But everything that I highlighted in Bold will make drastic differences in MPGs. Mostly it's the cold weather and the short trip of 9 miles. Sometimes coddling the car can hurt MPGs, also. Drive it like a normal car and it might help.

 

In addition to Zantos' reply, the bolded portions here reflect my concerns.

What speed did you drive on the highway? Speed has a major impact on MPG. The chart here is for a Liftback, but the concept will be similar (possibly slightly worse) for your C: Updated MPG vs MPH chart.

Is the 9 mile commute one way, or round trip? If the later, your car is spending much of its commute time still warming up, keeping MPG down. But any non-hybrid will be worse.

Are the roads wet or covered with snow or ice? If so, these will hurt, results will get better when warm dry weather arrives.

Tire pressure is important, please get that checked soon. The door label numbers are an absolute minimum. More is better, but will compromise ride comfort, so this will be a tradeoff that only you can judge.

Don't try to stay in EV mode until after you have established a baseline MPG, and become accustomed to the car. Electric mode is not free, it comes with an energy conversion loss penalty that must be traded off against other losses. The car is already very smart about judging when to use or not use it. Trying to outsmarting the car is an advanced topic, and it is extremely easy to get it wrong and reduce MPG.

Please be more specific about how much heat you are using -- temperature setting and fan speed. Use of climate control reduces MPG, so the least heat (or AC) required for your comfort will produce better MPG. (But don't ever compromise visibility through the windows). High heat settings hurt even more before the car is warm, because it forces the engine to stay on while waiting at traffic lights, burning more fuel. In your city commute, the engine might never have any true 'waste' heat.

 

At the top, there is a search bar.

 

Some things haven't been updated since the web site move last year. Here is a better link, which provides yet another link to a *.pdf article:

Why Don't I Get The EPA Mileage?

 

It's winter. You're getting about what I'm getting with short trips. You aren't too far off.

 

If you watch a screen that shows you your average MPG for THIS TRIP only, you see a pattern after only a few trips.

For one thing, it seems that the gas engine will ALWAYS start and warm up if it is cold. It will not allow you to manually select EV mode if the engine is cold.

The gas engine is most inefficient when cold so......the first few miles of any trip from cold are the worst results you will ever see. I think mine starts out showing something like 9 MPG or so for the first mile, then up to 15 for a while, then gradually climbs to up around 50....IF your speed stays below 50 MPH or so and there are no other "adverse" conditions to deal with.

That means that your 9 mile commute is mostly in the "warm up" part of the fuel useage area.
Having the defrost on full blast doesn't help either.

Highway mileage suffers too when the speed goes above 55......and drops down into the high 30's at 75.....for me at least. That's with a new engine and might improve a bit later but SPEED KILLS when it comes to fuel efficiency.