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If you're going up and down hills I find something similar in my Avalon and other vehicles I have driven. I can get similar or even better fuel mileage going over mountain passes than on flat highways even though that means I'm at a much higher throttle going up the mountains and then releasing a lot of it back into the atmosphere as heat as I engine and friction brake going down the other side.
PS. Regen braking in the Avalon does help some, but on most passes the battery fills up very quickly leaving me with normal engine and friction braking the rest of the slope. I also have noticed similar results in non-hybrids.
I think what happens is that it's similar to pulse and gliding. Engines are generally much more powerful than needed and so tend to run in a less efficient load on flat ground. But going to a slope puts the load at a higher, more efficient range.
In your caae you may not have the 5-8% grade passes that go on for miles and miles. But by adding more weight you get more of the effect, especially if the downhill portions aren't enough to merit braking letting you use the built up kinetic energy.
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