0-60mph ECO vs. PWR

I don't have a stopwatch on hand...so, what was the conclusion?

 

Same. (You can watch the timer on the video player. They're both around 10 seconds.) This confirms what we've been told: Full throttle is full throttle, in any mode.

 

Someone correct me if I am wrong, afterall I only had a 24hr test drive in one yesterday...But that video looks fundamentally flawed....Or perhaps it is just the UK version that is different...

pressing PWR indeed give an improved throttle response, but depressing PWR puts it into automatic mode which is not the same at pressing ECO...I found driving in ECO like pressing a wet spounge with my right foot, horrible and if it wasn't an cvt'ish gearbox it felt like driving off in 3rd gear...There is no way that video was driving off in ECO mode, more like the normal automatic mode with none of the 3 driving options enabled....

 

0-60 hasn't really ever been a factor though.

0-45 is when I most often use it, which is obviously not full throttle. For those situations where traffic is really heavy and I need to dive into it.

45-70 is another, where I'd like that oomph available from just a little bit of pedal if needed. Again when traffic is really heavy.

For just everyday merging into highway traffic, ECO is just fine.
.

 

I guess it all depends on where you live and what the traffic is like. Our house joins from a tiny little country lane onto a through route just beyond a bend....In order to join you put your foot down and get up to 60mph as quick as you can and pray

Also I am in the camp of getting up to speed quickly and then easing off seems more economical (with my other cars and boat) compared to slooowly getting there...

But fair enough european driving style is a bit more aggressive ;-)

 

Okay, I'll correct you. ECO and PWR mode both have the same amount of available power. PWR mode makes the car feel snappier by front loading the accelerator pedal mapping: You get more power output for less pedal pressure. Ultimately, though, you have the same amount of power. You just have to press harder in ECO mode.

Tom

 

Thanks for that explanation....I realise I only had one test drive, but it really didn't feel like that...Even flooring it in ECO mode didn't make it feel setting off any faster, I appreciate it will have the same power available but doesn't it also make you setoff in a different gearbox ratio (or whatever it is called in CVT land)....

 

Nope. No multiple ratio gears like in traditional transmissions. Just high torque electric motors.

 

I run in the PWR mode 100% of the time. For the first 4-6 months of ownership, I only ran in the "ECO" mode. I've seen no significant, and/ or repeatable drop by going to PWR mode.

The reason why I prefer PWR mode is that from a stop, it's more "responsive" off the line. I prefer that feel as I dart across a busy road, or merging into traffic.

 

The Prius doesn't really have a CVT. It only has one set of fixed gears which never shift. At full power there is no difference in ECO or PWR modes.

Tom

 

That's because you probably didn't really floor it all the way, that's because we almost never do that on manual transmission cars, so that it takes a while to actually get used to flooring it al the way (at least for people like me who never floored it before).
Now I'm used to it and I prefer to drive in Eco mode as I have more control on how much input I want to use.

PS: On my first test drive I felt the same as you did and thought I would never use the Eco mode as it definitely felt too sluggish.

 

Use PWR mode, you'll enjoy the car more.

 

Fair enough, guess it requires a bit more getting used too

To be honest driving a boat I'm quite used to wide open throttle...And also in the Murano with its true (albeit metal band) CVT I've used full throttle a fair bit, especially joining German Autobahn, and folling toll booths...

Unfortunately the dealer I've been dealing with is quoting a 16 week lead time so it might be a while before we get ours :-( to try it out again...

 

PWR mode is more fun...

 

I'm disappointed with Toyota not having exploited the car's potential when in the power mode.

It could be that I misunderstand what happens, but I think there was room for Toyota to re-map the power supplied by the electric motor to augment the ICE -- making Power a true and unique setting by going outside of the normal bounds of interaction for the electric motor and the ICE . This would be important not only at full throttle, but also in lesser acceleration situations.

My impression is that they don't both "pile on the power" under any situation, though my impression is undoubtedly slanted because I only recently replaced my Gen II with a Gen III, and the screens didn't seem to reflect that for the Gen II.

Did Toyota miss an opportunity there (even if it would have had to supply the same extra power whenever the throttle was all the way on in any mode)?

 

I like my 2005 Prius, but it is very sluggish off the line compared to my 2003 Camry, partly due to the bigger engine and also to the low first gear. The Camry is just so much more responsive than the Prius. The Prius does have reasonable acceleration once you get up to about 40mph. I think this difference between the cars is mainly due to gearing, not size of engine.

 

The graph description below talks about the "middle range." If the affected range is 50% of pedal travel, do you think the graph represents the middle of pedal travel, from 25% to 75% ?