Pulse and the Elusive 'Glide' ???????

Over at CleanMPG, Super Highway Mode is different than Warp Stealth, and is a gas burning mode. It is typically found at a narrow span of throttle position and ignition advance that produces very efficient sustained operation. Unfortunately the power level limits speed to lower than most drivers want on the highway, at least at today's cheap gas prices.

SHM can work well on the Gen2 Prius (New Prius - "Super Highway Mode" Technique (SHM)), and the Civic Hybrid has a very similar mode. Gen3 doesn't do this as well ( 2010 Prius-III P&G, SHM and WS ... ).

Even my Subaru seems to have a similar mode, though at much lower MPG. I can't get this mode on level roads at 60 mph without a good tailwind, but can achieve it under more conditions in the mid-50s. When $4+ gas coincided with such weather, I coaxed the Suby across the state (325 miles) at almost 39 mpg.

 

You're welcome.
You've probably seen the more accurate definition someone else gave of Super-highway mode.
Anyway, I don't use a scangauge. I assume that my ICE is not burning fuel when the instantaneous MPG bar (shown on the right of the MPH number) goes up to 100, no matter what my speed.
That's correct, isn't it, gang??

 

No, it isn't. When I had ScanGauge showing iMPG, there were numerous times it displayed numbers in the 100-200 range, but still burning gas. A small offset error in gallons-per-hour often caused it to show non-finite MPG when no fuel was being burned, but my memory is of that happening only with displayed MPGs of 350 and higher.

But I rarely have this particular gauge displayed.

 

I have been playing with trying to get the zero arrows condition and as others have reported, it is nearly impossible on my 2011. Using the ECO screen and enough go pedal to eliminate regen is fairly easy. However, I notice that if I throw the tranny into neutral the car doesn't slow down nearly as much. The scanguage still shows 99.99 mpg. However, the battery seems to go down even though no arrows are showing on the car/motor/engine/wheels display. It seems that mpg would be better in neutral than in 1/8 bar of ECO. I've ready somewhere that using neutral still uses gas but apparently not much. Any comments?

 

Ken@Japan has noted that for the Gen III getting fully engine off gliding isn't as important, so you want to concentrate on keeping it out of regen.

A gauge that can display the RPM and current, such as the ScanGauge or UltraGauge, would make it easier to control the glide.

Putting the car in neutral means the car does what it was doing. If the engine was running it idles, if it was engine off it glides.

However, note that while in neutral:
a) The traction battery doesn't get charged.
b) You don't want to be going engine off at very high speeds, for the same protective reasons that the Prius normally spins the engine above 45mph.

 

Sorry for bumping such an old thread but I've learned so much in this thread and I have a question regarding the bolded statement. Why is it so bad to have the engine in regen mode? Like if you were to let your foot off the gas pedal and you see the green regen arrows (I know after reading this thread that I should ignore this screen), does being in regen mode slow down the car slightly so that the car isn't at it's optimal glide?

And second question related to this same situation, in order to glide and keep it out of regen mode on a Gen III, does this mean you're pressing the gas pedal in that first 1/8 portion of the HSI bar so that I would actually be slightly using the electric motor (if I was using the energy screen with the arrows, I would be referring to when the arrows are yellow). Is this how you keep the car out of regen mode in a Gen III then since it's so extremely difficult to get it to a no arrow zone?

 

Regen does slow down the car, and more than slightly. Don't forget [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy"]conservation of energy[/ame] or the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics"]first law of thermodynamics[/ame]. Energy is not free, and our machines that convert energy between electric and mechanical and chemical forms are less than 100% efficient.

This is mostly correct, except that the HSI bar disappears when you glide -- nothing lit in the Regen portion of the bar (left ~1/8 of the bar), nothing lit in the thrust portion of the bar (right ~7/8 of the bar). And when gliding, the electric motor is not really being used. It will have no thrust, no drag.