Wayne's Newest Vid

I was in Yakima that weekend at that seminar.
We did not have our Prius yet but were interested in the ballyhoo.
At the end of the first day he stayed to take us for a one-on-one in his rental car.
A Prius V. Let me drive it.
Say what you want of Wayne.
He has passion and it shows.
We appreciated him.

Imagine how rude it was to throw the first forward pass in a football game. Oh my.

 

I'm pretty sure the first forward pass was not as annoying as someone holding up traffic trying to get an extra 1 or 2 MPG...

 

In Wayne's case it is more like an extra 30mpg.

 

Still annoying F8L...ya want better mileage, take the metro.

 

He actually says that in the long seminar.

 

HAHAHA someone in the vid screams for her to get out of the road.

I can, at lights, normally accelerate up to the 10-15 mph range on all electric (not using EV mode), but only if I get on it right away. otherwise it does become too much of a pain for those behind me, I feel.

But as I've said before, if you want to hyper-mile go for it and do what you want. If you're starting to hold up traffic with it, you're being a jerk. It's that simple.

Man, this dude is a little obsessed. He won't even leave the parking lot until he's already checked status of the light by the parking lot. I guess I respect that, though, maybe he'd be a good chess player

 

very interesting video! picked up a few extra hints. however. i will never shift into neutral. call me a fuddy duddy, or whatever, but you have 0 control over acceleration at that point. i was brought up not to use it and i dont. i guess im a stick in the mud.

 

I still don't understand the use of neutral in the prius anyway.
If you're foot is off the gas the instantaneous mpg bar shows 100+.
What else is neutral going to do for you?

 

The only thing I can think of is that when you take your foot off the gas you have slight regenerative braking. I tried putting it into neutral going down hill and you definitely roll more than taking your foot off the gas.

 

If you only have a brief amount of time to teach someone how to hypermile, it is easier to have them shift to neutral than it is to teach them how to glide, especially in a GenIII or v. This is especially true if you are teaching them on the fly and want the best possible mileage for instructional purposes. Neutral can also be used when the vehicle is going through the warm up cycle or when the engine has cooled down and won't allow ICE off yet you don't want to use regen braking. This happens frequently on long downgrades during the winter.

 

When I was at his seminar he had a quick moment when he mentioned the amount we (USA) pays to the middle east for petroleum. He understands the necessity of it in general but states that he's concerned about profits going into the hands of the "wrong" people. I think we all know what he means.

I personally agree with that point. I'm not trying to save THE world (jeez, I can't even swim) right now I'm just trying to save MY world.

That point made lasted only a moment then it was quickly past the political and on with the show. A lot of it is extreme in nature sure, but some portions of those procedures we all do now. We were feeling how goofy it was that we were spending the day at a car dealer. We're not like that. But there is a common goal, we grabbed a little peice of it and ran. After the free hot dogs of course.

My original point was that Wayne was as concerned and conciensious and focused and excited about his ministry with us at the end of the (long) day (only ones there without a car) as he was with the very first people he talked to earlier. MUCH earlier.

It's hard to find that character in people anymore.
It was sorta refreshing.

 

I do not know, seems easier to me to tell someone to get their foot off the gas.
You could see she couldn't get it into neutral most of the time. Wayne had to do it for her. And then you have to remember to put it back in drive.
I'm not buyin it!

 

But that doesn't produce what Wayne is trying to show them. Without Neutral, they would have to press the gas pedal just enough to make the HSI bar disappear, no regeneration.

In the video Wayne does allude to later training where they will be doing this with the pedal instead of the shifter.

 

Ah, so this comment was correct then.

But don't you want some regenerative braking to keep the battery charged so you have battery power when needed?

I guess I always need to stop much sooner than the extra distance I would gain by using neutral instead of coasting in D.

 

No.it is better to glide for as long as possible using only kinetic energy. Eventually you will have to use the brakes and you'll regen enough then. Notice I said gliding and not neutral. Neutral should not be used in most cases and only then if you know why you should be using it, young grasshopper. *nods in a sage-like manner*

 

I agree. The more I reflect back on this video the more I dislike what he is teaching. It just isn't practical under normal driving conditions. Hyper-miling should only be practiced when it is prudent (and safe) to do so. Otherwise, driving like this creates a nuisance and gives the rest of us a bad image.


iPad ?

 

The battery can be charged by either regen braking or by the engine. If you must stop, go ahead and use the regen braking. But if you have a rollout that will be followed by engine use without stopping, then a glide without regen will delay the need to fire up the ICE. The drag of regen would force you fire the ICE earlier.

His methods are not all-or-nothing. His website has a large menu of available tools, separated into basic, intermediate, and advanced groups. Pick and choose which are suitable to your conditions and driving style, ignore the rest. Only the very most hard core hypermilers, in competitions, will do it all.

"Normal" driving conditions vary enormously from place to place, time to time, and driver to driver. Some regional cultures in this country are very intolerant. I live in a less aggressive area where quite a number of these tools work well without interfering with traffic, and often travel in sparse rural areas where there is plenty of freedom to apply even more methods.

 

It can't give a bad image without prejudice.

What you actually mean is that not all hypermiling techniques should be used at all times.

Hypermiling should be practiced at all times. If you practice hypermiling at all times you'll be safer than the vast majority of people on the road because it means you're concentrating, anticipating and buffering. If people just did that, besides the safety benefits, gasoline consumption would drop dramatically and traffic flow would improve.

 

Yep. I've been referencing Beating the EPA - The Why’s and How to Hypermile - CleanMPG Forums.

When I still had my 350Z (which is a horrible guzzler compared to my Prius), I would FAS while pulling into parking spaces and try to pull forward into stalls so that I'm face-out (since I don't like backing into spaces).

99.99% of people w/conventional cars w/automatic pull into a space, stop, shift into park, then shut off their engine. FASing cuts down on the useless ICE runtime.

I'd also anticipate lights and not accelerate to red lights. I still do this w/my Prius today.

 

I do think this is a neat video, but as others have said, it's a good idea to only accelerate at this slow speed when traffic allows. I thought the guy yelling while passing them was very funny. Thanks for the share!