I spent my last tank seeing how good I could do by paying much more attention to my speed, and coasting and engaging ev whenever possible. It's tough as I have a commute in a lot of stop and go roads that are 45mph or higher so there's a lot of accelerating I need to do. My end score wasn't too bad though. Trip A:535 mi .... CONS:57.5 MPG .... Avg:28 mph My first three tanks were actually low to mid 40's so that's a significant improvement. I think it added up to about 100 miles more on that tank of gas which is a free couple of gallons of fuel just for paying more attention and driving better. Was hoping for 60 or better, but I'd really have to do some grandma driving and start pi$$ing off the people behind me to do that with my commute.
Oh and I should add that I have a 2012 prius 5 with atp, so that score isn't too bad considering I have the 17 inch wheels...
Not bad at all and encouraging for me since I will also have a 2012 model Five with ATP and 17 in wheels. As long as I can get close to what I am getting with my 2004 then I will be happy. Hoping for 50 or better on my commutes (currently have 61.2 on the display after 4 round trips on my daily commute of about 14 miles each way, and would be thrilled if I could get close to this in the new car). iPad ?
I'm on my third tank, trying really hard, and I get single commutes like that all the time, but never a full tank of gas. Best I've gotten so far is 48.something. Same car as you. My in-town driving kills my avg no matter how hard I try.
By engaging ev mode I just mean keeping the hsi under the 50% mark and letting the electric motor take over (up to 40 mph) until I need gas to accelerate or go up an incline. Otherwise I don't know what you mean by it can hurt your fuel economy. EV mode is exactly what makes it easier to get good consumption scores. Lots of lights on my commute (probably over 60 lights total). Can't be helped to have a low average speed. Takes me an hour to make it 30 miles. So yeah 28 is pretty spot on...
Ouch. Time the lights for 100+ MPG Not exactly. GLIDING allows very high MPG scores. If you do not have to slow down, try to coast with no arrows from wheels, ICE or battery. The idea is that not only is ICE off, you are avoiding conversion losses. The best EV mode condition is a glide, but EV mode can also mean relatively high energy use.
Maybe if I was on the road solo, but with others on the road and in my way there's no getting around constant stops and starts. Best I can do is anticipate the crowding and make sure to use as little energy as I can when approaching them and when I need to accelerate. The one thing I will not do under any circumstances is make myself stick out like a sore thumb. I am not the type that enjoys making others ride up and wonder why I'm not keeping up with traffic. If I have to accelerate oh well I will. Hurts the end score a bit, but it's less stressful and that's worth a lot more than slower times, less gas, and higher mpgs by a long shot.
Yes this is partly what I meant by using ev mode. Whenever possible I push the pedal just enough to make the hsi line either gone or just within the first few pixels of the ev side of the bar and glide. Especially if I see a gaggle of cars or light down the road that I know I'm going to catch up to. So far I think most people behind me realize why I'm slowing down and don't seem to get too peeved. Hey, if they stay behind me I'm just improving their mpg scores too lol. So far I've gotta say, it's a lot of fun to be cruising down the road and seeing the mpg meter is reading 100mpg. Cool stuff. I usually leave the hsi on the dash (and HUD) and the 30 minute mpg bar graph on the nav. Fun to watch the numbers.
my current tank is right around 59 dash readout, after 300 miles... usually when i add it into fuelly it's about 2.4 off, so figure 56.6 real world mpg... not bad at all, will be the best since i got mine. 80's and no snow/rain has made a big difference for me, before this my best was in march when it was in the low 80's and i got around 54.
I totally agree with you Raza. I keep reading all the posts about using EV mode or sticking in EV and using battery... all of them say not to do it and discourage from it. I use all the battery by staying in EV territory ALL THE TIME. I will run the batt level down to 2 bars multiple times in a short drive (10 miles) and then go up hills to charge it, and also go down hills to recharge it. Since I dont fill my tank much...I dont have the proof in numbers to show that this does increase mpg, but it does. My averages are typically in the 70mpg range for my commutes (6-10 miles) and for super short runs (of course in the morning, when temps below 60F) averages are in the 40-60mpg, with the ICE coming on. (1-2 miles of driving) I will see the overall seriously jump up in the next few weeks, as the nightly temps will be staying above 60F. I have not tried the post starting and entering EV mode with button yet, as I am still in the break-in period. Also want things to stabilize before running my personal tests with everything. Also getting a scan gauge 2 shortly, so I can refine some numbers. My first fill ups are below atm, but will change, to add, I use the EV as Raza does and it does help. best is using it to glide and maintain speed. edit: the C is SOOO much easier to use EV more esp for maintaining speed (can be used up to 43 mph), but the 3G is alot better for accelerating and if no traffic is behind you!
Very cool. I'm already excited to see what toyota comes up with next. I would like to see higher ev speeds and longer ev runs times. In a cpl years I'll see what's what in the ev world and possibly trade up maybe to a pip 2 or prius 4 whenever those come out.
filled up today, dash said 58.1, i got 56.1 on fuelly on a 411 mile tank. very happy, best tank thus-far.
In theory, if you time the lights perfectly, you'll get through them in the fastest way. The reasoning is simple: if we assume the lights always change at the same time (oversimplified), crossing an intersection with an initial velocity is faster than having to start from zero. After all, no matter what car you pick, it can always "accelerate" 40-40 faster than it can 0-40. The hardest part is getting the timing just right. You can probably get a good idea of what it's like after driving the route a few times. What we need is a computer that reads the light timings and after acquiring enough data, builds a timing model to predict the timing.
Question is, is the best theoretical route one with no lights at all, or one that has lights that allows you to slow down and charge the battery from time to time, but also forces you to accelerate more often? Most of the roads on my commute are 45+ mph roads, so in order to maintain speed in ev mode I have to drive 5 or more mph under the speed limit. My point being is I don't think I could pull off a very high mpg score within a reasonable timeframe even if there were no lights at all. I think having to slow down and even stop at many of the lights actually helps my score as if forces everyone on the road to slow down and I have many more changes to glide and charge than I would if there were no lights at all... Also... A better system would be one where the lights can actually transmit timing information to an onboard computer so there would be no guessing involved.
A route with no lights & a constant speed would be better than all the stop & go. Even though you're recharging as you hits the lights, you're not making as much energy as you're using to get back up to speed. Speaking of EV, yesterday I was suprised to see that I could maintain EV use at 43mph. In the past, 41 has been the point where the ICE would kick-in. Bet I can really push the envelope & get up to 44! haha! And I'll never understand the motivation of the idiots who insist on jackrabbit starts from a light, even when they can see there's no way they can make the next light. I've seen them race off from a light just to get a few hundred yards ahead, when there's a blocked train crossing ahead. I need a "tortose & the hare" sticker with "I get 53mpg" on it! haha!
Your question is not phrased rigorously, but it is always true that all else equal, the less conversion losses, the better. Sometimes it is advantageous to accept conversion losses in order to improve overall ICE efficiency or drivetrain throughput efficiency. P&G is an example of the latter.
Charging the battery via braking isn't the most efficient way to charge the battery. The most efficient charging of the battery happens directly from the ICE while simultaneously using the ICE for locomotion (preferably between 45-50 MPH).
