Pulse and Glide Question

The idea behind pulse and glide is to completely avoid battery use. Pulse using the gas engine (ICE) and glide using only the momentum of the car.

Tom

 

try this
Max MPG Driving Techniques Youtube Video | PriusChat

 

I'm starting to think that video should be handed to every Prius owner along with the keys upon purchase.

 

It seems counter intuitive, but yes you want to use gas to get up to speed and then "glide" trying to not use battery power or regen back to the battery. The battery captures energy that was originally generated by gasoline (when you use regen braking, the speed was attained using gasoline and the braking recaptures some of that energy). Realize that there are efficiency losses when you convert energy to the battery

 

Why? Because the electricity in the battery was not FREE. You got it from regen when using the brakes and from running the gas motor. You have limited power stored in the battery and you want to save it to boost acceleration. You don't want to force the ICE to come on to just recharge the battery.

But, I wouldn't suggest you pulse and glide in normal traffic. You might have a whole line of cars/drivers behind you that would get very upset. Find a happy medium and be happy with 50-55 MPG.

 

I'm able to get 50-55 without the use of pulse and glide (I do a lot of freeway driving), with ac and tires at 33/35 which seems to be lower air pressure than most people.
I anticipate the hills and pulse to gain more speed and coast uphill while using the energy to recharge the battery or I use slight gas (iMPG 75mpg if possible).
Mostly on the downhills I will speed up a little so I can coast longer.
I also try to keep my speed around the speed limit on the freeway @ 65 mph, which requires me to stay in the slow lane.

From the Toyota Prius Manual online:

Familiarize yourself with the Energy Monitor screen in the Multi Function Display. Knowing what the color and direction of the arrows mean and indicate is necessary in order to get the best mileage out of the Prius. Accelerate moderately to about 40 miles per hour. This is the “pulse” phase. Take your foot off of the accelerator and let the Prius coast. Notice that the only active arrow should show energy being the wheels to the hybrid battery.

Put your foot back on the accelerator and gently press down until no arrows appear in the energy monitor. Since the engine and regeneration are effectively turned off, you should be able to coast for a good distance without needing to accelerate. Coast until your speed drops to around 30 miles per hour. This is the “glide” phase. Repeat the Pulse and Glide cycle until you’ve reached your destination or have to stop because of traffic.

 

I only use this from a cold-start until the engine coolant reaches 70C.

FIRST 50 SECONDS

While catalytic converter lights-off:

• accelerate while ICE rpm < 1,400 rpm to a little over speed limit
• shift into "N" until speed gets too low
• repeat above

After catalytic converter lights off, accelerate to speed limit plus some pad. Shift into "N" until speed decays to too slow. Repeat until engine coolant reaches 70C.

Once engine coolant reaches 70C, set cruise control to traffic speed and otherwise, drive normally. Seek slower routes and lanes where you can follow slower traffic. Enjoy the ride.

Bob Wilson

 

You can get great fuel efficiency without using pulse and glide in the traditional sense. You just have to keep your speeds low when on the highway. A straight highway trip could equal 55-60mpg at speeds of 60mph.

One trick you should always use is what I call necessary pulse and glide. In residential areas with a lot of stop signs or even stop lights you should pulse up to the speed limit or your desired speed then lift off the throttle just enough to start gliding to the next stop. If everything is done right and no traffic gets in your way you can also use EV Mode to delay ICE fire up until 15-25mph then use ICE power to get you to 35-45mph. In a GenIII you can do this quite a bit and still recover the energy used during acceleration if you can use regen braking effectively. The first part to master is doing the pulse from one stop sign and gliding to the next. It is intuitive to perform this modified form of pulse and glide given the traffic signals. I find I can really make up for lost mpg once I hit these residential or suburban roads as long as the signs are not too closely spaced. Ideally if you have a 1mile section of road netween stops then you would want to pulse for no more than 1/4 of this distance then glide the remaining 3/4 mile for this to be effective.

Think of gliding like this. If you go up a 1 mile long hill at an average of 30mpg then glide down the opposite side of the hill getting infinite mpg then you you have just traveled 2 miles at 60mpg average. If you could pulse up the hill at 30mpg then glide down the other side for 2 miles then you have travelled 3 miles at 90mpg. This is why my average mpg is currently 66mpg. My uphill commute is 53mpg and my downhill is 80mpg. 53+80/2=66.5.

The point is you do not have to run around pulsing and gliding down a long flat road to get good mpg numbers well a over 50mpg. Just use glides whenever the opportunity presents itself.

 

I must be doing something wrong.. I demand a video! ^_^

 

It would be a pretty boring video of me driving for 48miles at 60mph listening to NPR. lol

 

But with good audio, it would be entertaining and educational!

 

I get >60 mpg tanks all summer long. Set the MID to HSI display, set your tires to max on the sidewall, use as little AC or heat as you can get by on, set to the ECO mode. When you do pulse keep the ECO light on this will limit you to most efficient ICE use ( about 20 HP ) . Let the terrain dictate when you pulse and when you glide. If the terrain is flat and you are in traffic , then focus on Super Highway mode. and periodically release the gas pedal a bit and watch the mpg go up and then gently reapply the gas. On downhill coasts press the gas pedal slightly to keep the regen off. Get a scanguage so you can see OPEN loop engine off states and CLOSED loop when the engine is actually running and burning gas. Let the car teach you how to drive it but keep up with the speed limits on the road if there is traffic. 65 mpg is pretty easy to get in the summer if you do not do short trips, ICE warmups take a lot of gas. Great cars...

 

T hatpretty much explains how I drive. I don't look at closed or open loop anymore. I just look at RPM and if I am at 0,960 or 992 then I know fuel is off and I'm gliding. It is pretty easy to maintain over 60mpg if you keep your speed down in the summer.

 

Do i need to put to nuetral when gliding?

 

You can, however, you get no regen and your brakes revert to normal mechanical. Neutral does equal no gasoline consumed.

 

At higher speeds that cant be good on transmission can it?

 

Use your foot,lift off the throttle just enough to start gliding.