Driving a car at ECO you get a better fuel economy. Avoid instant acceleration and frequent braking for better mileage.
PV5 1g mileage. I cannot get better than 30 mpg average (real world testing) no matter what driving mode. I drive conservatively but will accelerate when I have to. In Michigan, I am considered a "Sunday Driver," one who is in no hurry to reach his destination. I'm afraid to tell the dealership because I know they'll say it's weather related or driver related, which is not true: we're having record warm temperatures and I drive with fuel economy in mind. I see from other posters that they're getting around 40 average, much like I expected. The Camry Hybrid does better than my V
My vee Mod 3 Is averaging approx. 47.8 mpg, displayed and 45.3 calculated at 3800 + miles. I have noticed in the last week that the displayed average mpg was at least 2 mpg lower due to the temp. here in FL. dropping to the 30s to the high 40s for a couple of days.
I alternate between "normal" and power modes (I'm light on the throttle), and am getting 45 mpg in mixed city/highway driving (380 miles).
They will also likely ask you much you use the AC. AC use and short trips AND 17" wheels can drop mpg by 10 or more!
I've tried both modes for a full tank each. Conclusion: No difference in my tank mpg's for my 90% (68 mile roundtrip) highway commute. Both tanks gave me 54 mpg indicated / 52 mpg calculated. I did notice that for a given fixed throttle setting selecting ECO decreased rpm by about 300. The HSI stayed at the same number of bars (one bar below the PWR band). I guess that if you floor the gas pedal in ECO, you will still get the same max rpm. Less than that you get around 300 rpm less than in Normal mode.
Take a look at my FUELLY stats (56.9MPG and get over 520 miles/tank of gas....maybe you should be in ECO mode? Just a thought
There's actually another way to think about this. ECO mode is more responsive, but not with respect to speed. I drive mostly ECO because it's easier to control/tune where I am on the HSI. The rare instances I need better acceleration responsiveness, I use PWR. I'm currently transitioning my sense of what "fun" is from watching how fast I can get that MPH up to how fast I can get that MPG up. ECO's fun!
I use Normal mode and my husband uses Power mode. It's not his main car so he likes it to respond like a non-hybrid car. He's also a very safety conscious driver which translates to being able to get out of others way. We average about 48-53 mpg since we've had the car (April) and it's at 4000 miles now. I love it that you can still get the power and the high mileage!
If you are getting 30mpg then something is not right. If you go to the Fuelly website ( www.fuelly.com ) you will see that most Prius v drivers are getting mpg in the 40's. I have a Prius v w/ATP and live in suburban Chicago area. Since I am retired that means I do not travel in rush hour, travel on flat, well-maintained roads with speed limits of 35 - 55 mph and occassionaly drive like a "Sunday Driver". This all translates into ideal conditions for getting high mpgs and, indeed, at the end of the day I sometimes have an indicated 60mpg on the dash. I would suggest you check out threads like Real world fuel mileage of the Prius V? | PriusChat to help you investigate the cause of your poor mileage. Better mpgs await you!
Dustmonkey has not been seen here on Prius Chat since Jan 29, 2012. He posted 23 times in January, including references to his 30 MPG in 6 different threads, and then he was done/gone. I PM him early March to see if we could solve his low MPG stats, but he is evidently done with PriusChat.
The v is automatically in "normal mode" when you start the car or deselect the other modes. We have experiment with the different modes per tank full and seem to get the best mpg in power mode.
We found that not to be true. We get the best mpg in power mode. See the other thread discussing the power mode.
I think your results are more directly related to your long rural road miles than it is too what mode you are using.
It does not really matter what people are using. The question is what exactly is the difference between ECO and normal mode? The manual states ECO will shut down the AC at times, but anything else?
Adam, Eco Mode reduces AC consumption in general. You can easily observe the effect if you switch modes with the Ac running.