Low Mileage on PiP basic 2012

It's been my experience (I talk to anyone at a gas station, store etc who owns a Prius) that women don't seem to care about mileage. Other than to say, "Hey, it's great compared to my old car."

Ask her how she drives would be my first thought. I know my wife HATES to drive my PIP since she's scared she'll use some gas....lol....and I'll yell at her she says.

 

What is the MPG you are averaging?

A regular Prius will tend to get low 40's in the winter.

With a plug and modest use of the heater (avoiding the "HI" setting and maximum blower) you'll exceed 60. Traveling roughly 4 times your distance daily, recharging twice, and dealing with colder conditions, I'm seeing around 75 with my well broken-in Prius PHV. In the summer, it's easy to get higher than that.

 

order a Tesla for her.

 

I'm confused, you
a) told us nothing about how your wife drives
b) didn't even tell us what mileage you're getting (except that apparently it's not "great", whatever that means)
…and we're somehow supposed to be able to give you ideas on how to get better mileage? or say that it won't get better? how on earth are we supposed to do that?

 

Sounds like she is using air heater that turns on the gas engine. Does she know about the electric seat heater?

If the commute is 9.9 miles one way, she should be getting 50% EV. Perhaps there are longer weekend miles in there that drags down the EV ratio.

If she must use air heater, initially switch to HV mode for the first 5 miles and back to EV mode later with heated seat. Repeat the same on the trip back home.

 

You didn't buy enough EV range for your needs.

 

If one drives the Pip like a NY Cabdriver, good mileage will never occur. Even the Pip requires conservative driving. Slow and even acceleration and long slow rolls to a stop. Timing light. And never Jack Rabbit Starts. With 50mph limitations, and driving in EV initially. 60-70mpg blended EV/HV should be attainable. Maybe not in Winter, but definitely in Summer. If it can be charged at work also, so much the better. Your wife should ask or initiate. My best leg thus far was 93 mpg for 1100 miles.

 

I doubt he bought a plugin Prius to get the full EV experience. The purpose of the forum is to share tips to maximize the car. In this case OP wants to get higher MPG with the use of more electricity and less gas.

Warmer climate will increase the EV ratio for sure. Tips and deeper understanding can also help, especiallty in the winter.

I don't think comments like "you did not buy the right car for your need" is constructive. Perhaps they need 50 MPG gas engine for longer weekend trips.

 

That's not the OP's compliant/problem and they asked how it could be improved.

 

Right, they are asking for suggestion and areas where EV isn't possible. How is your suggestion of buying more EV range any helpful?

Perhaps, they need a full mid size interior with 5 seats and a flat cargo floor. My take is that OP bought the right car and asking for suggestions for improvement.

 

Not at all. 2 "refills" on this car corresponds to 17 gallons. That's 57 mpg. I don't understand why you "think" something about your mpg, it's really not that hard to calculate it. In my experience, the numbers you get from the pump are about 5% lower than what the car displays, so in your case, actual mileage would correspond to 48+ mpg, not 40 as you claim.
I believe the issue here is with the way she drives to work. She needs to stop using the heater and use the seat heater instead. This will allow her to make it to work entirely in EV and should significantly boost mileage. I would also recommend choosing PWR mode for the commute TO work — I have found that acceleration is crazy sluggish in ECO EV mode.
We had another post just like this a few weeks ago. The OP there disappeared without telling us whether any of our suggestions helped. It would be nice if you could actually try our suggestions and let us know what happens.
Btw, one thing to do: next time you set the car to charge before a workday, reset the EV driving ratio (press and hold TRIP when viewing it) and then report back to us what it is when she returns from work. It should be 40-50%. If not, something is amiss — maybe your wife is taking lots of midday short trips? Lol.

 

She is getting great mileage, because in virtually any other car, her driving would net her about 18 MPG.

Either she wants to use the HSI display to learn high mileage habits, or not.

 

Unless it was a Volt and she would probably be getting closer to 250 MPG.

 

PiP gas tank is smaller (10.6 vs 11.9 gallons) so each fill ups are about 8 gallons instead of 10.

Can you take a screenshot of the EV DRIVING RATIO screen? That has a lot of information and we can work off from there. There are two screens (1 and 2) that you can flip with the TRIP button. The one that you have not reset (lifetime) is better. Below is mine, after about 2 months of driving.



I have no problem accelerating 50+mph in EV mode and keep up with the traffic here. I find ECO mode easier to control and maintain in EV mode. The accelerator mapping becomes less sensitive and it helps to not trigger the ICE.

 

Besides all the other info requested...

At the end of the day, what is the reported miles remaining before you charge again? What is the miles remaining displayed after a full charge. This will give us an idea of how far she is going on EV each day.

Mike