Ok I get 487 miles a tank

No.

Pretend there is a stop sign a 1/2 mile ahead. You can either lift off the gas then reapply a little throttle to go into a glide (using no gasoline) now or you can continue applying throttle to maintain speed then start your braking at the 1/8th mile mark. You tell me which one is more efficient.

A: Go into a glide and coast for 1/2 mile using no fuel then brake at the last moment and recapture a tiny amount of energy.
B: Continue to use fuel until the 1/8th mile mark then recapture a little more energy which then undergoes conversion losses.

Theory and practice will say that option A uses the least amount of fuel.

 

Now I get your point. Thanks for the clarification. I do glide as much as possible, although learning to glide the Gen III was a little more difficult than the Gen II. I can be a little thick headed sometimes!

 

the more you brake, the more energy it costs you. sounds counter intuitive, but it simply means you saw the red light too late. if you see it soon enough, you coast as long as possible. no one is saying you never have to brake, you can't coast to a stop unless you're going uphill.
and you have to consider the people behind you. if you see the light a long way off, you can't coast down below the speed limit. you have to maintain it until a reasonable distance, then start coasting, then gently braking.

 

Not the battery meter, the charge meter. You don't want the charge meter to fill while braking.

 

I've read this before a couple times on the forum but never understood why. So the goal is to not fill the charge meter? How does one accomplish this?

 

On the display, the meter that goes right when accelerating and the left when braking. If you break lightly and make the meter go no more the 3/4 to the left, you are sending the max amount of energy to your batteries, without engaging the friction brakes, so it's regenerative only.

 

So if I understand correctly, one should step on the brakes hard to avoid sending energy to the battery? Isn't this how Toyota designed it to be though? I thought the point was to be more efficient and store this energy when braking. Am I missing something?

 

Use the brakes sparingly. Jamming on the pedal is not going to be mpg friendly. Keep the gauge from being pegged all the way to the left when possible.

 

No, you should do just the opposite. Brake lightly to capture energy and not engage your brake pads.

 

ah that makes more sense. Thanks for the clarification.