Crazy night, I ended up needed to kill some time, so I drove slowly, took some back roads, and practiced controlling my throttle/braking/etc... kind of proud of my little Prius
Amazing machine, that is for sure. Like your display. Almost all 99.9 MPG. Also Welcome to Prius Chat! Best of luck to you. Ron (dorunron)
Do you have any idea how much of that was EV operation? Many folks say its best to avoid EV operation, some don't agree.
About 1/3 was EV, there was a good bit of coasting in there. My average speed was pretty low too (between 30 and 45 MPH), so that probably helped a great deal. I've read a few threads that debate the EV thing, I'm finding that I prefer to use EV quite a bit... I think part of it has to do with my commute, traffic, etc. But, I'm still learning/experimenting.
Isn't the reason that we supposedly get better mpg in "city" driving because of EV at lower speeds followed by regenerative braking over and over, keeping the ICE off..? I find I gain at least a half mpg sometimes more on the tail end of my commute which is real city driving at low speeds using lots of EV, granted I have some uphill so that usually depletes my charge until I head home and recharge and hit the highway.
You can't get all the EV energy from regeneration In some situations the conversion losses involved in charging the battery from the ICE then converting back to mechanical energy reduces mileage. However, charging the battery when the ICE is operating efficiently, say going up those country hills, rather than using the ICE at slow speeds in the flat land where it isn't efficient may more that make up for the conversion losses. Of course the low average speed is always good for mileage.
