Interesting results guys, here are the details: Last year, 5 of us piled in the Gen3 with the trunk full to the brim (and making way of that extra space above the spare tire) Traveled this trip with AC, averaged about 47 mpg involving 70+ mph roads for over 150 miles and variants in between. Also kind of tried to milk the mpgs at some point with coasting and using the battery at slow speeds This year, 5.5 of us piled into a PiP, trunk almost full, but with a Thule Transporter (not roof rack) hitched on Thule tail bottomed out some of the time Averaged 49 mpg without even trying lol, with AC on! What an awesome vehicle. But... We got a flat tire where we parked and there was no cell coverage. Luckily I had taken our old spare from the Gen 3 and plopped it on to be able to move around. But wow....imagine if we didn't have a spare, our vacation would've been totally ruined. I did what others did on the thread, open the spot where the charger usually go and put the spare half way in, worked like a charm and I'm glad I got it. First flat tire in 15+ years - it happens huh? Well hopefully the Gen IV keeps the spare in and I hope the PiP 2nd gen has something better than the tire kit
I was hoping to plugin somewhere on the highway and/or hotel...Didn't happen that way, so it was straight HV mode. Didn't even get to plugin at the beginning because we were running errands. Thing to notice though, the Thule Transporter is attached behind the car which seemed to help in terms of in the wind tunnel effect. The only real problem was accelerator, it would obviously be slower to go faster if that make sense. But still good mpg!
me either, but i can't see anything stuck to the outside of the car improving mpg's, or toyota would have stuck it!
Well supposedly there are Toyota specified parts for a hitch. And it was like that, but 49 mpg (according to the read-out). However the Gen 3 read 47 mpg too, error is about the same so it's a little less in actuality. Still - wasn't trying with the PiP and was trying with the Gen 3, I bet we could've done 49 mpg actual easily. The ride was stable also, that box rocked, I think the wind went right over it!
Well, you've added length to the car and that does help with aerodynamics. If you go to the ecomodder forum, you will see people putting boat tails on the back of their cars to give them better aero. The Thule carrier is likely acting as a small boattail.
Here's a Gen II with a boattail and super aerodynamics. This has never been done to my knowledge. This is a photoshopped, concept image but I'm betting this would dramatically increase hwy mpg. I did see a Prius that incorporated many of these mods (minus the boattail) and the owner claimed he got 54 mpg hwy.
I have driven my PiP to Canada.and Washington DC on separate trip. I got close to 60 MPG with 70+ mph speed most of the miles. Love my PiP!
Ok - actual MPG - 46.15 mpg for PiP Same time/trip last year: 45.8 mpg for regular Gen 3. Damn the errors on the display haha. But again the regular Gen 3 I tried to milk, PiP had a Thule and we just gave it our all 5 miles over the speed limit.
