"N" gear

I just hit the P button at a red light if I need to rest my foot or something. You'd want to put it in N if you are at one of those automatic car washes, but besides that....I guess if you were towing your car on a front wheel dolly...

 

N is only intended for times when the vehicle needs to be able to move but not under its own power...such as at a car wash that moves your vehicle forward. The manual says to go into P if you are going to stop for a period of time and not want to hold the foot brake down.

In N, the Prius doesn't regenerate power as battery power drops...I suppose as a safety against it jumping into gear. It's fine to use N for a short time, but as you never know how low your battery is when you might want to do it, Toyota doesn't recommend it as a general practice.

 

i use it for pulse and glide.

 

I've used it in stop-and-go traffic. Just before coming to a stop I'd put it in N and you immediately feel some forward motion stop, even when you are braking. The Prius always keeps some power on the MG to creep forward at low speeds, even when braking. And it keeps me from having to have my foot on the brake all the time when stationary.
Sure, it happens that the moment you put it in D (for which you don't need to touch the brake) the ICE comes on, but the drain on the battery is so marginal that a minute or so can not possibly harm it.

 

I also use it to pulse and glide only

 

Coasting in Neutral or Gear to Save Gas - Coasting and Fuel Economy

I'm not sure if this article applies directly to hybrids, but I thought I'd toss it into the mix.

I'll admit to having left my car in N occasionally and seeing the message warning me that the battery is low, but I don't recall ever neutral coasting in this car. To me it goes into the "drafting behind trucks" spectrum of fuel efficiency.

Today's cars are loaded with Darwin features like (interestedly enough!) Neutral Safety Switches, TPMS, backup cameras, seat belt chimes, and the ever popular annunciators that make growling noises in parking lots so that you don't hit people who are both sight impaired and intellectually challenged.

This tells me that although neutral coasting is unwise and 50-state illegal, it's mostly a mattress tag law.
Pretty soon cars are going to have that "HAL 5000" vibe, and you're going to hear conversations like:

HAL: By the way, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?
Dave: No, not at all.
HAL: Well, forgive me for being so inquisitive; but during the past few weeks, I've wondered whether you might be having some second thoughts about the mission.
Dave: How do you mean?
HAL: Well, it's rather difficult to define. Perhaps I'm just projecting my own concern about it. I know I've never completely freed myself of the suspicion that there are some extremely odd things about this mission. I'm sure you'll agree there's some truth in what I say.
Dave: Well, I don't know. That's rather a difficult question to answer.
HAL: You don't mind talking about it, do you, Dave?
Dave: No, not at all.
HAL: Well, I noticed you tried to put me into NEUTRAL yesterday...........

 

To me, the Prius configuration is a mystery. Why the 3-second delay going into neutral? For safety you would want the vehicle to go into Neutral immediately when selected. And, as previously noted, using Neutral in a Prius during long traffic stops is unadvised since the traction battery does not charge under this condition. One could argue that the delay avoids an accidental selection of Neutral, but PRNDL selectors are much more susceptible to this when tapped forward by loose cargo or a rear passenger's foot. What is Toyota's thinking?

 

To reduce regen when gliding I rest foot light my on gas pedal.

I think the ONE time I use Neutral is to roll a tire on an angle to the curb, when parking on an uphill.

 

That's an interesting application.
I often use "N" to back out of or into inclined parking places, which most of them seem to be.

 

I hope you have learned how to get into Neutral instantly, without that delay. During the Sudden Unintended Acceleration fiasco, many of us figured it out.

 

N can be achieved in less than a second. If it's taking longer than 1 second to get into N, then something is wrong.

I've said it before, but as smart as the Toyota engineers were with this car, they goofed up on the regen behavior when lifting from the throttle . The default config should be to coast when lifting from the throttle, not gentle regen. Feathering the throttle to achieve coast is very difficult.

The power mode selector should be re-purposed to select different off-throttle behaviors so that drivers can select between no regen when coasting, light regen as it is now, or max regen to act as a brake.

 

The normal operation of 'N' includes a delay somewhat longer than 1 second. Those of us who want N faster, while moving at street or highway speed, have learned to select 'R' or 'P'. That causes the car to go into 'N' immediately with a double beep warning as it overrides the R or P command.

At some parking lot speed, 'P' will actually get Park with a substantial jolt. I don't know the threshold speed, but others who have found it suggest that it is slow enough to not be damaging.

From a fuel economy viewpoint, I agree. But for many people accustomed to traditional cars, this would cause a drivability problem. The light synthetic engine drag gives it a feel more similar to what drivers are accustomed to.

I disagree on the difficulty of feathering, but agree on the switchable choice for level of regen. I'd have the coasting regen turned off most of the time.

 

The time I use "N" is in the winter when I'm stopped at a light and don't want the engine running just because the heat is on.

When I stop I turn the heat off, let the engine stop itself, shift into "N", and then turn the heat back on. Being in "N" prevents the engine from starting which it would likely want to do just to keep the coolant temperature up.

When the light turns green I just press "D" (I have the push-button shifter replacing the shift lever) and drive away.

 

I use N when immediately going down hill on my first trip after a full charge. That keeps the ICE off and for most of my trips it is off for the whole trip. Yes it wears the brakes a little but they will still last a very long time. Its a fairly short hill