2018 Fuel Consumption Report

Since I benefited from this forum before I bought my 2018 Prius earlier this year, I thought I would share my measured fuel consumption six months in (about 14,000 km driven). I bought the car used but it was really new (only 200 km on it - that is a story!).

The short answer is it is is performing "very well" and there have been no problems with it.

It is consuming about half that used by my former 2013 RAV4 and nearly one-third that of my wife's car (2009 Infinity G37x). Below are two graphs showing the consumption as litres/100km and miles per imperial gallon. On each graph is the actual consumption and that reported by the car's computer (which is always more optimistic, by about 7% on average).The two consumption bumps on the graph were when my wife took a long highway road trip AND another was a highway road trip where it was driven hard and fast to catch our new sailboat (being trucked, not sailed!).

Observations:

- when the weather is warm, consumption is lowest (unless the A/C is working hard - usually not the case in Nova Scotia).
- it does better at mid speeds (60-80km) than city or highway speeds.
- it performs poorly on short trips if the engine is not warmed up. My usual driving into town and back is a mix of highway and city driving (33 km each way).
- engine break-in early on and snow tires also cost about 10-15% - it will be interesting to see what this winter is like.
- I get better results than my wife (I have learned how to drive efficiently - she doesn't pay attention to it)

The bottom line is for combined driving in summer, I am getting about 65 miles per imperial gallon (4.3 l/100km). Over the whole period consumption was 59.8 miles per imperial gallon (4.73 l/100km). The Canadian government combined rating is 4.5 l/100km.

When driving on country roads (average speed 70km with turns and modest ups and downs, it is not difficult to get 75 miles per imperial gallon!

Some final stats:
- fuel cost per km: $0.054 CAD
- average cost per litre over 6 months: $1.149 CAD
- kg of CO2 released: 1492 kg
- CO2 per km: 110 grams
- total fuel cost: $749 CAD (651 litres)

I hope this was helpful to others - any questions, just ask!

--- Dave

 

Thanks. Don't know about the lights. Deer strikes happen here for sure, but it is Newfoundland where the Moose is the provincial hood ornament (with deadly consequences)!

--- Dave