First time Prius owner (Gen 5 Prime). Anyone willing to drop some wisdom near enough for me to pick it up and use it? I'm assuming things like "smooth, slow acceleration, coast steady, long regen braking", but honestly even that I'm not 100% on (for example, I got better gas mileage on my 2007 stick shift Mazda by doing more of a pulse-and-glide approach; higher power for shorter time then prolonged coast, do it again). Similarly, curious if anyone has done or even thinks it's worthwhile to do any aero kitting or similar eco mods to the body.
The only tips I can give you for Gen 5 is forget all that silly hyper-miler stuff from the old days. Prius and Prime are a learning experience. For example updates made to Gen 4 compared to Gen 3 made Gen 4 a complete new game. I expect Gen 5 is close to if not more of the same. Some of the basics are still the same as outlined in the owners manuals, including silly old stuff like steady speed on the flat, obviously, only more so with the newer models. It took me a long time to actually experience that. Speeds not intuitive, it's good to have a plan and sane expectations, the Primes pack is small, and it's dynamics are different than an EV with a 1 ton pack under it. Gauges are another thing, Gen 3 to Gen 4 tripled in gauges. I still don't have a complete understanding of all the gauges Prime offers. I believe I've seen them all, but there may still be some buried deep behind or on the simple screen dash settings I've missed. I take pics - once a or every few months - of all gauges and history data, even if I never look at um, there are so many. The algorithms keep getting dialed in more and more with each new generation, an example: heuristic mode is nearly impossible to detect in Gen 4 and that's one of the main points about how early pulse and glide worked. Pulse and glide may still work, if willing to put the work in to see how it's been dialed in, but there are other thing that are more important, IMO. With Prime, I wanted to learn about how EV works and not so much about when it's better to switch to HV instead. Like most new Prime owners I drove in EV exclusively for the first few years. Now, I wish I'd had the forethought to use HV all winter instead. The HAVC systems another one of those things, not many of us know how best to handle, especially when new and can't really see long term results. The car can be driven anyway a driver wants to, but learning the system takes time and some motivation, cause you'll see all kinds of claims and counter claims made about how the system really works, but a clue is to check location when reading in this forum about how the Prius or Prime and which model if included works in a location that doesn't have the same climate as yours. It can make a big difference year to year.
I think the most straight forward thing you can do to increase MPGs is downsizing your tires to 16s or 17s. Plenty of posts about this online. Still debatable if the upfront cost of new tires and rims can be recouped with the gas savings though. Depends on how long you plan on owning it and how much you drive.
If pulse and glide worked for you in the past, it should still work. The 'trick' with a hybrid is learning to feather the accelerator to the point of not having any power going from the motor or engine to the wheels on the energy monitor on the glide. Failing that, just get a little EV on the glide portion. Or just put the car in neutral for the glide. Driving with load is another old hypermiler method. It's like steady speed, but you keep the power output constant instead. So you slow down on inclines and speed up on the downslope.
One ploy I've found quite effective: if you've got to use the car for something during the day, appointment, a dinner: also do some chores, shopping or whatever's been piling up, the same day. Consolidate trips as they say. Also, almost without fail, I plug in the block heater, approximately 2 hours before start-up. Both these are good for mpg, and engine longevity, I think. Another thought: Ultimately it's about using less gas. This is the elephant in the room, and anybody, with any car, can do that, by just reducing superflous driving.
In terms of aero mods, there isn't much that can be done, and you might even hurt overall aero. Smaller, lighter wheels will help. You want to keep the tires the same width to not have a negative impact on aero.
The tip for maximizing fuel economy I can give that absolutely works every time, for every car is.... Slow Down 5mph. If you like the results on that tankful, slow down another 5 mph! The savings will be noticeable.
Increasing following distance is no slouch either; it's a momentum "surge pile", allows you to coast through slow downs, even avoid full stop at red lights occasionally.
