How to Pulse and Glide with pictures...

Very nice! You might want to edit the >41mph text. That is Warp Stealth, not technically a 'glide' which implies <41mph and all arrows off. Also interesting on my Prius 2008 #2, the regen arrows are blue... unless it's just the picture color...

 

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I have found what is for me a simpler approach.

1. Keep the Consumption screen up.

2. Pulse (accelerate moderately hard - don't need the Energy screen to tell you what pulse is) to 5 mph over posted limit and up hills to just before the crest

3. Release pedal completely and mpg shoots to 99

4. Apply only as much gas as keeps you at 99 or at least above 75 (for downhill this engages stealth mode and for level terrain this engages warp stealth)

5. When speed drops to 5 mph below posted limit pulse back to 5 mph over (customize this for your situation/preferences)

This just seems easier, more intuitive, and safer than watching the Energy screen.

 

Thanks. I was never quite sure if I was doing it right. I trust you're having someone else take the pictures while you drive....:fear:

 

One thing I found very interesting is that in the US you want your yellow bars as long as possible. In Canada, because we monitor gas "mileage" by Litres per 100 Kilometers, we try to keep our bars as short as possible.

Buck

 

I typically use the method described by JamesWyatt and it helps the mileage a lot. I live way the heck out in the country and rarely encounter other vehicles so I'll glide for quite a while. I've found that pulsing just after cresting a hill and allowing gravity to help you get up to speed can also help.

I've never thought about controlling the pulse to be ICE-only. I'll have to give that a try!

 

Using the Consumption Screen, what I have done to make sure my pulse was as economical as possible was watch the drop in tenths of an mpg I would get with each pulse. I found it was best to train myself on this with between 80 and 120 miles into a tank so that the tenths of an mpg were responsive, but not too responsive. By trial and error I learned how much pulsing was too much, and how much was not enough.

I think it takes too much attention from driving to watch the Energy Screen arrows vs the Consumption Screen mpg bar. I can see the mpg bar with my peripheral vision. I'll try it with the Energy Screen and see if it makes a difference over the course of a tank. Do you think you could get the hang of pulsing with ICE only and could do it without visual feedback?

 

I think to each his own, but this is NOT the method used by top hypermilers anywhere I've read... nor would it be used by anyone truly obsessive about mileage (uh...me). The energy screen is monitored to ensure a no arrow glide and to help monitor pack assists and draws...

 

Please understand the "for me" phrase I included. "For me" it is a good compromise between mpg and safety. Unlikely I will ever get 60+ mpg doing this, but neither will my one-track mind run me off into the ditch or into the back of a stopped car.

 

Yes - If I pay attention to how the car feels, I can tell when it goes from mild regen (as in coasting) to glide. You can actually feel the car roll a little more freely.

Also, I do one thing a little differently, When I am on a street with a 40mph speed limit, as I approach 40 in a glide, I let up on the go peddle and let the car regen down to about 38 then go back into glide.

As always traffic will dictate when pulse and glide can be done safely.

 

That's good to know. I don't mind carefully glancing at the Energy Screen for a few weeks if it can become a learned behavior not requiring me to look all the time. Thanks.

 

You are correct. This isn't the method I would use. I tell people to drive just like you would ride a bike. When riding a bike, you would never try to accelerate uphill; you would try to build up as much speed as possible before the hill. As for accelerating going down the hill, I think this is more efficient as you are letting gravity do most of the work. I used to ride a bike quite a bit several years ago and I would build as much speed as possible on the downside of a hill then coast as far as I could and get a little rest in the process. Conservation of momentum is the key. These techniques work great and allowed me to achieve 105.0mpg over the 66.0 miles I drove today for work(yes, I had to work on Saturday) and errands. I too live way out in the country and don't have much traffic so I can glide quite a ways.

 

I'd always thought that the best pulse was Engine to Wheels only (in other words no arrows back to the battery). In theory, the best efficiency is with no battery involvement (crazy, but true... as long as you depend on gasoline as your energy source!). So to leave the battery out, you don't want to generate, nor consume battery energy. To do that you want to avoid arrows into or out of the battery. The first screen shots show arrows into the battery during pulse.

Am I just dreaming?

 

I agree. I thought the pictured state was refered to as DWL (Driving With Load) or something like that. I vaguely recall from the Hypermile Marathon a year or two ago that they used DWL (especially at night) for the pulses because the headlights and 12V system drained the battery over time, and glide is easier with a fuller battery.

 

So why is it called pulse? It seems more like a slow crawl to me.

 

That's theoretically ideal but hard to hit and even harder to hold. During ICE-on acceleration, the car pretty much will do its own thing anyway with currently flow into or out of the battery, seemingly based on SOC. With SOC in the 50% range, I've seen 10-20 amps (maybe more) going into the battery with acceleration no matter what I do with the go-pedal; there is no so-called "dead band" there.

I long ago gave up on trying to dead-band and instead I focus on keeping RPM within efficient ranges. This serves the added benefit of avoiding significant battery boost during acceleration. Results from recent trips seem to validate this approach.

For the benefit of those without added instrumentation, I recommend keeping instantaneous MPG at least half the vehicle speed during pulses. This generally will avoid battery boost and inefficiently high ICE RPM. This means, of course, that either the Energy Screen or Consumption screen can be used during pulses. But I strongly recommend sticking to the Energy screen to monitor glides. You might think you can sense a held glide by seat-of-the-pants sensations, but transitions to lower-efficiency regeneration or stealth mode are very subtle and easy to miss.