Since I got my car 4 weeks ago, I have mostly been driving in normal mode. I would only use PWR when going up a hill or getting on the highway. And I do EV mode as much as I can on back roads close to home. In normal mode on Friday, my mileage was 51.3. Yesterday, I drove in ECO (except for the hill and the EV section) and got 53.3. Today I drove in all Power mode (except for my EV section) and got 55.1!!!! My highest avg. for my commute so far. I think because I feel a lot of pressure to get moving coming out of red lights, in normal and ECO I spend more time in the red on the HSI. In power I get to speed faster which means less time in the red. I think I will stick to power mode.
I'm going to experiment on my next full tank and see what I come up with in PWR mode. In ECO for a few first tanks I was getting around 46-47. Then this last tank i went to normal for the whole tank and shot up to 52 so far (3 pips left on my gas gauge). I actually have been attributing my increase to something similar as you describe. I get up to speed faster and then coast much longer on battery or with the ICE engaged while getting higher than 50mpg.
Interesting! I'm tempted to test this myself. Does the car remain in Power Mode after you turn it off the way Eco does, or do you have to keep setting it?
No it turns off when you shut down t he car. You have to reengage it next time. I haven't put enough miles yet to test for this...I am wondering about on the highway with cruise engaged if there is a significant difference between modes?
No, only Normal and ECO modes dafault back to themselves when the car is turned off. If turned off in PWR mode, it defaults back to normal mode. There is no way to change this so one much remember to engage PWR mode each time the vehicle is started if this is their preferred mode.
If you left it in normal mode and simply bring the HSI to the same point where it "feels good" in power mode, is the resultant acceleration the same [for more foot into it, of course]? . _H*
I'm not sure I am understanding the question. When a light turns green, I basically want to keep up with traffic and not have someone right on my tail. So after the light, I am usually in the red pwr section of the HSI. In normal mode, I am full on red, but in Power Mode, I would hit the red, but not as hard and for a shorter duration. It's easier to accelerate and I am not hanging in the red for such a long time trying to get up to the speed limit with the traffic. I also get to the point where I can glide more often in Power Mode.
I haven't kept the car in PWR mode long enough to notice a difference in mpg, but I do prefer the feel of the car in that mode, especially since I have a lot of hills to climb right off the bat. I don't like the feel of ECO mode -- seems one has to work much harder, as you say. I think I'll give PWR mode a try!
I tried out driving in PWR mode for about 30 miles and I got about 57 mpg. I typically get about 52 mpg on the same route. I think i'll keep it there for a while and see how the mileage changes on longer routes.
I'm doing some of the same experimenting. So far... power mode is giving me the same or better mpg than eco did and it's much more satisfying to drive that way. ^^
I am also going to start to experiment with this. I have been averaging about 50.3 MPG in Eco Mode. I used PWR only on limited occasions. Does anyone think in the long term it would have any impact on the engine being in this mode on a regular basis? I know there are a lot of excellent posters here, and I would only be concerned from that standpoint?
I usually switch between ECO and Normal mode but have been doing most of my driving in ECO mode. As with others, I find that trying to keep up with traffic in ECO gets tedious. So on my commute home today, I decided to use Normal mode. I was actually more fuel efficient than if I had used ECO (ECO was normally about 52.8 MPG, Normal today was 53.5 MPG) while driving faster... On a separate note, I wanted to test the power in PWR mode. So I waited at a stoplight, with PWR mode on and a red Audi A4 (don't think it was a S4 but it had the S badging on it) behind. Light turned green, off I went... no, it wasn't quite tire-smoking performance... but it was enough to gap the Audi behind me, and when he did catch up, he did have a slight look of awe on his face, as if to say "A Prius can do that?"
wow, on my 25-mile mountainous interstate commute to work in POWER mode, my fuel economy INCREASED (even at higher speeds). I like it!
I did a little test of my own recently. I picked a stretch of I65 near my home in middle TN of about 20 miles (round trip) and set the cruise control on 70mph. This stretch of road has several hills along it. I drove the section three times, once each in ECO, Normal, PWR. I reset the mileage computer each time 'on the fly' (after setting the cruise control) and got the following results: ECO - 52.4 mpg; Normal - 52.1 mpg; PWR - 52.1 mpg.
You have the same amount of power available in Normal mode and Power mode. The difference is in how the power is mapped to the accelerator pedal. In Power mode you get more power for less push, but this is only a tactile issue, not one of efficiency. Hobbit's point was that you could leave the mode in Normal and simply press harder with your foot. Either way the efficiency is the same for the same delivered power. You have hit upon one of the misunderstood factors of high mileage driving. Common sense tells people to creep away from lights for good mileage, driving like they have eggs under their feet. This is wrong. If the road ahead is clear (not stop and go), you want to accelerate at the most efficient power point, which is fairly brisk. This lets the engine work at its most efficient level. Another question is why you use EV on your way home. If it is for efficiency, you might want to rethink it. EV mode is normally a mileage killer, and should only be used for repositioning a car, or slow stop and go. The exception would be to burn off charge if your start the next day is downhill. Tom
I use EV on a stretch of road that is a bunch of short blocks with stop signs where the speed ends up being around 17mpg. I see a gain in mpg during that stretch. I still have a mile afterward that gives more charge to the battery before I reach home.
And, of course, you probably realize that the guy in the AUDI was not putting any effort to leave quickly, because if he did, you know who would be left behind in the dust, don't ya?
I have been using "power" much more lately as well. Here in hilly San Diego county I have a much lower MPG than most also d/t my super short commute. Power mode totally increased my mpg from low 40's to mid/upper 40's. Sometimes it does have the feel of a "turbo boost". I rarely use EV and don't find any significant improvements with eco so it is mostly power and normal for me.
I tried power mode for a little while on the way home. It's hard to say if it was a contributor, but my trip consumption was about 3mpg less than normal. Of course every trip varies. I'll have to do more research.
