Hello everyone! I am a long-time reader and first-time poster. I just picked up my 2010 Prius yesterday and have a few questions. I live in southern Pennsylvania where there are hills, not as many as northern PA but there are still some substantial hills nonetheless. My question is how often can I go into the power zone going up hills and still achieve good gas mileage? I try to stay in the ECO zone whenever possible. Thank you in advance!
This is what I measured on an 8% grade hill: Lessons learned: Up the hill as slowly as safe - I like to follow semi-trailer trucks in the climb lane. 89 octane makes more ICE power available - the engine will tune to use higher octane fuel but other mileage may suffer. No data on 93 octane. Pure gas is almost always better. Descend using "B" - more for traction battery management, it also makes moderating the speed much easier. By hills, I mean 500 foot or better. Experiment - try different approaches and report your results. I have to drive out of town to find hills so you're in an area where you can contribute to our knowledge. Instrumentation - consider a DashDAQ or Scanguage or other instrumentation to gain insights. For example, peak cooled exhaust gas recirculation happens about 4,200 rpm. So this may be just over an optimum climb, rpm goal. GOOD LUCK! Bob Wilson
Near as I can tell, yes. When we next head to West Virgina, we'll use 89 to punch up the hills. Bob Wilson
You think you could make a graph like that for lower speeds? It seems like at speeds in residential areas with the same or greater % climbs, going slower eats your mileage average compared to gunning it and finishing the accent as fast as possible. poor for a long time vs. really crappy for a short time factoring into an otherwise good average.
A pity I didn't know about this before my road trip across the Rockies. I will have to remember to try that next year and see if there's any difference. Currently, it's 55mpg one way and 50mpg the return on 87.
On a long hill with a posted 45 mph limit, I find I get far better mileage (20%) if I'm slowed down by a truck in front to say around 30 mph, as opposed to keeping up with traffic at 50+ mph!
Overall mileage or instantaneous mileage? Because of course instantaneous will be better at slower speeds. But the same logic that allows pulse and glide to be efficient, it would seem that if you got it all "out of the way" as fast as possible, you are spending less time in the power burn zone. Like if you had a glass of water, and you poured it out at a constant speed X and it took you a time T, at the end you had V units of water left in it. Then next time you have V2 units left, where V2 > V, if you instead poured out at speed X*E, where E > 1.0, however it only took you T2 time, where T2 << T. What would the difference in V vs. V2 be?
Based on a the same route I drive every day, about 8 miles. When the only difference is being slowed down on that hill, I get about 70 to 75 mpg. Otherwise I get around 55!
Well, just the other day I decided to try not monitoring the eco graph Instead,just driving without any big regard to mpg I achieved about -2/10 of a gal difference that 1st day,and now mostly it is higher I am not using ECO mode button yet but will start this coming week just to see the difference if any. Mileage is now at about 1400 and have noticed a mpg jump overall from 1st tankful(10mpg) Tires are at 40 & 38psi. This is my second Prius,the 1st was just as easy to achieve excellent mpg after breakin. I fill up at the same pump when can,at the same time also FYI the best time in the hotter months is around 6-9am its estimated you can get 2-3% more per gal bought at these times because of contraction in the fuel itself There is realistically no gas available where I live that is not ethanolized.Pure gas is 100% from the oil barrel,no corn additives It is a bit of work to get much more than 50mpg,especially like where I am in the Seattle region. Super mega hills,most everywhere so if you get over 45mpg which I do everyday,that's way more than what I'd have expected here I have driven high mile per gallon cars for 28yrs or so These cars are great but I do long for the day of being happy with 28mpg Honda Civics,that being said,the 2010 Prius is a charmer
