What tactics have you found to maximize mpg in the Prius C?

Wow, how did you get that screen up??


mobile phone ?

 

change the settings to show it.. look under eco settings.

 

Going for records is 90% of the fun in this car lol. How high over what distances. I cant wait for it to warm up and the motor to break in!

 

It's too bad they don't support triple digit mpg numbers. The 99.9mpg above was very likely higher but without a Scangauge you would never know. It's fun seeing 300+ after a nice downhill section.

 

87 for 15 miles has been my best going down hill. lol

57 on the freeway long distance is the best using reality

this week I averaged 55.5 going from auburn to SF, and 51 going from SF to Auburn



For me the average use, is the reality of it all, and I try and stay at 50

 

This comes from a regular Prius experience. First, keep the HSI screen on (forget the arrows screen) and learn how to understand it along with the instantaneous mpg gauge. My last trip of 35 miles on mostly highway was 65 mpg (FCD) and a little over 60 mpg for the tank (over 200 miles) mostly commuting back and forth to work.

DON'T use the EV to accelerate much, especially up to 30 mph. You will make more efficient use of the battery if you use the ICE to accelerate moderately up to about 30 mph, then re-step on the accelerator keeping it in the EV range to maintain the speed. You are using far too much energy using the EV to get up to speed and pissing off the people behind you. EV is very good in bumper to bumper traffic.

On the highway, accelerate moderately up to about 5 mph above the speed you want to maintain, then re-step on the accelerator and keep the HSI at about the "O" on ECO. You can manipulate the gas pedal in this narrow range and see how the instantaneous mpg gauge jumps to about 80 - 100 mpg if you let off slightly. It just takes a little practice.

Let your speed go down to about 5 mph below the speed you want to maintain. Then rinse and repeat. You will get a feel after a while according to your speed where you have to keep the HSI at.

The other big thing is to find a bigger vehicle and follow about 1 second behind it. Your mpgs will increase by about 15 - 20 mpg. As I travel to and from work, I constantly look for bigger vehicles to follow. Sometimes I will even get up to 100 mpgs. Of course, to be safe, never follow too closely.

I always keep the 1 minute bar chart on the screen to see how I am doing. It's like a 1 minute report card. On highways I am usually at least at 55 mpg cruising at 62 - 64 mph.

It sounds like a lot of info, but it works!

GOOD LUCK!!!

 

The pulse and glide is the part I cant seem to get to work. Does this only work on exceptionally flat road? I would think that accelerating up to 5 over mitigates the savings of slowing to 5 under. That or the roads I drive on are barely noticably uphill and my 'coast' is not that efficient. I tend to get 50 or so just maintaining 58-60mph, is it worth that much more mpg to keep trying the pulsing?

 

I have found that (according to the display only) I do better with ECO mode turned off. Allows me to get up to speed quicker. I guess getting up to speed quickly uses less fuel that taking longer and lower rpms. Kinda wish there was a tachometer without having to go ODB II.

 

A real pulse and glide session consists of pulsing up to about 42mph then gliding down to 25mph or so. This enables you to waste as little energy as possible getting up to speed (wind resistance is minimal) and gliding is done with the engine off and no energy going from the HV battery to the wheels. Trying to pulse and glide over 42mph provides less return on investment. Look into Super Highway Mode for efficiency above 42mph.

To make pulse and glide effective you must glide for at least as long as your pulse and hopefully much longer. example:

Pulse for 1/8th mile at 30mpg
Glide for 1/8th mile at infinite mpg
Equals = 60mpg for 1/4 mile.

Pulse for 1/8th mile at 30mpg
Glide for 1/4 mile at infinite mpg
Equals= 90mpg


In theory anyway. This assuming a static mpg of 30mpg while accelerating which is difficult to do. lol

 

Looks like i need to google super highway mode.

 

Best I have had for any distance (40 miles) was 89.6 with the first half at 99.9 as we were travelling mostly down grade at that time. The best of all was 99.2 for just under 4 miles because I was behind someone doing about 30 on the way to the post office.

 

We got identical results to yours except we live just about

We got identical IMG results to yours with a cold start, 8.5 mile trip where 7.5 was 45 mph and 1.0 mile @ 30 mph on the battery. Only difference was we live about 20 miles from the highest point in our state, so every where we go is slightly down hill. On the return trip 4 hours later we could only get 65.0 IMG driving 30 for 1.0 mile and the rest @ 34 mph so the engine would only occasionally come on (hit 35 mph and engine comes on on level road). Altitude change makes a big difference.

 

MPG numbers only have some meaning for round trips, so you balance out the conditions and terrain.
In Japan the prius C (badged as an aqua) is rated at 82 mpg by the JC08 test (EPA equivalent). It is easy for them to get over 90 mpg. How can they do this? They have lots of slow, flat roads, like 25-30 mph slow.
Can we achieve this sort of economy? Yes, without ANY hyper-miling, if we can find the same sort of roads. Easier said than done, however.
I have such a road near where I live, a winding coast road with no intersections and only a couple of lights. I've gotten 84-87 mpg round trips 4-5 times recently, just by driving at a steady speed. No pulse and glide, no fixating/obsessing on the displays, just 40/37 psi in the tyres.
For top economy, where you drive is more important than anything else, then being able to choose your speed. The car does all the rest.

GT-I9300 ?