Today I took an approximately 160 mile round trip from Wilmington NC to south of Myrtle Beach. The trip was mostly driven at about 55mph on Route 17 with some bumper to bumper traffic near Myrtle Beach. I drove entirely in the Power Mode and achieved a little over 57mpg. This compares to around 52mpg when I have driven the route in normal or ECO. Previously I have driven in the Power Mode around town and gotten over 59mpg compared to about 54mpg in normal or ECO. Based on these results and the improved performance, I see no reason not to drive all the time in the Power Mode. Am I missing something?
1) Power mode does nothing normal mode does not do, it just re-maps how much you have to press the gas pedal. 2) Besides remapping the pedal, Eco mode also relaxes how much the Heat and A/C runs, if they are not heavily used, then relaxing that won't do much. You may find that dead of winter/heat of summer their is more difference with Eco mode.
Very interesting result. I don't have as much data as you, but I can say when using Power Mode around the suburbs, my MPGs have increased a little bit even when well into a tank (over 300 miles on tripmeter). I like the MPG results, but sometimes I don't like how sensitive the gas pedal is in Power Mode.
The reason I asked the question is that the results on the surface seem to be counter intuitive. The trips were taken with air conditioning on lightly. I don't use any special techniques other than pressing the pedal fairly gently and coasting where available. I bought the v expecting I would be averaging in the low 40mpg and now am averaging in the mid 50's. Very impressive for a small mini van.
Very interesting. I'm about to fill up a gas tank so I'll try to drive in Power Mode and post the results.
Today, just to see how the Power mode performs during a short drive, I took a 4 mile round trip to the local grocery store in the morning. This is a trip where I have found it impossible to do better than 45mpg or so in normal or ECO because the trip is so short, the battery starts at its lowest level in the morning, and EV operation is reduced. In the Power mode I averaged over 57mpg and was in EV more than usual. If the Power mode does indeed improve gas mileage, it may be because it allows greater operation of EV.
I enjoy the throttle response of the power mode and that's setting I like the best. Last road trip to SoCal I was using normal mode. I'm about to do another 1k Road Trip To SoCal this weekend and I'm planning on using power mode throughout the trip. We'll see how much MPG difference compared to normal.
One thing I noticed in Power mode in my Pruis IV '10 is I make many smaller inputs on the gas pedal, resulting in more power on/off occurances. Whether I'm in normal, eco, or power mode, this type of driving yields better mpg's. After a while I acclimate to the setting then mpg's return to normal. When in eco mode, at first my mpg's go up, but eventually I start pressing farther down to get the same response I would in normal mode so I just stay in normal mode 95% of the time.
Drove to the beach today in Power mode. It's about a 25 min. drive each way with about 5 miles at 50mph and the rest at around 35mph. Average mileage for the trip was 65.4mpg which is insane. To do this you need to be in the EV zone quite a bit since the gas engine won't achieve that kind of mileage. As I've mentioned before, when driving in Power the EV zone seems to be available more often. I haven't done any great study of this and an analysis of the Hybrid hardware/software interaction is beyond my knowledge, but possibly the Power mode more effectively charges the battery.
You are getting great mileage! I wonder if it has anything to do with how warm it is where you live? Today in Seattle was the first time it got in the sixties. Today I was averaging 48 mpg the highest ever for my car. I am wondering if the V just likes warmer weather. I will try the power mode tomorrow and see what happens.
The computer on my car says 50mpg for this tank of gas. Today was a warm day for Seattle around 65 or so. I have over 7600 miles on my Prius.
hoddy, are you doing any thing else? I have only been getting around 44-46mpg, but not 50+. Have you over-inflated your tires? Do you pulse and glide?
My daily commute to work is about 70 mi one way with about 60 mi going between 70 -72 mph and 10 mi between 20 - 50 mph. My average for every tank since last November is about 46mpg. This past Saturday, I filled up my tank and drove home driving between 20- 45 mph, I average 57mpg in 17 mi. I always drive in "Normal" mode. Based on my observations, I find that the best mpg is between 45 to 55 mph.
I don't do anything with the tires which are the Bridgestone Turanza. I do try to pulse and glide, but nothing unusual. The v mpg is very route/trip dependent. For instance, on the trip to the beach I found myself in the EV zone quite often because that is what the traffic and speed dictated. I'm also sure that I could devise a route where I would get in the low 40mpg. Unfortunately, you don't always have control over your route conditions. I do find that for me the Power mode is the most effective mode. It's interesting that you say "only" 44-46mpg. When I bought the v, I was a little concerned that I would be disappointed in the v mileage because the EPA estimate was lower than the Gen. 2 Prius that I was driving. We are both getting above the EPA estimate.
