First refill of 8.366 gallons for 425 miles on my first tank after 2 weeks: I expected more.

My experience is that a couple standard deviations separates 60 from 70 mpg. I think most people have commutes that will allow 60 mpg unless the majority is highway driving if the driver drives like me, while I agree that a 70 mpg tank requires an accommodating route AND driving like me.

Please note, I am not suggesting my driving is some paragon of hypermiling -- that is Wayne Gerdes.

 

Try this on the highway using you HSI:

1. Get up to about 65-68 mph by accelerating moderately
2. Then back off on the gas until you are at the left side of the "O" in "ECO".

- look at the impg gauge to hone in on the best position​

3. Hold this as long as you can without going too slow

- it works great on flat to slight uphill/downhill​

4. Rinse and repeat

Also, try and follow a larger vehicle, but stay about 1 - 1.25 seconds behind. You will see you iMPG gauge go very high in the 80 mpg range. I have a 2012 Prius HB (Model 3) and like to put the 1 minute bar chart on my entertainment screen. I call this my 1 minute report card. I don't know if you can do this on yours, but if you can it's great feedback.

My best mpg from work to home is 75 mpg on a 35 mile trip with about 4 mile of local roads. I did hit some traffic, but it helped my mpg.

GOOD LUCK!!!

 

Eco mode will only help you get better mileage if you're someone who doesn't drive for efficient mileage. It's basically useless to me. It's designed for people who stomp on the pedal with no mercy. You can achieve much better results by staying in Normal mode because you actually have more accurate control over the throttle and can manipulate your momentum more easily. Babying the throttle a little is okay in Normal, in ECO it will destroy your mpg.

 

We own a G2 Prius, and recently bought a CTh. The G2 does not have the user selectable fuel pedal mapping, so the first time my wife took the car out of a parking space she could not get the car to move and was sure it was broken.

The 'problem' was the car was in ECO, and she was not pushing on the pedal hard enough

 

My mpg has always been higher on the highway, assuming I keep it 60 mph or below. The speed limit here in Western Washington state is generally 60 on the freeways and often 55 or less on highways so it was always easy for me to get 52 to 55 mpg in my 2005 Prius. When I drove my new Prius home from the dealership last week, I averaged 57 mpg on the 55 mile drive with all but three of those miles being freeway or highway. On my drives in the city the past week I've been averaging only about 52 mpg. The temperature the past week has been 60ish, my tires are 40/38 and I never exceed the speed limit.

 

Highway MPG is mostly a matter of speed;
City MPG is a more complicated beast, affected by other drivers, luck of the signals, and driver ability to minimize brakes use.

For the math inclined, Hwy and City MPG have similar means, but City has a larger CV. For that reason aggressive drivers usually report better Hwy fuel economy, while gentle drivers report the opposite.

 

That's great! Our speed limit on the highway is 70 so I can see where if the speed limit was lower, I would get better gas mileage. I usually keep it at 73 to keep from getting run over so I end up with 48mpg average. My mpg's in town are much better!

 

I was very pleasantly surprised when I finally took my c on a highway trip over the weekend. Lots of elevation changes, used cruise control much of the time, low AC most of the time, 55-60 mph, and managed 52-56 mpg on various legs of the trip. I wasn't really expecting to break 50, so I was super happy.

 

here.. you can be pissed off about this:

manual control of A/C with very little use, probably a total of 2 minutes of that using cruise control, drafting and following the traffic of semi-trucks.. even dealing with the sorta infamous Grapevine on the I-5 (about 1500 ft elevation change).. DWL, DWB, and misc. other hypermiling techniques..

from experience, the idealistic 63.6 mpg calculated by the car.. yields about 60 mpg calculated manually.

FYI... make sure you know what the hell "B" mode is for... it DOES NOT give you more regen.. i repeat.. DOES NOT GIVE YOU MORE REGEN..

could I have gotten better mpg numbers? yeah... as i could've been a lot more aggressive in hypermiling techniques... but i think there are limits to how much you should piss off "gasholes"... heheh.

am i happy with the results? oh hell yes.

 

One thing that has not been mentioned about using neutral is that it is less fuel efficient than a true glide or even warp stealth especially if done while the ICE was running.

I think you are doing fine. With time and more miles you'll refine your techniques and it will get even better. It took me a few years to figure out my GenII.

 

1) Don't shift into N or B, it's best to keep it in D the entire time.

2) Don't accelerate slowly, you will waste fuel trying to get up to speed.

3) Once you are at the speed limit put on cruise control. This is the easiest way to get great mpg. (Pulse and Glide can be better, but it's complicated.)

4) If you see a red light or stop sign in the distance immediately lift your foot off the pedal. As you get closer, gradually apply more pressure so you come to a smooth stop. This is the best method for maximum regen.

 

I averaged 53 mpg the other day on the interstate on a 60 mile trip. I will take 50 mpg all day long, I love this car!

 

Accelerate moderately, get yourself a bit over your speed target, then lift off the gas pedal and coast, gently re-depressing the gas pedal to get a bit of boost from the electric motor, but not enough to kick in the gas.

When your speed falls off too much: push down further, starting up the gas engine, and repeat the process.

This will tax the battery more so don't overdo this, to the point that you're completely draining the battery. The key is to not be miserly with the gas, give a decent pulse of acceleration, then your coasts are mostly electric-assist free.

At moderate speeds with the car fully warmed up, this should shut the engine down intermittently.

Also, just drive strategically, ie: look ahead, coast up to slow downs, and so on.

A couple of other things you might want to look into: block heater and grill block. We use the block heater year round, almost without fail before the first start up of the day. And we use grill block in varying amounts, basically all parts of the year where we're not needing AC. Once we start using AC the grill block comes completely off.

 

I thought gliding technically did not involve any acceleration (even electric), but was just pressing the pedal enough to prevent regen braking?

 

Can you elaborate? How will ECO destroy your MPG? I've driven with ECO on since I bought my C2.

 

In general CC is a bad idea for excellent fuel economy. I never use it, and I average about 30% better than EPA on the highway, and about 50% over EPA in the city.

OTOH, if cc keeps you from lead footing it may be an improvement.

People voice strong opinions about ECO and fuel economy. Personally I find it does not make a difference. I leave the car in ECO most of the time, but on long highway drives I switch to NORMAL or POWER to rest my foot and leg muscles.

 

Forget what's "stated from manufacture". Please read Car and Driver: The Truth About EPA City / Highway MPG Estimates | PriusChat and Car and Driver: Here’s Why Your Mileage May Vary (A Lot) from the EPA Estimates | PriusChat to learn about the EPA tests.

Hint: They don't drive on a real road, but rather on a dyno. They don't measure actual fuel usage either, but rather tailpipe emissions.

Yep, OP should read Car and Driver: Mileage? No, it's Your Gallonage that Really Counts | PriusChat.

 

i used to drive with ECO always on... until i learned to pulse and glide better as well as overall throttle control.

ECO mode prevents you from accelerating as fast... which, as a hypermiler, you want when you are doing p&g... get up the the desired speed efficiently and quickly... then use EV and/or light throttle to maintain that speed.

so yes.. i don't use ECO mode anymore because of that.

also... read what he wrote.. if you're babying the throttle already.. ECO mode will make it worse... you need that quick response to control speed more efficiently... it takes longer to get up to speed in ECO mode.. which isn't always a good thing.

 

^ Thanks for the info, I will give it a shot.