Help - Mileage Sucks

huge difference. those uphills eat it up and the down hills don't help that much.

 

In the morning (fully charged) before you drive off, what is the EV range displayed on the car?

It doesn't look like your car getting a full charge everyday.

 

from a cold engine (40F outside), i just did a 2mi trip with a steep uphill, then downhill starting with only 1mi EV without doing any EV/HV toggling. i burned all the EV going up and ICE was running hard to get to the top. on the downhill, i regen'ed for ~0.5mi and got back ~1 mi EV. i drove normally on the trip back. outbound=34mpg, return=107mpg. i'm sure with techniques these numbers could be even better.

 

Ok do let us know.

Even after the "charge complete" message, are you still getting 62-63 MPG on that 10 miles trip? When you shutdown the car, a summary (miles traveled and MPG) of the trip is displayed. Can you take a picture of that too?

 

It's priceless knowing what the actual State-Of-Charge is. But if nothing else, you should be getting an EV estimate between 9 and 12 in the winter. That's 85% SOC.

 

Also note down the remaining EV range before it is shutdown.

I assume that's the end of 10 miles trip to work. 48 mpg is mind-boggling low.

 

Even with the ICE running in EV mode, 48 mpg for a 10 mile commute is still way too low. I mean, that's what you'd get with no EV at all in a regular Prius. Something is not adding up.

 

Maybe she had the heat really blasting, forcing the ICE to be very inefficient.

 

I've seen figures close to those on cold mornings.
Suppose it's 22deg outside and the windshield is frozen over, you spray the windshield to clear the ice- but once you start rolling on the road it freezes up again- you need the defroster to keep ice from reforming. You switch the airflow mode to "defrost and lower ducts" and set it to 72deg. The ICE instantly fires up and you're getting <50mpg while the ICE heats up and at the same time your EV miles are being quickly consumed with no benefit to fuel economy.
I start at my driveway with 9.4EV miles- in the above scenario by the time I've driven just 4 or so miles I only have maybe 4EV miles left and my mpg is under 50mpg. It sucks- they say the PIP gives you 12 mi on battery- I'm seeing 4 miles on very cold mornings.
Short trips in cold weather where you have to turn on the heat/defroster kill the PIP... you're burning gas and electric at the same time with no choice in the matter.

 

Clearly. I jump on the 70 mph highway just 3 blocks from my house. Even with the heater on and at that speed, the average is up around 90 MPG at the 10-mile mark.

The purpose of a plug-in hybrid is to significantly reduce consumption, not eliminate gas usage.

 

Here is something I have been doing for 30 years. Take a jug and fill it with hot tap water. Spread it on your windshield until the ice melts. Then put some more water on and turn on your wipers. Use the excess water on the rest of the windows/mirrors on the car. Turn on your rear defroster. Keep the wipers running until your windshield is dry. Many times I start driving with the wipers on.

Before anyone writes back and says how it will crack your windshield ... it doesn't! This method is much much easier than scraping your windshield and doesn't waste any gas trying to defrost it.

 

I had a trip that used up a full charge and only got 50 MPG.

That was when Nor'easter snow storm hit NYC, driving very slowly in the snow with tire spinning occasionally. This was after hurricane Sandy and there was gas shortage. I waited on a short gas line for 30-40 mins with the heater on, basically idling with ICE running periodically.

I left the line after finding out that they were waiting for a cop before letting people fill up. I went on and did a couple more stops before getting back home. The entire trip was about 2 hours grueling drive.

 

.... I actually did do that this morning as a gull dropped a present on my windshield yesterday and I needed to dissolve it. Thing is- as soon as I started rolling down my street- the residual water flash froze over and I needed the defroster. Guess I didn't keep the wipers on long enough ??

 

Use a good wiper fluid that does not freeze. Spray some and wipe.

 

That's the key!!!

Also, by soaking your windshield several times, the heat from the water warms up the windshield a little. But obviously as you drive any residual water will freeze again. So, that's why you have to keep the wipers on.

 

PPL in a cold climate can relate I guess- when it's 20deg all night and your car is as cold as a headstone- you get in and the sun's not up yet- the windshield (and side windows) are frozen over and the ICE just fires up as soon as you start off down the road because it's programmed to do so- and there's no way to prevent it from starting. When it's running- you get 48-50mpg at best and your EV volts are getting chewed up at an alarming rate too.

 

Maybe you are reading my post wrong, but I am only getting +100MPG on my way to work (21 miles, actually had 120MPG this morning, 27F, would have been higher, but I gunned it big time in order to catch up to another PiP ahead of me), on my way back, am on HV, so the total commute MPG drops down to 76MPG or so.

I just used Google Maps to plot my route, inserted waypoints so I have exact distances, so I can post a analysis of my 1-way commute this morning. I didn't have any heat running until I was out of juice, just electric seats.

Might be a great idea for Gary J to share the highlights of his route as well, so we can learn the route. I have multiple HV/EV strategies, but this morning, I went for the EV for everything until battery is drained. Anyways, here goes:

• EV .7 miles from my garage to main road
• EV 3.4 miles @ 55MPH with 4-5 steep/long inclines, stop sign
• EV 2.4 miles @ 30MPH with 2 big inclines, traffic light
• EV 2.1 miles @ 55MPH with 4 big inclines
• EV 0.9 miles @ 30MPH stop sign
• EV 1.0 miles @ 55MPH
• EV 0.6 miles @ 30MPH (EV depleted, first ICE firing)
• HV 1.7 miles @ 45MPH (heat running) stop sign
• HV 2.1 miles @ 55MPH
• HV 2.1 miles @ 40MPH
• HV-EV 1.1 miles @ 35MPH (heat off)
• HV 0.2 miles @ 55MPH
• HV-EV 1.1 miles @ 35MPH (heat off)
• HV 1.4 miles @ 45MPH with 1 bridge and several steep inclines (several traffic lights in the worst spots)
• HV-EV 0.2 miles @ 30MPH

Boring and over-detailed post, but I am not doing anything special. When I first got the car (during fall, I would manage to get 135MPG to work, and 65MPG back home.