I just bought a new 2013 Prius C Two (red) yesterday. Got the plates, insurance, and registration today. Picking it up tomorrow. Looking forward to learning how I can increase mpg as high as possible! This will mostly be a commuter car for me.
Welcome to PriusChat! I hope you enjoy your Prius as much as I have enjoyed mine. I suggest you spend at least one tank just learning the car, instruments, and controls before stressing over mileage. (For one thing the dealer pumped tank is notoriously misleading, once YOU pumped it full, your readings are more consistent) Placing safety first and economy second is just a good habit.
Welcome! There's an adjustment period with this car- it will take a while to learn what it can do. Focus on learning how to accelerate and brake slowly, pulse and glide, and slow down on the freeway. Also make sure your tires are very well-inflated. You'll discover this car can get some amazing mpg. It's the most economical vehicle with four wheels on the road.
What is pulse and glide? I have no idea about slowing down... should I coast when I can or always apply the brake? Or does coasting also charge the battery?
Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride. Don't worry about the details for a bit, just get use to the vehicle... it will drive you to distraction.
Pulse and Glide makes use of the fact that cruising may not tax the engine enough to really open the throttle. You can find your self trying to pull air past an almost closed throttle plate, the buzz word is 'pumping losses'. By using a burst of throttle in a Pulse, then minimizing friction in the Glide, you will have less pumping losses than steady state cruising at speeds under 40 MPH. Honda Worldwide | Technology Picture Book | IMA Above city speeds, your greatest effect on MPG is air resistance, the slower you go the higher your MPG. Gentle braking is better than coasting then hard braking for MPG. N is almost always bad for a Prius. B is only bad for MPG.
"Gentle braking is better than coasting then hard braking for MPG. N is almost always bad for a Prius. B is only bad for MPG." thnx for this snippet of info I did notice on short jaunts the l/100km was high
Congrats! Pics when you have time. +1 on what RocMills says - my trips are almost always 10 to 25 miles. Fuelly shows I'm getting double the MPG of my '97 Prizm. I don't obsess over MPG but given the traffic here - it's pretty much all "city" driving even on the freeway.
To explain a bit better than the video gives on the C- the terminology isn't always consistent, but "coasting" seems to be, to me, having your foot completely off of the accelerator (which engages the regen and actually slows the car down some- you don't want to do this, usually, in your "pulse and glide"). In the C, your regeneration is shown by the little blue indicator on the bottom left of your Eco screen (they're using a different screen in the video- just use the Eco screen). "Gliding," on the other hand, involves keeping enough pressure on the accelerator to prevent most regen, and perhaps engaging the electric motor just slightly. Ideally, after pulsing at city speeds, you want to let off the accelerator enough that the "EV" indicator comes on on top of the Power Bar, to start. This means the internal combustion engine (ICE) is off. Allow the Power Bar to go down to zero, but maintain enough pressure on the accelerator that there is no regeneration into the electric battery going on. Maintaining speed is more efficient than transferring energy between its forms (kinetic to chemical/electrical, in this case). So, what you want in the "glide" portion of "pulse and glide" is to "zero out" the Power Bar, so that no power, but also no regeneration, is shown. Done successfully, you will be gaining ground in your car while burning no gas. Then your speed will get down far enough that you'll have to pulse again. Pulse and glide works best going down a slight decline, and using just the tiniest sliver of EV to help maintain speed. Using this technique, your mpg will skyrocket. Pulse and glide does not work on the freeway because the ICE must stay on above 43-45 mph. A steady foot is best on the freeway (though its a little more complicated than that- you'll learn in time), while going slower.
Great info. My daily commute is 20 miles (half backroads at 40 mph max and half highway that is often slow to the point that I just get off and take all backroads)! Now for a short trip such as the 1/4 mile to my local grocery store, is this a good time to use EV mode? Does it prevent the ICE from starting at all? I'm picking it up today at 4 PM!
Welcome to the Prius C family. I suggest you read all the past treads posted on the Priuc Chat web site. by doing so, you will learn a lot of info about the Prius C. Also, watch as many vedios on YouTube that you can find under Prius C search. YouTube can teach you all the techniques to get the best performance with your new car. Very important is tire pressure. Most dealers deliver the Prius C with lower than optimum mileage tire pressure to give the new owner a smooth ride. I suggest increasing the tire pressure to 39 psi for front wheels and 38 for the rear. If you live in an area with smooth street pavement you can go a little higher. For safety sake do not go above 42 psi. I also drive my Prius C 2 in the ECO MODE. Never change. The best screen on the dash to monitor is ECO SCORE. Look for the ev drive green indicator lamp to come ON. When ON you are driving for free. No gas consumption. You will discover the Prius C is a fun car to drive.
If you are referring to pressing the EV mode button, then no, it isn't a good time to use it. Generally there are few times you should use this button and many people choose to never use it at all. It is not an aid to economy (if fact it is the opposite), but a very limited feature for very low speed very short distance situations where you have a desire to keep the ICE off regardless of the economy impact. If you hit the button quick enough I understand it will prevent the ICE from starting at all - noting that the car can kick you out of EV Mode and start the ICE for a number of reasons. Once the c is sufficiently warmed up, the ICE may turn off and the "EV" indicator will light up on the ECO Score display (simply indicating that the ICE is off) - this is fine and normally good. If your c isn't already warm before those short trips, then the fuel consumption is shows while on the odometer reading will never be great... in fact if it's just a 1/4 mile they may well be downright horrible. Don't worry about it. Your regular commute is decent and will give you good overall figures and the bad figures you get on the grocery store run won't hit you too hard. Think about opportunities to stop at the grocery store on the way home - that way at least the car will still be warm for the 1/4 mile run home and do a lot better. This said, I'm with JimboPalmer... don't stress too much about these things too early as it can be a bit overwhelming - give yourself a chance to settle in to the car. It will show you its ways soon enough.
You guys of course were right. I learned a ton over the last day of driving after picking up my car, especially with the pulse and glide and watching the ECO Score. I got 55 mpg on the way home from the dealer (mostly highway) , and today went to a friend's house and some shopping and got above 70 mpg each trip (mostly on back roads). I also read the first 2 sections of the owner's manual so far and learned a lot. It's going to be addicting trying to get high mpg every single trip. Yeah, so much for the EV mode... the second I got out of the parking lot it switched out of EV and I was hardly accelerating at all. I'm sure I'll never use it.
