I just bought it today, and have put about 30 mi on it. So far, am only showing 36mpg. It is 107F outside today and so I've got the AC on, but I'm still disappointed in the mpg so far. Any ideas?
Give more information. What car did you come from? What MPG did you get on the same trip in previous car? Altitude change? Speed of travel?
I didn't see best mileage until mine was 2000km in. Don't try and drive just on battery. Having a constant low battery level not only reduces efficiency but performance as well. Best acceleration will occur when you have good battery level as the car can then use both ICE and electric to get and keep you moving
Fuel economy complaints/queries? Please copy, paste & answer these questions, esp. if you're new | PriusChat
^^^ Yep, and we don't even know how long the drives were and how much city there was. Having to run the AC real high kills mileage too.
Start worrying about gas mileage on the third tank. You should be getting used to the controls, where your blind spots are, and how to adjust the cabin so you feel comfortable. These are safety items and much more important than mileage. Just drive it! New owners spend a great deal of effort 'babying' the car, almost all of which is bad for gas mileage. Stay in D, do not try to be in an EV mode, (if the computers decide to be in EV, fine, just do not try to lure them into EV) accelerate briskly, and plan ahead on braking (gentle braking reclaims some energy, not having to brake at all saves all the energy) Want to improve your mileage? Combine many short trips into one long trip and go the the furthest destination first, and make the stops coming home.
Use the ECO mode when running your A/C. Set your tire pressures up to at least 40 PSI. Check the oil level on the dipstick and make sure it's not over filled. Don't put anything in front of the HV battery vent. It's on the left side of the car, in the rear passengers footwell, on the front of the rear seat panel.
Sounds a lot like the same issues discussed here: what am i doing wrong? | PriusChat Basically, when it gets so super hot that you run the air conditioning full blast, your fuel economy is expected to go down significantly.
Short trips, city driving with lots of AC, and a blocked battery vent (below left side back seat) are possible culprits. But as others have said, don't worry about it too much yet. Are you using eco mode and the auto AC setting?
Set the tire pressure to 40 PSI. Go to YouTube.com and view the vedios on how to drive the Prius for max MPG. Keep the AC OFF. Drive in the ECO Mode. Select the ECO Score screen to monitor while driving. Keep the Hybrid System indicator at, slightly above or below the ECO center line marker. You should get an average of 58 or higher using these tips. My best is 124 MPG on a 9.2 mile downhill drive with a 1024 foot loss of altitude for the trip. Checked the route altitude using GOOGLE WORLD APP. Welcome to the Prius C club. Happy driving in the future...
The climate control in temperatures that high will pretty much run full blast no matter what temperature you set it at. We've had a heat wave here as well and my gas mileage has tanked with the necessity of running the AC in the hot and humid weather. I normally keep it set at 74, but it just can't get there in this weather. At more reasonable outside temperatures the climate control is actually pretty efficient at not dropping your MPGs by too much.
You can't tell much in 30 miles. Is mpg rising or decreasing with added miles? Do you know what it read when you picked up thr car. And are yiou driving with recirculate engaged. Not recirculating the interior air puts a huge load on the A/C.
If you don't use the Recirc mode, you are forced to cool the incoming air with the A/C. The Recirc mode just cycles the cabin air without adding outside air. The cooler the cabin is the less demand on the A/C system to cool it, continuously.
So it is a regional statement based on how cool your environment is... got it. I get that it will always work harder... but I find it hard to believe it will put a... hang on, need to go look how he worded it... huge load on the A/C. These cars have made everything so efficient that I find it hard to believe it's huge.
I have no idea about Canton, Georgia, but in Greenwood, Mississippi you are talking 3 MPG for A/C in summer. I would guess 4 to 5 HP
Probably the same temperature just less humidity. I wouldn't call 3 MPG overall that bad, especially when we are talking the difference between recirculate and not.... which would be even less than 3 mpgs difference.
With the Gen 2, it took about 30 miles to get to where the A/C was not full blast, the v calms down in about 15 miles. The v is condenseing almost a gallon of water a day. (The hose became detached and it wetted the entire passenger foot well front and back. Quite a lot of sloshing.)
