Anyone else have this experience in their daily driving, getting better mpg on the highway, unlike the typical hybrid experience? To be sure if I was driving an equivalent gas automobile under the same conditions i'm sure the effect would be more pronounced.(friend of mine drives a mazda 3(2.0 liter) but more freeway driving than me and only averages around 24mpg) I haven't looked into detail on how the EPA test for city driving and highway driving works, but in my location city driving is low speeds(less than 35mph) with lots of stops for traffic and lights. My city has lots of hills too, so alot of these traffic/stopping situations result in having to accelerate up to speed again from a standstill on a steep grade. Now my local freeway situation is pretty good, flows well most days but can get congested during rush hour/road construction lane closures, etc, resulting in city like driving, stop and go sometimes. Max speed on local freeway is 40-50mph so this seems ideal for max mpg highway driving. On my local freeway drives i can achieve 50mpg without much effort over a few hundred miles of freeway driving. In the city on a good day I'm seeing 38mpg, usually a bit less. No complaints though, I'm pretty impressed overall with my combined MPG, just curious if I'm the only one having this opposite effect of a typical hybrid in city vs highway driving.
Your city may not resemble the EPA's 'city'. (Vancouver will be colder than Los Angles) I do not do much 'city' or freeway driving, my driving resembles the EPA's hwy (61 MPH, slowdown about every 20 miles)
RE:“JUST CURIOUS IF I'M THE ONLY ONE HAVING THIS OPPOSITE EFFECT OF A TYPICAL HYBRID IN CITY VS HIGHWAY DRIVING.” Yes, for sure.
Car and Driver: The Truth About EPA City / Highway MPG Estimates | PriusChat Canada vs. US Fuel Economy Numbers | Page 2 | PriusChat - This 1st Canadian URL at this link is dead now. See FAQs - Transport Canada for a copy. See where the Prius v is at The Most Fuel-Efficient Cars | Best Cars for Gas - Consumer Reports and Best & Worst Fuel Economy | Most & Least Fuel Efficient - Consumer Reports. CR's test and the old (pre-model year 08) EPA test are described on the last page of http://web.archive.org/web/20060401000000*/http://www.consumersunion.org/Oct_CR_Fuel_Economy.pdf.
As long as you keep it under 65 on the freeway, you should get pretty similar mileage to "city" driving. What your numbers tell me is that you need to work on your driving skills in the city. I'm getting 45-50 average doing what I call city driving, but I also upgraded to a much better tire and I avoid congested areas. Most of my driving is off-peak hours.
It just mean more energy is losing through the brake in your city driving than pushing through air on the highway. My suggestion would be to brake lighter (plan ahead). Control the speed with the accelerator instead of with the brake.
Yes, I need to keep working on this. I have been mindful of not using the brakes as much lately, trying to anticipate traffic flow and stopping distances, i'd say i'm much better than i was a year ago, but still room for improvement. The great thing about the prius I find its easier to keep calm in traffic than in other cars i've driven, not sure why, just the nature of the HSD i guess, so keeping calm helps me "plan ahead" as you say and not be too agressive on the brake and gas pedal.
I have just switched from a '07 Prius to my new '13 Prius V. I am still learning how to drive this new, heavier car to maximize my mpg. Since it has cooled off a little (rare for August in Memphis), my mpg has been going up due to shutting off the air conditioning. I am also working on developing better city driving skills, averaging 42-44mpg in town, not good enough yet. I'll get there.
I can to better in the city, but it requires a fully warmed up car. Unfortunately, that's not the case for most of my driving, which consists of starting off in the city with a cold engine with most trips consisting of less than 10 miles, which nets me at about 38 mpg. On longer trips, when I return to the city with a fully warmed up car, I, easily, can hit 48 mpg on the city portion, better than I do on the turnpike.
It's not addressing the same exact thing, but I notice my expected range is higher the more highway driving I do vs. city. I'm guessing this is because the car's operating more on battery at lower speeds and doesn't as efficiently recoup the lost charge.
EPA city cycle does not have a stop sign at every block. On average, it stops every half mile. The test is 31 mins drive on 11 miles trip simulation. If you have shorter trips with more stop signs/lights, you will not get EPA city figure. Despite that it is easy to beat EPA if you look ahead and knowing your route and light timing helps.
I agree, thats another good reason most of my city trips don't meet EPA either. Everything is really close where i live but steep hills to get there. So i'll drive down the hill and back 5-10 mins each way to grab some groceries or something, whereas when i get on the highway its usually for a minimum 30 minute trip.
Having just driven across Vancouver twice in the past two days (as part of the annual Seattle-Vancouver bike ride), I must emphasize this point. Downtown Vancouver traffic does not resemble the EPA test cycle, it is much nastier. I hate driving there. Besides hills, it is very congested. And it often seems that traffic lights are set to discourage cars, when half the time a traffic lights turn green, the light on the next block immediately turns red. This is the opposite of timing lights to improve traffic flow. In Vancouver, that is what ... 1 mile, 1.5 mile? Such short trips produce terribly low mpg on any ICE-powered car, including Prius. When leaving today, after 30 minutes I had traveled only 5 miles, showing about 37 mpg. But Vancouver is increasingly bicycle friendly. Such short trips are ideal for pedaling.
Indeed, If i lived downtown I would likely not even own a car. I have driven downtown on occasions but if i have to spend any length of time there I'll take the bus. I actually live in North Vancouver, across the lions gate bridge from downtown. Much less traffic here but much steeper hills. That 5 minute drive from my house to the grocery store is 1.5 miles and an overall elevation change of 400 feet. All that extra energy i'd expend biking would increase my spending on food, offsetting my fuel savings. Then again a nice juicy steak and a beer sure tastes better than gasoline.
