Hi Everybody, I've just Ordered my PriusC and should be enjoying it soon. However, I've got some concerns on whether I'll be able to enjoy fuel economy benefits from hybrid system given that I travel rather short distances daily two trips of 25 kms each with some instances of traffic jam. I mean, will this be enough distance to charge the electric battery and let us run on gas free?
Hi Everybody, I've just Ordered my PriusC and should be enjoying it soon. However, I've got some concerns on whether I'll be able to enjoy fuel economy benefits from hybrid system given that I travel rather short distances daily two trips of 25 kms each with some instances of traffic jam. I mean, will this be enough distance to charge the electric battery and let us run on gas free?
The hybrid system is never just electric or gas, its both. IOW, its never "gas free". Start reading up on the hybrid system around here and you'll learn a lot.
25km should be far enough. The main thing is warming it up, which short trips don't allow it to do. Focusing on being in electric mode can actually hurt your mileage. All the energy comes from gasoline. The conversions to charge the battery and then use it to propel the car add up many inefficiencies. The biggest benefits are that you can recapture energy that would normally be lost to braking, the engine can be run at peak efficiency more often, and the engine can turn off when not needed.
As someone else responded in your other thread, the Prius (excepting the Plug-In version in special circumstances) is never truly gas-free at any distance. For that, get a real electric car (Leaf, Tesla) or longer range, more powerful gas/plug-in hybrid (Volt). That said, the PriusC you ordered will beat any regular gasser in the North American market. Elsewhere, some small diesels may outperform the C, but it will depend on the particulars of your commute. Your commute distance is just fine for the Prius to do what it does extremely well. Some traffic jams will even improve its advantage over non-hybrids.
My drive to work is 16 miles door to door. Depending on the temperature I can average 55 to 60 mpg. Tire pressure 36 psi front, 34 psi back. Temp 72°F. The average speed for most of my trip is 40 mph. The best day was 70 mpg driving home the first summer after buying the car, but I haven't been able to repeat it. Just about to hit 30k sometime this month.
I agree with ztanos. Also, I just discovered that if you look at the "drive information" setting on your car and if you have never reset your trip A computer you can get a readout of your lifetime history with the car. The history on mine after about 24,000 miles is this: average speed - 38 mph; total EV = 35 percent; average lifetime MPG = 52.7. This is really a good little car!
