New in the UK

Hi and welcome. I've had my Prius Plug In since late January of this year. I only had about six weeks of cool to cold weather last winter. Today was a high of 38 degrees (central Virginia), My one way work commute is 9.4 miles and the past week or so, I'm having a hard time making my commute all EV. No problem in the summer months. Oh well, HV driving is effortless.

 

hi peter, welcome to priuschat! please tell us a little bit about your commute and charging capabilities. thanks!

 

Welcome Peter,
There are Alaskan (sub-zero fahrenheit winters) Prius owners who only get mpg's in the 30's. That's the nature of the beast. Batteries too, suffer from serious cold (Leaf range will drop from 80-ish miles to 45 miles), so it only makes sense that you'll take a huge mileage hit in the PiP too. But ... you can do some things to help, such as grill blocking and the electric block heater for starters.

 

a huge hit in england? i get about 10-15% lower in boston when temps dip below 40.

 

welcome aboard Peter ol'chap, enjoy the ride!

 

Many years ago, Greenhybrid.com had a mileage database that included temperature with each tank entry. So I took data from three vehicles and generated these graphs:


From two other Prius. For our metric friends:


This is the data from our first Prius which is still in service:

I still have no explanation for the double hump. Perhaps when it is nice and the windows are down, I get distracted from efficient driving habits. But it could be as simple as when weather is crappy, I wait for a 'nice day' to fill-up. Perhaps nicer weather leads to shorter trips with lower efficiency. This is one area where automated data collection makes a lot of sense.

Now this last chart used a microsoft trend line which means "danger Will Robinson." A trend line can as often mislead so take this with a 'grain of salt':

We took delivery of the car October 2, 2005 (i.e., 10/02/05) and drove it from Fort Worth TX to Huntsville AL. This is when I learned the magic of keeping the top speed at ~65 mph which for the NHW11 model Prius remains the "knee in the curve."

Bob Wilson

 

A one hit wonder not getting the mileage they were promised? Hmmmm

 

I'm happy with my results (see below). That's on a 25 mile commute about 3 days a week normally, plugging in for both legs, plus a few longish (for the UK) trips. Even for those you can pick up some extra EV miles by registering with Ecotricity and using their chargers at Welcome Break service stations, although that means Starbucks coffee rather than my preferred Costa! Does also mean you have to shell out for a Mennekes lead, but that's a one-time cost that's going to become inevitable somewhere down the line; might as well try and make some of it back while charging is still typically free.

 

sounds like a decent commute for the pip. there are many ways to exact the best mpg's out of the pip, which can be learned from the threads here, not the least of which are from john1701 and his website. and there are many reasons to buy a pip. so keep studying and learning. take a look at our spreadheet stats, you'll see a wide variety of results from all types of driving, climate and charging. all the best with your decision!

 

then you'll do very well with a pip. have you tested one yet?

 

we have two models here, base an advanced. no options really, (floor mats, cargo net, etc.) yours is probably somewhere between ours, maybe with some things we don't get.

 

Good thread, maybe, to try and list some differences. We= Europe (seems to be standard throughout, as far as Israel unless Giora finds any differences) You = US; don't know about other areas

We get CITY mode to keep us in EV at higher acceleration etc. But we don't have PWR to give extra vroom.

You get Entune in two different versions I think. We get just the one version of Touch & Go Plus, though I gather that is being changed next year, which may mean we don't get updates.

We can only go 52 real (about 58 nominal on the speedo) in EV, you are about 10 mph more than this.

We haven't been able, yet, to duplicate your "blended mode" of supplementing ICE with EV at higher speeds.

From the Advanced spec we don't get:

- leather upholstery (available as an option)
- radar controlled cruise control (not sure about pre-collision)
- auto-sensing headlights
- auto-dimming rearview mirror
- stolen vehicle tracking

Think we get the rest. Not sure there is anything else we get that you don't, though the one thing we don't get is an annoying beep to warn pedestrians... (not in the UK anyway).

 

We get only one model which the importer calls GLI (probably a combination chosen by him).
I took the liberty of adding (in red) in the quote.
Tires are Michelin Energy Saver (Green X technology). Regular Prius gets other brands.
Probably forgot one or two things.

 

That's been very useful, because I had just assumed we had TPMS in the UK, having seen so much talk about it, but now I look at the specs we maybe don't. Will check the manual when I get back to the car, and I'd better check my pressures...

Yes, our upholstery is the same; fabric in the centre with leather (not sure if it is real or false) sides. Yes to basic cruise control. Do you get a Touch & Go instead of Entune for entertainment, maps etc, or do you have something country specific?

If we have no TPMS, then the only difference will be that we have smart entry on the passenger side as well as the driver's. Odd if that is the only difference - is there any particular reason why they would want to do that? Must cost more than it saves...

Oh, and tyres - mine has Bridgestone Ecopia, which I assume are the UK standard, but the car was second-hand, so it is possible the first owner agreed something else.

 

. That's because you live in New England!