Prius Eco 58 MPG vs Prius 54 MPG - What's the difference?

that what i was afraid of.

 

It is puzzling with the weight issues... Sometimes it seems with my hatch full, and seats folded down with a few hundred pounds of weight, I can get 62 mpg on my commute. (Highway going 55) I can come home, empty the car completely, and get 52 the next day on the same exact trip...

 

New 165/65 r14 Dunlop Enasave - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum

Put Dunlop Enasave on my Insight - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum

 

How do we know Prius is becoming mainstream? Car magazines start to treat it seriously.

 

I assure you that variation in MPG between different tires is nowhere near your preposterous 16%. I have been driving on one of the most fuel efficient tires (Ecopia EP001s) for 36k km and even if I compare MPG against fresh winter tires, the difference is in maybe in the 5% region (I'm talking about same tire size).

 

The missing piece.
The ECO loses some weight. The rear wiper delete can also help a little with aerodynamics. The Li-ion likely improves regen braking efficiency. And now tires with lower rolling resistance and higher set pressures.

It isn't just tires. Setting the pressure 3psi higher than the other trims can have a big difference. My Sonic can lose 2mpg when the tire pressure drops below 40psi.

It comes down to the roads on your commute. The higher momentum from the extra weight can help reduce the require energy input from things like rolling hills at steady highway speeds. But you also have to account for other daily variances like temperature and wind direction.

 

Tires in US and EU are usually very different, we almost don't' have all season tires, the ones we do have (5 models) are more of a winter tires than US "3-season". Energy saver in EU is completely different tire, I had them on other car and they were the worst tire in the wet. EU rating is only made on tires sold in EU, and also those ratings are getting in similar direction as NEDC, if you know what I mean. Ecopia EP001s performed very good in the wet til the point where I had to throw them I logged 0.9 G braking force in the wet.

 

Not trying to be difficult but wondering:

What source or how was this measured against other tires?

At one time there was some buzz about California and/or NHTSA doing some tire rolling resistance measurements but it died down (or went somewhere I've not yet found.)

Bob Wilson

 

Sounds like mpg trumped everything, the eco model is their sacrificial lamb.

 

The only thing I can think is that they need the ECO model to make their marketing claims and just throw all the others in the same MPG rating for simplicity or cost. I would imagine the best to worse gas mileage goes as follows: Two ECO, Three, Four, Two, Three Touring and Four Touring. I would think the biggest differentiation in MPGs would be 15" versus 17" and the Ni-MH versus Li-ion.

Probably the biggest thing that caught my attention was the vastly increased driving dynamics though significantly increases structural rigidity and the change in suspension in the rear.

 

Not having spare tire = Having to have your car towed when you have a flat = Not acceptable

(Fix-a-flat wouldn't work in most cases when your tire/wheel fails.)

So, if I bought any car without a spare tire, I would pay extra for one along with the jack and tools.

It's a mystery why the Prius Eco MPG leaves the vanilla Prius MPG in the dust. Would any hardcore Prius fan want to get the vanilla version knowing that the fuel economy is so much worse? Then there is the dilemma that the Eco version lacks some goodies to cut the price tag.

Corolla Eco uses an upgraded engine in comparison to the vanilla Corolla. The upgraded engine has the Valvematic technology that the vanilla engine lacks, which substantially improves the fuel economy. I don't know if this is the case for Prius Eco.

 

Guess we won't know Two versus Two ECO value difference until we get some rear world MPG numbers. If the handling difference between is a much as they say it is between the 3rd and 4th gen then that would make the Two valuable to me. The spare is the only "missing" item I would be concerned about. I am in Florida so the rear wiper is of no value to me. If I were to buy a 4th gen I would get the Two ECO just for the fancy new Li-ion. Based on the info I have found it appears what is making the MPG difference between the Two and Two ECO is the better battery and better tires that are inflated a bit more. I wouldn't value the claimed/posted number since they cover so many different models that should show a 2-3mpg difference just due to the 15" to 17" tire difference.

 

Fix-a-flat works in most cases but not all, it's good enough for me.

 

Tires are part of it, but don't forget the Li batteries. Additional regen is a good chunk of that in city driving as well.

 

but they all have lion except pkg II.