Finally had to break down and add gas

This car is the best kept secret among the industry.

 

Thank Toyota marketing for that.

 

We are almost at 4500 miles and have a average mpg of 88.6 right now due to a few road trips where no charging took place (1600 miles on one and about 300 on another) on hilly terrain at highway speeds with full ac. Couldn’t be much happier.


iPad ?

 

Which portions (if any) of your 40 mile commute are open highway, filled-with-traffic highway, or hilly back roads?

 

Isn't PRIME beautiful! I have put 15K in one year, with average 90mpg (63% EV ratio) so far. Our electricity is not cheap, so at break-even point for the gas is ~$2.50/gal, thus EV saving is not that great. But overall efficiency is what it counts. I would say at least 15% saving on fuel and electricity cost compared to Gen3 gas cost.

 

Great info - it helps to get a flavor of the terrain, and how the Prime handles it


Since you are hitting HV mode for the last 3-5 miles of your morning commute, I had an idea (which you certainly don't need to use - you're getting super awesome mileage the way you are driving now)...

...you could experiment with dividing your EV miles more evenly between your morning and evening commutes.

If you hit "HV/EV" to turn on Hybrid mode (and warm up the engine) as soon as you get on the Interstate, then press "EV Auto" a few miles later (and keep it in EV Auto for the rest of your trip), you'll have more battery left for your ride home, and you'll use more battery on rural roads (where battery is more efficient), and waste less battery on high speeds/uphills (situations where the gas engine will turn on in EV Auto because gas is typically more efficient in the Prime in those situations...).. Do the same thing when you hit the Interstate on your return commute.

That's the method I use on my 50+ mile drives (which also have an Interstate portion in the middle) and find I get outstanding mileage that way.



One more thing...once it gets cold this winter, your EV range will drop by a few miles, and you might consider turning on Hybrid mode even earlier (on your back roads) to take advantage of the heat coming from the gas engine -- if you wait until the end of the trip for the engine to come on, you'll be heating the cabin with only the heat pump, which could result in lower overall mileage.

 

When I got my car in Feb it had a full tank of gas. After 2 months of hardly using any, I stopped charging it and let the gas run down. When the low-gas indicator came on, I put in 2 gallons and started charging again. Since then I've put in 2 gallons two more times. I've got 3300 miles so far. I'm almost to the point where I need 2 more gallons. I have not used a second full tank yet! Most days, I don't use up the battery. My break-even on gas is around $2.80/gal, but I basically have an electric vehicle most of the time.

 

I would not recommend leaving your EVSE plugged into the Kill-a-watt all the time. I did that and the back of the Kill-a-watt burned. This was with my other car that had a bigger battery. And the EVSE was just recalled last week. So it could have been that but just be careful.

 

I was able to squeeze over 1000 miles on my last tank. I have a daily commute of between 60-100 miles. I really like having this car! It sure beats the 17 mpg I get in my Chevy truck.


iPhone ?

 

I am retired and don't drive all that many miles, so my car that is 15 months old has less than 5000 miles. I live in the Pacific NW with cool winters and hot summers but I've noticed that my mileage on EV mode is much better with the climate control system turned off. I do have to use the defroster to clear the windshield & side windows in moist weather (which we have a lot of) and my wife insists on having heat in winter, AC in summer when we go together in my car, but otherwise I just use Seattle AC- open the windows. On my current tank of gas I have used about 1/4th of it, gone nearly 400 miles and car computer says I am getting about 94 mpg. I can usually charge it at a location that is free or our power cost is about 10 cents per kWh, so about $0.88 for a full charge if I do it at home. I do like this car!

 

From what I can tell, the public chargers that cost you money end up costing at least 2x per mile than what gas costs on these vehicles. If you're trying to save money, this is NOT the way to do it!

I've thought about getting a meter to read my power consumption, but I can get a pretty good handle just from what I get from my power company.

 

Last fillup was 6/9/18 in Montrose, CO. Drove back to Denver and have only used gas a few times since. I'll have to fill up next week for an out-of-town trip, though.

 

For the first eight months that we owned the Prime, we were able to run 100% EV and used no gas at all. Then, in late May, we made a 1000 mile round trip to western New York, followed by a couple of 200 mile trips to Cape Cod and a 900 mile trip to Montreal. That definitely used gasoline, but surprisingly little of it. (The New York trip required filling up when we got to our destination and once again when we got home for a little over 50 mpg. There were an L2 chargers at the places we stayed, so we were able to run in EV mode locally.)

Having done all that travel, August has been mostly trips closer to home and, once again, 100% EV and absolutely no gasoline. The sheep, rainbow, oranges, tulips, sun, clouds and pine trees have all returned to the Entune ECO Dashboard and the statistics show the Bear-Mobile to be among those in 1st place fuel economy and about in the middle of the pack for the top 100 in ECO driving.

Unfortunately, September will start with a visit to a friend's Labor Day weekend cookout about 40 miles away. And, although I can plug the car into a 120-volt outlet while eating hamburgers, we're still going to be HV mode for at least part of the trip -- and, sadly, once again our sheep will wander off.

 

I broke down and visited a gas station today. I haven’t bought gas since LAST December but I knew I’d need some for the winter and today was an unusually warm day, so it seemed like a good day to get it done.

 

Same here basically. Got my car last December and filled it up for the first time this month. Getting a little over a 1000 miles per gal. My friends don’t like hearing about my great gas mileage stories. Lol.