Prime Long Work Commute MPG?

That's punishing!

No offense, but you should be able to work this out, plus/minus 20%. Gather the variables, like what speeds you'll be going, is there charging at your work, do the math. Look on Fuelly too, for what Primes and 4th gen Prius are getting for mpg, figure out what percent of your commute will be electric.

Sorry for the Dutch Uncle reception, friendlier folk will be along.

 

With the RAV4 hybrid, you're getting 1 mpg better than the official City rating, that should give you a rough idea how the Prime will do, adding to that the electric only range, which will vary widely depending on how much and at what speeds you use it. I'm guessing you will save a lot due to your daily 220 mile commute.

 

With proper manipulation of modes (EV/HV/Charge) I think you should be able to get 50+ in the prime. I don't commute (home office) but I base my thoughts on mountain driving without any charge. See my other posts.

 

Looks like you'll be mostly driving in HV mode, which, in my opinion, in Prime is painfull for highway driving, especially uphill. I'd choose a diesel for such commute.. or long range tesla.

 

On an open highway at speed we get about 60 mpg with the Prime. This is HV operation with the battery mainly depleted. One route we drive has some hilly sections early (before the battery is depleted), and we get better total mpg using EV-Auto in those sections. With higher load it runs the engine and saves some battery power for the flatter areas. One mode is charge where part of the engine power charges the battery while you drive. This may be useful to prepare for high speed uphill sections. Otherwise I haven't found a use for it.

 

My hats off to your daily efforts! I drive about the same distance once a week for skiing on city, county roads and HWY 4, with elevation delta from my home to the ski area of roughly 7000 ft. I am consistently getting 63-67 MPG (perhaps 5-10 % less actual) with one charge at home before departure. I am just driving with the traffic, not hypermiling on those trips, twice with tire chains on the last 12-20 miles. What I notice is that Prime captures a lot of juice in downhills, and turns off ICE whenever it deems appropriate. From my daily commute experience, MPG or miles per kWh gets signifficantly better when the traffic is slow on HWY 99. You will love its efficiency and the safety features.

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welcome to priuschat, al the best!

 

I averaged about 54 MPG doing 80 MPH average from Los Angeles to San Jose. I would guess you will easily be at or over 50 MPG on your trip.

Your usage of EV mode should be restricted to stop and go traffic and speeds below 40 MPH to get the most out of the charge. Using EV at 65+ MPH is a waste of your charge unless you are on a very short trip (definitely not yours!).

 

2001 Honda Insight is the best

 

I charge at home only (nowhere to do it at work) and go 80 miles each way daily. 65 of it is interstate going 72-77mph with moderate hills. I use EV mode for the non highway and under 55-60mph part. I got about 66.7mpg over 48k miles and 2 years in my 2017. I occasionally get a coffee near a 220V charger on the way back.

Basically without EV I get about 52mpg on the highway and 57 off. The EV gets me to 65-67.

I never do EV auto, I always manually push the button.

Hope this helps. Your situation (longer distance) might get you around 60MPG unless you can charge at work. Then you’re looking at 65. Just my guess.

 

I had a trip before XMas from Boston to Florida and back, and I got 55MPG for almost 4000 miles travelling.

 

I used to drive 102 miles every day (from my home in NJ through the Holland tunnel into the financial district in NYC). I would switch between HV/EV mode manually. I would leave early (say 4:30 am) to get into the city and leave the city at 2 ish to avoid traffic. From where I lived I had just enough ev range (about 3 miles left over) for the low speed driving stuff (backroads at home and tunnel/city). The rest I did on HV. I would average 89mpg over that trip and exhaust the battery as part of it. I would average about 58mpg on the gas side. Never did the math to figure out total cost, but NJ electric rates were fairly cheap (much cheaper than CA) (I think it was around 9c per KW). The garage I parked at did have a charger, but the rates were much higher and it would require moving your car after you were charged... and, especially during winter, the wind-tunnel that is the city sucked so I never used it (maybe twice for shits and giggles). Commute was 51 miles one way so it wasn't going to get me round trip on EV anyway.

 

WOW, 220 miles a day commute! You must love your job. With my PRIME, during a summer trip of 300+ miles on mostly highway was ~50-60 mpg. This is without counting any EV. You really can't go below 50 mpg in warm weather unless you do 80+mph on the highway.

 

Regarding the 2001 Honda Insight, I had one I purchased new, which I drove to 230,000 miles.
I DEFINITELY would NOT recommend that car for the long, hilly drives. That car averaged 58 MPG over its lifetime with me, but cost an arm and a leg in maintenance. I just found the invoice for 30,000 mile service, $302!! It ate 2 sets of catalytic converters, tires, and had poor A/C, and needed clutch and transmission work. It wandered all over the freeway when it followed the grooves in the road, and the braking of the car was the worst I've ever seen in a car. I got into a rear-ender before I realized the extremely limited braking of this car. The concept of the car was wonderful; the execution was poor. My Prime 30,000 mile, total service cost: $0.00! You can't beat that with a stick! I still average 32 miles on pure EV, even occasionally drag racing ANY other willing combatant! It's still WAY too big for me, but a necessary compromise.

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AChoiredTaste.com

 

My sympathies on your commute. My "commute" would be about the same distance (Roseville to Redwood City), but worse, since I have to cross one of the SF Bay bridges. Fortunately, I work from home, and only have to do the trek once a month or so to have face-to-face human interactions.

 

With 25 miles of EV each way, you should average around 72MPG.

 

The calculation I did was this:

110 miles - 25 miles on EV = 85 miles on gas.

85 miles on gas / 56MPG average on gas (my personal long-term average) = 1.52 gallons used

110 mlles / 1.52 gallons used = 72.4MPG.

Of course, electricity may or may not be free or cheap.

 

I've researched cost per mile (taking into account fuel cost, initial cost and depreciation) for nearly every vehicle sold in the USA. The Prius Prime Plus with various government incentives is the least expensive option that I've found. You will have to mount your phone beside the nearly useless 11 inch screen to use Google maps.