How to improve fuel efficiency?

Here is one thread, see the included PDF:
Why Don't I Get The EPA Mileage? | PriusChat

I learned over at ClenMPG, before coming to PriusChat. Don't adopt any methods here that you are uncomfortable with, just pick and choose what works for you:
Beating the EPA - The Why’s and How to Hypermile | CleanMPG

 

Good advice already - but in reality, 64.4 is very good. What speed were you doing at the time?

 

Nothing. Drive like an old lady and don't worry about it.

 

Whenever no one's behind, getting irate, and you need to slow for a corner or a stop, coast to that slowdown point, as best you can.

Keep an overly generous following distance whenever there's a car ahead. This allows you to coast through the excess distance when there's a slow down, and/or gives tailgaters a motive to get by you, out of your hair.

Use a block heater.

Consolidate trips.

Use alternates when practical: walk to the corner store, for example.

 

Amen.

If I can add something sacrilegious these days, and especially if no one's on your butt: stay under the speed limit.

 

DRCC is great, I use it about 80+% of my driving. But you're right - you need to be alert to what it's doing - it's not as good as an alert human brain in an emergency.

Actually any C/C will improve most driver's economy. It takes a very steady foot and concentration to get better economy than a C/C.

64.4 mpg is good for 70 mph.

 

What driving mode were you using? I find that if I use Eco mode the dynamic cruise control reacts too slowly. I usually use Normal mode. I find the dynamic cruise in PWR mode a little agressive.
On downhill stretches I sometimes torn off the cruise control. Since the system does not know how long the down slope is, it tends to use B mode which reduces regeneration to the battery.

At 70 mph you are getting 64.4 mpg in a car that is rated at 50 mpg for highway driving.

 

The best economy I've ever experience in PRIUS was in slow traffic using DRCC where the traffic (for 100+km) fluctuated from 30 to 80km/hr - about 3.2 l/100km. And the trip back was about the same. Frustrating if you're in a hurry - and makes one wonder if the term "Motorway" was dishonest - "fast carpark" would have been better.

Hard braking, driving too close to the car in front, not anticipating the traffic ahead, hard accelerating will ruin economy.

 

It depends on just how you deal with it. It can be tortuous, especially if you make a lot of quick starts and hard stops. Or it can be a great opportunity for low speed gliding, and pulse and glide, if you intentionally keep enough spacing to buffer the erratic movements around you and avoid as many full stops as possible.

But "nary an ounce of gasoline consumed"? Not a chance, battery recharging is nowhere near that efficient, it will merely consume very noticeably less than a car without braking regeneration. But you can do much better by minimizing braking in the first place.

 

Route choices, if available, can help mpg:

We've got a couple of ways to head downtown. One is via the freeway, speed limit 90 kmh (and everybody hassles you to speed), or a secondary coastal highway, speed limit 80 kmh. Haven't taken the freeway in over a decade. Easier on the nerves too.

There's a couple of ways to get to one of our semi-regular destinations. One's more direct, but is up-and-over a big hill. The other's a bit longer, but goes around it. I'm not sure how that would work out, in our case, and I usually go the up-and-over route, prefer it for the road vibe, but yeah, something to think about.

The name of the game ultimately, is to use less fuel. A lot of people turn it into a mpg game, and will actually drive further, to improve mpg, but that seems nonsensical. Simplest way to reduce fuel use, is to just drive less. Walk to local destinations, reduce your reliance on restaurants, Starbucks for coffee, that sort of thing.

 

The Prius, unlike non-Hybrid cars has better economy in city driving. The 2017 is rated for 54 mpg in city but only 50 mpg for highway driving.

 

Lisa I'm so jealous! I have a Ford c-max hybird and I can barely get 40 MPG on the highway!

 

Indeed.

But IF you are taking the displayed number as gospel, you might be fooling yourself.
Starting a trip high up in elevation can contribute to good mileage too if your destination is near sea level.
So can a sustained tail wind.

 

That is not a "rating", it is an ESTIMATE.

 

It is so convenient to quote and rely on displayed mpg, and Toyota bare-faced BS's on it, around 7.5% (in my 3rd gen experience).

 

For my 2017, the Displayed/Calculated variance ranges from 3-6%, and not in Toyota's favor...