Low hybrid range on new 2019 Prius Prime, 9 gal full tank?

The tank really is 11.3 gallons, it just says empty around 9 to hold a reserve for you.

 

Here's an Owner's Manual excerpt:



I wouldn't stress too much about range, just fill up when there's at least a couple of pips left on the gas gauge. Running out of gas is always something you want to avoid, maybe more so with Prius.

Also, with past Prius generations Toyota couldn't resist exaggerating the displayed mpg (by around 7.5% with 3rd gen); I would rely on calculated mpg.

If you went 600 miles and it took 9 gallons (US) to fill, that's 66.666... mpg, fwiw. Record your odometer reading at each fill up, fill the same way each time, and after a few tanks you'll have a good idea of your mpg.

Obviously with the Prime, varying amounts of electric-only driving, it could be all over the map.

 

615 is probably flat land, 55mph.

Your mileage may vary, literally

 

I got 70mpg on my last 160 mile trip using hybrid mode. It was mostly highway but some mountains as well. Yes the photo does say EV mode as I used it while driving around the parking lot.

 

The specified 615 miles also assumes using a full EV charge in addition to a tank of gas. It still seems a little optimistic.

I wonder is using EV auto is any more efficient than using all the EV range first then using all the gas range? For example using EV for light load and HV for going up hills (which the car will do automatically sometimes but not always).

Also, if I'm driving 500+ miles in a trip I'm probably going west, and the efficiency is likely to be significantly lower than usual since the speed limit is 75-80.

 

As pointed, the DTE (Distance Till Empty) displayed on the dash is actually Distance Till The Gas Empty Light comes on. You have another 1.5-2 gal of gas left in your tank. I have driven well over 100 miles after the DTE reached zero, and the car still took only 10.5 gal of gas to fill up, meaning there still was about 0.9 gal left.

 

I've never seen that light. As evidenced by 166 plus fillups and only 84k kms on the odo.

 

As mentioned, you can probably go close to a hundred miles after the the DTE estimate says "0" and the gauge also says "0."

My longest road trip tank was 604 miles. It only took 10.26 gallons to fill it, but we were sweating bullets the last 30-40 miles before we finally found a gas station in the remote areas of NM & AZ we were going through.

 

I just checked my past record. The longest I went on a single tank (without any EV drive) was 619.9 miles. The car took 10.123 gal to fill up. In theory, I could have driven 691 miles on a full tank. If I did have a single full charge and got my usual 35 miles, the total range would have been 726 miles.

 

It will depend on the actual route.
Using EV for lower speeds, and HV for higher was the PiP strategy. In part because of the small battery, but it can help to maximize range with any PHEV.

I think a couple hypermilers in Japan got over 1000 miles for a tank in gen2 Prii. They didn't have to deal with fuel bladders, so the tanks held more fuel than North American models.

 

You'll never get 11.4 gallons in a Prius gas tank. To be honest, I've always felt that was false advertising. As an anti-pollution measure, there is a plastic (?) bag inside the tank that deflates as the gas level decreases to reduce gas fumes and this reduces the actual volume by quite a bit.

I am pretty shocked to see all of these people getting over 10 gallons in there. This is my 3rd Prius and a typical "bone dry" to full gas visit has been ~9.5 gallons. BTW - 9.5 gallons is a summertime fill-up when the material is pliable and "inflates" a bit. On a cold winter day when the material isn't as flexible, I have been lucky to get 8 gallons in there.

 

Yeah, I remember seeing those when I first purchased Gen3. I think there is 1000 miles club for Gen3 in here as well. I tried a few times and quickly realized that I did not have what it takes to be a good hyper miler. A quick check on my old record, the longest full tank range I got from my Gen3 was only 546 miles out of 70+ fill-ups. That was with trying very hard. The beauty is that with PRIME (and presumably with Gen4), getting over 600 miles from a tank (without EV for PRIME) is relatively easy task.

 

Yes. You would need to run the car completely out of gas to accomplish that.

It's not advertising; it's a specification.

Maybe thinking of second generation Prius?

You tow the car to the gas station?

 

Are we talking about the same car here? I routinely put over 10 gallons at fill-up in my PRIME, done over 45 fill-ups in the past two years, summer or frigid winter. The most I have put in a single fill-up was 10.775 gal. Granted that means I was running my car with empty gas light on, but for my routine driving, I can still charge my car and get all of my driving done without using any gas so that is far less risky than doing the same with regular hybrid or gasser cars.

 

This has not been true for any Prius after the 2009 model year.

 

I think only the first (and second?) generation Prius has the flexible fuel bladder. When the third generation (and the PiP) came out, it was pointed out that the bladder was gone.

 

OK, I did some more research, and the way range is specified is unrealistic.

On this page they say it's 640 miles combined. 2020 Toyota Prius Prime FAQ
It turns out they are assuming 615 miles on gas, plus 25 miles on electric. For the gas range they use the EPA method which is to multiply the EPA fuel economy rating by the tank capacity. I was confused because I thought that maybe using the EV range strategically over the full tank of gas could result in longer range than using all EV and then all HV. That might be true, but they are not assuming that for this calculation.

But obviously the full tank capacity is not usable. It would be more realistic to assume range is based on the amount of fuel from full until the gas light turns on or until the distance remaining indicates 0 miles. I think that's around 10 gallons, but I haven't really paid attention.

Range is not a spec that Toyota provides. For most of their cars they don't say anything about it. The only spec is the EPA range which you can calculate or find on fueleconomy.gov, but as I mentioned it's not realistic.

 

Definitely Gen 2. Not sure about Gen 1 since I never had one.