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Insane City MPG

Discussion in 'Prime Fuel Economy & EV Range' started by Tideland Prius, Oct 18, 2020.

  1. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    While most of us would drive in EV mode, cooler temperatures now mean I have a higher chance of running out of juice.

    I’m still convinced the Prime does better than the Prius in HV mode.

    Heres a segment with a short highway stint (70-80km/h) but otherwise mostly city speeds. Rolling terrain. The highway stint included a bridge crossing (up and over rather than a level crossing)

    65267143-A509-440E-BA82-17531CA40DD9.jpeg

    Full disclosure, there was another segment in HV mode that included an uphill segment and that trip ended at 4.6L/100km. Even then, the total between the two trips is significantly better than what I could achieve even with the Gen 3.
     
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  2. mr88cet

    mr88cet Senior Member

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    IIRC, at least in 2017 when we bought our Prime, it was rated at 54MPG (combined) and the regular Prius was rated at 52.
     
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  3. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    90.47 MPG! Not too shabby at all!! (y)(y)

    Having both a 2017 Gen 4 (with NiMH battery) and a 2017 Prime in our household, I agree that the Prime does do better in HV than the regular Prius. I've compared the same 20 mile drive under the same weather conditions and the Prime was the winner, but the Prius was still no slouch.
     
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  4. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    When these cars hit their sweet spot, the numbers they can generate are nothing but amazing. Especially when compared to most other cars on the road. Isn't it a good feeling to know you got a good car with not to shabby economy?
     
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  5. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    While it may be possible to attain HV mode only 90mpg or above on PP under certain circumstances, I would not put too much faith in a single time observation of dash indicated mpg. I have regularly seen an outrageous mpg on short distance or a short segment of a trip, but when I average out the entire trip and tank, the number is usually not as rosy.

    I have not done it on my current 2020 PP, but on my previous 2017 PP, I have done numbers of full-tank HV mode only drives. Those were driven on an entire tank of gas without ever charging the traction battery with very conservative drives but not particularly hypermiling. Most of my drives are rural road without much stop-and-go, easy-going 30-40mph, but some of the data points also contain highway drives at 70mph. My average over three years period of owning 2017 PP doing this full tank HV mode 11 times total were: HV only summer 57.82mpg and HV only winter 46.87mpg for a full tank hand calculated method. The dash indicated mpg for those full tanks were on average ~7.6% optimistic.
     
    #5 Salamander_King, Oct 19, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2020
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  6. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    I agree Salamander_King although the amazing numbers still give us hope our cars are still with us and doing what we want to see them do. If not just to get us from paint A to point B.

    I have a similar story to Tidelands' OP from my 100+ round trip last night. And another of my 34 mile EV trip to pad the wifes GOM early this morning. Hope she's not pissed that the car didn't have a full charge this morning as it only had 4 hours charging.
     
  7. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Fair. But as a PHEV, isn't it nice that I'm not dinged if I go into HV mode for part of the day?

    Other PHEVs have significantly lower mpg in HV mode when they run out of electricity.
     
  8. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Agreed. That was one reason, I decided not to lease Clarity. Now, I don't know what kind of mpg Ioniq is getting on HV mode. On paper, it's on par with PRIME.
     
    #8 Salamander_King, Oct 19, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2020
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  9. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Yup! Even the lowly Prius. Here's what we got this afternoon driving between Mansfield and Galion with an engine already warm.

    IMG_2570.jpeg

    And this is also true. The 71.9 mpg was part of a much less spectacular (for a Prius) day.

    IMG_2574.jpeg
     
  10. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    Yes, I've been struggling with mid 40's to low 50's in HV mode for at least 2 months and just last night the first 50 miles out, the results were the same at around 45 mpg. I didn't even bother to look before shutting off. The first 20 miles of the return trip was the same where I stopped for a few minutes. Speeds mostly around 45 mph.
    I was beginning to think something was still really wrong with the car. It's been in Normal mode so long, almost all it's life so far, on a whim I thought "let me try ECO". Sure enough after 10 miles on the dot I was looking at 75 stopped as a train passed. Speed was 50 mph for about 6 or 7 miles than 30 mph in town for 3 or 4 miles. A mile after the railroad crossing was the highway and 70 mph. Mpg dropped to mid 50's after about 15 miles where speed dropped to 60 for the remaining miles. 32 total miles for the last segment of the 100 miles total was in the low 60's. I got some dash shots of that too. And it made me feel a bit better about my repairs and the cars health as I hope to get the remaining work done asap.
     
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  11. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    In normal mode, your climate control is also in normal. In Eco, it's in Eco. So there's possibility of having the climate control in Eco mode if you prefer the accelerator pedal feel of normal mode.
     
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  12. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    I'm always checking climate to make sure it's set in eco driver priority and set at what the screen show as max efficiency and sometimes even check the temperature range of the max efficiency setting. It was 60 degrees F last night and early this morning and while in HV last night I could raise the climate control temp to 79 or 80 degrees F before it slipped out of max efficiency. Plus I had the fan really low, like 2 or 3 clicks up on the temp control paddle.
    I don't know whether it's me or the car, because I can usually tell the difference in pedal response between Normal and Eco, but not last night, it felt seamless, I couldn't tell the difference.
     
  13. srivenkat

    srivenkat Active Member

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    Where is this "temperature range of the max efficiency setting" available?
     
  14. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    He's talking about the Eco Score for the climate settings.

    upload_2020-10-20_10-41-54.png
    upload_2020-10-20_10-42-25.png
     
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  15. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    Looks to me like Toyota changed a few things in the refresh. or that is model specific or both. Instead of driver priority they now have front priority.
    I could only get 71 today.
     

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    #15 vvillovv, Oct 21, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2020
  16. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    71 is your temperature setting.

    The score is simply the 1-5 yellow squares beneath the "person and fan" icon.

    S-Flow is standard on all Primes (and Gen 4).

    That menu is available when you scroll down in the Climate screen on the MID. Alternatively, just press the S-Flow icon on the climate control panel (Plus/LE model) or 11.6" screen (Premium/Advanced/XLE/Limited models).

    You'll cycle between Driver Priority, Front Seats and All Seats.

    Alternatively, if you select S-Flow and press "AUTO" on the climate control, it should put S-Flow into AUTO as well.
     
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  17. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    I have only seen driver priority and all seats when switching Flow setting, both button and MID. I'll have to make a closer inspection and or add it to my list of "needs to be checked with techstream" on our car.
    I'm well aware of the 17-19 differences between the 7" 11" screens and their corresponding controls, mostly due to Salamadar King's posts on the subject. I couldn't even find a screen I was looking for on a 2020 Prime LE's MFD the one time I had access of a minute or two.
    For those reasons alone I'm grateful to Tideland for stepping up to take and answering the question much more professionally than I would have been able to.
     
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  18. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Today we did this drive in HV in the Prime with a 5 mph head wind and 90-91ºF. I was teasing my pastor after church about how he only gets about 48 mpg in his hybrid RAV4. (Actually I think it's mazing that a barge that big can be that efficient.) I said Mildred & I would probably get about 70 mpg if I went home in hybrid mode in the Prime. We stopped to get lunch about two miles from home, so I called that good since restarting the car would mess up the numbers. I sent him this picture. Almost made it. In my defense, two traffic lights saw me coming and waited till the last second to turn red. :rolleyes:
    IMG_3949.jpg
     
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  19. Brian Ski

    Brian Ski New Member

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    I would like anyone’s reply regarding the 2016 Prius 3 touring that I just purchased last month (49k miles) and a base 2021 (3k miles) I rented just last week. I drove the same way with both and I consistently got better gas mileage in the 2021. I am always in the low 40s mpg in the 2016 and in the low 50s with the 2021. Why is this??? Same engine and hp. I also noted that the lane keep assist consistently worked better in the 2021 Prius. To the point that I only had to touch the steering wheel for large segments of road to keep the Prius in my lane.
     
  20. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Tyre size is one (15" vs. 17") but it shouldn't account for 5-10mpg. It's also possible that your Touring is on a second set of tyres which isn't the same as the factory one. The factory ones were chosen for mpg and the previous owner may have changed the brand or model of tyre to something else and that can affect mpg too.