not 600 miles?

How many miles do you have on it and how many times have you filled it up since you just bought it?

 

Note also the "EPA range" is for running the gas tank completely empty. But Toyota Distance To Empty sets aside a very significant safety margin, excluding the last couple gallons from the DTE display estimate.

Considering the very highly variable nature of fuel consumption, the inaccuracies of fuel gauging, and the general inability of most drivers to accurately compute remaining range on their own, this safety margin is for the best. Customers get very unhappy when they guess wrong and run out of fuel at night in very foul weather in remote areas far from any fuel service. Foul mountain weather is when MPG is most likely to fall very short compared to typical conditions.

 

No probably not.
But it depends on how far DOWN you run it before filling up.
The computer is indeed trying to learn your driving style and conditions.
It is a rough estimate at best.

Maybe you should calculate your actual miles-per-gallon over the next few fills.

BUT.......if this really is a pug-in hybrid, all of the MPG figures get much more
complicated. Do you never plug it in ? Or seldom ??

 

That’s the crazy thing with the Prius. Roughly 2 gallons in reserve after you hit 0 miles till empty = you can drive pretty darn far on empty (mpg x 2 +\-)…. Believe me, I’ve tried it.

 

how big is the prime tank?

are you fueling when the empty light comes on?

 

Your getting 57 mpg; 400miles/7gal. I'm assuming you don't charge-up every night and your running on the highway >75 mph. If you back down to 68-70 mph; you'll see your mpg go up. That's the sweet spot. I average 65 mpg, when I do that - but I have a smaller battery and engine.

I left South Lake Tahoe, last year with only one pip showing (1/8 of a tank). Two passengers avg. 200 lbs each, only 104 miles. It's mostly downhill back to Sacramento. I crested the peak and the low fuel lamp turned-on. I made it back and filled up, approximately 0.5 to 0.75 gallons still in the tank.
I've made this trips many times, and the only wild-card was the extra 400 pounds - I think that actually helped on the regen. downhill portions.

 

It appears to be rated for 10.6 gallons. But you can put that much in only if you run the tank completely out. I don't mean just to DTE = 0 miles, but rather until the gasoline engine actually quits running because of fuel starvation. In a non-PHEV, this leaves you stranded on the side of the road.

My older non-Prime Prius is rated for 11.9 gallons, but takes more than 8.5 gallons only when I push the fuel gauge very very low. It did take 11.0 gallons just once, after running a long long way (60+ miles?) after it started flashing its low fuel warning and went far beyond DTE=0.

Here is what another reader posted after deliberately running a Gen3 out of fuel, letting us know how far he went after the low fuel warnings:
[WARNING] Running out of gas (Gen III) | PriusChat

 

The tank is listed as 10.6 gallons. The low fuel light might come on when the level is down to one gallon, but I'd expect it closer to 2 from my Camry. Depending on when exactly you fill, and the sensitivity of the pump shut off, 7 gallons could be normal.

 

The "50 miles" is presumably on the distance to empty display?

Consider instead just keeping an eye on the fuel gauge, fill up when it's getting "moderately" low, say no lower than two bars remaining (on the fuel gauge), and try to synchronize fill ups with when you're driving by your preferred gas station(s).

 

That was a nice feature of prior gen Prius the individual "pips" or bars. 2023 Prius Prime fuel display is no longer discrete pips:

 

letting it get close to empty (not really empty with 2 safety gallons) isn't going to change anything except that you will get more miles on a tank, and will pump more gas each time.

 

Your Owner's Manual shows this:


On my older generation Prius, the OM is a bit conservative, with more fuel remaining than stated. So when the Distance To Empty display says 50 miles left, in reality it has around 150-ish miles of its EPA range remaining, in favorable conditions. See Bob Wilson's post linked earlier.

Should you let it get closer to empty? Not really. There is significant uncertainty about where it will actually run out of fuel and leave you stranded on the roadside. For most people, running out and getting stranded is at best a significant inconvenience, at worst it can be an actual disaster.

Different people in different circumstances have very different ideas about how close to "empty" is close enough. Unless you really need or want to know just how far it can go in case of a zombie apocalypse or a repeat of the 1973 Oil Crisis with gas rationing, it is generally better to not get close. "Out of gas" is a problem that is usually very easily avoidable.

Driving fast does reduce MPG and shorten the range.

 

what was your mpg when you couldn't plug in?

if 10.6 - 1.7 is accurate, and you fill up with about 50 miles left on the dte, there should be about 2.7 gallons left in the tank.
that would mean you are not able to fill all the way at 7 gallons, or there is more left in the tank than calculations show.
but 400 miles with 7 gallons is 57mpg, which is pretty darn good at the speeds you're driving.

 

Ah, there's the little feller:



Yeah, a little more low-key, but at least segmented into 1/4's. Say get on filling when it's into that last quarter, at the latest.

The charge/eco/pwr display seems less prominent too. I use that one a lot.

 

interestingly, our new hycam shows a 13 gallon tank, with no reserve, it will be interesting to see how many gallons it takes when the warning comes on