5 minute trips?

Absolutely. I try like heck to "group" my 5 min trips together, and not turn the car off in between errands when possible.

It's even worse in extreme temps!

 

Hi Eberrong,

Well, the Prius is probably not worse in 5 minute trips than other cars, even small cars like the Versa or Yaris if fuel economy. Your going to get similar performance to an Echo, Yaris or Versa for the first five mnutes in a Prius. Its just one pays extra for the Hybrid parts, and the fuel economy improvement beyond a standard car is not as much in this service (something like an equivalent sized car - Camry, Sentra, Accord, Malibu - in this comparison). So, the economic efficiency is not as good if the primary service is 5 minute trips.

Then again, people buy SUV's for suburban commuting, and that is hardly an appropriate expenditure for the planned use either.

I think most people on here would recommend an electric car for 5 minute trips service. But, electric cars are either expensive, poorly made, lack cold weather amenities or not available in many people's market. Which is why the GM EV-1 crushing was such a crime - it had none of these short comings, except for not being available outside of California.

With the Prius one can improve the 5 minute trip fuel economy performance with a block heater, or the traditional way of taking care of this problem with traditional cars. That is, to wait to a point in the day when several 5 minute trips are needed, then link them together - making for say a 15 minute trip. I was taught this in driver's ed in 1973. So its not really new.

 

From my experience with the Scangauge II, the Prius and my former anti-Prius (2001 Pathfinder), when cold the Prius is pretty much a "normal" car. About the same mileage. In fact, the Pathfinder burned three times as much fuel per hour idling when cold as when warm. The Prius is only about two times as much when cold as when warm. -If- you can persuade it to idle. It usually shuts off the engine if you are in an idling situation.

You can expect 30-40 MPG on short trips (5 min or less), if the car isn't warm. If you join the short trips together, one after the other, it does much better.
You can expect 40-50 MPG on longer trips. Variables affecting this are wind, ambient temp., hills, and traffic. Traffic will affect the Prius less than other cars.

 

95% of my trips are about five minutes; I'm currently getting 48 MPG. In the winter I got about 38 MPG, which is still better than any other car I know of.

 

No, a hybrid is not worse than a normal car for short trips. Normal cars are so bad all of the time that short trips don't hurt as much when compared to their normal crappy mileage. It's the same reason normal cars do better on the highway; they are not better highway cars, they are just really, really bad city cars.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ Jul 8 2007, 11:48 AM) [snapback]475058[/snapback]</div>

Does anybody have experience trying to drive slow in electric mode or putting in the electric button modification. Would this help for short trips or would the engine come on anyway because the environmental temperature is too cold?

 

The EV button will help only a little, if at all.

1. You probably won't get more than 1-2 miles in EV mode before the engine starts.

2. The fuel cost to recharge often outweighs the savings of using EV mode. People use EV to prevent an engine start when moving short distances, perhaps 1/4 mile or less. So you might use EV, knowing you'll need more charging---but you're planning on a longer trip anyway, so that recharge happens for free. If you don't expect a higher-speed longer trip right after EV use, then the engine is going to run to charge on the next five-minute trip, so you end up with a net loss.

3. Once you hit 42mph the engine will always start, and EV mode will always kick out.

4. When a cold engine starts, the car will keep it running to heat the catalytic converter; this will often erase any quick savings you had with EV mode when the car is cold.

(Disclaimer: I'm just trying to parrot back things I remember reading from here; I don't have any experience with the EV mod.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(orahm @ Jul 8 2007, 11:52 AM) [snapback]475084[/snapback]</div>

EV can certainly help if you have a short trip, but a mile - mile and a half is about your limit in EV mode, much less if any uphill is involved.
After the EV trip the ICE will run for longer to replenish the battery, but if this happening during warm up mode the low mpg will not hurt as much as at other times. But the EV mode generally leads to lower mpg.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ Jul 8 2007, 10:48 AM) [snapback]475058[/snapback]</div>

That's very good to hear.
I drive the same as you. Most of my trips are about five minutes. I just got my car about 12 days ago.
I have been having around 40 mpg. I am learning how to get a good mileage out of my short trips
Can you give us any advice to get a good gas mileage out of the five-minute trips? Thank you.

Carrie

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(carrie @ Jul 8 2007, 12:20 PM) [snapback]475095[/snapback]</div>

Confession: Remember how I said 95% of my trips are about five minutes? It's that other 5% that really boosts the MPG....

 

I take a lot of 5-10 minute trips. I am only on my second tank of gas... the first one was 40.4 mpg and on the second one I'm at 42.5 mpg so far, with four pips left (I don't use my car to commute).