UK Prius v low mpg and EV

:welcome:Sir, You must understand that if it is a brand new vehicle, only has 500 miles on it, and the engine has not had a chance to break in yet. Once you get 5, 10, and maybe 15,000.0 miles on it you will see your mileage increase. Just give it time and you will see the increase.

:rapture:

 

Hi Benway!

You'll probably find that the Prius will take some time to get good mileage. Both as the car settles in (I was quoted 2,000 miles before it's properly settled in) and you settle in.

Technically the Prius should drive just like any other car. However thanks to the big display and the addictive quest to get ever higher MPG you'll probably start to see an improvement in your economy after a few months.

Also, don't forget that the weather in the UK has recently been terrible. We've had strong winds, wet, snow, ice - and all of that doesn't help economy.

Where abouts in the UK are you? What does your daily drive consist of? These will have a big impact on your fuel economy.

Let me give you an illustration. Last summer, I managed an astonishing 75 imperial mpg (sustained) on a tank of fuel. I was driving mainly on motorways at a steady 65 mph and was making long trips where the engine was operating for extended periods of time at a higher temperature than it would on stop/start trips. But now we're into the winter months I'm struggling around 50 imperial mpg with short 15 mile trips or less in very heavy Bristol traffic. My partner Kate is hovering around 41 mpg imperial in her Prius - because she drives in and out of Bristol in the Rush-hour when it's period of hard motorway driving followed by lots of start-stop.

Certainly though your fuel economy isn't anywhere near what it should be.
I'd get the guys to give it the once over plus check the alignment of the wheels.

It's a long shot, but if you're anywhere near Bristol I'd be happy to meet up and show you some of our tips to good economy and perhaps give your Prius a once-over to see if I can see anything wrong.

Regarding EV mode - for sub 1 mile trips you could use it, but only use it if you know that you're going to be able to regenerate that power later using regenerative breaking or the whole point of EV mode is moot. I tend to use EV mode in several places.

1) When I'm leaving the house in the morning and I'm wanting to drive the car through our residential area on electric, saving the actual engine 'on' moment for when I can drive the car at a higher speed and thus warm up quicker.

2) When I'm coasting around town and I know that most of my journey will be down-hill or that I can use EV mode to get me to the top of a hill

3) When I'm in town in stop/start traffic and the car can't quite decide to keep the engine on or off.


There's one final place I nearly always use it - after a long downhill run in which I know the battery has fully recharged. There's a place near Bath where I drive every Friday where I can travel for nearly 10 minutes without turning the engine on once. That really helps the fuel economy!

Finally, when it's cold, I'd try turning off your A/C when sat in traffic. It's espiecally important in the morning when the car may have warmed up enough to keep the engine off, but the cabin isn't quite yet the temperature you set. The engine will continue to run until it's got to your preset temperature. I find that by turning off the AC in traffic and then back on when I move I can actually help my fuel economy grately.

Finally, I'd suggest to the garage that you take them out in another Prius. If you're able to accheive a higher mpg in someone else's car then you have proven there's something wrong with yours...

Good luck!

Nikki.

 

If you have a 1 way all down hill you could easy use EV to save fuel as long as you keep the speed down. You will have no heat unless the engine is running so leave the heat off and put a jumper on. The battery will likely not lose much charge if you go all down hill. This means on a 2 way commute you have only to warm the engine once.
Have you adjusted your tyres to 42 front and 40 rear or higher?
Do you drive further than 1 mile each way from time to time?

Here is something else to think about,
in 6 weeks you did 500 miles at 25 miles per gallon, that's 20 gallons.
If you keep going at that for a year you will use just 173 gallons a year to cover 4333 very brief miles.

I get shot down when I say it but I don't believe Prius is the right car for very short commutes or people who do very low annual mileage.
Are there any electric cars you could use for such a short commute??
What I don't understand is you average nearly 12 miles a day but a 1 mile commute, try combining as many trips as you can.

 

Hmmm.

I don't think we do have winter fuel in the UK. It just doesn't get cold enough.

The 1 mile trips is what is probably killing your economy. There's no way the engine can warm up enough to let the car run in electric only mode. Certainly not in the winter, anyway.

You may want to experiment with an grille block. It would help the engine get warmer quicker and help keep it warm There's lots of different ways to do it, but a piece of pipe insulation stuck to the front upper grille (the smile) works great.

What was it which drew you to the Prius, out of interest? I love both of our prius to bits, but I'm wondering if the Prius is really the right car for you in your situation if your mileage needs are that low. If you have access to off-street parking and some power an EV may be a better solution if enconomy is your prime need. You'd need something like a Berlingo electricque though to handle the hills! Failing that you'll probably find that the economy improves greatly in the sumemr months as your car stays warmer for longer.

Nikki.

 

i am not yet a prius owner, but i've been doing a lot of research. it seems for those of us "new" to the car, the best way to get higher mileage is to stop worrying about it. it seems like you have many many factors that contribute to lower mileage- perhaps wait untol the summer months (whern there isn't so much energy lost to not only heating up the engine, but the heater as well) and see if your mileage is still down?

it seems that the cold, possible winter fuel blend, and that killer hill with speed bumps are the biggest factors.

do you live in a location where you can plug the car in at night? if so, consider an engine block heater to counteract some of the negative effects of the cold startup?

 

Block your grill and I wonder about sealing around the bonnet to help keep heat in the engine bay. Don't worry, the air can get out underneath the car but when stationary sealing around the bonnet will help keep rising heat under the bonnet.
So seal around the bonnet and block the upper grill, at 32f you would get away with blocking most of the lower grill, even all of it if you took a couple of strips out for your longer drives. If others say I'm wrong listen to then, I'm Australian so I know jack about cold climates.

 

What mileage are you getting at the end of your 30 mile runs? That should tell you if it's just a running temperature thing.

 

Agreed! Your 30 mile trips will tell the tale. Push reset after you've gone 5 miles and report the result at the end.

 

Hi there, Im also running a prius around sheffield and am getting much better MPG than you, and have done since I first got the car, so I dont think there is much of a running in effect.
The MPG does drop in winter for all sorts of reasons, the car runs the engine more to heat the catalytic converter, and to provide heat for the cabin. The petrol mix also changes over the winter, although I think it varies between suppliers.
As others have said, I think its short journeys that are doing the damage to your MPG - try taking it out for a big drive in the peak and see what you get then.

 

You consume a lot of fuels for engine warming up and heating your cabin.
These fuels don't drive your Prius, therefore your are seeing low mpg numbers.

Please try to find following opportunity to see how your Prius acts.
- On some holiday, try to do some long drive, say more than 30 miles, on suburb road where the speed limit is less than 40mph.
- Be patient with cold weather, but turn off your heater.
- Reset your mpg number on the MFD after warming up.

I believe you'll see reasonable mpg number after your 30 miles drive.

Ken@Japan

 

This most recent tankful we've dropped to about 51-52 on exclusively town driving (on an 06 50k mile car). I say town driving, we live in the 'burbs and it's a 5 mile trip into town which includes accelerating up to speed on a dual carriageway for a few miles. Having said that, it's downhill so I've recorded 78mpg into town on one occasion. I think though that the short high speed run brings our average down. But I'd expect low 50s for normal town driving based on experience. But then, Sheffield is a lot hillier than Cardiff (which isnt' flat).

Take it for a long motorway trip on a day when it's not windy or rainy. In winter you should get over 50 mpg if you set the cruise on 70mph - I can manage about 54. In the summer I'm up about 60, or even 62 if I am lucky. Seems like the warm air helps the economy more than the aircon diminishes it.

 

Of course they'd say everything is fine; they're not about to admit that they're screwing up your car by using oil that is much too heavy. Get thee and thine to another dealer, one who is willing to use the correct oil for the car and not merely the stuff that they got a good bulk price for last year. If necessary buy your own 0W20 oil in bottles and hand it to the dealer to be used in your car. And get it changed right away.

 

Hi Benway
I dont really know what MPG Im getting around town, I usually track my MPG by dividing the miles by the gallons when I fill up and the fill ups are 500 miles apart, and dont really look when Im just zipping about.

Seriously if you want to benchmark your MPG against mine, drive from sheffield to Derby, going by Baslow-matlock- Belper - I get 60-65MPg

- and back by A38 M1- I get 50 -55 MPg that way.

Where did you get the car from ?