Hey guys, I've been driving my '05 Prius, and I've noticed that I can glide at pretty much any time unless the battery isn't charged enough. I can glide on the highway with no arrows at all on the energy screen. I can glide on a cold start, and it confuses me that everyone says you can't. There are times when I can and can't glide over 42 mph, but I was under the assumption that it couldn't be done. Can anyone clarify about this?
Yes... Realized that first because of my cruise control while going slightly downhill at freeway speed was gliding... In my experience gliding at freeway speed doesn't last long and I've found if you focus on stealth mode (electric power only) instead, its raises MPG. Mostly because at freeway speed with no hill climbing there's lots of energy spinning the charging system so it's rare for the HV battery to lose much charge, so you can maximize battery only power, even though you'll still slightly be losing speed in stealth mode and will have to pulse out of it, unless you hit some more downhill... And sometimes I'd rather set cruise control and forget it. Of course that how I learned about freeway gliding and stealth mode in the first place. LOL...
Yep, you can operate in glide and stealth modes above 42 MPH, but at these speeds the engine is still spinning, albeit without any fuel injection. Above 42MPH (67 km/h) I tend to only use stealth mode on slight downhill sections. If I'm going for a high speed stealth/glide I try to get good speed coming up to the crest of the gentle hill, then begin the stealth run from just after the crest and continue to near the bottom of the hill, but not all the way. Since you often lose a little bit of speed by maintaining stealth mode, I like to kick the engine back into action and build up speed a little before reaching the very bottom of the descent, particularly if there's another rise following. Like PriusCamper said, if used judiciously this can increase your MPG.
