How does everyone Average 50 MPG

Try to find Bob Wilson's graph of steady speed vs MPG. It is posted to numerous threads here, but I don't have a link handy.

It shows 75 MPH to be incompatible with 50 MPG.

 

I appreciate the breakdown on how to get the most mileage from the Prius. I've had my Prius for a week.

I've always had a start up slowly from stop, yanno no jackrabbit starts. so would "brisk" be where the power bar is just getting into the power section of the HSI?

unfortunately short trips is all there is where I live. it is maybe 15 miles from the south end of town to the north. it is only 4.5 miles to work, from there 4 miles to the gym then another 4 to the house. shopping is only 4-5 miles from the house.

I keep the tire pressure about 35-36 cold.

thanks again,
bob

 

Combine trips. The Prius really is happiest when warmed up.

I would keep the front tires about 2 lbs under the max on the sidewall, and the rears another 2 lbs under that. Just me.

I get about 45 MPG in a 2009, but A/C 35 degrees under ambient, no freeways, farm implements, and my bad driving account for that. (I accelerate beyond 'brisk', I do not plan ahead far enough, I pass vehicles I should be drafting, and my route never involves speeds between 25 and 50 MPH)

 

I find that around town, I get low 40 mpg. The distances and drive times are too short to get good mph.

Going to work (uphill), a 50 mile trip I get between 49 and 51 mpg.
Going home, (downhill), I get about 55 mpg.

It is not really uphill and downhill, but the starting and endpoint elevation change is between 500 and 1000 feet.

 

Most of my trips also fall in the 4 mile range, yet I manage to average 55-60 mpg. I break one rule and drive on battery power through a residential area, because I go down a steep hill at the end that I can use to regenerate most of what I used! See if there are routes that let you use the terrain to your advantage!

 

I can change my route to add 4-5 miles to work by going the opposite direction, not the most time efficient or shortest route but if it helps the car I'll leave 5 minutes earlier.

 

Just make sure you are not increasing consumption in the process. High mpg is no good if you drove way too far to get it. Go for lowest fuel used, and if mpg is not stellar, cry all the way past the gas stations you are passing.

 

Bob,
Not everyone is obtaining 50 mpg. I believe the EPA should have lettered the Prius with an average of 45 mpg instead of 50 mpg.

Currently this summer we have been averaging about 51 mpg with 10% Ethanol blended reg gas.

In the winter our average is about 45-48.

Our prius has over 33,000 miles so its well broken in.

Check your tire pressure. We keep ours at max sidewall pressure of 44psi

alfon

 

This an outstanding summary, and agree with all points.

When i first got my G3, I routinely got in the low-to-mid-50's MPG in my daily comute (~90 miles r.t.). For the past 4 or 5 tanks of gas, I'm now in the low 60's with every comute. I know as the temps get colder, and we get into Winter, like every car, my MPGs will come down.

I suspect it would be hard to get these kinds of numbers with short trips lasting 5-10 minutes. You will also take a big hit in MPGs when travelling at speeds at, or in excess of 75mph. I just came back from a ~400 mile road trip (all interstate, with minimal traffic). My average speed was around 75 mph, and my MPGs (compared to my slower comute speed) dropped to 51.5 MPG (from about 60 MPG in my comute). My average comute speed is right around 35 mph. That's limited by traffic and stop lights...I go with the flow, but do tend to hang in the slow lane.

By the way, I ONLY drive using the PWR mode setting. It provides a more responsive feel from a stop, and hasn't seemed to have hurt my MPGs.

 

Never underestimate terrain effects on MPG.....

I've had 3 different commutes since I purchased my Prius and each one produced different MPG averages.

1st Commute: 146miles of Freeway (65mph limit) and country roads (55mph limit) with less than 50ft. topography change = 52mpg avg.

2nd Commute: 15miles of Rural Highway (55mph limit), one "big" hill and slow residential = 53mpg avg.

3rd Commute: 12 miles of Freeway (65mph limit) and mile of city street with an incline. Total elevation gain of 1,000ft. = 47mpg avg. The hill climb on this commute puts a big dent in my MPG compared to flatland driving.

Now to change things up I went to a burrowing owl consortium in Sonoma yesterday. Driving at the freeway and highway speed limits of 65mph and 55mpg respectively, I ended the trip at 57.4mpg without hypermiling or holding up traffic. This was from Rocklin, to Davis overnight then Davis to Sonoma and back to Davis.

The point of the diatribe is this, your mileage may vary due to topography, road surfaces, climate, driving habits, traffic, etc.. Even two identical cars living in the same town may get drastically different average MPG due to commute and/or driving techniques.

 

Are you saying that the EPA or Toyota should under report what the 2010 Prius obtained on the EPA test cycles (after all the calculations that go into it) via a some fixed amount (say, 5 mpg) or percentage (10%)?

Or, are you asking for them to change the tests/add additional tests, such as one that includes higher average speeds and shorter drives w/a cold ICE, which would bring the numbers down?

Should the above apply only to the Prius, some/all hybrids or all cars?

 

Exactly. It really seems distorting when some think its poor driving skills, when often its the trips people are taking. If your going 3 miles on a 75mph highway with a uphill on ramp at -5 degrees you aren't going to get anywhere close to the epa. I would like to see what an hypermiler would get on the streets I drive.

 

I think the short trips and higher speeds should be added for all cars. I don't think it needs to be on the sticker but should be readily available information. As the car stickers are changing this is probably a good time to make the change, but the debate seems so political that I doubt that we will get good information. The current epa numbers are a big improvement on the old tests so at least there is some progress.

 

True, but if the roundtrip journey is over the same road, whatever that is (ie hilly, flat, etc)...whatever you loose in one direction, you should make up in the other. Going up a hill we take a hit on MPGs, but coming down we should make it up (mostly).

 

During the warm-up period ( 1st bar) the prius gets 35mpg or less depending on conditions and driver, this is the big hit on mpg. After the warm-up, reset the average mpg and you should see the real mileage the car is getting after warm-up. On a trip, abiding by speed limits, with no mountain clinbing, 60-90 mpg is possible " After Warm-up" if, you cannot easily attain 50+ using this technique, the car has a serious problem. I drove the 05 across the US and back with cruise control, including the warm-up hit and got 54mpg!
with no resetting. :cheer2:

 

I agree. MPG should take a back seat to GPM (gallons per month).

 

I think this needs to be brought up again. "Everyone" driving a Prius
does not achieve 50 MPGs overall average. Half of "everyone" does.

Maybe more than half of the drivers posting here on PRIUSchat do, but
that shouldn't be surprising given the amount if info and help that is
available.

I have been fighting mightily for now close on three years to reach a
50MPG year-round average. I posted my early experiences here:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-fuel-economy/44627-50-mpg-newbies-quest.html]

Right now, approaching the end of the spring-summer-fall high MPG
period, I'm sitting at 52.5 MPGs. But from bitter experience, I know
that will fall at least to 49 by spring. So maybe, just maybe I've got a
50 MPG overall, year-round average.

Folks have posted all the FE/MPG "good stuff" in this thread. Often it is
simply stated, but difficult to reliably and repeatedly implement. It's up
to you whether that's a PITA, or an invigorating daily challenge.

I would say that the difficulty in holding a 50 MPg average, at least for
the Gen II, is mastering a whole bagful of tricks and being able to pick
and choose the right one for a given driving situation, but being able to
quickly change up or intermix them as the dynamic conditions on the
road change.

Kinda' like life I guess.

For a two weeks earlier this year, I drove a Ford Focus while my car
was being repaired after being rear-ended. During that period, I
seemingly forgot every FE/MPG tactic that I had learned. Don't know
what the techs did but during the period the displayed MPG average
fell from 51 to 38. I even had to drive in stocking feet for a few days
to relearn the subtle go-pedal position differences between regen,
no-arrows glide, and stealth mode. That was a PITA for sure.

PS: The ScanGauge is the only piece of aftermarket equipment that is
virtually guaranteed to pay for itself in gas savings. It is "good stuff"
without a doubt.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. You expend more energy going up that hill than you will recover coming down the hill. It's that stupid law of thermodynamics messing me up again.

 

No, the EPA ratings are not based upon an average of ordinary drivers. They are based on well defined but artificial test cycles.

The original scores were higher than most real drivers achieved. So the EPA changed the scoring to lower the numbers. Then drivers started buying bigger engines to race faster between the ever proliferating traffic lights while they cranked up more air conditioning, and got angry at drivers of old cars that needed 15 seconds to get up to highway speed in a world where most new cars could do it in less than 10.

Of course, this caused most drivers to not meet the newer EPA numbers either. So the EPA changed the tests and lowered the numbers again! But it is still a very artificial test.

Unless gas gets much more expensive, I foresee this cycle continuing.

 

fuzzy1 is correct.

For more details on what the EPA tests entail, see http://priuschat.com/forums/other-c...uth-about-epa-city-highway-mpg-estimates.html.

Hint: They're not run on a real road, but rather a dyno (rollers). They follow specific schedules and they do NOT measure actual fuel consumption but instead look at tailpipe emissions. The shortest portions that start with a cold engine are 31.2 minutes long. The highway tests have an average speed of only ~48 mph.