Hybrid not active ?

Are you driving in POWER mode?

 

When your in the "red" your running inefficiently; I kinda equate that to red lining a RPM gauge - though you won't risk damaging or blowing up your engine as if it was an actual RPM gauge. Sometimes you've got no choice - gotta get out of the way of another car or shoot across an intersection. If you can keep that gauge out of the red, you'll definitely see improvements in your mpg.

 

It tales a long time to learn how to drive a Prius efficiently. There are lots of tricks that take practice and observation. Each of us offering suggestions has their own tricks to pass on and they are all good ways to get better mpg from the car. But, not all of them are going to be useful to you with your weekly drive scenario.

The part about the HSI going into the red zone is nothing new. But it staying in the red zone is. The idea is to keep the gauge out of the red zone as much as possible, and that is where the assortment of tricks used by drivers comes into play, and it's been that way since Gen 1 Prius and the birth of the hybrid hypermilers.

The gauge you're speaking of is called the Hybrid System Indicator and here is a link to an early Priuschat members study of how to read the Gen 3's version of the gauge. It's not a no brainer and it does take time to learn and understand how to use it effectively for your specific driving scenarios.
HSI

And the Primes use of the electric motors has been dialed in much more than the standard Prius is. So not all tricks pertaining to the standard Prius can be applied effectively to the Prime. Still, most of them are as relevant today as they were 20 years ago.

It's got to be at least twice as hard in the winter months and at hwy speeds to make the Prime do things it doesn't already do as it's programmed to do in winter and at hwy speeds.
It's hard to convince new Prius drivers that in the winter and at hwy speeds the car behaves much different than it does on nice summer days at 40 mph using as many hyperniling tricks as one has leaned already..

 

Make sure Drive Mode is not set to "Power" mode first of all. I like to use "Normal" ("Eco is too weak for my tastes). This affects your pedal sensitivity greatly. If you are in Power Mode, even a small movement of the pedal will push the engine into higher revs immediately.

Also - you want to set your odometer to zero and run a full tank of gas to determine your MPGe. Worrying about small sets of data points (i.e. one day) seems counterproductive.

 

Whatever the results are they should give you a good baseline to start a journal of your experiences with the car.

It's near impossible to keep the HSI out of the red zone while there are other cars behind you and even around you providing normal driving speeds, especially for acceleration from stop signs and traffic lights.

There is nothing wrong with driving in ECO mode, lots of owners use it exclusively. There is also nothing wrong with driving in NORMAL mode, as some owners use it exclusively. There is also nothing wrong with driving in POWER mode, as some owners use it exclusively. I typically drive in NORMAL mode. For the first year or two of ownership I drove in ECO mode pretty much exclusively. The different modes give the driver a different feel for the car and if you see the HSI in the red zone most of the time I might suggest using POWER mode instead of ECO. But I'd also recommend waiting until after you finish your preset full tank before trying it.

If you take clips of your normal drive it will help others understand better what your describing in your posts, since most of us have our own unique methods and routes we take.

 

Spring temps are on there way. Stay tuned !

 

i'd say you're right around average. try a tank at 55 and see what happens

 

you don't know what a grandma is, i'm a grandma

ask someone to post a pic of their range, i bet they are plugging in a lot.

prime has a small tank, how many gallons did she take?

and don't forget, there is a safety margin.

 

of course, where there's an average, there are also lows and highs. some may get 50-60mpg without plugging in, but there are so many variables, it is impossible to compare.

maybe someone will check in who also does 70 on the highway, lives in a similar climate as you, and will post their mpg's.

have tire model and pressures been mentioned? dragging brakes?

 

Not small in my opinion. 11.4 gallons, just like the regular Gen 4. They did not downsize it like they did to the PiP.