The other thing to do - if nobody is behind you - is to ease up, lose a few km/hr over the crest of a hill. EV Mode - sometimes chasing "EV" mode can be counterproductive though. There are times where you can eke out the battery by forcing it - then get to a red traffic light, and instead of sitting idle, it has to turn the ICE for 2 minutes at the red, because the battery was so low.
Friends, The preliminary small sample size test results are in. Over the last two tanks using almost exclusively pulse and glide my MPG rose on average 7MPG with no weather changes. Still learning to properly feather the throttle as well as learning to let off sooner to not waste so much speed (think coasting one city block instead of two, pulsing to 35 when 30 would have been good enough). My delivery times are just as fast and even faster using P&G, likely comes down to me rolling through more green lights because I'm being much attentive to the flow of traffic. Ultimately getting good mpg comes down to avoiding full stops and keeping momentum so that's what I've been doing.
Gentlemen, I return once more to talk "technical" details. Gen3 warming up stages | PriusChat Let's talk about engine warm up stages and the wonderful world of high mpg known as "Stage 4". The problem I am having is as follows. I'm at work, turn car off go into store grab deliveries, turn car on engine temp is at 60C. Hybrid Assistant says I am in stage 4 but shows a PAUSE icon and indicates I need to let off the gas COMPLETELY. I do this and the "idle check" begins (or so HA says because under the engine piston icon it shows "idle check"). THIS is where the trouble begins. I let off the throttle completely and coast in the regen zone, no brakes, no gas. Even after 7 seconds the car does not enter golf cart mode. It seems to do so either after a complete stop or randomly at low speed. I can not figure out what I am missing. Also side note, weather is 34F so I've not been using the heater, have become boss at gliding without shifting to N and am seeing on average 36mpg in the winter. 1mpg above EPA, really looking forward to summer.
drbtz I'm not sure if this is what you are talking about, but if you shut your car off it seems like you start your stages over no matter how hot it is. The engine will come on when you hit 10 MPH and it will stay on for a litte while even though it isn't needed. If I'm just popping in somewhere for a minute sometimes I'll just leave my car on to avoid this. Of course this isn't entirely safe/secure and most likely not worth the trouble for most folks.
I went through a hypermile phase where I did my very best to save every drop of fuel. Most of the techniques had some kind of penalty or trade off. You are typically trading either time, comfort or safety for the sake of MPGs. These techniques do work and they are worth it for some people but once again there is a price. There is one technique that saves fuel and time both. It is my favorite of all the techniques because it is win/win. And the winner is: Traffic awareness/lane changing with light timing. Most folks jackrabbit to the next red light and then slam on their brakes. Their peak speed is high but their average speed is low. If a light is red don't race to it and stop, try to get there as it is tuning green and traffic is starting to move. There are businesses people tend to go to and when they do they slow down and turn. This is fairly predictable. If it is lunch hour McDonalds is going to get a lot of business. Try to see it all before it happens and try to already be in the lane that isn't going to need to stop. Your peak speed will be lower (saving gas) but your average speed will be higher (saving time), win/win!
I think combining trips is the best trick for good mileage. Warm the ICE up once and stop 4 places as opposed to 4 warm ups and covering the same ground 4 times.
PRIUS doesn't do this - once it's warmed up, stop at the PostOffice etc for up to 10-15 mins and it acts like it was before - will still EV to higher speeds than when cold.
Mileage hunters - the 1st warmup is shortened when incorporating a block heater ... even used on summer mornings. .
