Neutral

Relatively new Prius owner here. Just bought mine Saturday and am trying to learn how to optimize its perfomance. Stupid question, but what is "feathering?" My dealer did not explain it and I have not come across that term anywhere else.

Thanks.

 

Feathering refers to pressing on the accelerator pedal very lightly. If you learn to feather the pedal, you will be able to drive the car in "golf cart" mode (electric only), or achieve a state of "no arrows" on the screen, which means the car is essentially in neutral, engine off, no regen, no arrows going to or from the motors, battery, or wheels.

 

Feathering-

There are actually a couple of ways to approach this. One way is when you attempt to limit engine use by accelerating to speed and then backing off the pedal and then easing back on the pedal while watching the energy screen. Apply just enough pedal to maintain speed with the electric motor without the engine starting. This only works at low to moderate speeds and does not usually lead to the best mileage results.

The other way to feather the pedal is to get up to speed and on flat or slightly downhill stretches you can lightly apply the pedal so that no arrows come from or to the battery. This technique will immitate being in neutral and will allow you to coast for a long way due to the low rolling resistance tires and low coefficient of drag. I use this method often to achieve great mileage results. I also shift to neutral when safe to do so and below 62 mph so that I don't have to bother with feathering. This works great for me and I consistently get around 60 MPG on 600-800 mile tanks.

 

The other way to read 'feather' is basically feather-light presses on the accelerator pedal.

Because the tranny is shiftless, it applies whatever you press down on the pedal directly and linearly instead of having shiftpoints where pressing the pedal harder has no effect.

One way to achieve the light 'feathering' control is to take off your shoe and press with just your toes, and watch the Energy screen to see what the engine does depending on how hard you press.

Once you achieved precise control of your ankle muscles, you'll get the idea.

A lot of this type of driving involves the very delicate area above 50mpg of consumption where light pressing can keep you ~75mpg, the no-arrows gliding/cruising, etc. It can involve the gas engine, but usually only very lightly.

While you are mastering this technique, you can of course practice your smooth turning skills too.

Because the Prius actually steers with bicycle-like sensitivity (that I'm noticing now), idea is to make turns in the car in a way that if you had a cup of water in the car filled somewhat close to the rim, you would not spill it. Ignoring bumpiness in the road, this involves entering the turn steering light, then to heavy, and then back to light turning a smooth and constant rate so the water would slowly tip toward the edge of the cup, rotate from the front to the side, stay there, and then slowly slide back to center normal, with some rippling, but no splashing, and no sloshing back and forth. Sloshing means you over/undercompensated somewhere.

Once you mastered this, a lot less car sickness for other passengers, and you mastered a performance driving technique.

 

Has anyone made directions for putting the Prius in neutral which could be given to a car wash attendant? I can see a lot of confusion if the "Valet Instructions" are given to them and when they bring the car to the conveyor belt they don't know how to put it in neutral or worse yet, cause damage by not doing it correctly.

Any help would be appreciated (especially if you have a Spanish translation).

Mike

PS - I KNOW how to do this myself, what I'm looking for is a little sheet of directions like the "Valet Instructions" for putting it into neutral.