New EPA Testing Criteria

Next they can add a criteria for winter mileage; pretty daunting task probably beyond any government engineers capability. My Prius mileage drops to 34-38 (local village driving) as soon as the temps drop into the thirties, so I wonder what happens in the really cold parts of the country. Since that isn't that much better than my trusty Corolla, most of the winter months I leave the PRI parked in the garage. Summer is great though, as the village driving will be close to 50mpg and distance driving 56-58.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NuShrike @ Dec 13 2006, 10:00 PM) [snapback]361971[/snapback]</div>

Likely the new standard of attacks on hybrids will be "but they don't really get good mileage. Why look here, the EPA even had to revise their numbers, etc., etc..."

For example, the Epa press release says:
Under the new methods, the city mpg estimates for most vehicles would drop 10 percent to 20 percent from today's labels, depending on the vehicle. The highway mpg estimates would generally drop five percent to 15 percent.

But if you google epa mileage 30% you'll find a million or so stories crowing about a 30% drop in hybrid mileage. It's ironic, given that Bluewater Network really did a service in petitioning for these changes. I myself never felt disappointed in Prius mileage because I'd checked Consumer Reports first. I just hope it doesn't turn into a potent avenue for marketing attacks on hybrids. And the revised highway MPG makes me scratch my head.--Scott

 

This (now old) news has now made the front page of slashdot.org. If it's off the front page, you can see it at http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/26/2021204. Feel free to add comments but it's already gotten quite a bit of chatter.

 

Some interesting tidbits from the EPA's Final Technical Support Document for Fuel Economy Labeling of Motor Vehicles:
http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/420r06017.pdf

Page 23:
2003-2006 Edmunds Long-term Test Vehicles:
The 2004 Prii's WORST mileage is better than ALL the other non-hybrid Edmonds test vehicles' BEST mileage!

Page 160:
[EPA Kansas City Test Program:]
“ . . . the driving of hybrids tends to be less aggressive than that of conventional vehicles . . . If there was something about hybrid vehicles which always led them to be operated less aggressively, this might need to be considered in developing their fuel economy label value. . . . Another cause could be driver behavior. People purchasing hybrids may have an unusually high interest in achieving high fuel economy on the road and drive their vehicles less aggressively, knowing that aggressive driving reduces fuel economy.â€

DUHHHHH! Hybrids aren't driven by A*hole drivers . . . why test them to the new A*hole driving standards of higher speeds and more rapid accelerations?

Page 170:
[Comparison of Cycle Fuel Economy]
The Prius models had the highest percentage of engine off operation (19%), followed by the Civic (3%), following by the one Insight in the test fleet (1%).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Dec 27 2006, 02:09 AM) [snapback]367094[/snapback]</div>

Good find! Thanks for the tidbits as well.

Boy, that's a long document. I don't think I'll ever have time to read even 1/2 of it.