New Prius owner, been watching, now have questions

Yes.
Have you ever seen following article?
http://www.priuschat.com/forums/kb.php?mod...de=article&k=23

especially, #11-Short Trips.

Regards,
Ken@Japan

 

Your mpg is very common to those of us with short commutes. But what can you do besides get a new job farther away or driving a few extra miles to get to work. I'd rather sleep in, myself. I figure it's a heck of a lot better than the 18-20 mpg I got with my last car. No non-Prius driver feels sorry for me and my 40+ mpg. Just enjoy your new car and let the mpgs take care of themselves.

 

With such a short commute, can you avoid the highway? One key is the engine heating up, so more time can help. My commute is a bit shorter but no highway. I have been getting a bit over 40 MPG in the last couple of months.

The good news is that spring, and warmer temperatues are near. This brings in two factors that will help. The summer gas formula has more energy per gallon. And with higher temperatures the engine will not run as much to heat up. Your gas mileage will improve. I got my car back in June and was getting 47-48 MPG then.

(Another thing I do is instead of staying on the public road to the campus entrance closest to my building, I take one much closer to home. With the 15 MPH speed limit, I can cover most of the last distance EV. When the warm weather returns, all of that last distance will be EV)

Others have reported improved mileage as the car breaks in. So I might be seening 50 this summer.

 

You can do better than that I think. Let the car start a little slow, and accelerate more and more, the faster you accelerate, the more you bear down on the accelerator. Then, take the foot completely off the accelerator after going 3, 4 miles per hour above where you want to cruise. Two seconds after taking the foot totally off, EASE into some gentle throttle. You have to learn how to glide, that is, a "no arrows" cruise. Get up to stop and go speed quick, then go to no arrows and do a no arrows glide. Do not drive up to red traffic lights.

Keep the energy screen on that shows the green and orange arrows to learn the feel of the car, what its doing. I asked some of these same questions, and its true, getting up to speed quickly is the thing to do. I am used to getting up to speed slower, but the power band for the ICE is in the upper RPM's. Getting that slower start from stop helps the car spool up the ICE properly, otherwise, you can feel a noteable "bump" in the car as it fires up the ICE. Gliding above 32/37 MPH means the ICE is still going to be running. And the lower the temps, the lower that number will be. As it gets warmer, the ICE runs less in city driving.

Realize this, properly driven, you will more than keep up with the pack, I outrun most vehicles from a dead stop now and I am getting pretty decent mileage, about the same as when I drove the car in a manner consistent with getting max fuel economy in my truck, but those methods do not work any better in the Prius. You can get excellent mileage and drive this car with some spirit. It isn't a racecar but right now I am just as fast as about anything else around BUT the nuts who drive up to traffic lights that are red and nosedive to a stop will be ahead of me. So what? I glide/coast and that is where the fuel economy comes in.

Laying off the A/C does wonders for fuel economy but you need it for comfort and to keep fog off of the windows on the inside, so you can turn it on and off to max out fuel economy.

Have the car alignment checked, check you tire pressures, they could and likely are off.

 

Don't use heat for the cabin; turn off the Auto AC. Your commute doesn't allow enough time for the engine to heat up enough to warm the cabin, and even if it does, you're almost there anyway.

Your mileage will also get better after about a 1K break-in period.

 

short trips aren't really best for mileage. but like you said you just got your prius fairly recently so mileage will get better during the break-in period and also as you develop and get to "know" the driving style that's best for your routes.

 

You didn't specifically mention tire inflation, so I'll add that reminder as well. 42f/40r seems to work best for most of us.

My commute is similar to yours, only no highway. On a really cold day, I'll average only 40MPG, but my yearly average is around 46, so you can do better. Like others, my average has been steadily increasing as my Prius breaks in. (This is my second Prius, so it isn't just driver training...)

After a recent tire rotation, my mileage dropped into the mid-30s for two tanks until I wisened up and checked the tire pressure. I'm glad I did; the tire monkeys lowered my pressure to 30/30. After re-inflating, my mileage returned to normal, a ~7MPG increase that I can't attribute to other driving or weather conditions.

 

Newbie here too.
FYI. . .I'm only getting around 38 MPG average but 52 MPG highway (using the average of the 5 min bars). The stop and go is a killer.

 

pblaidig, welcome out of the lurking cold too . . . and here are two PriusChat points to help warm you up.

 

Two thoughts here.

On short commutes: Ya'll rock; because, all that really matters is gallons per year, not miles per gallon. I have a freind that drives a suburban and uses less fuel in a year than I do. OK maybe more emissions, but less fuel.

Stop and go driving can be condusive to great mileage, but not if your heating or cooling loads are using alot of energy relative to the distance travelled.

 

in nearly all conditions, your mileage will be best on the freeway because of lack of stops.

so even on short freeway trips of 6 miles, you WILL get better mileage than you would on the surface street despite the longer warm up time.

regen braking does recover wasted energy and is a small step towards efficiency, but facts are, brakes rob you of nearly 100% of the power it took to get the car up to speed.

look at it as every time you tap the brake, you lose ¼ mpg, every time you come to a full stop make that 2 mpg. this may seem extreme but i think you will find the numbers to be fairly close for typical city driving. also dont tailgait. going from gas to brake will kill your mileage.

never worry about people behind you especially if there are more than one lanes and you know you will be coming to a stop or near stop anyway.

lately ive noticed many more people maximizing their coasting also...(most drive SUV's...hehehe)

 

After reading replys here, I decided to check my tire pressure. . .
Guess what, 31 PSI Front and Rear.
Car is only a week old @ 310 miles so the folks at the dealership must have dropped the pressure, or never checked it.

 

Did you check your spare too? I found it ten psi underinflated. (It's supposed to be inflated to 60 psi.)

Unfortunately, it's a real pain in the hindquarters to get to it. They mounted it valve-side-down, so it's impossible to check the pressure without removing the entire jack and spare assembly.

I overinflated it by about ten psi, to allow for possible future seepage. I can always check and bleed it if/when I need it, more easily than filling it.