Wish list for next generation Prius Plug-in

I agree that Toyota needs to get onboard with E85. It's an easy mod. Many of the Aussie servo's have browsers yet there are only 3 (GM) vehicles that can currently use it!

 

As one who had an '04, then an '11 Five with the 17 inch wheels, I can say that the PiP handles better than the '04 but not as well as the '11 with big wheels.

On the other hand, the PiP's ride is infinitely quieter and more "soft" than the '11. I prefer the serenity of the cabin in the PiP. It's good for the Zen.

 

I live on a hill. When I pull out of my garage, and then coast up and down to get to the main roads, the cabin is silent. It was eerie at first, but now I find it comforting, the "not being assaulted" thing.

 

I want a bigger gas tank. Every time I'm on empty I can only put 8.5 gallons in it. If I could actually put in the 11.9 in I would be able at least 552 miles on one tank. I have to fill up weekly with just averaging 350 miles / 46mpg average. I can do that in any other car that has a 12-18 gallon tank. Imagine if the 2015 has a 14 gallon tank and average 55mpg that's 770 miles between fill ups.

 

welcome to priuschat. it only holds a little over ten gallons. all the best!

 

Wow, a Prius Chatter that runs to my tune At 770 miles it would be in competition with the diesel VW which touts the longest range. **I** just want the PiP to **MATCH** the LiftBack in range with gas and electric. The less cargo space (no spare) and less range was the ultimate deal breaker for me to just stick with my 2010 gen III vs upgrade to PiP, though I did love driving it and the power of the electric motor (albeit priussy)

 

It all depends on your driving needs and habits. I routinely get 600-700 miles per tank, and if I do a lot of in town driving on EV, that stretches to 1000 miles. I'm using EV about 41% of the time. Some owners report much more, especially those with short commutes, etc. On my '06 I was able to easily get over 500 miles per tank, sometimes well over 600. But I was averaging 54 mpg. If you are heavy on the gas pedal, you won't do as well. My daughter has a 2010 and is no slowpoke, but gets around 50 mpg, more in the warmer weather in Ohio.
To me, comparing the PiP with the regular hatchback is apples-to-oranges. Other than groceries, I don't do a lot of hauling, so I have a full size spare strapped down in the cargo area.

 

Yeah, I'm just looking for the perfect vehicle. The PiP would fit my lifestyle, but we do cross country trips straight a little bit also and for the times I can't charge it doesn't fit and I really enjoy the range of my liftback full of passengers and stuff (I still manage 530 miles average and I think I have some left in the tank).

 

get a hycam. lots of room, quiet and comfortable for those long trips, 40+ mpg and 700+ miles of range!

 

How about strapping a metal gas can to the outside, like one sees in Range Rovers in Africa? You could easily double the range...

Odd datapoint (at least it was odd to me): driving home yesterday, I was down to a single bar, flashing, on fuel limit. The dash showed range of 0 miles. I put it on charge knowing I'd have no trouble getting to the gas station about three miles away, and felt smug. But when I did drive there this morning, the gas clicked off after 8.9 gallons, or only 86% capacity. Didn't try to push it, but more than a 10% reserve seems like a lot.

 

Cam Hy is not a hatchback...I like how I can utilize my Prius

Anyway, the range seems to be based on your driving pattern. IE, if one fill you do terrible mpgs and you get down to 0 after 300 miles, next fill you have ok mpgs (not much better), most likely it'd give you like 320 miles to empty versus 400 (because you did that much better).

One thing that's consistent as Bob Wilson pointed out is: When the last pip blinks (not sure if this is true on the PiP) you should have at least (at most if you want to be safe) 2 gallons left. So I reset Trip B, measure my MPG and distance and I haven't had any issues yet!

Another thing you could do is use your original trip A, if you're 50 mpg and you know there's 10.9 gal in the tank, you should be able to get AT LEAST 500 miles. Of course, this doesn't work when you plugin and what not (at least not with the mpg meter).

 

My brother's place is about 440 miles from here. I can drive it non stop, 65-70 mph, and still have two pips left on the fuel gauge. And hybrids are bad on gas on the highways.

 

Another way to figure the safe range is to write down your gas purchases and reset one of the trip odometers each time. If you know how much gas you put in at the last fill, use that number multiplied by the average mpg readout. You know pretty close the minimum miles you can travel. So in inferno's case, 8.5 x 46 = 391 miles. If you manage to get 10 or 11 gallons in at a fill, you know you can easily go much further. This is my third Prius and I haven't run out of gas yet, in 160K + miles. Of course, there's a first time for everything..........

 

yup, the reserve is almost 2 gallons.

 

The only caution is that I've found the MPG displayed numbers to be about 4-6% optimistic. I'm guessing that at 500 miles, he'd be down to as little as 0.3 gal or less. Assume 9 gallons x mpg for estimating range.

 

a smaller gas tank for larger battery capacity... probably not feasible for current gen, but maybe down the road? the gas backup is big for those unexpected longer weekend trips

 

Define "bad."

I just completed two 100+ mile (one-way) trips over the past two weekends in a row. Interstate at ~65 mph most of the way.
I went 470 miles on HV for the 10 days betwen fillups, (about 450 miles on the long trips and 20 miles local) and 180 miles EV. The ratio screen said I used 7 gallons (thus 67 mpg...or maybe only 60 mpg if it is should be 7.9 gal). I filled up with 8.5 gal (maybe I topped off a bit more than before) which would be 55 mpg. I say this wasn't too bad.

Mike

 

Bad mileage on the highway is what I keep hearing from the same people on the TDI site that also bring up the $10,000 battery changes.

 

I agree, We have a 2012 hycam xle, for freeway trips it drives so nice, and has so much power, and room. We love this car so much I got the prius c for in town and it is great for that but it is not great loaded down on long trips at high speed. Also consider the Avalon I think mpg about 38 in a large car.

 

I think "bad" is only with respect to the mpg in city driving in the same car. At highway speeds, the main energy loss is air resistance, which is pure loss. In conventional cars, it's the start/stop that kills mpg in the city, which the hybrid technology nicely deals with.