Posted by Kevin Matthews on February 03, 2001 at 12:38:54:In Reply to: I can't seem to get better than 42.6MPG combined!! posted by Mike S on February 02, 2001 at 21:28:26:
Mike, I think you should be able to get better mileage than that. Maybe you're already doing everything - heck, maybe your Prius needs some kind of tuning - but just in case there's something to add, here are a few extra points for maximizing Prius gas mileage:
- Never use the air conditioning. (Obvious, but essential, too.)
- When you accelerate, use a medium-crisp level, all the way up to crusing speed. (Or in some cases, accelerate _very_ slowly, so the car stays on electric.) If you watch the instantaneous mileage bar while accelerating normally, you can see that any serious acceleration calls on the gas engine, and it gulps down the gas while you're accelerating. If you really floor it, of course, it will use even more gas. But if you tryto accelerate too slowly, it will prolong the period of gas gulping. SO I've found that just a little crisper acceleration than I originally thought actually turns out to work better.
- Related to the above, after accelerating slightly crisply up to your desired speed, then back all the way off to a __very__ light touch on the pedal, just enough to maintain the cruising speed. Watch the instantaneous mileage bar while cruising, and you should be able to keep it pegged at the top 100MPG level most of the time, on the level in normal light breezes.
- Whenever you can, get your foot off the accelerator pedal altogether. This usually results in lightly engaging the generator, so you can earn stars - i.e., charge the batteries - and avoid any accidental gas sipping.
- Similarly, whenever you can anticipate having to brake, start braking early, with a light touch on the pedal. Again, this gives the generator a chance to fully engage, so you maximize the energy recovery during the slowing or stopping cycle.
If you can avoid coming to a full stop, keep rolling, and you may be able to use the very slow all-electric acceleration approach.
- Don't sit the car at all for a warm-up period when you first start it up. The engine will run continusously after start-up until it reaches a good internal working temperature, which is is essential for clean burning, which the Prious truly excels at. But that engine running during warm-up means there's a substantial amount of gas burning. If you're sitting still during warm-up, you can sometimes actually see your average mileage dropping in real time. With gas buring and zero ground being covered, it hits the avaerage pretty hard.
My sense is that the quicker you can get the Prius rolling at about 30mph after turning it on, the better your average mileage will be. At our house at 1200' outside Eugene, we have to go down hill for a couple of miles after starting out, and the first half mile is gravel, where the top speed is 20mph, with 15mph being more comfortable. So with gas buring during warm-up, and a limit on our speed, we have a small but unavaoidable built-in inefficiency factor. You can probably avoid the effect, just by getting on the road right away.
- In summary, my guidelines - for whatever they're worth - are accelerate slightly crisply all the way up to cruising speed, then cruise very, very lightly, coast with your foot off the pedal just as early as you can, brake light and early too, and don't sit still during the warm-up period.
- Other general auto mileage tips like keeping up tire inflation will also apply.
- By the way, doesn't Santa Barbara have hills, once you leave the beach?
; - )
Best wishes,
Kevin