50+ MPG -- A Newbie's Quest

[Rokeby]

There are currently a number of active threads wherein new/prospective owners are asking what they should know to maximize the MPG potential of their Prius. As a three-month owner, still-a-Newbie, I thought I'd relate what I've done that has lead to my daily MPG rising from 42.7 to 54.7, a 28% increase.

The first time I drove my 2008 Touring, "Amapola." was when I picked her up in Rhode Island and drove home to Ballamer, about 450 mi, at 42.7 MPG. (That story was told in: C3PO Crapulous Personal Prius Purchasing Qdyssey)

Since then, I studied all the various techniques for maximizing MPG here on PriusChat. These are best summarized in: Prius Stages of Operation & Operating Mode Availability -A Reference Aid

This document is about as densely packed with info as can be. For a Newbie, it is nearly incomprehensible. Fortunately its builder, ksstatdead, includes cites for the threads from which the info was extracted. That is where the real high MPG information gold mine lies. That is where I learned how to do what was needed to get my MPGs up.

As prep for my assault on 50+ MPG, I pumped my tires up to 40/38 psi, and blocked my grill with foam pipe insulation. Because I have come to the opinion that the Energy screen on the Multi-Function Display (MFD) is not a useful real-time tool for pursuing high MPG, I bought a ScanGauge II.
(See http://priuschat.com/forums/fuel-eco...etter-way.html)

I found that once I learned the methods, I needed a daily MPG goal that was reachable, but not easy to achieve. As a default, I set 50 MPG as a daily goal for my 28 mi. round-trip commute -- the route is equally split between urban secondary roads and 60 MPH-average highway. Slowly over the following months, reaching that goal daily became somewhat frequent.

I noted that the greatest variation in the conditions of my daily commute was the temperature. I came up with this formula for my daily MPG target that requires me to really work to meet:
Great Daily MPG = Temperature + 1/2 (60 - Temperature) -- Temps in deg F
So, my target GDMPG for a 46 deg day would be:
46 + 1/2( 60-46) = 46 + 1/2(14) = 46 + 7 = 53 MPG
This has turned out to be a daily challenge -- I'm confident it will be valid up to 60 deg F. For higher temps, I suspect that 60 MPG will still be a challenging daily goal.

In the last two days, only two days short of three months of ownership, I made a 436 mi. round trip, Ballamer to Brooklyn, NY and return. This would be over the same route as that first trip and I could compare the resulting MPG with that first, rank tyro result. (I chose not to use the cruise control so that my understanding of the MPG skills would be put to the test.)

Some base line data:
MPG out - 53.9, MPG back - 55.5, Average MPG - 54.7
Temps both ways - 34 - 46 deg F. Dry roads. Winds minimal both ways.
Speeds typically 60 - 65 MPH

On this trip I pulled out all the stops, I used every trick I had been practicing on my short daily commute; Pulse and Glide, Warp Stealth, Super Highway Mode (SHM), and even engine off - gliding in neutral (NICE-off) -- exclusively on the steeper grades coming off the major bridges; Verazanno, Outer Bridge Crossing, Delaware River; and descent to the Susquehanna River Bridge.

I travelled mostly in the right lane. When 18 wheelers slid into my lane in front of me, I took advantage of "opportunistic" drafting. But I didn't chase them, and within a mile or two they pulled away. (Traffic was relatively sedate; most drivers, including the truckers, right at 65 MPH-- of the two clear exceptions, one was shortly pulled over by the NJ State Police.)

Right now, I'm at 3655 total miles and overall, "Lifetime," 47.2 MPG. I think that I'm learning the high MPG methods and how to use them in dynamic, real-time, on-the-road situations. As the temps rise in the next months, I'm looking forward to chasing, and even catching, 60 MPG at 60 MPH at 60 deg F -- 60-60-60.

I'm confident that with study and application you too can go beyond 50+ MPG.

God bless, and first, last, and always be safe.
"God helps those who first help themselves."

Newbie Power!
(Even the salt-encrusted Old Guard were Newbies, once upon a time.)

[Bob64]

The best way to get high mileage is to drive like you have no brakes.

[miscrms]

Nice work!

Rob

[Rokeby]

I Posted the following in a different thread I think it has some relevance here as well:

Here is a little game I created to help me internalize the right go-pedal
movement to get no yellow arrows to or from the HV battery. It may help
others too.

I noticed that even under even, steady acceleration sometimes the yellow
arrows went into the battery. Then moments later, they switched to going
the other way. Nowhere had I read what I was supposed to do to get no
arrows. Many posts talked about the no-arrow state, but none I had read
told how to achieve it.

So, I fiddled with very small go-pedal inputs. I found that when the arrow
was pointing up, into the battery, more go-pedal made it go away. When the
arrow pointed down and to the left, out of the battery, letting up on the
go-pedal made it go away.

So what's the game? To make the needed correction I needed to react
instinctively, instantaneously, without thinking. So the game is the arrow is
a snake, let's say a king cobra. When the cobra rears up threateningly, you
step --very, very gently of course -- on its head and he disappears. If the
cobra is slinking away off to the left, you hasten his departure by easing up
on the go-pedal. Kind of childish, but it worked for me.

For me the game was just an intermediate stage. I soon learned to instantly
take the right go-pedal response for up or down arrows without consciously
dealing with the "snake."

One caution, sometimes the display goes into an indeterminate state for a
few seconds with the arrows, snakes, rapidly alternating up and down. Just
hold the go-pedal steady and in a few seconds it settles to up, down,
or none. Then react as appropriate.

[limetime13]

Very good info. Like you, I always wondered exactly how to get "no arrows to or from the battery". I'll give this method a try. Thanks.

Another newbie - currently getting lifetime 47.0 mpg (I know I can do better....) (mind you - "lifetime" is 3 months )

[kmstampe]

Your snake game is well explained. I'm still saving for my down payment so I don't have a prius yet... But after all I've learned here I'm wondering how long it'll take me to crash because I'm spending too much time watching the screen/arrows instead of the road! (Actually I think my husband already has a pool started!)

[curtisbeme]

I don't quite understand the need to not let the arrow go into the battery. I would think that keeping the battery charged helps your FE. So I try to go for the no arrows when I can, but I tend to slow down way before traffic lights so I can charge to battery.
I live in Virginia Beach, VA. and around here people are in a big hurry all of the time. So if you try to play around to much with the accelerator, you get tailgated big time. The end result is I get about 45 mpg sometimes and other times I will sink to around 40 mpg. All because of trying to not aggravate the tail gaters.
Do any other areas of the country have this problem and how do you deal with it?

[morpheusx]

Originally Posted by curtisbeme

I don't quite understand the need to not let the arrow go into the battery. I would think that keeping the battery charged helps your FE. So I try to go for the no arrows when I can, but I tend to slow down way before traffic lights so I can charge to battery.
I live in Virginia Beach, VA. and around here people are in a big hurry all of the time. So if you try to play around to much with the accelerator, you get tailgated big time. The end result is I get about 45 mpg sometimes and other times I will sink to around 40 mpg. All because of trying to not aggravate the tail gaters.
Do any other areas of the country have this problem and how do you deal with it?

It must be your entire state, because when I am in VA Beach, Norfolk, or Hampton people like to give me the one finger wave as they go by for driving the speed limit, it is even worse in N. Virginia (DC area) and Richmond.

[Rokeby]

Make no mistake about it, when you're driving a car, any car, your main job is safety. The whole super-max high FE/MPH thing is a game, and just a game. It should never compromise safety. That said, there are times and places where the game can be played safely.

It can be difficult to discuss getting good FE/MPG because the readers are at such widely separated levels of experience, competance, comfort, etc. Hey, I'm just a newbie too, it says so in the thread title.

Soooo, there is not complete agreement on whether of not striving mightily not to charge the HV battery is a worthwhile goal. The Hobbit says not, and that's an opinion that can't be ignored. However, others feel strongly that due to conversion losses, any energy intentionally put into the battery is gas wasted.

Left to its own devices the CPU will keep the HV battery at 6 bars. It sneaks energy into the battery whether you like it or not. Sometimes it will run the ICE and charge the battery and not show any arrows.

The glory of the HSD energy management system is that its rules have some flexibility built in, it seems to be "fuzzy logic" based, which deals with ranges and multi-dimensional preferred conditions as opposed to specific numerical values. The good part of this is it means the driver can do things to push certain values or conditions to the extreme of a range.

SOC (State of Charge of the HV battery ) can be fiddled with within ranges set by the CPU. This is good because the driver, by knowing the route (topography, traffic, signals, etc.), can use the energy in the HV battery to minimize gas use. An example: it would be wise to use a little HV power to crest a hill if you know there's a long downhill on the other side.

Should the driver be staring at the MFD or ScanGauge? No, never, no more than he should be staring at the radio or the babe in the Jaguar over there. Quickly getting, evaluating, and using the info to take advantage of the HSD's built-n flexibility is an acquired skill. The Snake Game s just a way that might help some folks get up and over one of the learning curves a little faster.

Oh yeah, by inverting the Snake Game you can chose to put energy into the battery or take it out, when upcoming road conditions call for it. Cool.

Good luck... Be safe... Chill...

[hill]

Originally Posted by Bob64

The best way to get high mileage is to drive like you have no brakes.

Bob puts it in a very practal way. In your quest, you may want to add an electric block heater (EBH) if you have access to 110v near where you park. It increased my winter mpg's from the low 50's to the upper 50's. The Prius actually comes with a port built right into the block for installation. Toyota sells their own EBH ... I think priuschat.com has it available from their store, and I'm not positive, but in Canada, they may already be installed. One last thing, your car is nearly brand new, and being hardly broke in, it'll get better as it gets older ... & you'll keep doing better, with practice, too!