Avoiding EV vs maximising EV

I haven't had my prius long so I'm still learning.

I drive the same 23 mile route everyday. Started off getting around 64-66mpg. I now get 69-71mpg with an average speed of 35mph. Uk mpg btw.

I'm trying to eke as much mpg as possible. Keep in mind I drive in commuter traffic so I can't maximise things like p&g or drive slower.

The journey is a complete mix. 1 mile of <20mph until I reach the 50mph carriageway. Then about 15 miles or 40-60mph single lane road with plenty of stop junctions and roundabouts with a huge hill thrown in plus 2 other smaller ones and finishing with 2 ish miles of 30-40mph.

Today I tried completely avoiding ev, sticking to less than a quarter to the left of the hsi. Whilst the battery stayed fully charged I still only got 71.4mpg. Still very good but should I expect more?

Instead of staying in ev on hsi I p&g as much without disrupting traffic flow. So whilst I didn't improve much could I do anything else to maximise mpg especially on my route whilst includes several uphill accelerations and accelerations up to 50-60mph

 

Pressures are 40/38

Does 69-71mpg sound about right for my route and average speed?

What gains do you think a good hyper miler could make?

 

I'm not sure if this will help anyone but I reached a new high today.

To recap I travel 23 miles over a very mixed route. Plenty of junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights. Some big hills and equally big drops. Some dual carriageway up to 60mph and a little bit of slow 30mph each end. Everything else in between 40-50mph. (I will try and map the route)

Today I achieved 77.1mpg (about 64.3mpg US) and 7mpg above the manufacturers official measured average.

I have been experimenting will all sorts of methods from idling, driving straight off, keeping to 3/4 hsi, p&g vs maximum ev usage, pwr zone acceleration and driving without brakes.

77.1mpg whilst only a one off was the highest I ever measured and I drove differently this time. First I turned off Eco mode, I then avoided EV trying to p&g as much as possible. However I took a less aggressive approach, I also maximised the use of EV providing I kept it in the lower quarter, at most under half way in the EV zone and then it was usually on the flat, downhill or coming to a stop and never used EV to go up hill.

I bled speed off going uphill and accelerated before the hill, normal mode was much better than Eco at regulating the throttle in this respect.

I also ditched trying to stay 3/4 on HSI for acceleration. I often exceeded 3/4 on hsi and plenty of times went into the pwr zone, usually only slightly or up to half way which was sufficient in the traffic. I did however bleed off back into the Eco zone to complete the acceleration up to the desired speed.

I feel like the drive was a combination of things I've been working on.

By far the biggest factor was awareness. Put everything together from the correct amount of acceleration to use for the distance you need to travel and computing when to lift and go into glide, knowing when to hold EV zone based on the next action and most importantly knowing when to slow down and drive without brakes was I think the key for me.

Normal mode just helped modulate the throttle more, I recommend you take advantage of the prius glide abilities below 45mph and on flats. I still haven't mastered driving without brakes because the prius looses speed much slower than anything else I've driven. Above 45mph using the road gradients and sticking below 55mph has really helped as I could easily and slowly bleed off speed.

It's very hard to summarise but hopefully the explanation paints a picture. Today it was only 19c-20c so cooler than recent weeks. My last best was 73mpg at 24c no air con.

Average speed for 77.1mpg was 35mph. Very pleased with that, now I plan to keep it in normal mode and seriously work on my driving without brakes and I won't be so anti pwr zone for acceleration (where appropriate)