Eco vs Reg vs Power Modes

How often do you switch between the 3 modes? I find that i can get by 90% of the time with leaving on Eco mode - even when merging on to the freeway and climbing up hills. The other 2 modes seem to give a little quicker acceleration but i don't see a noticeable difference from Eco mode.

Is there really a 'Reg' mode? I've told by one of the dealers (he actually demonstrated it) that the default or regular mode is actually the 'Eco' mode. The other two are 'EV' and 'Power' modes. When you first start the car and don't choose a mode and then hit the 'Display' button, it shows 'Eco' mode.

When I test-drove I did hit the PWR button to help me merge onto the freeway, but I think if I were to purchase the car I'd spend 95% of my time in Eco mode.

'Reg' mode will kick-in if you press dis-engage Eco or Power mode and none of the modes light-up. i'm beginning to think that the only difference between the 3 modes is a stiffer acceleration pedal ;-)

I too use PWR mode to merge onto the freeway, pass on the freeway, or as needed for quick acceleration on city streets (e.g. need fast unprotected left turn).

Stay in Eco most other times. No luck with EV, a car just automatically switches me to Eco.

In Eco, it's not just the stiffness of the pedal. The engine will hold itself at certain points. If you're looking at the Eco-Pwr bar, it will hold right at the all-electric line in the middle, and just before tripping into the red extension.

Also, the A/C is less powerful in Eco mode. If I have A/C on fairly high in Regular or Power mode, then switch to Eco, my fan will throttle down.

That said, I use Eco in city and suburban driving. Power mode is very useful for highway merging. I like to use Eco once on the expressway, but switch to regular or even Power if traffic is fairly heavy, because of the acceleration difference.

It shows 'ECO' mode because it was left in that mode when the car was previously turned off. This is the one mode that doesn't cancel when powered down.

Try turning ECO off before turning off the car. When powered back up, it will not be in ECO mode.

He is either misinformed, or full of it.

I leave my Prius in ECO mode permanently. When hard acceleration is needed, it is faster and easier to just press my foot down harder than to take my eyes off the road to find and fiddle with the mode switches. All modes have the same max power.

I've only put ~160 miles on my Prius, but I have yet to take it out of ECO mode. Haven't had any problems merging onto the interstates or keeping up with traffic.
I tried out the PWR mode during my test-drives, but it really isn't necessary for me.

ECO all but when needing to make an aggressive merge (like left a turn through traffic on a busy road) which PWR is nice for.

Driving Modes is the document I created as a quick summary to help inform the curious about what's available.
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I leave it in Eco mode all the time. Getting on and off freeways is no problem and it goes up and down hills in the Rockies foothills just fine. The only time I used Power mode was when driving in the mountains, and it was very useful there, especially on long downhill stretches when you need compression braking. The mileage penalty seemed small.

What is 'stealth' mode?

I stay in ECO mode. However, my wife drove the Prius once and complained it lacked the power of her Kia Spectra5 and I put it in normal mode which was fine with her. Then yesterday I had to drive the Kia and it seemed so very powerful I was zooming when accelerating.

It is easy to get used to little acceleration. It does change how you drive. And I'm lousy at hypermiling, since I only get 53 MPG (51 measured). But then I do have A/C on 100% at 74 deg.

Rich N.

Brand new Prius owner here! It was delivered on Monday, and I'm still figuring out all of the features.

So it was in "regular" mode when I got it. We switched to "eco" mode, and it seems just fine, not as peppy, but I drive the speed limit, so it is fine for me. I was on the highway last night, and the acceleration was very adequate.

My question, I pressed the "eco" mode again to bring it back to regular, and it didn't. How do you get back to "regular"? Am I missing something?

BTW, love the car. It drives like a dream.

Do the search thing, but basically it is the car being powered by the traction battery only. I assume the name comes from the fact that the car is very quiet, therefore "stealthy" There are many terms you will run into like glide, warp stealth etc.

I use "Eco" mode most of the time as well (90%). I have found a big difference in accelerator responsiveness between Eco and Pwr modes. I'll use "Pwr" mode mainly for going uphill. The amount of pep when pressing the accelerator an equal amount as when in "Eco" mode is undeniable to me. I also use the AC quite a bit and had it on the lowest temp setting. I've since adjusted the temp up to 72 degrees. I'll see if that helps at all.

I still haven't figured out "EV" mode. Tried it a couple times and got kicked right away into "Eco."

Regardless, the good news is that I've had the car for 11 days and I'm still on my first tank of gas! I'd say my mode is "Nirvana."

We keep it in Eco mode 95% of the time also. Use power mode only to get onto highway. EV mode we have use only from a complete stop and take off with a light foot keeping the speed below 22 MPH in our case for about a mile before it will lkick off on it's own. Just filled our tank for first time at 2 bars took 8.1 Gals at 422 miles.

To me, it seems like a few people who might be confused on the ECO light. There are actually two, depending on your display screen. The ECO mode light will appear in green on your display. The second one, is when your display is showing the horizontal energy/power bar. Which an ECO word will appear directly above, when you are driving ECO responsibility.

When there are no Green Mode lights (EV, ECO, PWR) displayed you are in normal mode. The difference between ECO and Normal is not very much. So, it might take a bit to actually notice the difference.

I use the NORMAL mode most of the time, use the POWER mode when merging onto the highway, once on the highway, I use either the ECO mode or the NORMAL mode. In town or the city, I use ECO mode. I have the A/C on all the time 24/7, never turn it off. Don't use the EV mode, not yet. I have the 2010 Prius V w/ATP.

Stealth mode is the name that many of us early adopters (~9 years ago) gave to the condition where you are driving and due to letting up on the accelerator, the engine shuts off. Thus you are running just on battery power (or coasting).

This is different than EV mode only because of how you get to it and the conditions that allow it to happen, not because of the result that a bystander could notice. The EV mode, with the button and the light that indicates it forces the ICE off. But when you get to 25+mph (and other conditions) you are kicked out of EV mode...but you can still be driving along at 26 mph and be in the unofficially named stealth mode (or at any speed).

Mike