plugless PHV driving stories

But I am a little sad how much this lowers my average. Just a couple weeks ago I had my best tank at 82.9 MPG.

Read more: http://priuschat.com/threads/plugless-phv-driving-stories.112855/page-4#ixzz22njO8ycO
I know your feeling work so hard to get it there and poof, gone in one trip. I have to take a 570 mile round tripper to in one week and I will have to go through the same thing. Ugh!

I forgot to mention 51 mph was my average speed for the whole trip including "driving" around on the strip (more like standing still)

james, those were fantastic mpg's for a trip like that! congrats!

had to go to the dentist this morning and forgot to plug in so, opportunity for a plugless driving story!
24 miles, 22 mph average, urban/suburban driving, 80 degrees outside, a little bit of a/c on the way home, starting elevation 170', destination 16'. average mpg = 76.

All, we pick up our new PiP first thing tomorrow morning in Northern California and after tasting a little wine in the valleys we head back home to Texas.

So, let me see if I understand the gist of this thread, it appears that even with a depleted battery to the point that the PiP's drive system forces a switch to the HV mode, the overall performance (MPG) greatly exceeds that of a Generation III Prius...?

Is that correct? I guess the regen rates (battery and brakes) could be different between a PiP and a standard Prius and certainly any drop in elevation would give an advantage to the PiP but what other reasons would result in this performance difference? Also, I know there have been a number of folks who drove their new PiP home from a neighboring state and had performance similar to the GIII Prius (45 to 55 MPG) , so what's different in that situation, why didn't they see the improved performance?

Sorry for multiple questions, a very interesting topic...thanks everyone!

i never owned a gen III so i can't compare. iirc, there aren't any other stories here besides john's first one, so i'm not sure anyone is claiming it's better than the gen III other than as you said, the ability to keep regenerating on a large downhill. however, there is also the possibilty that the larger battery allowed them to reconfigure software for better hv driving, although no testing has been done to my knowledge.

It's actually totally impossible to drive purely in HV, except perhaps for totally flat or uphill, cruise control driving. Every stop produces a small amount of charge, in HV as well. Overall I rate the PIP as a 100% improvement over my 2005 Prius. Congradulations on your new PIP.

Congrats!

I have heard both sides as well. There are several reported cases that is has done better but there also has been reports it does the same or slightly worse. Whatever the case rest in the knowledge that you are at least doing the same if not better and then killing it once you start plugging in.

You are about to tell us <grin>. A great test for the no plug-in mileage of a "Plug-in" Prius, driving 1,000+.

It looks like the non-plug-in operation of a PIP is showing 65-75 mpg.

I wonder why EPA doesn't rate it as a 65 mpg car in just hybrid mode?

Palm to the face.

I think the whole secret is: Are you driving the car as a Prius should be driven, or are you driving the car as you may have driven any other "ordinary car" For the most part PC'ers were already conservative and careful drivers interested in saving gasoline. Ther is no sense in buying a Prius and driving it 15-20 over the speed limit, jamming on the brakes at every stop and jackrabbit starts. Those that do will only get 40 mpg, however even this may be a gross improvement for these people. There are still car owners who don't even know thier MPG. And some that don't even know how to do the calculations !

Because it is all highly variable according to terrain, load, speed and how one drives. Some get 45, some get 75 +

MOST encouraging info here; not just the quote above but throughout this thread. I'm HOPING to buy a PiP within 17 months or so and, being the sort who makes occasional lengthy trips, I've been wondering about this very topic. For many people, a Volt would be a preferred choice much of the time - especially for daily / fairly short range commuters - but I can't help but wonder how the gasoline consumption / fuel cost for a trip such as the one described above in a PiP would compare with a Volt which, per EPA, gets close to 40 mpg and runs on premium.

Some of us don't believe so, at least for flat land driving. Only a very few respondents are expecting any meaningful improvement. But the results posted in this thread look very familiar to some of us non-PIP owners. It will take some additional, very careful testing to identify and quantify any difference.

If you have regular mountain descents that exceed the regeneration capacity of a non-PIP, then things suddenly become more promising for the PIP.

Doesn't even require a mountain descent. Just a decent sized steep hill. I have such a one in my area. Every time I would get about half-way down the hill, I'd hit the regen limit in my 2005 Gen II. After that, I would have to use friction brakes or engine braking the rest of the way down. Now with my PiP, when I hit that same point, I've got .8 miles of EV, and by the time I hit the bottom of the hill (which is only about a mile long, but twisty), I have between 1.8 and 2.2 EV miles available.

that's what i'm talking about!

not sure what you mean by this andy, i consider driving totally hv, the same as a regular prius: zero wall charge starting out.

You can drive in HV mode simply by hitting the HV button. While I have seen the EV mile estimation go down in this mode initially, it will go back up once the ICE has finished it's low-load warmup cycle.

I know for sure, when I still have some EV charge left, but traveling in HV, the car steals, borrows, uses a couple of charge miles. I also know for sure that when conditions are right and traveling in HV, the car will gain a small amount of EV charge, usually in increments of .1 mile. How, why and can one control it, is so far unknown. I think many of us have noted this phenomena . So based on this ongoing and unexplained phenomena, the is never ( TOTALLY ) in HV. I will go so far as to say that there is always a bit of regeneration going on, when favorable conditions eXist, downhill, wind behind you, etc and even tho the regen does not always show up on the screen, it is there. It is also being simultaneously used. Not familiar with scan guages, but maybe it could be shown. Just a theory of course, but, perhaps somebody gets my drift.

TRUE