Here's what you can do over 90 miles on the freeway with a Prius c, a strong (20-30 mph) prevailing tailwind, a net loss in elevation of about 500 feet, and light traffic for most of the way on a sunny, 80 degree F afternoon.
Our experience on typical Oklahoma highway with our winds is far less, often around 43-45. The little Prius C just doesn't do well with winds. However, in town we do much better. We have drive almost 5,000 miles in 5 weeks, and our average is 50 mpg. We are thrilled as our Cadillac and big Ford truck both average around 17. You can guess what sits in our driveway the least! While these are not ideal they are "normal" where we live. LOVE THIS CAR, wish we would have bought one sooner.
how the hell are you driving at 53mph, cycling through the menus, and taking pictures at the same time? tsk. tsk. I got about 75 mpg as well under ideal freeway conditions. According to my GPS watch, i lost 952 feet in elevation. Not sure about the wind though. The thing is though that on the way back, i only got about 28mpg average, but i guess that is consistent with the cars rated efficiency overall.
C is for City. So I'm pleased to see that 55 to 65 mpg is not hard to obtain on the highway. (Depending on conditions). And, I really like it when I see 70 mpg displayed after a short trip across town. Next time I get to do a long road trip, I want to reset Trip A to zero after getting up to highway speed, and see how well it can do at 55-60 mph with the cruise control. (I want a high average speed displayed) If it gets over 65 mpg, I'll be very happy. ~~~ My wife has always been a type A driver. Always in a big rush (typical in Mass). So, it's going to be very interesting to see how driving her new 'c' is going to change her old habits. So far, she seems to be getting into it..
They are. Now I wish I had taken pictures Monday afternoon, whe a 170+ mile / 76 mpg segment pushed the whole day's driving to 67+ mpg, and the whole tank to 65.4 mpg. After coming down from the mountains, I was expecting the daily trip meter at 65 mpg to start falling once I hit the interstate at 67 mph. But the tailwind was strong enough to eventually push the day's mpg up two notches to match the mph. We paid for it later, especially yesterday, when the wind direction was unfavorable.
What was the elevation change on your 76 mpg segment? The elevation change helped with mine, but it wasn't a huge factor. It was slight enough that I was still able to maintain above 60mpg on the way there (the above pictures were a return trip). The trip there is into a prevailing wind always, but it wasn't so whipped up like it was on the way home. It really was the wind that allowed this car to do this. The c is very light and gets pushed around a lot by the air. It allowed me to keep the power bar below what I think is Superhighway Mode for a good portion of the trip, while still maintaining low 50's speed.
It started at the Devil's Kitchen viewpoint, Nebo Scenic Loop, Utah, which appears to be about 8400 feet. The initial descent was about 8%, wasting quite a bit of energy in B-mode compression. Endpoint was Brigham City, about 4350-4400 feet. We didn't enter I-15 at the first opportunity (Nephi), but took alternate roads and finally joined the Interstate traffic at Lehi (4550 feet).
Check this out. http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/xringers-prius-c-21920-5.html#post309724 Average speed 70 MPH over rolling hills, and he got 50.2 MPG, on a 40 mile run.. " I was slowly gaining mpg the whole time. At 30 miles into the trip I was at around 46 mpg. I was driving between 65-80 mph and was continuing to gain mpg the whole time. Not sure where it would have peaked at but I hit a traffic jam before I could find out"... Over 50 MPG at 70?? That's danged good for a car designed for the City..
My girls did the road trip, I stayed at home. But from what they told me, I think 3 or 4 hours is too long to be sitting in a compact car. My 2009 Ford Escape has a better ride on rough back streets. (Frost damage around here). The Escape has large fat tires. But, out on the smooth highway, the ride feels pretty much the same to me. At 60 MPH, I think the road noise of the C is louder than my Escape or my kid's BMW X3. Overall, I think the C is more suited for city streets, but will do okay for short highway trips. If I was going to drive a lot of miles on vacation, I would plan on making frequent stops.. I'm 66 years old, and I'm thinking about one more 2,000 mile road trip down to Texas (4,000 round-trip). If I decide to do it when gas prices are real high, I will take the 'C' and use my cab driver cushion..
Very close. I can do 80mpg with an 1,150ft. elevation loss, no wind and maintained speed of 60mph on the freeway. I've done it a few times now. Here was today's result.
What gets me is how easy it seems the c can get those kinds of numbers. Especially from a car that supposedly doesn't get good highway mileage.
Just compare the average MPGs of the Prius family on Fuelly.. The 'c' does better (on average) and that means it's doing pretty good at higher speeds.. Because it kicks butt in the city!!
Which brings me to something I was thinking about today. In the drag racing world we brag about our best times (ET and MPH) but it's not like you see those kinds of numbers on the street. Very often a vehicle is not even capable of those numbers without making tire changes and such yet we still tout them as what our vehicle is capable of. So in the hybrid community we talk averages and our Fuelly badges define us. Why do we not talk of bests or what my car is capable of?
Re: elevation changes, Google Earth can give you an elevation profile of a route between 2 points! | PriusChat might prove insightful.
I use the Google My Tracks app. The drawback is you need GPS coverage which can be spotty in some areas.
Yes, this was how I got the -500 net elevation. Just used the pointer on the start and end points, did the subtraction.
