How does everyone Average 50 MPG

Clearly you are in a warm weather climate. Up here in the NE, those temperature would be considered a heat wave right about now. It is currently about 17 degrees outside, with a low of 6. And PA is not exactly Minnesota or New Hampshire !

Brutal winter this year ...

 

Tire pressure.

I found out I had a couple of low tires, and one with a nail in it *YIKES!*

Got it fixed, all back up to pressure... and I've gained an easy 3 MPG.

 

It doesn't sound right. I'm nw Mich. and have had the 2010 for a month, with the temps not getting above 29 and at least 3-4" of snow every day. Commute is 30 miles each way, 25 x-way, and my average has been 46.7 mpg. The road conditions dictate a "soft touch", but other than that, I haven't changed my driving habits that much, compared to my old car, 2004 Grand Prix. 35 mpg would have disappointed me.

 

I'm only getting average of 38 mpg right now on my brand new 2010. My highest avg has been 39.9 mpg.

Total miles driven by me = 320 (car had 169 mi when delivered to me on 12/29). ODO reads 490 mi.

Original Yoko AVID tires

Typical distance < than 10 miles per trip, with a few over 15 mi., mostly around town, very little Interstate driving so far. Average mph = 28.

Temps ranging from the high teens to about 50, with the average around 36 degrees for the few weeks I've owned the car.

Car is kept on ECO 97% of the time.

I do not warm up the car prior to driving -- I get in, start, and go.

Inside temp is set to no higher than 66 degrees and the fan is mostly kept off unless it's in the 20's or unless I need defrosting. Instead I've started to use the seat heater for the first few min.

Tire pressure was at 29 or 30 psi until I pumped the tires up to 41/40 a few days ago. I hadn't checked them before and had left them on whatever the dealer set it at. I was surprised they were so low!

I am practicing pulse & glide, though I am a beginner at this.

 

Are you still on the first tank? And how are you getting those numbers: from the dash displayed mileage?

That's not very good, would put it down to new car, likely some "demo" driving by various potential customers, lots of idling. Hmm...

We're closing in on 3000 km's on ours. Similarly a lot of short, local trips, but interspersed with a fair number of runs of 30~40km (each direction). With a couple of calculated tanks now, getting around 45 mpg. The dash display claims 49 mpg, but is "optimistic".

Resetting the trip meter and doing a decent drive I can achieve 60 mpg. The 45 mpg value is fill-to-fill, with all the regular short trips starting with cold engine.

Some thoughts:

1. Abide by speed limits. Where possible, where the rednecks are not going to run you off the road.

2. Accelerate gently and strategically, ie: if you're headed for a turn just a block up the road, don't feel obligated to wind it up to the limit. Again, unless the...

3. Consolidate trips as possible.

 

I'm on the 2nd tank, although I didn't wait for the 1st tank to get down to 1 bar; I filled the car up when it was at half empty and then reset 'Trip A.'

The mileage numbers are from the display. On my current 'Trip A' since filling up: 170 mi, 22 mph avg, 38.3 avg mpg. Yeah, my mileage kinda sucks. Keep in mind though that 90% of this Trip A was before I inflated the tires to 41/40! I was only averaging about 34 mpg before tire inflation. Now I'm up to 38.3.

The car was driven across the state from another dealer to my dealer. The car had 3 mi on the ODO at Dealer #1 and then the driver put on 166 mi, before it arrived at my dealer. When I first sat in the car the mpg avg was in the 20's from that driver's 166 mi drive across the state.

I'm now almost at 500 mi total ODO. Since I've had the car, the best trip mpg has been 39.9 mpg. This was from Driver #1 and Me, combined, on gas tank #1, per the HSI display.

I don't really drive long distances very much. Maybe once a year, if that. Most of my driving is around town, maybe as much as 25 mi one way on the Interstate if I'm going somewhere, but usually within 10 - 15 miles. I combine my errands and always have.

I am practicing pulse 'n glide, driving strategically, obeying the speed limit (I have to as I got a ticket 2 yrs ago and can't afford another one). I coast on down hills. As I said, I keep the car in ECO mode all the time now.

Our temps were back down to 25 today and will get to around 40 tomorrow and the next couple of days.

 

Have you set your display to the bar that shows your fuel economy: best on left, power on right? It's good for watching realtime fuel consumption. Also, keep an eye on the gas consumption gauge, over to the left. In light load conditions, lift off the gas, then gently re-apply. Aim to keep the fuel economy bar to the left of the center divider line.

As long as you have decent state-of-charge that should drop you into electric only mode. For confirmation, your mpg gauge should shoot right up (on Canadian it drops to zero, same thing).

You can actually drive quite a distance thus, if you're lucky with lights and traffic. It eats up the battery charge pretty quick, but the car will take care of it, rebuilding charge when it can, both from regen braking, and on the fly from the engine I think, though I don't really understand it that well.

 

Oh yes, I watch all those things. It's hard to keep under the PWR because when it's cold or when I have to drive up these long low grade hills, the car simply isn't able to go without utilizing the ICE and some power, even in ECO mode. But I do try, and as I said in my previous post, I take advantage of gliding as much as I possibly can, given my terrain and traffic patterns. I take my foot off the gas all the time (that's the whole foundation of pulse 'n glide).

 

Ok, Ok , preaching to the converted...

Hmm, get the block heater?

 

Hi Lotta...,

You are going to want to do some grill blocking. Also, look into your routes, and see if there is anyway to do the initial 5 to 10 minutes of the route with little or very short stops and a constant speed between 25 and 45 mph. IE, pick the route with stop signs for the outbound leg of your trip. This will do the most to get the engine warm, on a minimum of gas.

Do not worry about mileage driving for these first 5 to 10 minutes. Just try to run the car at a consistent speed, with a consistent RPM. When you get torwards the end of this first 5 to 10 mintues, and you find a place where the car will shut down the engine, now your ready for hypermiling.

Gliding by pedal lift in a 3rd Generation Prius is not as readily performed as in the 2nd Gen Prius. The display is not as clear, and the range of pedal position where there are no-arrows is almost non-existent in a Gen III versus a II.

Its easier just to shift to neutral. So, after you have the engine warmed up enough to autostop, here is what you do. Get up to speed (preferably greater than 40 mph, and less than 45 mph) avoiding PWR, lift accelerator, reapply pedal slightly, and you should notice the engine going off. Shift in to N, and the car glide down to 25 to 30 mph, and repeat.

In hilly terrain, one can do this without neighboring traffic even noticing. Go up the hill to about 35 mph at the crest, and then down the hill in N, where the car maintains or slightly increases speed. The crest speed may need to vary with the hill. If the hill is steep after the crest, you want to be going slower, so that once you come down the hill your doing the speed limit. If the hill is shallow, so that the car will actually slow as it goes down after the crest, crest the hill at the speed limit.

For braking, remember to put the car back into D. Otherwise only the friction brakes will be used.

 

All good advice. I try to do most of what he suggests and, when I do, I get great numbers. However, due to the nature of my driving, I can't do it all. In the wintertime, taking short trips w/o the engine warmed up kills mileage more than anything else. In the end, I average around 50 mpg, which isn't stellar but not too bad either.

 

Hi Donee,

Thanks for the advice. Honestly, I'm not willing to go to quite those lengths to get better gas mileage. I don't want to add any additional mileage or time to my morning commute to work just to get the car warmed up better so I can then get better mpgs. It's enough for me just to get to work the 3 days per week I have to be in the office. I telecommute the other 2 (using zero gas!).

I use my GPS to figure out best routes when I need to go somewhere and that's good enough.

I know about engine heater/ blocking, etc, but again, not willing to do that, plus I don't have a garage.

I'm willing to keep those tires inflated to 40psi and I'm willing to pulse 'n glide when I can. I think that's a reasonable compromise.

This could easily become an obsession; it's just a car, afterall. People are getting decent (mid-40's+) mpg's by not doing anything special at all--just driving. That's the group I'm in or want to be in. Just get in the car and drive it like a sane person.

 

I think you're doing okay and you'll discover other little tricks to increase your mileage as you accumulate more miles and experience. I am getting +/- 50 mpg since I purchased mine in Nov 2010, depending on the weather. Right now we're having another cold snap so I'm running about 48-49 mpg. I drive pretty much the same way as I did with my previous car, taking advantage of hypermiling techniques I was already using. But generally I refuse to use what I consider excessive P&G, where some suggest ranging between 45 mph and 20 mph. I drive on 50-55 mph roads with numerous stop lights and I refuse to have traffic back up behind or force them constantly to go around me as if I'm the slowest vehicle on the road. I keep up with traffic, look ahead as much as possible and drive sensibly. Once I'm up to speed, that is where I try to offset the extra fuel used to get up to speed by using a very light touch on the gas pedal to keep my speed steady and moving with the flow.I think you'll find the suggestions of grill blocking to be very helpful when temps are under 60.

 

You should really consider grille blocking in the winter. It's much cheaper than getting an EBH installed (but not a substitute).

 

Grill blocking only helps you during the initial warmup period, thermostat controls how coolant flows into the engine anyway. The true benefit really isn't that great, I guess unless you count the aero benefits.

 

Yup!...STAY/OFF/THE/BRAKES!

 

My new strategy:

don't use the brakes

don't use the gas pedal

I won't be getting anywhere fast, but I'm gonna get the best mpgs when the wind blows the right way. :-D

 

I bought my car on sunday night. I put 130 miles on it yesterday and averaged 57.6MPG. I leave it in ECO mode and do a combo of city and highway driving.

 

well gee let me think. i am getting about 3½ cents a mile in electricity on my Leaf and with gas at about $3.12 a gallon that would be about 89 miles on $3.12 in electricity...but then again, my performance "could" improve in the future...

 

Dave:

What type of range can you get on a full charge? Also heavy rain, wet roads, in the 40's for temperature, headlights, heater, windshield wipers on, how much does this make a hit on your range?

al