Trying to understand the charging number on the PIP

Like a lot of people were saying, it's likely "getting to know" your driving patterns. The hills you frequently drive, how much you lay into the acceleration, the average coasting distance you manage, amount of regenerative braking, etc... My guess is that if you moved from wherever you currently live, to a place where your first 13 miles were nothing but flat ground, you'd likely see an increase then normalization again of your estimated distance.

I myself saw 13.3 miles on my first charge, but by my second week, I see 10.9-11.3 miles. I have a fair amount of hills to and from work so that's likely eating into my charge (especially since one of the biggest is right as i leave my apartment and get almost no benefit of the initial regenerative braking down that hill but get penalized on it when i return home).

 

Maybe that's it - some hills and such. I do drive with a reasonably light foot, getting 85-98 mpg for my 30 mile commute (which does include a rather big hill that I use HV mode for.) I even got 112 mpg on that trip recently due to slower traffic. But the EV is still coming up 10.6-10.9 each charge.

Well, I'll see if it changes at all over time...

 

Have you tried other chargers & locations or just your 120-volt at home?
.

 

I charge with an L2 at work. My typical commute looks like this:
1.5 mi flat, local streets (EV)
~16 mi highway, including the big 680 up and down between the valley and Fremont (Blend depending on speeds, HV uphill and above 55mpg, EV downhill)
~3 mi flat, surface streets again (EV)
~7 flat freeway (blend depending on speed, but I make sure to use up all but 1.5 mi of EV during this segment)
1.5 mi flat, local (EV, arriving with just 0 at work)

Now based on SimiPrius' recommendations, I turned off the fan this morning, and the mileage jumped to 11.9 at startup today. Interesting. Still not near the 13.5+ folks are talking about...but better.

 

Sometimes when I get in the car it'll say 11.9. Other times it says 13.1. Sometimes I get 12.5. I haven't determined the rhyme or reason why it varies. As others have opined, I'm pretty sure it has to do with the computer looking at past usage and making an educated guess. My usage is pretty varied...

 

And does the radio have any impact on the EV miles bank?

 

I did a test today and will try it again in a week or so. When I left from my house the temp was 50 degrees and the display was showing 11.9 miles. I live about 1.2 miles from the freeway entrance so that will be hard to get exact but at 5:00 am when I leave there is never traffic so it should be fairly consistent. I then got on the freeway and calmly accelerated and set the cruise control at 55 (didn't want to 'harm' the battery driving close to the 62 max). There was no power generated on the freeway. The ICE kicked in at exactly 13.0 miles (better than the 11.9 originally displayed so that is good). Again, I'll try exactly the same thing again next week and post the results.
BTW, so far on my first tank after 9 days, with a daily commute of 31 miles each way, the display reads: <br>
467.6 MI: CONS 100MPG: AVG 33MPH <br>
and that was including a trip over the Summit on Highway 17 to Santa Cruz which dropped me down quite a bit.

 

Your commute is generally flat? A downhill bias could give you that extra EV distance.

Well my test today was on an almost flat route (just a few little overpass hills and such) including both street and 55 mph freeway, and it was very accurate. Left my office with 12.0 EV to go to the DMV... and got back to office with 0.6EV left and 11.3mi driven. No use of ICE. That's pretty darn close!

 

wow, you commute at 5 am and your average speed is 33? crazy.

 

Maybe people here will also adopt the Leaf acronym of GOM (Guess-O-Meter).

 

The avg. mph seems to include stops. My commute has very little traffic and is ~2 miles at 35mph and ~11 miles at 65mph and my avg. mph read around 25mph.

 

C'mon people. Just get in the car and drive.

 

Once I get on the freeway, it is very slightly uphill for about 9 miles and then very slightly downhill for the next 6, then about as flat as a pancake.