New Prius Plug in less than impressive

It is somewhat quixotic that people are rewarded for buying 'fuel saving' cars even if they do not save much fuel, almost as sad as 'cash for clunkers' being used to buy SUVs. Still, she is getting about 12 MPG better.

And locals started chiming in with suggestions once they had data.

I am keeping my Gen 2 at least until there is a Prius v PIP, my 'commute' is so long the PIP is a better choice than the Leaf or Volt. But I crave more cargo room, and neither the Leaf or Volt give me that.

Under 11 miles Pip, then Volt until 110 miles then Pip again. Leaf beats them all unless you need to go over 73 miles.

 

Machie, I think part of the issue is the marginal fuel economy improvement over Prius. MPG is not a good measurement scale. Look at the cost of driving 1,000 miles with $4/gal gas:
20 MPG: $200
25 MPG: $160
50 MPG: $80
75 MPG: $53.33

See what's happening? You're comparing her fuel economy to the most fuel efficient vehicle available, and the marginal improvement isn't there because it can't be there. The government wants manufacturers and consumers to invest in new efficiency technology, because those fractional improvements are enormous when taken across the whole nation. Besides that, you bought the sweet Advanced package with all the tasty options to enjoy.

 

Are you doing fast acceleration and breaking during traffic?

 

going from a $44,000 pip to a $32,000 prius V would save $12,000 to put toward gas

which at $4.00/gal 51 mpg gives you 153,500 miles of driving

 

You get the car you want or the one you need. Sometimes, you get lucky and it's both…

 

This may sound rude, but...

Then be happy with the HOV lane access, and stop complaining!

(How dearly I would love an extra perk like that to go with my Prius PHV. Getting a free 15 miles with every charge already makes the car awesome for me, and I am very satisfied).

 

You can probably do better if you're willing to play the buttons. (It's kind of like deciding whether to drive it like an automatic or stick shift.)

If you need to mash the accelerator pulling onto route 12, you might switch into HV some time between a minute before and just before. Doing this in EV can suck up a lot of juice.

Were the hills steep enough to push you into the PWR area of the hybrid indicator? If so, likewise you could use HV (or accelerate into the hill rather than on it). Because the test drive is 18 miles round trip, you will need the ICE for part of it, so might as well use it on the parts where EV is inefficient.

Generally, go into HV for higher speed driving and save the EV miles for lower speed or even better, stop and go.

For a whole lot more advice along these lines, look at the long thread about using the HV/EV button.

Have you tried driving in ECO mode? Among other things, it will cut the drain from the air conditioner. Not sure how much of your low mileage is due to that, but certainly some.

It would be interesting to see the results of your test drive in ECO mode, following some of these suggestions, and with the air conditioner off (though I've been in Rio Vista and know that's a lot to ask). If you try this, let us know.

 

With any EV or PHEV the two most important things to remember are:
A) The drivers driving patterns play a heavy role in which car will get you the best efficiency.
B) Don't listen to sales people, listen to the techs and owners

The suggestion of using the ability to only use the EV part on city streets or such will probably do the most to help.

And to address the poster mentioning the Tesla. There are about 11,000 reserved at this point. Tesla is building 5000 this year, and 20,000 next. So if you got in line now, I would expect yours to be available roughly April 2013, not 2014.
Signatures are sold out so their suggestion of checking on that wouldn't work.

 

A small suggestion - you might want to have your wife with you while you are testing the HV/EV and ECO, so she can see what you are doing, and learn as you are learning

 

A very good idea. A lot can be gained by optimal use of the PHV.

 

If HOV is what you need, the Civic CNG should have been an option considering how much cheaper natural gas cost compare to petrol.

 

Range blows on th civic though, I thought about it.

 

Why is anyone doing a round-trip commute of >100 miles? The answer is simple: In the US, we subsidize long distance commuting. We have cheap gasoline, too cheap in terms of the taxes to even pay for proper highway maintenance plus new roads and improvements. Our gas taxes should be paying for the War in Iraq, which we will be paying for a long time. If Machie were paying $8/gal for gasoline (as in Europe), would he or his wife choose to commute to Emeryville? Probably not. My wife has the longer of our commutes, 12.6 miles. Even though my wife will NOT try to maximize her fuel efficiency, we are still averaging around 65 mpg with our new PIP. We typically will do one outing per week where we go 100 miles (like driving to SF and back). Before we do that, we are averaging 75 to 80 mpg. Because of her frequent short trips and a lack of caring about mpg, my wife was averaging only 38 mpg on our 2005 Prius. So, for us, going from 38 mpg up to 65 has been great and we love the PIP. The HOV Lane stickers will just be a really nice bonus for us.

 

I'm still having a hard time understanding how a PIP that is in gas-only mode for most of the way can deliver 65 mpg. Is the ev battery recharging on declines or is the lithium battery helping that much?

 

If you buy/lease a Xerox copier from north of Jackson MS to just south of Memphis TN and from I-55 to the Mississippi River, I am who shows up. Averages over 125 miles a day. I also serve as the IT department for 11 buildings in Clarksdale, Tunica, Marks, Charleston, and Dublin MS for about 110 miles a day. (my wife commutes 5 blocks)

Until networking is entirely automatic, I need to be at your site to make the copier play well with others. Mental Health professionals are all hired for their people skills, not computer skills, and this is as it should be.

 

are you surprised that a pip can get 65mpg? or that she went from 38 to 65?

 

My commute today was on the 70 mph highway, taking advantage of EV. When you allow it to deplete from the pack (rather than switching to HV mode), the resulting efficiency is spectacular... well over 100 MPG despite the engine running.

Using an aftermarket gauge, you can see that the engine is running at a surprisingly low speed. 1024 RPM is what I mostly commonly see while cruising. Redline is only 1500 RPM, so you imagine how little gas is actually being consumed.

So even when you run out of plug-supplied electricity, your MPG average will remain very high for quite some time.

 

Commutes are mostly electric, although she goes on the freeway for a short distance (and does not try to keep the ICE from turning on). With mostly electric driving during the week, our average floats but can be over 100 mpg and more typical is 75 to 80. Then, we throw in a single mostly gas trip of 100 miles, and our average falls to 65 mpg. In gas only mode, it is so good, that my wife even gets 50 mpg.