Eco mode and EV mode

EV mode is only good for moving from one parking place to another (very-very short trips). You have to remember that all the electricity in the battery is generated by gas engine (ICE). You best economy is gained by letting the car manage the battery power. Forcing the car to run on battery power will just cause the ICE to run more at some later time to make up for the lost electricity. You have energy losses when you generate the electricity and other losses when you use it. For maximum efficiency it's best just to learn to glide as much as possible while keeping up with traffic.

 

There is some confusion in accordance with EV mode.

Pressing the EV button will allow you to engage the throttle past the ECO line to varying degrees, but not all the way to the PWR line.

Pressing the button when the car is cold will give you a max EV speed of 9 mph.

Pressing the button when the car is warm will give you a max EV speed of 25 mph.

Not pressing the button, but not pressing the throttle past the ECO line will give you a max speed of 46 mph when the car is warm...

It varies too much when the car is cold to guarantee a speed.

 

If conditions are met where it can run in EV mode, it will. Those conditions vary. I let the car do its thing.

 

Sometimes I can drive @ 45 in EV mode. Its gotta be warmed up and pretty flat terrain though.

 

When you are in a proper glide, the engine is off and you are in EV mode as shown in the hybrid system indicator screen. You can be in this EV mode up to the mid 40's mph. Pushing the EV button is generally not a good use of the battery energy. In traffic, you will continually charge the battery when braking and when you take your foot off of the accelerator. You can use this some of this energy during the glide portion of pulse-and-glide. You do not really need to do anything beyond that. The Synergy firmware is really good at what it does.

 

Just to be absolutely clear about pulse and glide. Is it considered to be more efficient to completely remove your foot from the accelerator, or is it better to put the tiniest pressure on the accelerator so that you get a thin sliver of a green line on the HSI bar?

 

You do need to put a bit of pressure down. Ideally you should see no blue and no green on the HSI bar. I'm used to it now and I don't find this difficult at all, in fact I do it without thinking. I am always in ECO Mode though, which gives you more fine control at the end of the pedal travel and would therefore make it easier.

 

Exactly right...

 

Blue? Mine only shows green.

 

Blue is the regen area of the HSI.

 

Ah, ok.

 

I have noticed the Prius C give a 10% regen @ 100% deceleration. You'll need to add some throttle tip-in
to turn it off for a true glide mode. Some people add enough throttle to show a little green to make sure it's
not regenerating and robbing your glide.

 

That's not necessarily true. I've had many instances, (e.g. decelerating to less than 40 mph with a full battery and the power level in the ev range) when the car should go into EV mode but it doesn't do it on it's own. In order to engage EV mode I have to take my foot off the gas pedal, wait for the EV light to come on then reapply the pedal.

 

Keep in mind that even when not in EV mode (or more likely STEALTH, the faster non-button EV mode), the engine may not actually be running. It will spinning with the fuel cut. Seeing MPG pegged at 100 is usually a clue to that.

Lifting you foot is indeed the fastest way to inform the system you won't be needing the engine.

 

The laminated card detailing key features that came with mine actually tells you to do this. It doesn't seem to be in the manual itself.

 

Not true... it just means the engine is getting better than 100 mpgs. On my torque app, I can see the engine is still showing revs.