New Job, Major MPG Jump !

The type of driving (city/highway), mileage, and geography can all affect your mileage. How long was your old commute? Perhaps most of your commute was while the car was still warming up. Perhaps your new commute has more efficient starts and stops that allow more gliding, or you don't have to accelerate as hard.

 

sweet! ^^^ absolutely ^^^ but don't drive more to get better mpg's, you'll just use more gas.

 

This can be a big factor. The engine warmup cycle carries a significant fuel cost, so the longer your trip, the better and thinner that penalty gets spread out. But as Bisco added, the additional miles also means you are using more total fuel.

 

Sorry to hear your driving time has gone up from your previous job. Hopefully the rewards of the job more than make up the extra time spent driving.

 

Longer drives, especially at lower speeds, will be more efficient.

 

Also, the weather warmed up a lot in PA this week, right? Longer distance drives and warmer weather are 2 enormous factors in fuel economy.

 

Agreed. I usually get about 50mpg around this time of the year after driving about 50 miles to and from work. If I take my wife to work on my days off, which is about 5 miles away, my car gets around 39mpg even with the same easy-going driving habit. Distance and speed do make a difference in MPG.

 

The hills kill my mpg to work and are amazing after work lol

SM-N920V ?

 

When elevation differences are present, the round trip MPG is the only one that matters.

While the uphill MPG looks bad, basic physics demands that it be lower. The downhill side is where most drivers actually make or break their round trip results.

 

Pretty average 42-44 mpg on that road regardless.... unless idiot driver in front of me that slows to 30mph for every turn or slows for down hills and speeds up on uphills

SM-N920V ?

 

Slower rush hour traffic can also boost MPG's significantly if you're able to spend a lot of time coasting on the battery with the engine shut off. When traffic is clear on my way to work, I average around 52 MPG, but on days when I have to drive during rush hour, my MPG averages around 62 (record was 68, adjusted for difference in gauge readout). Almost makes rush hour driving more enjoyable trying to game out a higher MPG reading...almost.

 

1 lane highways is usually where I am at.... logging trucks that want through and dumbasses that can't make up their minds on how fast to go

SM-N920V ?

 

Rougher road surfaces on those 1 lane highways kills my MPG...

 

Yes it does

SM-N920V ?

 

Getting stuck in slow traffic is more tolerable now that I have a Prius. A couple days ago I hit a big slowdown and used zero gas while I progressed about 3 miles!

I felt sorry for all those poor saps around me that were burning gas while going almost nowhere.

 

Being in SoCal, this is one of the things I like about this car. Traffic doesn't waste gas, just time.

 

A few days ago I was glancing at Google maps to see that the road ahead was clear, and yet a few moments later, I-5 came to a stop. It just happened that I was among the first to arrive at an accident, so Google hadn't received the data yet. One of the cars was severely crumpled and engulfed in flames. Nothing could be done for the driver.

It took 2 hours in 95 degree heat for police to reverse traffic flow, reroute us over a curb and grassy medium, and get things moving again. I felt terrible having a cool cabin to wait in while watching the cabin of the wrecked car burn to the frame.

There was plenty of EV range left on my battery, so the whole time sitting consumed no gasoline. Almost everyone else idled their cars to keep their AC on.

 

As I go from one place to another, I've been taking city streets that have speed limits of 25-35 instead of 45 because when the road is flat, I can cruise along on electric until the battery is depleted.

You can choose to drive the Prius like any other car and enjoy the increased MPG, or you can think of how to maximize it, which is what I enjoy doing.

 

Yeah, if I drive 1-2 miles at moderate to low speed in the cool spring or fall, I get about 28 mpg!!!!

I've experimented with trying to keep the f...ker in EV mode but it seems relatively impossible with the current ECU programming ALWAYS and I mean A-L-W-A-Y-S insisting on completely warming up the engine. I have the Ultragauge running so I get to see the engine temperature and just a little below the 180 or so range and it runs the engine no matter what. Once the engine is warm, it will allow me to go to a whopping 22 mph before it mandates an engine start. With the engine cold, it will only go to a WHOPPING 8 mph before it demands the engine start.

My guess it that Toyota did research and found that "generally" "most" drivers will eventually use the engine so you might as well warm it up. The problem is that for those of us that often drive less than a few mile trips, we NEVER get the 50 mpg quoted.

I've read a lot of design data and watched some Toyota training videos. Evidently, Toyota had problems with the MG1 speeds (for those of you not techy there are two Motor-Generators in the Toyota hybrid CVT (continuously variable transmission) - these are MG1 (smaller) and MG2 (big and powerful)). The max speed of MG1 was in the 6-7 Krevs for Gen1 and Gen 2 Prius models and then Toyota redesigned the CVT and two MG's to significantly increased the speed capability of the two MG units (MG1 in Gen3 is capable of 10-12 Krevs).

Evidently for Toyota to make the PHEV, they also changed the output gear ratio of the CVT where it mates up to the front axle and the gear ratios of the SUN gear assembly (increased the diameter to reduce the speed). This allows the two MG's to turn at lower speeds while driving the vehicle at higher speeds which is exactly what all of us regular Prius geeks want.

I'm toying with some ideas but as phil said in one of his emails to me offsite
"I don't regret my work on the Prius, but if I had to do it over, I probably wouldn't bother. The hours I spent could have been applied to another project elsewhere to greater benefit."

Those are his exact words too.