Any one else getting more than 30 per charge?

There's one trip that I have to make several times a week that would give me the same numbers if it was all of my driving. As it is, it really drags down my average with a 50-60 mph speed limit and about 20 traffic lights, most of which make me stop and several of which wait till the last second before telling me including three that are hidden by curves in the highway.

 

Yup, the vast majority of my commute to and from work, which I make 2 to 3 times per week is thruway which I travel ~70mph for about 45 minutes.

 

My consolation is that I'm doing about a million times better than the poor saps around me in their "Belch-Fire V-8s" with toggle switches to control the throttle & brakes.

 

That's the killer. My lifetime average speed is 34mph over 35K. Daily commute is 18 miles one way on rural back road with no traffic at 45 mph top speed but mostly 35 mph zones.

I am entering uncharted territory with my GOM. Unfortunately the time is running out to see how high it will go. Soon, the winter will push that number waaaaaaaay down.

 

Join the EV range study group and you too can see higher EV range.

 

OK, today for the first time in my ownership of PRIUS PRIME, the GOM is showing over 40 miles of EV range with A/C. Of course, I have not been using much of air conditioner lately, but soon I will be needing a heater (by heat pump) on.

 

Do you know if the ICE is on does PRIME use the heat off from the ICE automatically rather than using the heat pump?

 

For my commuting of 18 miles each way, since temp below 14F triggers ICE anyway, and my EV range is effectively half of what I get in summertime, during winter I was driving HV in the morning and saving all SOC for my commute back home on EV. Our winter temp is usually below 14F in the morning, and above 14F in the afternoon. Most of the time, I can drive home in the afternoon without firing ICE, but this resulted in very low EV efficiency usually ~3miles/kWh due to very heavy heat pump use I think. This winter I am going to distribute the use of EV for both morning and afternoon by switching HV/EV on both ways, and see if having ICE on will alleviate the high A/C load for heating thus resulting in better EV efficiency.

 

WOW!!!

It got down to 79F here this morning. Then back up over 90 again. Can't wait for some tolerable weather. Still, my GOM is usually in the low 30s.

 

Our guessOmeter GOM is showing 36 today. I think that alot of my higher GOM marks are mostly due to the prep work I started last winter. I was able to get some full EV trips in the low to mid 40 mile mark as early as March. Of course that is not normal driving. I planned in advance and did my best to stay out of the way of any traffic. Two weeks ago I as able to drive 25 miles from home to Hamlin State Park, drive around the camping area in the park and return home. When I was 2 and a half miles from home I knew I'd be a few tenths of a mile short going uphill to complete in EV so I made a turn in the other direction downhill and half a mile away than finished at a chargepoint with 47. 9 miles showing. Again, not realistic driving, I planned it out by making similar trips at times with little to no traffic and time to complete the trip was not a factor.
I'd driven almost exactly the same route in Jan. at 55 mph and snow on the ground, the EV range didn't quite make it even the first 25 miles to Hamlin and I ran in charge mode on the way back mostly 35 mph and was at 80 % full charge with about 6 miles left to get back home.

 

At last!! Looks like we're about to get a few days of the kind of weather that makes people move here thinking that that's typical. I'm hoping it also pays off in reduced electric bills as well as increased EV range.

 

4.9 miles/kWh is decent efficiency , especially for a PHEV, which is lugging around all the stinky ICE crap.

I can beat 4.9 miles/kWh in my little S-box BEV.
You can too, in your Prime!!

It's no secret.
All you have to do is:

DRIVE SLOW.

 

Well, I had built up the GOM gradually in last few weeks, and it was indicating 43.4 miles yesterday morning, the highest I have achieved so far in the last two years. Then my wife took the car for shopping yesterday. After ~90 miles of her drive, I see GOM down below 40 miles this morning.

Her number was 4.3 miles/kWh...

 

My ICE came on 3 times this weekend.
The first time as I shifted into reverse to back into the charger packing space. grrrrr
The second time, between 3/4 and 1 mile from the charger.
The third time a few hours ago I think it was 4 1/2 miles from the charger.
I attribute the bobble to both headwind on the return half of the trip and my pushing the current 36 mile EV range limit by trying to make it to the State Park and back again.
The first two trips added a 1/10 of 2 to EV range each time. After charging this morning I was above 37 again.

 

Please teach me your ways! Those numbers are strong. Even after your wife went on her shopping adventure 39.7 is still excellent. How are you doing 8.0+ miles/kWh? Are you using any special driving techniques or are your routes conducive to such numbers (e.g. lots of downhill, no highways (55mph+), flat roads)?

 

This is part of my experiment to find out what factors are most important in determining GOM distance. For that purpose, I am in effect "cheating" the system by switching EV/HV during my daily drive to use EV more on coasting and downhill and using HV on acceleration and uphills. Word of caution for this type of switching between EV/HV for your daily drives. If you have a long enough daily drive and you manage it right, it can result in better overall mpg AND higher miles/kWh as shown by @PiPLosAngeles in EV Range Estimate Capped at 50.0 | Page 3 | PriusChat. However, for shorter trips it usually results in less efficient mpg because you end up using unnecessary gas on HV portion of the drive. For my first two summers, I almost never used EV/HV switch. I was always driving EV mode until the EV range depletes then let the car switch to HV. With this style of driving my average EV efficiency in summer time were 5.0-5.5 miles/kWh at best, but for most of my short ~40 miles daily drives, my mpg was pegged at 199.9mpg. Please note that for 2017 model PRIME, mpg scale had maximum of 199.9 for display. For subsequent model years this was changed to 999.9mpg. Now this summer I was trying to inflate the miles/kWh by switching EV/HV as described, getting artificially increased miles/kWh , but my mpg has never recorded 199.9mpg like it use to.

 

I appreciate the explanation. I'm currently using EV mode until EV range depletes and then the car switches to HV. What you were seeing 5.0-5.5 miles/kWh using this method is about what I see as well. Not bad but looking for any special techniques to increase this number without using fuel. What kills my EV range is highway driving where speeds are in excess of 55mph+ which is to be expected considering the physics of propelling and maintaining a 3,000+ lbs. vehicle at those speeds. Anyhow, thanks again for the explanation.