Best mpg to date

I have no idea how you people get this high mileage. I start off very mild, see a red light and slow up for it.......regen the battery. The high that I have now is 50.1....that more then likely will go to 49 or 48 something. I seriously think that it's the Goodyear tires on my car.......my Son's Pri is the same as mine, he doesn't have the Goodyears and his mileage is at 59 something right now.....we both drive pretty much the same & travel the same roads.

Best MPG that I ever had was the week that I drove off of dealers lot last Sept.

Still very happy with the Prius.......!!!!!!!!!

 

^I'm with you, Troy. I think I got around 55.1 (on the display) with the last tank using the stock Goodyears...I'm struggling to keep that now (it may be time for an air check, been about a month).

 

It involves going slooooooow

If you regularly sustain above 70 mph on the highway, do not expect to get ridiculous mileage

 

I have to disagree with you.....going slow is not the answer. My speed is always at the posted limit...or 5 MPH over posted limits. I'm not going to do 35 MPH in a 55 MPH zone, for fear of being rear ended.

I never reach 70 MPH in NYS where the max posted limit is 65 MPH..if I'm on those highways....I normally max out at 65-67 MPH. Then even when I do those speeds, my MPG does not take a high hit.

 

I don't mind you disagreeing. We just have different circumstances, and perhaps different semantics. By going slow, I mean going around 60-65 mph, not >70 mph. It's not uncommon to go 75-85 mph on the freeways here. 60-65 mph is considered slow if you are only keeping up with the big rigs.

If I go around 60-65 mph on the freeways, 45 mph on city streets, I can get around 60 mpg on the MFD, 57 mpg hand calc'd. Not amazing, but again I'm not traveling at 35 mph either. The laws of physics just dictate that when I'm sharing the roads, there's only so much I can do to not disrupt traffic that much, yet still get some mpg gains. Also I have to plan my trips to avoid short trips.

If I go 70-75 mph, 45-50 mph on city streets, I get around 50 mpg. 50 mpg is not ridiculous mileage, it's just EPA mileage.

If I go 80 mph, 50 mph in city streets, I will probably get around 46-47 mpg.

To get over 65 mpg on round trips, I believe one would have to skip the freeway (65 mph is not feasible). Surface streets with pulsing & gliding, anticipating red lights, keeping ample distance, limit braking, driving like grandma, etc.

If you look at fuelly, 57 mpg probably puts a driver perhaps in the top 10 percentile.

 

Sipnfuel, it's not how fast you go - it's pure luck, a matter of your terrain and climate.

I live in NorCal and when I hypermile between 60-65mph I only get 52-54 mpg. When I visit my family in LA, I see mileage closer to 58mpg.

 

It may be the tires but this much of a difference (9 mpg as you say) has to be in part due to a difference in driving technique. You can't see his foot on the pedal, you can't feel his foot on the pedal, so you can't say you drive the same.

But if you take 2 hypermilers with the exact same driving technique and put them in two different locations, you'll see considerably different mileage results. If you put me in a Gen III in LA, Florida, or Arizona, I could probably get 60 mpg and I'd be reading this thread all day long with a fat grin on my face. But that's not my situation so to me.

 

It's true, terrain adds another dimension. The length of your trips adds another. How long is your commute on NorCal, and how long are your trips typically in LA?

LA has a lot of relatively flat places, and a lot of hilly places. It depends on where you drive.

You see my example above is over the same course, and stressing that speed will determine a great deal of the MPGs you can achieve. It's meant to be relative.

 

38 miles round trip all freeway. I get ~55mpg on the way to work, and then ~48 mpg coming back. It's amazing how consistent I am, no matter what I try. In this regard, the terrain is incredibly frustrating.

Now LA driving is a thing of wonder. Without even mentioning the traffic and weather, the terrain always seems to slope downwards. Obviously this is not true but something always sends my bars consecutively way up above 50mpg. Maybe it's because I'm driving a lot more and my car's warmed up, but I love it.

The only issue with LA driving is getting to LA. I5 and the grapevine kills my mileage. 65+ mph on a slight uphill gradient with luggage? Ouch.

 

I do mostly short trips whenever driving during the week (which hasn't been as much lately...maybe once or twice a week, due to rising fuel costs; I've been biking)...with one 40-mile round trip per week. That could explain why I can't get more than 55 (and I'm down to 53 according to the MFD)..and winter has hit back strong here in Dallas this week.

 

I drive primarily stop and go in the city. I get 50.9 mpg in the winter and 54mpg in the summer.

I've emptied the car and taken outthe headrests and all other items that do not need to be in the car and have overinflated the tires which helped the most. My car is maxed out at 54mpg. im not sure how you guys can get north of 60mpg

 

On a 45 mph posted speed limit with little traffic, I only go up to 30-33 mph, then glide a bit. If I assess that I can pass the next green, or if traffic butts up against me from behind, I speed up to 40-45. I speed up to about 20 feet behind the green, then immediately let off the pedal and glide again, because I know I've got enough to make it past the signal light. I figure speeding up to make it past the light is better than not making the light and having to use the regenerative brakes, a much better trade off.

On the other hand, If the light turns red, I can brake reasonably because i'm at 33 mph, not 45 mph. I only used 54% as much energy to accelerate to 33 mph than 45 mph.

I'll do this in low traffic:
First: 0 to 33 mph pulse, assess situation and choose:
> No traffic behind me: glide & pulse
> Traffic Behind me: pulse again to 40-45 mph to keep up with traffic
> Green Light about to change: pulse again to make light, glide after light
> Red Light ahead: keep gliding until light changes green, if it doesn't change to green use regen braking

In my experience, in 45 mph zone, if you go around 30 mph, you "dance" around the red lights. You glide up to the light and just when you might want to brake, the light turns green, making it a good to time pulse again.

 

Most of my city has speed limits of 40 or 45 mph. In general I try to stay below 40 mph so that my glides are ICE-spin free. A G3 Prius (lucky!) can glide at 45 mph*. Learning to time lights is probably a lot of the difference between 70+ mpg (me) and 50 mpg (wife.)

Timing lights has two components:
1. Hitting greens, and 2. Managing reds.

To hit more greens you have to look at the signal coming up, *and* the next signal ahead. Managing red lights means starting to slow down with coasting early enough so that by the time you touch the brake pedal the car speed is hopefully less than 30 mph. I often am traveling 20 - 25 mph when it comes time to gently brake to a stop.

Oh, and definitely try and leave lots of room between your car and the one ahead of you. You need time and space to use your momentum to best advantage.

My wife would love to get 70 mpg, but it is not in her genes. DO NOT sacrifice safe driving for higher MPG. Some of the driving behaviors are just smart for everyone to adopt (like not tailgaiting,) but part of timing lights is like a video game: some drivers are better at it than others. E.g., if cars are stopped ahead of me, I can pick a constant brake pressure that brings me to a stop where I want. I don't know how I know. Some of it is experience, and part is just how my brain clicks. This skill is a minor addition to the fuel economy game, but every percent matters when you are shooting for 80 mpg.

This brings me to my last piece of advice: every little bit adds up. You have to be a little (or a lot) OCD to play the fuel economy game well. A few percent better IC efficiency, a few percent better regen, a few percent less braking .... it adds up.

* If you reach the threshold for gliding from a higher speed instead of from a lower speed the threshold will be lower, or it will take time for the Prius to stop spinning the IC engine.

 

12.2 mi - cons. 80.5 mpg
(morning commute to work)

 

72 mpg @ 40 miles round trip, best 99. the 99 mpg was on a 8 mile trip. No drafting etc. coasting, using hills, all accesories turned off. NOW I CAN GET 72 MPG CONSISTANTLY ON A 40 MILE ROUND TRIP. Some show high mileage, but its only for short distances, like my 99 mpg.

A true test is the return trip. World speed records require a return run, why? because you can get an advantage with a tail wind. So a 40 mile round trip is a true test. I actually got 86 mpg on the first 20 miles into town, then got about 60 mpg on the return trip.

How: No drafting, no special tricks. Most of the back roads to town have a speed limit of 45 mph, or less, So I coast whenever I can, as a big part of that are the small hills on the back roads. by small I mean none over 40 feet high. this of couse helps the battery to stay charged. YOU MUST WATCH THE GUAGE WHICH SHOWS WHEN THE ENGINE KICKS IN. "hybrid systems indicator" If you dont already know, once it passes the center line, the engine kicks in. after about 12 miles or so, the battery is drained. at this point I come to a road where the speed limit is 55 mph. I drive 45 when I can, using the engine to charge the battery. Whats really nice is a area with a long turn lane, that I pull into to let drivers pass, the merge back out. after about 4 miles or so, its back to 45 then 30 mph.

I can cosistantly get 72 mgp round trip on a 40 mile trip. Of course instead of a twenty minute drive on the interstate, it takes about 40 minutes one way..LOL

 

what about from work?

 

Interesting, you do a discharge of the battery (to ~40%) before going back up to full (~80%)?

I've only discharged the battery down to the third bar twice in several months. Once was an experiment, the other was heavy traffic. I don't like to put too much wear & tear on the battery.

 

Of course the choice is yours to make, but I would recommend keeping the headrests for the seat(s) that regularly has/have passengers in them, because that's a safety device (when properly adjusted) should you ever be rear-ended-- one of those accidents you often can't actively prevent yourself. Eeking out that extra bit of mileage by removing them, for me, wouldn't be worth the risk of some idiot slamming into the back of me and someone (including me) spending the rest of their life a paraplegic or worse as a result. But YMMV (pun not intended).

 

Hi Superdrol,

I can personally attest to the life-saving neccessity of the head rests. When a 2000 Chevy Suburban , driven by an illegal alien smacks into the back of your car at 45 mph (while almost stopped), the only thing between you and St Peter is those head rests!!!

 

50 mile commute 1-way to work. Interstate and city. I usually stay around 53-57 depending on traffic conditions. Drove it 500 miles on interstate ( 70-75 mph) with two 250 lb and one 150 lb persons..crammed full of luggage ect.. Avg. 49.7