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Prius C in the mountains!

Discussion in 'Prius c Fuel Economy' started by TheTimob, Feb 9, 2017.

  1. TheTimob

    TheTimob Member

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2014
    120
    79
    0
    Location:
    Divide, CO
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius c
    Model:
    Three
    So I moved from Philadelphia back to where I grew up originally in Divide, Colorado. My job is in Colorado Springs, so I have a 36 mile each way commute. The commute has everything - starting on dirt roads, then single lane 40mph roads, then highway, finally the center of downtown Colorado springs at 25mph, and then out towards the east part on major 45mph artery roads.

    Here's the thing - Divide is at 9,200ft and Colorado Springs is at 6,035ft. So on the way to work - I just roll down the hill to get there, and it's quite a climb to get home. This results in pure mayhem in the MFD.

    I fill up my battery on every single drive to work - and regen braking stops when the battery gets above 75-79% SOC on the ScanGauge. B mode comes in handy for the very last part to maintain the right speed - because the state patrol likes to wait at the very bottom of the hill!

    When your battery is that full - the car starts doing interesting things to get it back down to the normal 60% range. It'll stay in EV even when the Hybrid System Indicator bar is ABOVE the middle eco line. It will also use a lot of electric power above 45mph - the engine is still spinning above 45mph - but indicating nonsensical numbers like 400mpg or so because it's not using much fuel.

    My records screen is almost meaningless because it doesn't go above 99.9mpg
    record.jpg
    The scangauge is the only way to see MPG above 99.9. This drive was 213mpg on a 31 mile trip.
    SGII.jpg
    Here's my info screen - you can see I'm not using EV much at all - because the speed limit on these highways is 55mph and 60 mph.
    info.jpg
    Here's how the fuel cost screen looks now. Notice the crazy spike in November - that's when I drove the car from PA to CO. The trip itself was only $76 - the rest was other activity in November, preparation for moving and such.
    fuelcost.jpg
    My sister has quite different ideas on what is a suitable vehicle. She uses her jeep when she goes to Moab, but lives in the city!
    jeep.jpg
    My drive home can be interesting sometimes. Snow! I have Michelin Xi3 snow tires on 14" steel wheels. They work great.
    snow.jpg

    The drive home is all uphill. My MPG for these trips is typically between 33mpg and 37mpg. Not too bad considering. The overall average of a whole tank is better than it had been in Philadelphia for me. I've been averaging around 54-57 MPG for a whole tank. Mind you this is the middle of the winter in the cold with snow tires on. That's great. I generally managed 48mpg for a tank in Philly.

    Conclusion: I'm keeping the Prius C. The C is a rare sight up in the mountains, but having a hybrid in this sort of terrain is highly entertaining.
     
    InPriusLove, Robbief, mjoo and 4 others like this.
  2. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2014
    1,612
    1,144
    0
    Location:
    Franklin TN
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    Very cool. That would be very entertaining for sure. That's why I love hybrid cars.. I love seeing what they are doing, and how the computers decide what's best for when. If you had a normal gas car you would be a board fellow with hot and worn brake pads

    Thanks for the write up!
     
    65mpg_utahn likes this.
  3. Hans Torstenson

    Hans Torstenson New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 22, 2017
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    Location:
    Atlanta
    Vehicle:
    2014 Chevy Volt
    Model:
    N/A
    wow, you are so cool!!! :D
     
  4. TheTimob

    TheTimob Member

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2014
    120
    79
    0
    Location:
    Divide, CO
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius c
    Model:
    Three
    Here's a picture of one of the weird situations. Doing 45mph, the HSI bar is above the center, but I'm still in EV mode. This drive calculated to 231mpg for a 31 mile drive. On snow tires.
     

    Attached Files:

    #4 TheTimob, May 9, 2017
    Last edited: May 9, 2017
    Aaron Vitolins likes this.
  5. InPriusLove

    InPriusLove Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2015
    165
    40
    0
    Location:
    California, US
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius c
    Model:
    Three
    Gift horse, or gift horseless carriage. Awesome info. I wondered during a rt Vegas trip how I had the numbers I had but yours are making sense of it.