New Prius Gen. 3 Owner / Am I Getting The Hypermiling Down?

congrats and welcome! i can't tell from the clip, but 55 is a great start, and something many people never achieve. 70 is over the rainbow. all the best in your pursuit!

 

One thing: is the hill something you can go around, any alternate route? Or you're screwed?

 

hope for a mudslide?

 

use as much battery as possible on your way up. you'll recharge it when you leave.

 

One of our grandkid's schools is up the top of a real hill-climb. It ticks me off: that they keep building up and up the hills around here, and not just residences: public institutions with lots of daily-grind traffic.

 

running out of land.

 

At least it's not too long. But looks pretty steep. Oh well.

55 mpg is nothing to sneeze at btw. Just keep you speed down, keep a good following distance in traffic, so you can coast up to delays without braking, try to avoid squandering your momentum.

 

yikes!

 

My Prius loves hills more than flat land. The aerodynamic shape allows you to glide down hills much more efficiently than other vehicles.

But if you have additional passengers then you'll lose on the hills because you get hurt going up with the additional weight without all of the benefits when cruising down.

 

Hills definitely kill the gas mileage.
You should be able to eek out another 1-2 mpg by using a Top Tier gas, if you're not already.
You're getting 55 mpg - Unreal.

 

I'd do cartwheels if I could get 55......

 

I've got the same handicap with Canadian Touring: 17" porker rims.

 

55 mpg ain't bad at all! Congrats and enjoy your newest form of entertainment. Don't forget to be aware of and make allowances for the drivers behind you who are not as enlightened. Many of them are in a huge hurry to get to that next traffic light so they can spend extra time idling their engines.

 

55 mpg is great. We've achieved 60 a few times but that depends more on the road than our driving. We've learned that even slight altitude changes over 100 miles has a big effect on mileage. Going south from here, on a 3 hour trip, we will easily get 60 mpg. Going north we're lucky to get 48 mpg. The elevation difference is only 500 feet over 150 miles.

Some things to consider.
- In my estimation the air conditioner steals 2 to 3 mpg. If its 95 degrees or less (hot dry CA summers) I'll turn the air off and open the windows.

- My wife doesn't have the patience but if I'm alone I'll drive 60 mph on the freeway. On trips less than an hour the arrival time really isn't that much later.

- We have rolling hills when we take our son to school. If there are no cars behind me (the bane of fuel savings) I'll use roller-coaster gas pedal technique. That is don't move the pedal when going up a hill. The car will naturally slow down. But on the down slope the car will pick up speed for the next hill.

- On routes that I'm very familiar with I will stay in EV mode, draining the battery, because I know there is a hill ahead where there will be no choice but to use the ICE - and to charge the battery.

My wife and I share the Prius. She tends to get about 46-48 mpg. I tend to get more like 52-54 mpg. Because we share our overall mileage is about 49-50. The game for me is to get into the car and see that due to her driving the car is at 47 mpg. My goal is to bring it back up over 50 mpg on this trip.

 

Concerning passengers: if you REALLY slow down on a long uphill, you can have lassengers jump out and help push the car uphill! But be sure to stop at the top and let your passengers pile back in for the downhill coast. Spouses, especially , get rather testy if you don't pick them back up at the top.

 

Just saying your getting 55mpg is not the correct way of thinking. i have owned my 2010 Prius 5 for 14 months and while i to have learned better ways of driving and having nitro put it the tires to maintain max tire pressure at all times and checking mpg vs gas tank refill vs miles.

Now that i have mastered my driving style and i never think about it anymore and it does not matter what mode i drive in as i like power mode and i have a 5000 mile trip running with 50.1 mpg at 33mph avg.

So 33mph avg is under city speed of 35mph , so it says to me that i have driven 5000 miles at 33 mph and got 50.1 mpg with 17" wheels and everything Toyota has done with the Prius is on display in that well rounded number of real world testing . the Gen III Prius 5 will net you 50 mpg at 33 mph for 5000 miles.

until you have the avg speed the mpg is not really known for the distance . the more you keep the avg speed up is where mpg is most gained . anyone could get 60mpg if you can keep the avg speed above 60.1 mph for any distance.

Now just use your longest running trip and look at the avg speed and that my friend is your real mpg for life of car at that avg speed.