Prime Driving Habits

Yes, since Prime offers more EV power & capacity than the PHV.

 

I have become the slow right lane below the speed limit driver I hated in my early twenties (I'm only thirty though geez). I watch the little blue bar and rarely if ever go above it when accelerating.

 

i used to glide when going downhill on fwy in particular, sometimes accelerating up to 80 or so t the bottom of the decline, now i leave the cc at 70ish and re-gen, same for higher speed surface roads (e.g. 40 up), less gliding, more re-gen

 

The first changes comes from driving any Prius. The car gets better fuel economy on slower, more direct routes and stops have a much lower impact due to regerative braking and high efficiency when accelerating. This is common from the Gen-1 forward and leads to shorter commuting distances by driving a direct route.

With the prime, I will often choose to shop where there are free L2 charges, especially on the route home. But @john1701a points out the improved control laws keep the engine off more than our Gen-3. It also keeps the more efficient engine in peek efficiency mode. This means I can drive more like the dumb car drivers especially in EV mode.

Then I take delight in left-lane high speeds to tease the dumb SUV drivers to keep up and burn up their gas money.

Bob Wilson

 

One habit I find myself doing is going on Google Maps to see how far I'm going on a particular trip or trips and if I need to stop by a Charge Point along the way. (ok, I admit I did this with my PIP also when I owned them)

 

I did a lot of thinking and planning with PiP. I mostly just drive with Prime.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I've been more content in following slower cars because the gas mileage and EV range is soooo dependent on speed an acceleration, there's much more of a difference.

My 2010 Prius didn't have that much of a difference unless I was trying to hypermile, which doesn't really work for my commute.

 

Yeah I used to shop exclusively at this Trader Joe’s in Berkeley. Now that I have a Prime, I only go to grocery stores with ChargePoints or Volta’s so I can also charge my car up while shopping. I don’t even care if the groceries are more expensive, I’m getting my car charged dammit!

 

spell "dammit I'm mad" backwards

 

Mind blown.

 

lol, good Gif

 

Only have had my Prime for 10 days. but here are the changes so far:
1. I no longer accelerate rapidly to the speed limit from a light, just to brake rapidly for the next light, or traffic slow down... I'm accelerating smoothly and looking further down the road to know if there's any point in making the speed limit. Basically I'm trying to maximize my score.
2. I'm looking farther down the road and planning my stops -- Especially if there is no car behind me... I'm coming to a more smooth stop, and in some cases timing the lights for no stop at all.
3. I use more of the entrance ramp to come up to merge speed -- conditions permitting. There is no point to be going the speed limit before the merge portion of the ramp. If there's cars behind me on the ramp... I accelerate faster.
3a. I use more of the exit ramp to slow down. In other words.. prior experience tells me there's a red light at the end of the exit ramp even If I don't see it yet.-- this is route specific.
4. I choose my routes based on shortest distance rather than shortest time.
5. I adjust my work schedule to allow for time to charge if I know I will have after dinner driving.
6. I think about how much rush hour traffic slow downs are extending my EV range... and how normal cars are burning gas idling.
7. I only use the AC if it's too hot, or I have a passenger. I normally set the AC to 75 when I use it... if it's 75 outside, but the car is hot from sitting in the sun... I open windows to cool down the cabin. On rainy days, the windshield can fog.. so I turn on the defogger until the fog is gone, then turn it off, rather than forget it on.

At first the point was to replace a 2007 Prius that got 45 -50mpg by driving it like a Prius... Then the point was to fit the commute within the EV range to minimize gas usage... now the point is to minimize electric usage too.

 

Well said!

 

great post! I definitely do all of the above.

 

I do pretty much everything but the A/C, I run it all the time. I mostly use it in eco mode, but if it's really hot, I'll switch it to normal and full flow. There's just no sense in me being uncomfortable just for a MPG or two. I averaged 89MPG (calculated) on my last gas tank, which is better than toyota's MPG and eMPG numbers calculated for me commute.

I told someone just this friday that i didn't mind slow traffic jams, as I get much better gas mileage that way.

 

I'm like that with heat. It doesn't get very hot here, but when it gets into the 60's I've got the car heat up at 79 or 80.. Did that a couple nights so far and as far as I can see it doesnt effect things much if you're in HV mode anyways...