his is what I'm having issues trying to figure out, and would like some people with a bluetooth scanner to download the Dr.Prius app and help me out to compare data. I'm also posting this to the 3rd gen sub as the system is similar and both generations used NiMH batteries. The Prius is supposed to get better MPG in the city than the highway, as the engine is used more on the highway, but so far this has been completely backwards for me. In fact, in city driving, I'm lucky to get 34mpg. On a flat road, going 50-53, I can get in the mid 50's. That is with the AC on too. The battery itself seems fine, tests fine, so I'm thinking something else is going on. Today it was 86 degrees outside, and the battery was measuring around 113 degrees. But when I floored it from 40 to 60 and held it for 5 seconds, I noticed two things, one right away, and one shortly after. The discharge shot up to 130.85 amps, the pack voltage went down to 192, then the battery temp quickly rose to 117 degrees. When slowing down quickly, the amperage went up to about 80 amps, and the pack rose to 258 volts. Now in any electrical system, resistance means heat, and I'm wondering if perhaps there is something causing the electric motor to draw more amperage than it needs, or perhaps there is a bad connection in the inverter from the hybrid pack or to the electric motor causing higher than normal amp draw. So here is what I need for some comparative data. If you can't give me all data points, that's fine, just pick one. 1. Your current outside temperature (on car or just from a weather app), and then the temperature of the battery pack, car must not have been driven for at least 4 hours, and this temp reading is with the ignition on (KEO), but not in ready mode (don't press brake to power on). 2. Either having a buddy look at your phone or recording the screen, floor the car from either a stop or on a straight road and tell me what it shows for the discharge amperage and pack voltage. 3. Do the same above, but quickly come to a stop from 30-40mph (don't slam on brakes, just quickly slow down) and record the charge amperage and pack voltage. 4. Drive the car for 30 minutes (or just do this after driving your regular commute) and record the outside air temp and the battery pack temps.
Well everybody claims they can get 53 miles to the gallon on 50 55 flat road reg temps say 70 to 85 or so I've seen it once maybe twice and that's on the MFD just showing that when I fill up at a flashing pip and put in the 8.4 to 8.6 gallons on 376 miles as we can see that 50 to 53 MPG showing on the MFD means pretty much nothing. That 50 miles to the gallon was at that point in time during the drive notthevysnl mileage. Cmon if you're getting 53 miles to the gallon at your flashing pip when ya fill up you'd be looking at 475 or so on that same 8 4 gal or at ten gallons added be at 530 miles on trip . So uhhh. All that. My Chevy I think do a lil better computations and the math maths very closely in the volt total miles tank miles elec miles total overall mileage for life of the system to date . Uncannily close
The corresponding thread in the gen 2 forum is this one: Further hybrid system testing and help needed. | PriusChat but so far this one is the one with replies. You may want to start by making sure your concerns aren't just arising from the flaws in your premise. A Prius (that isn't the plug-in or Prime version) only ever gets the energy it uses from the gasoline burned in the engine. It has a small battery where some of that energy can be banked up (at an efficiency cost) for use later (at another efficiency cost), but there is no way of using engine power more efficiently than using it directly, while the engine is running. This is counterintuitive for many first-time owners. Gliding along silently on battery power is nifty. It's cool. It's something conventional cars can't do. But it isn't more efficient than using the engine. (It can look more efficient because the dash MPG display gets pegged when running on energy from the battery. But that's because the dash MPG display doesn't account for the gas that was burned to put that energy into the battery; instead, that shows up in the MPG that you see while the engine runs.) It's fair to say that Prius city MPG sucks less than conventional cars' city MPG, because even the efficiency cost of banking and reusing energy in the battery is better than just throwing it away like other cars do. And it's also fair to say that city driving is typically slower than highway, meaning less of a cost from air resistance. But "as the engine is used more on the highway" is not a reason at all to expect city to be better. Under any driving conditions where the engine can be running in its good-efficiency region, that's as efficient as the car gets.
