Pulse and Glide

Holy crap, that's insane! I only average about 45...

 

Comparing mpg must be tempered with other information such as location, terrain, weather conditions, etc. in order to put results into perspective.

I have to believe that someone in Burlingame should expect different average gas consumption than somebody else in Wichita.

 

You can NOT believe the number on the display.
While your mileage might be better, it likely is not THAT much better.

The ONLY way to measure fuel mileage is to divide miles driven by the amount
of fuel put into the tank (and even that has some room for error).

It is not unusual for me to see displayed MPG numbers in the mid 60's and sometimes even 70........
but never for a full tank. That is high 40s or low 50s.

 

Mine is gen 3, but should be similar. I drive mostly city and get about 60MPG indicated with P&G. That translates to 55MPG at the pump. Hwy driving gives me mid to high 40's, very similar to yours. However, there is no question there is more wear and tear in city driving vs hwy driving if you have a choice.

 

with the bladder u have no idea how much gas u are using and how much more you are getting in because of warm weather, in cold the bladder does not expand as much. GOES BACK TO THE SAME THING,,,,, JUST DRIVE IT!

 

I'm no expert at pulse and glide but I am able to average about 60+ mpg on the display as long as things are not stop & go. I am trying to learn from someone who knows what they are doing so I can get even better. The strange thing is when I pulse and glide my calibrated ScanGauge II quickly ratchets up to about 10+ mpg higher than the display. Not sure what is going on there.

 

So,it's less better?more better? If one trip says 45mpg,and the next says 50mpg,then,it's THAT [5mpg] much better.
steve.......

 

buddy,,, if u have gen 2 with bladder,,, a full tank with bladder one time will not be the same full tank amount the next time!, stop worrying about it unless it gets real low,, then u have concerns! but in cold weather ur mileage will go down,,, JUST DRIVE IT! ur trying to split hairs! for what reason? just tell everyone ur getting 50 mpg, most people really dont care, it just gives us a good feeling! and they are so sick of hearing about our goofy ugly cars! again JUST DRIVE IT! U can believe the instant mileage that is shown it is spot on the mpg u are getting at that moment on the fuel being used. the overall info is an indication of the past in a correlation with fuel used. to be honest who cares,,,JUST DRIVE IT! the bladder is the broken link it is not a fixed issue that needs to be your base to calculate accurate mileage JUST DRIVE IT!

 

(Quote : "pulse & glide is limited to a top speed of 41 (gen II)" )
So I'd like to do this at 75 - 80 mph.
The speed limit is 75 and in some areas 80 ( highest in the US with people riding your bumper if you are doing 75 mph. )
So pulse and glide will not work ?
From what little I understand, if you lift your foot off of the gas pedal, but leave it on there with minimal pressure ( and not actually take your foot away from the pedal ) then the car will coast as if it is in neutral.
But finding the 'sweet spot' can be hard and you have to be looking at the screen.
And if I take my foot off of the pedal, the car will slow even if going down a hill due to engine braking?

So it would seem that at high speed, it would be better to shift into N and coast?

( With traffic far behind me so I am not a jerk to everyone around me )

2008 172K miles.

 

For the Prius, I would suggest the Pulse & Glide "sweet spot" is in the speed range where the ICE can cease spinning during the Glide phase. For the Gen1, that means 41 mph and below. It moves to include higher speeds in later generations, e.g. 46 mph in Gen3 Liftbacks, 60 mph in Gen4 non-plugins, and 80 mph in recent plug-ins.

Outside of that, P&G seems less useful, if at all. P&G works best with old-era manual transmissions, especially in models not well geared for efficient cruising. Prius hybrids automatically harvest much of the potential gains of P&G, leaving less for the driver to try to add on. Later Prius generations leave even less for the driver to aspire to grab than did the older generations.

I could gain a lot using P&G in my '97 Legacy MT. But much less in my 2010 Prius, if any, so I quit trying. I still do it some in the household's '14 Forester MT, which is less aerodynamic than was the '97 but better geared for efficiency, along with various engine improvements, so has less for the driver to gain than did the '97.

 

You cannot pulse and glide at highway speeds.

You will waste more fuel trying what you propose. Speeding up to 85-90, then flipping into N and gliding down to 70-75, will not yield better fuel economy. Furthermore, it will be very taxing/tiring after 15 mins to ½ hour.

Just put the cruise control on and enjoy the drive.

 

Wayne Gerdes is kind of the dean of MPG-maximizing Prius driving techniques. I haven't reviewed any of his tips lately, but I do believe P&G still has a solid place in his approach.

What Wayne has written is probably worth reviewing for anyone who is interested in non-mainstream driving techniques for reaching non-mainstream Prius MPG results without wanting to reinvent any wheels.

Prius drivetrains do automatically harvest some potential gains achievable with P&G in other cars, but still with inherent conversion losses both into the battery and back out again. There is still room to reduce those losses by trying to minimize regen and electric driving, and trying to have the energy that reaches the road be coming direct from the engine as much of the time as possible.

For the rest of us, even just mainstream Prius MPG results are pretty good, and achievable by putting the cruise control on and enjoying the drive.

 

For the driver. For any passengers in the car the constant lurching is likely to be nauseating.

 

I'm still at a loss on how to eke out as many mpg's out of the hybrid as possible. I'll have to go through the old posts, unless there is one that you can recommend?

I've been trying to maximize the electric time for mpgs-is that a mistake?
And if so, how to actually avoid the electric drive-the car has a mind of its own.
Neutral, or its equivalent, is the only way I've seen so far, but then no power of any sort is going to the wheels.

 

Yes

Neutral is a mistake as well since the car can't charge the hv battery from the engine or from regen.

The reality is Toyota has built in algorithms to maximize mpg as long as you don't drive it like a sports car.

To even meet epa mpg or slightly improve you accelerate slowly to reduce gas use and brake smoothly to maximize regen. You drive at or below the speed limit and let up slightly going downhill to for mpg.

Don't sit in it in a parking lot in Ready burning your hv charge. If you want an ev with 109 mpg equivalent buy an ev.

 

All well and good, but this thread has a hypermiling kind of vibe.
The subjects of transformation losses and other nuances were brought up