20 minutes at 100 mpg!

That really got my attention the first time it happened to me as well. I was afraid i'd over charge the battery... but i now understand that will not happen. I also did not get 4 bars across at 100 mpg since I was going around 60-65 mph I didn't take me 20 minutes to get down the mountain. Once I got to the bottom, with the charge on the battery I was able to drive about 5 miles or so at approximately 60 mph only on the battery (though I'm sure the road was still on a downward slope slightly).

Also, on the highway coming up the mountain I have seen as low as 18 mpg. In my driveway which is steeper, I've seen around 12 mpg for 2 tenths of a mile or so. I thought something was wrong when I first saw that as well, but I realized that I was just seeing my mileage with a real time mileage indicator, and that my old Nissan Xterra that was traded in for the Pruis probably only got 5-6 MPG on the driveway!!

Prius is a great was to see the mountains!! and as you pass others on bicycles, walking, etc, you realize your exhaust fumes aren't bothering them either, so it's a better time for all!! Enjoy!!

 

You beat me with 20 minutes, but I almost had it! It must've been about 18 minutes of downhill. Maybe I just went faster hehe. Those uphills just killed though. Such a sudden change.

Would using EV for half an hour show full bars too? Why don't people with EV brag about that w/pix?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Autosmiler @ Aug 14 2006, 05:13 AM) [snapback]302643[/snapback]</div>

It is difficult to keep Prius in EV mode for more than 30 minutes.
It is also difficult to record full bars with no regen mark.

Ken@Japan

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Autosmiler @ Aug 13 2006, 01:13 PM) [snapback]302643[/snapback]</div>

EV was never intended to be used that way, and wise usage of EV is limited to short periods. Even with the car stopped and A/C off, the car draws between 1 and 1.5 amps, drawing down the battery. Since the MFD does not show 100 mpg when the car is stopped, and moving under EV draws more current, it would be very hard to go 20 minutes in EV unless you were going downhill.

I once left my car in EV while stopped at a US border point of entry for about 30 minutes. The battery went down so far that when they finally let me go, the car went out of EV as soon as I touched the accelerator ever so gently.

Bottom line: with or without EV, that 20 minutes at 100 mpg is probably going to happen only on a long descent.

Now I shut the car off at the border. It seems to take them about 10 minutes to run one person's ID through the computer, and another 10 to 15 minutes to check each car. I don't know what they do at the busier points of entry.

 

Yes, long descents can certainly add the 99.9 mpg segments. Here in the Colorado rockies many times I descend over 5000 vertical feet and have all thirty minutes filled with 99.9 plus segments. Sometimes I even show all four green leaf cars in some of the five-minute segments. I believe that I have counted six consecutive 99.9 mpg screens coming down a series of remote roads.
I have also driven other locations to see thirty minute maximum screens on long descents coming down from the South Dakota black hills and in Oregon coming down from the cascades.
Someday I will drive up 14,100 foot Pikes Peak and then coast down almost 9,000 feet to Colorado Springs just to see the screen results.
And I would think that similar results would be seen coming down from the 10,000 foot volcano on Maui, Hawaii.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(singingtiger @ Aug 13 2006, 07:58 PM) [snapback]302809[/snapback]</div>

Coming down from Mt. Rainier yesterday I had a 30 minute all green segment. At the Paradise parking lot (5300 ft or so), I was at 47.9 mpg. By the time I got to WA 7 (about 2000 feet), I was at 55+. I hit I-5 in Spanaway, and I was at 57.9 then. Pretty cool.

I hit a few traffic jams on the Interstate stretch, which led to a 58.3 mpg round trip to Rainier. I'm so glad I got that low tire fixed.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PriusRos @ Aug 15 2006, 12:17 PM) [snapback]303342[/snapback]</div>

Thank you!
1 mile = 1.609 km, 1 gallon = 3.785 liter, so 1 mpg = 0.4251 km/L or 1km/L = 2.352 mpg

edit: please do not note my 14.3 km/L It was caused by short trips during winter time.



Ken@Japan