Best braking method for short downhill

A light steady continuous braking will get better regeneration than hard all-at-once braking. Pulsed braking will depend on how hard it is. If the HSI CHG bar is not pegged (approximately), then you are not wasting anything. But the amount of braking needed to peg this bar varies with speed.

If you can adjust your speed to get to the bottom after the light turns green and traffic is moving, avoiding a full stop, you can do better than any regeneration.

 

Good advice, as long as the braking isn't too light. Very light regenerative braking is less efficient, due to some fixed losses in the system. If you can feel the braking, you are doing fine.

Tom

 

You don't really need to worry about braking. Drive normally and the Prius will do the rest.

Now if you enjoy playing with the car and trying to get the most out of it, then you can start thinking about optimized driving. The first thing is to try to not stop, so if you can time the lights, that is your best bet. Otherwise try to minimize the amount of braking.

Tom

 

No, light braking is the best way, I think. Otherwise hard braking near the end would invoke the mechanical brake pads which causes the car to loose energe through heat.

I encounter a lot of these relatively short downhill slopes 3 or 4 times each day. Generally IF TRAFFIC ALLOWS (I can't stress this enough), way before the down slope I coast the car to a slower speed creating a much longer distance between me and the car in front (saves gas by coasting). Then when I reach the top of the slope I set it to neutral by pushing the gear knob towards myself for 2 seconds. My car is now neutral gliding down hill with a much bigger distance before the car in front. My car speed was slowly accelerating in the first half of the slope but it becoems faster (over speed limit) later. Many times the red light at the bottom of the slope turns green and I keep it rolling in neutral untill it slows back down to traffic normal speed. Then I put it to cruise control, untill next slope, repeat step one.

 

If you search the forum this "illegal neutral" law had been discussed quite a bit. It is an outdated law set long time ago when automatic transmissions didn't even exist. Basically it was because when the cars were still all using standard manual gears, it's very difficult and thus very dangerous to put the gear back to drive at high speed due to the mismath of gear speeds. The transmission might even get damaged.

It does not affect automatics and it sure does not affect the Prius HSD, but it's still the law, I guess. You don't have lost of steering and you don't have lost of braking. Get your hand ready to put it back to "D" anytime to engage regen braking. You still have to manage the speed of the car. Just don't crash the car when it's in neutral and nobody will ever know!

 

The all-at-once harder braking, exceeding regen limits and forcing friction braking, is good for cleaning the rust off the brake rotors. Thanks to regen, brake rust is a more common problem on Prius than on most non-hybrids.

My old Subaru also has problems with excessive brake rust, but for different reasons.

 

This is all great advice, I would just do all the suggestions. When it comes right down to it, small hills and small trips are not really that impotant as far as saving energy goes. One thing about repetitive commute driving is you get really good at it.

 

You do have to be careful Mike because Cops know when your car is inNeutral

 

As I understand it, "B" mode (per the manual) should be used for long downhill stretches. It emulates "low" gear on a conventional transmission by applying additional regenerative braking beyond that applied when your foot is off of the accelerator. This can be observed by watching the Hybrid System Indicator on the MID.

That being said, I use "B" mode when I anticipate slowing down with enough room ahead of me before applying the brakes. I do this on all relatively flat or slight downgrades. I assume this saves some wear and tear, as little as it is, on the brake pads. And yes, I know the definition of "assume."

Is there any fault to my logic? Probably. Which is why I'm posting here. There are plenty of good people here to tell me why I should or shouldn't be doing this. Thanks in advance.

 

The wear and tear saved on brake pads is applied to the engine. In the places you use it, I'd rather wear the pads.

B mode cannot apply any more regeneration than you already get with a light touch on the brakes. However, it also spins up the engine to waste energy in compression losses. This is a good thing on long hills that will fill the HV battery and seriously heat the brakes, but is merely wasteful in most other situations.

 

Now Mike, really, I didn't even know that cops looked for people doing those things. Like my Mother always said " Keep your hands above the covers"