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Canadian "mileage" (l/100km) and 99.9l/100km reading

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by van-island, Dec 17, 2008.

  1. van-island

    van-island New Member

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    Edited to add: sorry not just Canadians - any metric Prius owners! Didn't mean to exclude anyone... :)

    Just wanted to ask two questions of you metric drivers:

    1. How's your "mileage" and what do you consider good? I am averaging 5 l/100km over my first 1700 km of driving. I drive 222 km round-trip to work and those are mostly highway "miles" (man, we are some confused metric users up here!)

    2. Do you get 99.9 readings on your "current" and if so, why would this happen? I just cannot see gas consumption being that high, especially when the ICE is only at a fast idle...

    Thanks in advance!
     
  2. Fibb222

    Fibb222 New Member

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    I hope for anything under 4.5 for my town/normal routes. That's almost impossible right now. Unfortunately, 4.8 is the norm during the winter. My biggest problem is my wife's frequent short trips. Your commute is huge, so you don't have that cold engine problem!

    If you learn all you can from this site you should be able to get your yearly mileage around/under 4.6. The car can do good numbers on the highway if you can keep your speed below 100.

    99.9 is what you see briefly sometimes when you are idling at stop. If you are traveling zero distance your metric mileage is literally infinite, but 99.9 is the largest instantaneous mileage number the display can show.
     
  3. Stefx

    Stefx Member

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    This summer I got around 4.3 L/100km.

    So far this winter I seem to be getting approx 5.5-6.0 L/100km.

    Short 5-10min trips will negatively impact your fuel efficiency (as it would in any car)

    The use of a block heater, grill blocking (winter) and fuel-efficient driving habits have a significant positive impact.

    You can drive the Prius as you would any other car and you'll get good fuel efficiency. The car has a potential for much more once you change your driving habits.
     
  4. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    What's good? I guess anything under 4.7L/100km (50mpg US). My record is 3.9L/100km and I usually average 4.3L/100km in the summer and 5L/100km in the winter.

    On the highway, I get 5.1L/100km at a steady 70mph (down I-5). Along Hwy 99 or Hwy 91, it's easy to get it into the low-mid 4s if you cruise at the 80-100km/h speed limit. I once had a convoy of 2 Prius (incl. me), an HCH and a Prius cab all doing 80km/h on the right lane on Hwy 91 lol. That was kinda cool.


    To answer your second question, yes. If you think about it, 99.9L/100km is basically infinity litres per 100km. (cause the computer can only read up to 99.9). Why does this happen? Well let's say you're at a traffic light and it's winter so you have your heater running. The engine isn't warm enough so it keeps on idling to provide you with the heat. Since the engine is idling, it's using fuel, right? And since you're not going anywhere, you'll never cover 100km. Therefore, it'll use an unlimited amount of fuel to travel 100km cause you're stationary.
     
  5. philmcneal

    philmcneal Taxi!

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    yea im getting 5.5L/100km due to short trips and the cold snap BC is getting right now.

    When pulsing and gliding I like to use between 6L/100km and 12L/100km as my acceleration points depending on traffic and terrain. Then deadband (no arrows) when your speed is met.
     
  6. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    I get 4.4 or 4.3L/100km year round but apparently we don't have a real winter here? Feels cold to me. My best tank was 4.0L/100km.
    On the highway at 110 to 130km/h I get about 5.2L/100km.
    Yes you get 99.9L/100km when you are stationary during warm-up or when the engine starts to charge the battery when stationary with AC on.

    I'm offended by the exclusive nature of this thread title, not!!
     
  7. Stefx

    Stefx Member

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    should the title be "Canadian kilometreage" ? :)
     
  8. [H]ackerK

    [H]ackerK Geek

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    Holy cow. When I get my Prius back in Ang, I can do about 4.9-5.2l/100k

    But now, in winter, I can only get 6.5-6.7l/100k...

    Beside the cold up here, I do lots of hwy driving, I guess that's why.

    and I guess I really need to install EBH....
     
  9. Fibb222

    Fibb222 New Member

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    I know I live in the mildest part of Canada but it would be hard for me to get over 5.5 unless I drove only 4 minutes every time. When I drive from Victoria to Nanaimo I take it easy up the Malahat - going slightly below the speed limit. The top speed I go is about 90 km/h, usually less, unless I'm coasting down a big hill. On that trip I average, for sure, under 4.5 in the summer and under 4.8 in the winter. Without the mountain, it would be much, much better.
     
  10. markderail

    markderail I do 45 mins @ 3200 PSI

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    When I drive a long stretch, like between Montréal and Québec city, at 100 KPH (or slightly above) I will get in the summer 5.2 l / 100km fully loaded and multiple adult passengers.

    Ironically, if I do it alone, I can barely get it to 5.1 - as if the added weight has no impact, since I'm not doing Stop & Go.

    Winter to too variant - too many factors like temperature and road conditions.

    Summer - dry pavement on the highway versus raining / hard rain, can impact by as much as .5L/100 extra !

    USE the Cruise Control - ALL the time ! I was always getting 5.6l/100KM, with the cruise control, it dropped to 5.2 for the same speed / conditions (doing a Reset in between trips).
     
  11. Fibb222

    Fibb222 New Member

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    Even at 100 km/h I would have thought that < 5.0 would be possible in the summer. If you go 90 km/h you might be able to get 4.5 or just under. Also, I find cruise control to be too aggressive on inclines. I let my speed drop a lot during a hill climb, combined with speeding before the hill.
     
  12. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Indeed. 100km/h will next you < 5L/100km (Mark, did you check your tyre pressures?)


    Whether I have 4 people + luggage or just two, it seems fairly consistent at 70mph as I get 5.1L/100km at that speed.
     
  13. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    When I have cruise control on I assist it a little by allowing my speed to gradually increase by applying pressure to the accelerator before a hill then let it come down slowly by maintaining that throttle position as I go up the hill. The ideal is to be back on cruise just as I crest the rise.

    Example on my way home is a railway overpass, that is the road goes up over the rail line. I have my cruise set at 60km/h, the speed limit, two to three hundred metres I apply slight throttle to bring speed to 67 to 68km/h by the time I star to climb, I hold the throttle steady as I go up the hill and try to time hitting 60 for the peak of the overpass then allow the car to coast down the other side again trying to glide just over the speed limit. The car is then allowed to glide with slight throttle(glide) until the cruise picks up the throttle again. I think this helps, it seams to.
     
  14. ronhowell

    ronhowell Active Member

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    Just out of interest to us non-metric Prius drivers. When you're showing l/100 km you are really talking fuel consumption measured in liters per 100 km, the inverse of "mileage", measured in MPG, which we get indicated on our Prius' here in the US. (it's called the Consumption screen, but it is really the Mileage screen)

    So when the ICE is not running, but you are moving under electric power what does the yellow bar on the right of the Consumption screen show? Zero I assume, since you are burning no fuel. As opposed to the reading in a US Prius' of 99.9 MPG (since infinity cannot be displayed).

    Do the 5 minute bars each show average l/100 km for that segment?
     
  15. Fibb222

    Fibb222 New Member

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    Yes the instantaneous consumption bar shows zero when the ICE is off and yes the 5 minute bars are in L/100 km. So the lower the bar the better the mileage. The scale is 10 is highest, 5 in the middle and zero at the bottom.
     
  16. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    bah... in all this snow, i'm getting 6.4L/100km (granted some of that was having fun in the snow so prior to that, it was showing 6.1L/100km).


    anyway, is anyone's bladder significantly shrunken?? The light came on and I only pumped 28 litres (around -6c at that time). It can't possibly shrink that much. What about those who are living in -40 degree weather?
     
  17. Stefx

    Stefx Member

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    I recently put in 27-28 liters and it had 2-3 blips left. Looks ok.
     
  18. JayGoldstein

    JayGoldstein Member

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    It hasn't gotten above -20C here for the last week. I do mostly short trips, so the ICE is running almost all the time. Fuel consumption (indicated on the MFD) at the last fill up was 7.9 L/100km (roughly 30 mpg [US]). With two bars showing on the "guess" gauge, the pump clicked off at 24.2 L (tank capacity theoretically is 45 L). That gives some indication of the bladder shrinkage.

    After driving 45 km on the current tank, the gauge now shows 8 bars, and my consumption is about 8.2 L/100 km.

    FWIW, I owned a 2004 Echo Hatchback before the Prius. Under similar driving conditions, the Echo's fuel consumption was no better than (and sometimes worse than) what I'm getting with the Prius, so I'm not complaining.
     
  19. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    ok good to know. Pumped 22 litres today with 2 bars left. Ugh, all that wheel spinning is draining the battery and increasing the fuel consumption.
     
  20. Stefx

    Stefx Member

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    Yeah and plowing through snow is probably like running in water.... increased resistance.