Department of Energy study on Toyota Prius

How in the world did they measure ground clearance?

It just plain doesn't make any sense that they got almost an entire inch less than I did. That's quite a measurement error.

My method was to simply slide boxes under the lowest part of the car (the tailpipe about halfway down on the passenger side). The one that matched up perfectly was 5.25 inches high... not even close to their 4.3 inches.

 

it's even listed in the NCF manual as 5.6" makes no sense unless they used some new fangled ruler that's missing an inch and a bit.

 

Pound for pound, there's nothing really that special about the Prius.

at about 3000 pounds, the Prius get's about 50mpg

At about 7800 pounds, my diesel pickup gets about 18mpg.



If the pickup had any regen braking, it would beat the Prius in this comparrison.

Add to that, the 4x4, ability to haul and tow big loads... Anyhow, I was a little surprised that in this kind of comparrison, a stock F250 superduty diesel is on par with the most fuel efficient car out there.

 

That works out to 60 lbs per 1mpg for the Prius and 433.3 lbs per 1mpg for the diesel.

 

That's a rather silly comparison... because an oil-tanker or container-ship would come out on top then. They offer far more pound for pound efficiency. It's the whole point of mass transit, as opposed to everyone driving their own vehicle.

Look at it this way. It takes Prius less than half the vehicle weight to transport the same adult to & from work... making it a much better choice, pound for pound.

 

Maybe there was something/someone inside of the vehicle at the time.

 

By your numbers, it costs 0.0667 gallons to move 100lbs of Prius 100 miles, and 0.0712 gallons to move 100lbs of truck 100 miles. That's about a 6.7 percent increase from Prius to truck. However, that's a lot of extra truck to be moving around whenever the cargo is under capacity. It still costs all 55.5 gallons to move the truck and a person 100 miles versus 20.01 in a Prius. Its all about what need to get done, move a person, or move a lot of stuff. That, and how much does the miliage suffer between the two to fully load them?

 

Pound for pound, yes. but as a daily driver, no. It's like saying my wife and I should drive an F250 out to dinner because it is pound for pound more efficient.

The efficiency is lost in the use of the vehicle. If you require 4x4, loaded up with equipment on a daily basis, then yes, this is the way to go. But for average use (i.e. daily commute to the office, taking the family to the mall) it is still using way too much fuel for the purpose.

 

And the Prius does not blanket the pedestrians with soot.

 

The weight of the vehicke is kind of irrelevent.

What matters is the fuel used for motion vs the fuel tossed out as waste.
A diesel engine is more efficient.
An Atkinson engine is also more efficient than otto.

Some people have a choise and choose an Atkinson, or a diesel.
Others like me have no choice. Diesels are banned here in
MA and the other CA compliant states.

 

Maybe they needed to put some air in the tires?

 

I know I am not as sharp as I used to be but someone help with the navigation on the .gov site.

http://ev.inel.gov/hev.shtml

Under the "ETA-HTP09 Measurement and Evaluation of Magnetic Fields (EMF) and Electromagnetic Radiation (EMI) Generated by Hybrid Electric Vehicles";


http://ev.inel.gov/pdf/hev/htp009ra.pdf

They discuss HOW the test is done but after downloading many files forever i fail to find the results to this and other tests listed in the procedures section.
Any clues? Most likely right in front of my face, just need another face, err.. point of view.

I want to install shortwave radio equipment and the process is rather involved and time consuming. Was excited to see the extensive research procedure that would help immensely, but where are the results?

thanks

 

The Prius also can get 60+MPG in the city easily. Your pickup probably gets 16MPG.

 

That's a good point. Ground clearance is a pointless measure if you're measuring it sitting still in a driveway with nobody in it. They probably measured it with the weight of a couple of passengers in it. That could probably take a good inch off of the measurement.

 

They shouldn't be walking so close to the road.

 

The testing they are doing/did is in Arizona. That makes me fairly confident that their results ought to be comparable to me and my driving conditions given that I live in metro-Phoenix. While I agree in general with their seasonal mileage results (winter is better than summer due to AC use) I can't understand why their mileage actually went down from the start. Mine has consistently climbed through my, admittedly short, period of ownership of 7000 miles. I'm wondering if it has to do with change in routine drivers or if I should expect a gradual dropoff in efficiency over similar time periods, or perhaps if its something else I haven't considered.

 

The way I understand it, the ban is on the sale of new vehicles that have diesel engines and it's because the emissions are too high to comply w/the CA smog/emissions laws. I heard that the sale/purchase of used diesels in CA is ok though, or a person can purchase and register a new vehicle out of state. At least, that's the way I think I heard it. Makes sense to me with exception to purchasing used diesels. They probably have even worse emissions than a newer vehicle with the same type of engine.

 

In MA you can buy used ones. But new ones bought out of state can not be registered here.