Difference in mileage and battery charge with different driver

Obviously it comes down to driver style, of course, but there are a few things I am curious about.

My husband gets significantly lower mileage than I do (17kpl, 40mpg), driving the same route, same time of day, same settings, etc. But at the same time, he always has a high amount of regen and his battery stays above half.
I get around 22kpl/50mpg, but seem to have little regen and my battery is always 2 bars. If the engine charges it up to 3, it is down to 2 in no time.

The biggest differences I can see between our driving is that I tend to brake early and slowly (or just sort of let the engine brake do the work if I`m not sure I need to stop)... And then accelerate quite quickly (but still slower than the rest of the cars) from a stop.
My husband brakes late and firmly, but accelerates much more slowly from a stop.

I can see where a difference in mpg would come from as he tends to be pressing the gas much longer even when there is red ahead, but I don`t know why there is such a big difference in the battery charge. Is it bad for the battery charge to always be so low? The engine will come on to keep it from dropping to one bar, but it rarely goes over 2 for me. It will jump up to near a full charge for him in no time.

 

Most of the driving is stop and go, pretty much all below 50kph. I would believe I were cheating with the mpg if he had driven more than 100km in total out of the 600 so far, and if I reset the meter when I got in after he drove it - not after delivering him to the train station then coming home (back down to the 2 bars I usually am in...) He drove the first 100km or so, and then is off on a business trip so I have had the car alone for the rest.
The first time I tried resetting it immediately after sending him off, I managed to get about 3 mpg higher. So maybe I should cheat to get him to stop setting the panic brake thing off by braking so late.

I would say that the display tends to stay on the left while I am driving normally, and filling to the right (not going into power) while normally accelerating. I have figured out gliding without regen, and am using it a bit when feasible - but 9 times out of 10, if the light is red ahead it will be red for a long time so there is little hope of gliding to and through it. I don`t use any of the driving modes, so no setting of ECO or EV. In fact, I don`t think I`ve ever tried the EV setting as my battery is always too low to use it.

We`ve had the car for 1 week, and only 600km on it now, so I am pretty happy.

Pulse and glide is much easier when it is not city driving with lights on every other block... Which is what we drive. Inevitably, even if we do not get caught at one light we have to stop completely at the next. I have no idea how to try and keep mpg high in that sort of situation other than slow accel and low speed to begin with.
On a 100km open road try, it was easy to get and maintain 30kpl (display, so probably lower in reality) at 75~100kph using pulse and gliding...

To be very honest, I am very happy with mpg at this point. Just really curious about whether the battery charge being sustained higher would be better, and whether I should try harder to charge it instead of reduce charge by gliding.

Thank you very much.

 

Yes, this took a little bit of time to figure out. And it seems quite hard to keep it without regen and assist without being dangerous and watching the meter. So I just try. What I meant by "reduce charge" was more "reduce charging/regen" - sorry!

I see. Right now my husband commutes by public transportation and bicycle, so he only drives on weekends. Mostly it is me who drives as public transportation with a small child doesn`t work out so well - especially for my commute which is quite far and after dark.

Thank you! So far I am really just getting used to the car. In our previous car (non-hybrid) my driving technique was getting very good mpg. It seems okay in the Prius, but it was all with ICE so there are a lot of new things to learn with the hybrid system!
For this first tank of gas I am mostly just looking to become familiar with the system and to understand why some things are the way they are (like me always having 2 bars, and my husband having full charge but low mpg). I suppose I am a little bit lucky when it comes to getting high mpg because of location and normal driving speeds for everyone. Even on the expressways, 100kph is about average speed so it is easy to stay in an optimal range and still flow perfectly with traffic. In fact, slow lane is sometimes flowing at closer to 80kph.

I imagine as I learn more about things I will have more questions. Thank you again for your explanation.

 

Thank you! I will try with ECO mode next time I am driving and see if that makes it any easier to glide without being aware of the meter.

I don`t know exactly how long it takes me to accelerate, but usually I start out a bit more slowly than the rest of the cars, then push a bit to bring the speed up to around 35~40km/h (20~25mph?) and try to glide mostly after that if there is traffic ahead or a light. So usually other cars will go more quickly than I do from a stop, but I am at pace with them (but they are several car lengths ahead of me) by the time I need to slow down again. All the cars will get caught at the same light, so I end up stopped next to and behind the exact same cars as at the previous light, and will start the process again.
My husband will accelerate more slowly and evenly - but usually keep accelerating until just a bit before he needs to stop... Then brake fairly hard to come to a quick stop. He will start out a lot slower than the other cars, but catch up with (or be ahead of) them before needing to slow down... Just to stop with the same cars and repeat.

In my previous car, accelerating quickly then releasing the gas and rolling with occasional very light pressing to retain speed usually gave the best overall mpg (I am happy calling it mpg here as it is what everyone uses, but for us it is kpl ). So it is a habit to quickly get to speed and then try to retain it with as little gas as possible. I am guessing that because of the electric motor use in the Prius it isn`t quite the same... I am guessing that I use the ICE a bit to quickly come up to speed, but keep using the assist to retain the speed which is what is keeping my battery low. It appeared from the display that I was using the ICE only on acceleration from a stop, and the rest was coming from the electric motor unless the battery dropped too low and the ICE came on to help charge it.

When accelerating (not from a stop, but for example after slowing to be able to not stop at a light), is it better to try and make use of the ICE instead of the motor? I know that keeping the meter in the left half is using the assist as this was mentioned before, but I am not sure if this is something I should be avoiding.

I am trying to do this, but it is very hard to be sure I am not using the EV and really gliding without doing something unsafe like watching the meter. I am going to try with it in ECO mode as suggested by ksstathead to see if it makes it any easier to do gliding.

Thank you everyone for your great advice. I was able to get at or just below rated mpg/kpl for our previous car (15kpl rating in Japan - was getting 14~15 in summer, 11~12 in winter) so am hoping I will be able to get up to rating in the Prius (35kpl rating in Japan) too. Currently at about 22~25, so a long way to go... But still double what the old car was getting, in a larger car, so no complaints. Just room for improvement.

 

I don`t think so because it is not one straight road... So when I turn, it is another set of lights with another timing. I may be able to get better mpg by staying on the same road longest, but the time difference is huge (double the time taken to reach my destination) compared to taking back roads with many turns.
Also, even without lights and just stop signs - you will get a ticket if you run through the stop sign without coming to a full stop. (My husband`s only tickets...) I have a perfect driving record so want to keep it that way with no risks, so always come to a stop at every intersection that is not a green light for me. The same goes for rail crossings. Here the law is full stop before crossing, and there are tons of rail crossings in the area. (very complex passenger rail system)
I will always put the safety of a full stop before getting better fuel economy, and it did not cause many problems with the mpg of my previous car.

I am thinking this too, but it seems that not gliding would be inefficient also? Going downhill or with long stretches of road I can get the battery higher, but in normal city driving it stays around 2 bars. I don`t see the ICE running much to charge it, but it does come on when I accelerate from a stop and charge some then.

 

I will definitely try and see if there is any difference later today.

Yes, but I think there is a very big difference in the speed people are driving. For here, the assumption is that even on the expressway people will not exceed around 100km... And most do not. (Sometimes there are crazy cars flying and dodging around people at 130+, but it`s not normal.)

The normal speed limit for regular roads is 45kph, and for large roads 60kph. Even with people speeding, it is still like 55kph~80kph. I am guessing that is much slower than the normal speeds in Canada and the US?
I very much doubt I could get anything high if I drove around at the normal speeds for roads there.

Here I cannot think of any without gates and lights... But it is a rule to only use the gate and lights as guidance, and to always come to a stop and check with your own eyes. This is good advice here because a lot of the time there are buildings blocking the view of the track, so if the lights failed for some reason there could be a train right there and you not know it (until it came crashing into your car).

No difference. Settings are the same, and we will both turn on defrost if it is necessary.

 

Is it listed at l/100 in other countries? In Japan it is kpl... It seems strange that it would be kpl here but not in other countries using metric.

A little update on trying things. This evening, I tried to pay special attention to gliding. I used the ECO mode at first, but it seemed to make me use even more battery assist when not gliding as it was harder to push it up into ICE, so I did change back to normal after a bit.

On the 60km round trip (20 minute stop at one end, so I think the engine was still warm on the return) I was able to get 26kpl by the display.