Have you ever gotten a 0 MPG Bar?

Do you have an '06? I seem to remember reading something here about a bug with the '06 where it will sometimes display a 0 MPG bar. I don't remember the exact conditions, but I remember people agreeing that it was some kind of bug.

For me (in my '05), the only time I've seen a 0 MPG bar is when, for example, I've been sitting in a parking lot (i.e. not traveling) with the heat on (and, therefore the ICE on). So, in that case, it's correct.

 

How are you "pulsing and gliding" in EV mode? That makes no
sense, since "pulse" is all about how to run the engine.
.
_H*

 

Even got some regen on it. I know I had come a little distance, but was leaving the car on for the picture. It was in EV mode, so it wasn't using gas while waiting.
[Broken External Image]:http://mysite.verizon.net/res0ot4f/Art/PriusMFD/100_0976.jpg

 

i have had zero bars before but that usually happened when getting fast food at the drive thru... i figured getting those zero bars was the Prius' Gods method of punishing me for eating so poorly.

 

If the ICE is prevented from starting, as in EV mode – then yes, zero miles per gallon makes sense. If you use no gas at all during the EV time period, how can you have any miles per gallon? Adding infinity into the equation for “average fuel consumption†would really skew the average to somewhere even a supercomputer couldn't calculate.

Just a hunch, but I bet it does the same thing in neutral.

Now if your average MPG decreases because of EV mode, then you've go a problem.

 

Problem is... this will net you fewer miles. IN EV mode, slow and steady wins the race. Each time you slow down with regen, you're still throwing away the majority of your kenetic energy - only a small portion is actually captured and returned to charge the battery. The best EVs can reclaim about 50% with regen, the Prius can't manage anything near that, I'm afraid. In a perfect world, the Prius would allow you to coast when your foot was off the throttle (you can do this by adding back JUST enough throttle to keep all arrows off the energy display, but it isn't easy to learn the touch). If you slow down that way as often as possible, you'll be extending your range as compared to using regen. No... really. I'm a professional.

If we could extend our range by speeding up just to then regen while slowing, we'd have a perpetual motion machine.

 

Usually it is infinity whenever you move without gas. It's actually not hard to figure out. If you go 1 mile at 40 mpg and another at infinity mpg, the average is total miles per gallon aka 80mpg.

I'm guessing it only happens if the ICE never kicks in at all for the full 5 minutes. It figures you're being weird, so it can be too.

 

No arrows and maintaining a good/legal/safe speed is what you want. If the downhill is steep enough where you can use the regen and stay good/legal/safe, that is hybrid nirvana.

One who is with the force will incorporate gliding (no arrows) into their everyday driving. Use the arrows on the MFD as your teacher. Don't stare at it, but try to sense what the car is doing and then glance back at the MFD to see if you are right. After a while, you will become a Prii Master.

 

Hmmm.... I love to do a modified version of that - I live in not-very-hilly Florida, but we've got a few back roads I've found with 40mph limits, some moderate (probably small to the rest of you) hills, and next to no traffic. I 'pulse' up to about 40, then let off and glide - I try to time pulses for going down hills and glides for level ground and going up them. I get nearly 4 miles of this, sometimes without the engine ever turning on (I'm not nearly as good as I will be =P). My speed varies between 33 (my artificial 'minimum') and 40, though I've been known to let myself get down as low as 25 if there is noone in sight and I'm just dying to make it to the top of the hill. I don't know much about the physics, and I've only taken this road steady speed a couple times, so it's possible that I'm wrong - but it seems that during your 'electric glide', the car is trading speed for distance more efficiently than the car could trade fuel for speed.