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It's Hilly and Winding, but my Prius just loves it!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by uart, Nov 3, 2009.

  1. uart

    uart Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2009
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    Location:
    Australia
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Its a route that I dont drive every day but sometimes I have to take this road that has several long winding climbs (and subsequent long winding descents) that though long are not very steep (in either direction).

    The interesting thing is that the gradient is mild enough so that the fuel consumption doesn't get too bad when ascending. It increases from it's normal value of about 4.5 L/100k (52 MPG) on flats up to about 7L/100k (40 MPG) when going up. On the way down however the gradient is still enough so that ICE stays off for the entire descent (while still going the speed limit+).

    Overall (up and down combined) it's only using about 3.5 to 4.0 L/100k (59 to 67 MPG) over these hills. It seems to get better fuel economy on this route than just about any other place that I drive. Does anyone else have a particular bit of road or terrain that their Prius seems to love driving?


    BTW. The road runs alongside a sea level lake with the climbs/descents starting and finishing around sea level. So I know that I'm not just getting good fuel economy due to any overall drop in altitude or anything.