Not getting near the "proper" MPG

Something else to make you feel better - don't forget you were getting not even half that in your previous vehicle during the same driving conditions.

-m.

 

I am very pleased to see John saying exactly what I have concluded: the best use of EV is to accelerate using the engine to whatever speed you are going to maintain. if that speed is under 34 mph (and you have the EV switch) you can then go to EV and see only a very small battery drain as you cruise at steady speed. At the next stop, again accelerate with engine power, and then engage EV again. (Only, however, if your battery is at 5 bars or more.)

If you don't have the EV switch, you accelerate using the engine, and then, if you are going slower than 42 mph, you can feather the pedal, and the car might go into electric mode.

In any case, accelerate using the engine.

And your mileage will improve as the car breaks in. When it is very new the mileage will not be as good.

 

When I was considering a Prius last march I had a client who owned one and offered it up for an extended test drive. I had been lurking this site for a week or two at the time so I wanted to try out the techniques that I saw discussed here. In order to immitate my commute I drove from his house to mine, ate lunch, and drove back to his house. The distance was 62 miles round trip and he let me reset the mfd before I took off. I averaged 52.7 miles per gallon for the trip including some hard acceleration to try it out. The car had 4000 miles on it at the time.

Here's the deal. The best he had managed at the time was 45 MPG and to date his best tank is 49 MPG. His commute is all in town with very steep hills near his home and a total commute of about 7 miles. He is no hot rod as 70 year old university professors seldom are but his route and style kill his mileage. Not sure what he got on the same route in the beemer he got rid of.

Remember: MPG is not as important as gallons per year. Short commutes are a good thing.

 

My very best economy I achieved so far was with battery only mode, and minimizing engine run. It was more than 10 mpg better than any other methods I have tried for economy. This is pretty basic stuff and is why the Prius works. It is also the main reason the EPA city rating is higher than the Highway number.

Acceleration on battery works just fine, and it doesn't much matter if you wish to accelerate at some other rate on engine power sometimes.
What matters is keeping the engine off the most, and timing the engine
on properly to maximize load. Sometimes this can be achieved best
by battery acceleration sometimes not. The energy used to get to speed
is about the same, and actually less at the slower acceleration.

You want to avoid things like engine on at traffic lights just to charge
the battery, etc. Help the engine to go off when coasting down hills.
Have it on and let it charge the battery too going up hills. EV buttons
can help a lot with this I expect, but mostly it's been too cold to use
mine since I installed it. They can help people in mountains to pre-drain
before big down slopes too, allowing for more free energy storage.

Beyond that economy depends on minimizing speed and avoiding rapid changes of any kind. By that I don't mean you can't accelerate,
just don't pump the pedal the way lots of people do speeding up and
slowing down all the time. A steady foot matters, not a steady speed.
Slowing down at hill peaks right to almost 0 mph makes sense if it
can eliminate or reduce braking. Slowing on a small hill to keep the
engine from starting helps too, provided the battery is still full.

Someone has already pointed out that the efficiency curves say to just stay above 10 mph. when I got my best results I was going 35 to 40
everywhere I could, and trying to avoid any starts and stops.

Coasting can be considered an exception to the above steady foot rule, brakes are always bad whether from brake pedal or from foot off
the accelerator and not in neutral. Coasting can work like the battery
but less conveniently to minimize engine run.

Then there's the tires, oil level, etc everyone pretty much agrees on
(I think). And in cold weather the heater.

Everyone seems a little too hung up on this brisk acceleration thing which
has been proven wrong by others here several times with far more facts
than I can supply. They showed the Prius is very efficient over a wide
range of loadings, and that directly means you can accelerate most any
which way. The power in the battery is going to get replenished by the
engine barring a planned downhill run, and where you use it doesn't
matter in the least by itself. The energy required to accelerate does not
decrease because your engine is running either.