Over 50 MPG

[attachmentid=4978] Way to go!! [attachmentid=4979]

 

Tatania - I know what ou mean We just took our first trip out of town in our Prius to St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay Flordia. We got 49.7 MPG. We were thrilled. Right now, we are sitting on 50.0 exactly and loving it. I can't believe that this might actually get better!

 

I just hit 1000 miles on my prius, the third tank of gas, I had 346 miles and used 6.102 gallons, = 56.702 MPG, which is mostly city driving. None the less, I'm very happy,and hope it gets better with more miles.
With each tank refill it has gotten better, first tank was only 39pmg,2nd was 45.6. I must admit I am doing some feathering and driving as easy as traffic will allow,like I won't make anybody suffer {drivers behind me} while I'm on my quest of saving the planet......lol

 

Does 50.2 count?

I've had the car less than a month, have about 600 miles on it, and on the tank I bought today I calculated 50.2. The average is 48. I'm pretty happy about this since some of this is from freeway, some from my 4 mile commute. I didn't think I'd see these numbers until around 5000 miles. I'm using the "glide" and electric motor as much as is practical. Pretty cool.

 

Here's some really good tips I got from a senior poster when I started out.

Okay, okay.
This is going to take a while. Seriously. This is going to take a while.
Here's the problem: you're not ready for it yet. Sorry, but it's true. You don't have to look hard on Priuschat to find many people in your very same situation. This means that it's not you. At least, not you specifically. Shoot, most of my first several tanks were in the forties myself. It wasn't until about 10 months after I got my Prius that I started seeing tanks in the high 50s.

Do youself a favor and for the rest of this summer, just enjoy the car. Then winter will come and then you'll start seeing some really low mileage. But when it starts warming up, you'll see yor mileage increase.

You know, I can't leave it like that. So here are some things to think about:
The Prius gas pedal is very sensitive. You can weigh heavy on it or go light on it without altering your speed. But of course, the heavier you weigh on it, the lower your mileage will be. You have to get accustomed to driving with a light foot.
Once you get good with the pedal, work until you find that "sweet spot" when all the arrows dissapear on the display. This is called "gliding" and creates a state in which the car doesn't really seem certain whether you want to accelerate or decellerate so it just "lets go" and coasts freely. The ability to sustain this state for long periods is key because it doesn't burn gas, doesn't burn battery, and doesn't have drag other than just rolling.
When you have to accelerate, try to accelerate only as much as to maintain arrows coming from the ICE to the wheels and the battery. If you press too hard you'll pass this. This ensures that the Internal Combuston Engine (ICE) is propelling the car and recharging your battery at the same time. After all, the higher your State of Charge (SoC), the more likely your car is to glide and go into . . .
Stealth. This is when you are moving purely on battery power. But you have to be smart about this. Like I just said, the higher your battery SoC, the better your changes are to glide and stealth. Therefore, if you stealth too much, you actually inhibit your ability to glide and stealth. Additionally, if you drain your battery too much, the ICE will kick in to recharge and that just takes gas. It's been my experience that if there's four or more bars on the battery you're good. Get down to three and you'll have problems gliding and staelthing.
Cruising at speeds above 40MPH. This is similar to the third bullet in that when you are at speeds greater than 40, the ICE will be running anyway. So as long as it's going to run, try to keep it in that zone in which it's also recharging the battery: do this and the battery SoC is higher leading to better gliding which saves your battery which provides for better stealthing which increases your mileage. See? This is fun! But you have to keep bullet number one in mind. When I'm cruising along at 44MPH, I have to work the pedal to make sure that I keep the MPG up above 60MPG and sometimes up in the 80s for short periods. If I weren't paying attention, I could easily maintain 44 with MPGs in the low 40s and sometimes in the 30s. My speed doesn't fluxuate but by not paying attention, my mileage drops.
Now, understand that there are acceptions. Starting from a dead-stop with a row of cars behind you; for the love of God, throw mileage to the wind and move your little Prius butt!

But as I said way up there, don't worry too much about it. It will come. Your Prius will break in and/or loosen up at around 5,000 - 7,500 miles and you'll get the hang of driving it and nursing that pedal. It's just time and practice. Remember that I got my car in August of 2004 and have been practicing for two years now. You'll gte yours; don't worry and don't get discouraged.

Keep me posted on your progress. If you want to keep a history of your tanks, I can give you my Excel spreadsheet. Have fun.

Drive Happy.
Drive Hybrid.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tatania @ Sep 11 2006, 03:16 PM) [snapback]317916[/snapback]</div>

He he he.. Don't wanna brag... aww sure I do... I have just over 6000 miles on my Prius and have probably filled up a dozen and half times. Only two tanks were less than 50 mpg. And niether of those were less than 48. Granted, I do a lot of long freeway commuting in my car.