Prius C Newbie considering purchasing a Prius v

WOW! Low to mid 50's in a v!!

My wife's 2014 v three is indicated at 37mpg on the display for life time (right around 2k miles on the car) and calculated has to subtract around 5-6% so figure about 35 mpg calculated lifetime

Granted she runs the AC full blast all the time and probably isn't as friendly to the car as the hyper miler v drivers on here are. Lol. Heck I even bumped up her tire pressure and tried to teach her the ways and made her watch the instructional vids....

 

Blizzard_Persona – A big ouchy-ouch to your fuel expenses! Your wife getting only 12% less than Official EPA Combined MPG for the v(vee) indicates to me that she is very heavy on the throttle (i.e. punches it a lot), and loves to use the friction brakes (i.e. brakes at the last minute), what I call having a Gas-To-Go/Brake-To-Stop driving style.

Up pressuring the v(vee)’s tires is good, but it primarily is your wife’s driving style that is loosing incremental MPG fuel economy. She is, drip-by-drip, loosing MPGs out of the exhaust pipe as unburned fuel, as well as lost velocity energy converted to friction heat losses and wear on the brake pads rather than electrical energy charging the Traction Battery.

Mid-30s MPGs is essentially the inherent fuel efficiency of Toyota’s 1.8-Liter I4, without any substantive contributory fuel economy benefit being delivered from the Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD). She might as well be driving a 1.8-Liter I4 powered Corolla or Yaris. Her signature Gas-To-Go/Brake-To-Stop driving style is keeping Toyota’s HSD “Gremlins” out-of-the-fuel-saving-loop. Even operating in Philly’s hot summers and cold winters, one has to work very hard to only get 30-ish MPG lifetime numbers displayed on the v(vee).

For the record, hypermiling-style driving of the v(vee) is not required to obtain high 40s/low 50s lifetime MPG numbers, only “Hybrid $mart” driving. Most first-time hybrid car owner-operators lack prior knowledge on the optimal operation of a hybrid vehicle. As a result, when they pick their new hybrid up at the dealer and drive it off the lot, they do so using the same Gas-To Go/Brake-To-Stop operating manner they used driving the old 100% conventionally powered autos their new hybrid car replaced. These conventional foot throttle pedal punching and brake stomping Gas-To-Go/Brake-To-Stop driving techniques, used to operate “conventionally powered” vehicles, are the same ones most drivers have used ever since they got their driver’s license back in high school and first started driving.

Unless one is "miraculously" already driving "Hybrid Smart," they need to "loose" and "hybridize" the old, bad "Gas-To-Go/Brake-To-Stop" driving habits and behaviors they are using when they drive a hybrid. I judge your wife to be one of these drivers.

Your wife needs to "Hybridize" her driving attitude and practices by accelerating moderately, avoiding Jack-Rabbit starts, doing more "Free-Wheeling" regenerative coasting and regenerative braking, and staying away from last minute hard brake pedal stomping stops. She needs to do things like trying to smooth out her travel profile by minimizing application of friction brakes and gas throttle in Stop & Go traffic, anticipating GREEN-to-RED and RED-To-GREEN traffic light changes and the ebb and flow of traffic, and driving to maintain minimum fuel consumption cruising at a steady and safe speed.

If your wife were to adopt a more feather light touch for operating both the foot-throttle and brake pedals, it would pay off with greater gas mileage numbers by minimizing her fuel wasting driving behaviors and gaining velocity-sourced energy reclamation from the energy regeneration subsystem of your hybrid vehicle.

 

I fully agree and appreciate your input. Thank you. I have tried to teach her the magical ways it doesn't seem to be working.. I made her watch the you tube vids, tried showing her the tricks for regen braking and how to glide on the downhills...

Also a corolla or Yaris are smaller and lighter cars and have next to no cargo room compared to the v so that's not really a fair comparison.

But

Looking at fuelly for the 2014 v Three's, yes she is darn near the bottom for mpg but she's def not the only one getting those numbers.

2014 Toyota Prius v Three Mileage

Anyways, I am going to show her the YouTube pointer vids again and hope that helps.

And mind you she / we are not complaining about the 35-37 mpg as the bought new RAV4 4wd that we traded it in on was getting a wonderful 17 mpg!! Rediculous. We brought it in twice to get checked out and they kept saying normal!! I could manage 17 mpg stomping on my modified Hemi charger. Crazy that a 4 banger would do so poorly..