Prius differences?

I would suggest give it a couple of months and than check your overall MPG. I think the car will get better MPG once it's broken in. For me, once my Prius is warmed up, I easily get over 50 mpg under normal driving condition. I get better MPG than my wife because I pulse and glide, she doesn't. The only time she glides is when she knows she'll have to stop or slow down. I use the ICE for acceleration or going up a hill. Once I get up to cruising speed, I glide using gravity or battery or both. No road is perfectly flat, if I sense the road is descending, I start gliding.

The general rule that I follow is use the ICE when I need the power, otherwise use the battery if possible.

 

Whenever I do a reset (0 the mileage) it takes at least two tanks fulls to get the mileage back into the 60's, when new from the dealer, well, they usually leave the car in ready while they assemble and clean and adjust so the first tank might not really get out of the 40's, relax, the numbers will improve

 

I can not help until you benchmark your car's performance:

• find a flat road, 10 miles long, low-traffic conditions
• drive the car for at least 20 minutes to warm up everything including the transmission
• set the car to one of these speeds: 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75 mph
• reset a trip meter upon entering the 10 mile section
• at end, record the MPG and mph
• turn around and repeat at the same speed
• take two readings, average, and that is your "mph vs MPG" number for that speed
• repeat until you have the full set or at least 25, 45, 65, and 75 mph

When you've collected your data, we'll compare it to mine:


What this will do is identify any systemic problem with your car. Then we can work on how to improve your Prius mileage.

Bob Wilson

 

First tank is going to be bad as it averages in the idling on dealers lot to charge batteries. I had that in mine too. The second tankful had normal MPG.

One more thing. Forced EV hurts your MPG. Read about pulse and glide.

 

Forced EV doesn't hurt MPG, it depends on the situation. If you're trying to leave a crowded parking lot, it is better to put the Prius in EV because you'll be moving slow until you get on the main road. Otherwise, the ICE may fire up while you're still in the parking lot and running the ICE while moving slow is the fastest way to reduce your MPG and that is not what you want. Whenever you're in a situation where power requirement is low, it is better to use the electric motor. Moving slow in a parking lot is a good example.

 

my first tanks were in the 42-45 range. I heard lower MPG is normal in the first tanks. I learned how to drive the Prius properly and now have 11k miles total and im averaging 54.4 mpg in the time that i owned it

 

In summer time, if my hybrid battery is not low, I could put the Prius in EV mode as soon as the READY light is on. I could drive in EV until the speed exceed 11 mph. By then, I'll be 2 blocks away from my house. I agree with you, it doesn't make sense to have the ICE running while I'm backing out of my driveway. In winter time, you won't be able to do this because the Prius wants to warm up as soon as possible so it won't let you put the car in EV in the morning.

 

I force the ICE on first thing and keep the car parked for the first 50 some odd seconds to get past stage 1a before taking off.
jrfish007: This forced EV stuff is causing you to try accelerating once you're out of your subdivision with a depleted battery, a stone cold engine that's using retarded timing to warm itself up and a reluctance on the car's part to link the engine output to the wheels unless you push it.

That's why forced EV hurts mileage.

 

^^ i found out that i get worse mpg when i warm up the car in the morning. I just drive slow while it warms up

 

^^That's ok. What I'm taking issue with is trying to delay engine start until you actually want to accelerate beyond neighborhood speeds.

 

Interestingly enough, I think forced EV is what causes some of the larger variance between displayed and calculated mpg. On the first two tank's displayed/calculated where under 1mpg off on one and the other 2mpg off (49.9 vs 49.2, 49.1 vs 47.x). On this last tank to 600 miles on the tank, I spent the last 4 miles driving around the gas station in EV mode.... it pumped up the displayed mpg to 59.3, but my actual was 55.x mpg.

Not sure how, but I think forced EV is what throws it off.

 

Why is it that it always kicks the ICE on above 11mph? I can at other times be driving under 25mph, and be in EV mode? Or is it that the ICE is on but just spinning without using fuel above 11mph and under 25mph?

 

Yes, if you force it into EV more than it would do it by itself, you are depleting battery more than it should be. The more depleted battery is, the more power is going to be diverted from ICE to charge it as opposed to opportunistic charging from regenerative braking with almost full battery.

While mountains kill your MPG, they make P&G easy. Ie. uphill = pulse, downhill = glide.

 

Once the car is completely warmed up, then you could go as high as 27 in EV if you don't step on the accelerator too hard. Also, if the battery is low, you may not able to go that fast on EV. If you look at your real-time MPG reading, if it's saying 100, that means your ICE is not burning fuel. At 25 mph, the ICE will not be spinning without fuel. The speed has to exceed 42 mph before that happens.

 

One thing to remember, just because you turn on EV mode, that doesn't mean the Prius is depleting the battery at all time. The battery only gets depleted when you step on the accelerator. You could pulse and glide in EV. It is false to say that force EV will reduce MPG. That statement is too general because it depends on the situation and how you drive. Also, when you step on the brake make sure that you step on it firmly, otherwise you may have electrical leakage where the battery is being depleted but the car is not moving. I have used EV mode in parking lots in many occasions and the battery gets depleted by very small amount. This is better than firing up the ICE and drive the car at slow speed. This is when the ICE is at the least efficient state. Even though the battery will need to be recharged later, but it will get recharged when the ICE is operating at a more efficient state. It is a bad idea to have the ICE running while you're moving slow.

 

Q: What types of things break-in(sp) over time with the Prius?

A: The driver.
It takes a while to learn how to drive the Prius efficiently

Q: What type of things break over time with a Prius?

A.
The exterior paint is easily chipped or scratch.
The interior plastic vinyl gets scuffed up easily.
The front air dam is very little ground clearance and is easily scuffed up.
it is pretty easy to blow the 15amp fuse of the the 12vdc aux power/cigarette lighter port
the little plastic hinges/connectors to the oil pan shield gets messed up really easy
the tires .
The carpet in the cargo area is easily stained ( if u do major hauling - do yourself a
favor and get a custom rubber mats to protect the car, e.g. WeatherTech mats ).