Sweet Spot on Accelerator for Gliding

Are you doing this in ECO mode? If not, try that. You have to move the pedal further in ECO mode for the same amount of output than the other modes. This makes it so much easier to feather the pedal for the glide.

 

Yes, the max speed is 47 mph until the ICE has to fire up to keep from overspeeding MG1.

 

Sweet spot is relative to a number of conditions: level, temperature, wind speeds, traffic conditions, etc. When I first "learned" I used the pulse and glide method. First excelerating hard and then letting up on the pedal VERY SLOWLY WATCHING THE GAUGES untl the sweet spot was hit. I was surprised to find I can hit a number of spots: 25 mi. for city driving with street lights a mile or more apart. 45 for roads with that speed limit and few if any street lights. (These two examples are on pretty level roads and calm weather) Sweet spot doesn't happen all of the time, even on same roads because other conditions can affect things......it's almost like you have to get into the rhythm of your car that day. Don't make yourself nuts thinking you must be doing something wrong, or that there is something wrong with the car.

I suggest watching the meter mpg and keep the unit as close to the eco mode (and away from power mode) If you watch your speedometer you will drive more like a gas automobile driver. You will probably notice times when you aren't keeping up with traffic quickly with slow acceleration, but you will find that you can accelerate at a snails pace gaining on the other cars.

So resist the temptations of traffic speed. Just keep in mind safety in keeping pace with traffic may be necessary at times.

 

it's very tricky. i'm happy just to get the hsi close to the charge/no charge line. i don't pulse and slowly back off the pedal trying to find it, i release the pedal and then slowly depress it until charge stops, seems a bit easier.

 

I use the screen with the eco meter. When you are regenerating it fills in the blue area, and when you're putting energy out it fills in the green area (and red if you go higher). The "neutral-equivalent" gliding point is where you see no blue sliver and no green sliver.

 

Yes, the Energy Monitor screen is almost always showing current flow in and out of the battery. No wonder you are having a problem with this screen.

Use the HSI screen, the one with the bar graph. If you take your foot off of the accelerator you will see a small amount of regen to the left. The trick is to ease down on the accelerator slowly and try to get no regen and no power output. Much easier on the HSI screen.

 

Whenever I get it to be in the "neutral" gliding position(no blue, no green) it seems like my speed reduces relatively quickly... or maybe its just perception since everyone else is passing me up? How are you guys getting the car to glide for such a long distance/time

 

I've been having trouble gliding myself... that's when the energy monitor shows no arrows AT All - correct? I'm able to utilize the EV a lot more around town now, but have never been able to glide - it's always regenerating when coasting, using the battery, or the motor or a combination of both. I started using the ECO Score mode and found that's helped me get better MPG.

 

The glide state I am referring to is that sweet spot where your energy input is sufficient to maintain a speed without kicking in the gas. Gliding is not the same as costing or putting a regular vehicle into neutral. Only reason another car should be passing you when you are holding a steady speed and in "sweet spot" glide mode is if they are excellerating.

 

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but I'm not sure that you're using the same definition of gliding as everyone else. I understand it to mean that you are neither braking nor accelerating (hence why everyone is looking for the HSI screen to indicate no green and no blue). Sounds like you're just talking about keeping it in EV.

And I think, in Prius-land, coasting refers to letting your foot off completely, allowing for a small amount of regenerative braking (whereas gliding prevents the regen). Anyone care to confirm or correct my thinking?

 

Great description of gliding and what I was attempting to say (and not very well I must say).
" are neither breaking or accelerating" (to maintain your speed). Thanks!

 

Listen to this person, he has hit the nail on the head!
It took me a year to "Feel" the difference between acceleration, coasting, and regeneration without looking at the MFD! If you have a Scan Gauge, one of the X-Gauges is Throttle sensor, in Degrees. In my application, usually 17% Throttle is the point I am coasting! That number is arbitrary for me, may not be perfect, but you get the idea, find the sweet spot!
Get a Scan Gauge, it will help you in more ways than one!

 

Okay, remember there is some physics going on here. If you are neither braking nor putting energy into your motion, then you will naturally decelerate as a result of rolling friction and wind resistance (and others but those are the two main ones). At highway speeds you will notice this more. At city speeds the deceleration is much more gradual.

"Neither braking nor accelerating" is not quite the right dichotomy. When the pedal is in coasting position (neither blue nor green) the car is essentially neither braking nor doing work - just like when it's in neutral. If you have to stop somewhere up ahead and you want to use your current energy most effectively as you coast to as top, you want to use this coasting position - so that you do not apply any additional energy, but you also don't regenerate it all away prematurely (such that you'd need to tap the pedal again to reach the stopping point). Coasting is about doing no work and allowing resistance forces to be the only thing that slows you down (or in the case of coasting uphill, you are storing some of that energy as gravitational potential energy too).

Maintaining your speed is not coasting - it's doing exactly the right amount of work necessary to push back against the forces that resist your motion. Because the drag is predominantly proportional to the square of velocity, the amount of work you have to do to maintain speed goes up dramatically depending on what that speed is. In the 50-60 km/h zone I can maintain speed without going out of the EV zone on the Eco screen. On lower-speed BC highways (80-95 km/h) I can maintain speed in the second green region without going into red. But on American highways (70 mph = 112 km/h, and higher) I find that I will pop in and out of the red zone to maintain speed.