Just got a 2011 Prius III and have spent the last week reading up on this site about 2 hours a day trying to learn everything possible. The last couple days I have really been looking at gliding. My daily commute to work is only 2.1 miles. The majority of it is uphill. So of course my gas mileage is bad going to work. But the way home it is very good because its obviously downhill. Should I be using the glide technique as I come home down hill as opposed to coasting and charging the battery? I know its short distance but I would like to maximize the mpg as much as possible. Yes, I tried to search.
usually around 5-6 bars. It helps that I start pretty full from all the charging coming home from work.
I am not expert but I would venture to say glide (little/no regen) as opposed to coasting (w/ regen). The ICE will run to warm up anyway which will force recharge. Of course to verify, you can run a tank both ways during similar weather to see. And of course the best way to maximize FE would be to leave the car at home and walk or ride a bike.
I cannot disagree with you one bit. I tried riding a bike, but its all uphill to get there and I was a sweating pig when I arrived.....I'm a teacher so it didn't bode well.
What I do is use glide anytime the speed is more useful than the charge. A hill with a stop sign near the bottom gets coast, a hill with another hill after it get glide, and so on. Only put energy in the battery that you have no other way of using.
You may even want to look into an engine block heater. Even if you are not in a cold climate it can help you get through the warm up stage.
Is that likely to be worth it? If he went from 40 MPG to 50 MPG on the trip he would be saving 1.05 cents. Around here that would buy him 66 Wh of electrons. For a 400 watt heater that is ten minutes of heating, is that enough? [to say nothing of the 15 year payback on the price]
Thats exactly what I planned on. I wanted the 2012 PHV Prius as soon as it comes out. Even though my daily commute is super short, I travel a ton and frequently take 100-200 mile weekend trips. Therefore I needed a plug in hybrid rather than just an EV. My dealer was adamant that the extra price for the PHV wasn't worth it for me. He claimed that it wouldn't pay itself off and I would be better getting the 2011.
Ah, I see. Yeah, it would seem the PHEV would have been perfect and it sounds like the dealer just wanted to make a sale. Well the resale should be good and next year when the PHEV hits the lot you can pick one up.
I would bet on closer to 20mpg on the uphill trip. My 12 mile commute is just enough to get over 45 in the morning.
