new member here. Just got a 2013 PIP base model in Sea Glass Pearl. Trying to get some info or confirmation regarding the trip summary screen that comes on when you power down the car after a trip. My wife and I carpool into work and last week with a fully charged EV (12.6 mi) drove in on normall LA stop and go traffic. I was trying to see how much MPG I can get on the new car. Had it set in EV mode and noticed that it would recharge every now and then, not much but would get up to .5 miles of recharge every now and then. So I was into mile 20 of out trip before I used all the juice up in EV mode. When we got in to work, the trip summary indicated 26.2 miles with 171 MPG consumption. I was expecting to get the advertised 95 MPG and surprisingly shocke to see 171 MPG. How accurate is the trip summary? We drove the same route again today but due to being Veterans day, there was not much traffic on the 1oFwy so just avergaed 97MPG on this trip.
Your 2nd trip, since there wasn't traffic was probably at slightly higher speed. I always assume the computer is accurate and believe the reading. If you calculate the mpg you will always get a different reading,because of unsubstantiated fill accuracy. Believe the computer.
The MPG readout is miles per gallon of gas used. So there is no adjustment for the gallon equivalent of electricity used. As a result there can be a very wide variation in "MPG" based on the percentage of the driving that was electric vs gas. Once you buy gas, you can have a good feel for the amount of gas used and the EV Ration screen will show the electric and gas miles. You can get better numbers then. In my experience in local driving and getting about 75% electric it is computing our to about 60 MPG with gas (hybrid mode) and about 160 MPGe in electric. (This is using 33.7 KWH as equal to a gallon of gas.)
Congrats! and welcome to PC. The 'advertised 95' is not MPG but MPGe (e stands for equivalent) as defined by EPA to measure and compare efficiency. In plain words it says "during the first 11 miles of EPA course, this car is as efficient as a 95 MPG gasoline car". Your trip summary, on the other hand, is simply miles driven divided by gallons of gasoline used. Since most of trip was on electricity, the number is high.
Sounds like the driving you were doing was really efficient, so the estimated miles left was increasing because you were using less power than it predicted. The actual power remaining probably wasn't increasing (unless you were braking). I've seen the same thing happen with a gas car's "miles to empty" display after driving mostly in city for a tank and then driving on the highway after filling up.
As others pointed out, 171 MPG is the consumption. PiP displays it as Cons MPG. On 26.2 miles, you used 0.153 gallons (171 MPG). EPA said PiP will use 3.2 kWh (charging loss included) of electricity per charge (which you used). That is the equivalent of 0.095 gallon. So, your actual combined MPGe is 26.2 miles divided by 0.248 gallon(e) is 106 MPGe. You beat the EPA estimate of 95 MPGe.
Some days extrodinary mileage, and other days, "just" wonderful mileage. Enjoy your smart driving decision.
