MPG maximizing tips/mods?

Discussion in 'Gen 5 Prius Fuel Economy & Prime EV Range' started by FatCat0, Feb 19, 2025.

  1. Preebee

    Preebee Senior Member

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    Incorrect.
     
  2. Winston Smith

    Winston Smith Active Member

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    #22 Winston Smith, Aug 7, 2026 at 9:15 PM
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2026 at 6:39 AM
  3. Winston Smith

    Winston Smith Active Member

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    #23 Winston Smith, Aug 7, 2026 at 9:16 PM
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2026 at 6:39 AM
  4. Winston Smith

    Winston Smith Active Member

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    In the Venn diagram of elderly drivers traveling under posted limits, and tree huggers confirming their own innate goodness, the overlap may be overrepresented here. It's the sub-culture, and every niche has its own.

    Those two statements are related. One way to stay in electric drive is slow speeds. If the weather is right and I take surface roads and don't go more than 10mph over posted limits, my 15 mile commute can be 80% battery and 80mpg (for that specific trip). If you make a game of the efficiency gauges, you can develop a style that optimizes efficiency.

    Impressive to me is the degree to which technique in a Prius doesn't matter as much as a normal car. In some cars the difference between a technique that optimized reduce travel time and one that optimizes fuel efficiency can place the latter at twice the MPG as the former. Technique differences I've found in the Prius give a warm weather range of high 40s to low 70s MPG.

    If you are traveling a lot everyday, one of the traits that may work against your efficiency is that above 60mph it can be responsive and maybe even a little fun. Electric drive in those conditions has been infrequent and short for me.
     
  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    My impression is that Pulse & Glide worked far better on older-era stick shifts, especially those geared (both figuratively and literally) for performance than efficiency, than it does on a Prius. Much of the P&G gains that a driver could harvest on the old cars, are automatically harvested by a Prius and other hybrids, leaving considerably less gain for drivers to achieve themselves.

    Though I also believe that P&G is most effective in a Prius when the glide phase is below its max ICE-auto-off threshold speed, which was just 46 mph in my Gen3. Newer generations pushed this threshold up to 60 or even 80 mph, which should have expanded P&G effectiveness. But some of that already shows up in their increased EPA MPG estimates.
    I grew up in a driving culture where 10-over was considered very aggressive driving, even defined for a while to be "road rage". Such speeds would lead to license revocation fairly quickly, for excessive "points".

    The driving culture where I live now has changed considerably over the decades, as many transplants bring their native speeding-as-a-birthright cultures here, and as de-enforcement (starting before the Pandemic, but much more during and since) has greatly reduced the legal consequences of speeding and other road safety violations. Unfortunately, those changes also show up as an increased per-mile fatality rate.
     
    #25 fuzzy1, Aug 8, 2026 at 7:42 PM
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2026 at 8:07 PM
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