Having read (edmunds.com) Fuel Sipper Smackdown 2 in this thread http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/66798-edmunds-com-fuel-sipper-smackdown-2-a.html, I was happy to read a similar comparison run recently here in Australia. A different set of cars, although both tests used a Mini and a Prius, it is an interesting comparison on how the world is looking at hybrids and fuel usage in general. Bowser beaters
Interesting article, for the three vehicles we can get the city, highway and combined mileage: The one part that has me confused is "5.3 L/100km" for the Prius which runs about 44 MPG. At this speed range, we're seeing closer 50 MPG (4.7 L/100km): So this one data point seems a little 'off' but their protocol seems OK. Bob Wilson ps. So the bowser is the truck in the background?
I can beat that Boo ... I had to look up fuel pump My mind immediatly went to the car's fuel pump rather than the gasoline station's gas pump.
At airports the truck that brings the fuel is called a "bowser". I know of -some- vehicles that need a truck to bring fuel, but I'm pretty sure Prius is not one of them.
"Bowser" comes from the name of its inventor. From Wikipedia: "The first gasoline pump was invented and sold by Sylvanus F. Bowser in Fort Wayne, Indiana on [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_5"]September 5[/ame], [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1885"]1885[/ame].[2] This pump was not used for [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile"]automobiles[/ame], as they had not been invented yet. It was instead used for some kerosene lamps and stoves. He later improved upon the pump by adding safety measures, and also by adding a hose to directly dispense fuel into automobiles. For a while, the term bowser was used to refer to a vertical gasoline pump. Although the term is not used anymore in the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States"]United States[/ame], it still is used sometimes in [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia"]Australia[/ame], [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand"]New Zealand[/ame] and [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada"]Canada[/ame]." :focus:
My initial thought was the Bowser boss from Mario games. What's interesting is that Prius used 6% more fuel on the highway (5.0l vs. 5.3l) than the Audi A3. That's pretty good considering: 1) Diesel fuel has about 15% more energy. 2) A3 is a smaller car with less frontal area.
Isn't the A3 lighter, too? Maybe it just turns on trim levels but it seems like they're at least close.
Bob, The Hume Highway has a steady climb out of Sydney for about 50km and then undulates for the next 200km. Now they obviously did an out and back on the highway, so the return trip should have levelled the field a little. However, from my own experience on the road, it is not a great place to use cruise control, and manually, you tend to push the gas a little more than necessary in the attempt to keep a constant speed. On the runs that I have done on this road, I normally get about 4.7 l/100km in my Gen II, but I find that the first 100km out of the city is generally up around the 5.2 mark. It improves as the terrain gets flatter. Coming back into the city, I can get approx 4.4/4.5, as the grade becomes a climb immediately before hitting the city and a lot more traffic - it can really stuff your FE.
Thanks! That makes a lot of sense. Our route to Nashville from Huntsville has a somewhat similar profile. We have to climb out of the Tennessee River Valley up the Piedmont Plateau and then run up and down a series of hills, 100-150 m. Bob Wilson
When i saw Bowser, I thought of [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bauman]Jon Bauman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] who may have been named for the gas pump.
