Can I go fast and get good gas mileage?

In a Prius you will still be more fuel efficient then in another car with the same driving style.
Only the less agressive drivers will beat your mileage hands down.
Try and relax while driving is my advise. You'll learn to love it and you and your car will live longer.

 

In 'normal' cars, jackrabbit starts often consume extra gas as the Fuel injectors are told to enrich the mixture when accelerating. In the Prius, quite a lot of the 'around town' acceleration is aided by the 67 HP motor. (It has maximum torque at Zero RPM, unlike a gas engine which needs high RPMs to get to the power band) So less enrichment is needed for sudden power spikes, as the gas engine is seeing a more averaged load - not needing to do all the work accelerating, yet charging batteries when cruising - rather than the 'spikey' loads you get in 'normal' cars.

Rather than focusing on how you go, be sure to watch how you brake, long gentle braking will let the battery charge more than sharp spikey braking. More charge means more 'go', when you get to go.

Without changing how I drive, I went from 24 MPG in a 2001 Subaru Forester to 42 MPG in a 2009 Prius. Much of this gain is from the battery and motors aiding instantaneous acceleration, like an energy shock absorber. (Even more is from regenerative braking reclaiming waste energy when braking) This not hypermiling, they are cringing just thinking of my driving style, but it is better than I was ever going to get out of the Subaru, even hypermiling.

One caveat, in a normal car, one hears the roar of the engine and feels the clunk of shifting to get a sense of speed or acceleration. The Prius is very quiet and smooth, and you may well see blue lights even when you did not feel you were over the limit. On the other hand, it does not have a 'racey' reputaion, so you may get the benefit of the doubt you would not get in a Miata.

 

Why does it matter if someone cuts in front of you? They will generally arrive at the destination only fractions of a second earlier.

Let's say it's the difference between being first, and being third, in the queue at a red light. You might be 10 metres further back from the light (the Prius is about 4.5 metres long). At 30 miles per hour, you're travelling at 3.12 metres per second. You cover that extra distance in three seconds.

If you want best efficiency, stick to around 2,000-2,500rpm, which I do by ear. (I remember what 2,500rpm sounded like on my previous car.) On the gauges this is said to be keeping instantaneous MPG at about half your current speed, so at 10 mpg if travelling at 20 mph, going up to 15 mpg at 30 mph. This rule of thumb only works for US gallons, of course!

You may well find that even if you did accelerate hard that you end up stopped at the next light anyway. If you use the route often, you can commonly learn how fast to travel between lights so that the next light is turning green just as you reach it. This is of particular benefit in grid-layout cities. Constant travel at 20mph is actually faster than accelerating to 30 and stopping, and uses less fuel.

In fact, some lights are triggered by the arrival of a car, and in this case it can be beneficial to have someone else overtake you and trigger the light! You can follow the 'rabbit' through without slowing.

See also this interesting article about traffic waves.

 

A Prius will get better gas mileage than other cars doing this. But you'll also be able to see the feedback on the screen about what this does to your mileage, and you'll see that to get the best mileage out of your Prius (or any car) you shouldn't be gunning it off stop lights and stop signs only to slam the brakes on at the next one. So I'd say get the Prius, and then learn some techniques for driving it sensibly and safely but also to get the most mileage you can with a reasonable driving style.

As someone said, part of that for me has been breaking myself of certain habits, for example, caring deeply if someone goes around me or cuts me off. We end up thinking of driving as competitive too much. I let people go around me if I'm not accelerating fast enough, and usually I see them again at the next light (where they gun it again, take off, then slam brakes again in time for the next light, where I see them again.)

So in short, you won't have to change your driving style to get more out of your Prius than you would out of other cars. But you will probably want to in order to get the most out of your Prius.

I drive very reasonably, go plenty fast, and just try not to take off from lights like it's the Indy 500. A couple times people have swung around and passed me, but it's not like I drive some little toy car and this happens at every stop light. And I am managing 50-55 mpg.

 

Well, you have two "I Likes" in your original post. I like to accelerate fast, and I like to get where I need to go as fast as possible. Everyone is going to drive their Prius, or any automobile the way they want to drive it. However, your question is in conflict with your choices. The best way to drive The Prius to be most fuel efficient is to most often not be agressive, cruise along and adopt at least some hypermiling techniques.

You have to make the choice. Do you want the most fuel efficiency? Or do you want to get to where you are going as fast as possible and not let people cut you off?

With the Hybrid system of The Prius you'll still get comparitively great gas mileage even without adapting.

But I have to wonder, if those "I Likes" are driving priorities for you why did you purchase a Prius? It's almost like someone buying an expensive sports car that can go 0-50 in less than 5 seconds, then saying, "I hate to accelerate quickly, and I seldom drive over 45 mph".

My suggestions would be to try to learn to live in harmony with your Prius, which is designed for fuel efficiency and low emissions. Plus as others have pointed out, there is something relaxing about driving a Prius. Don't let the city make you an agressive driver. Just imagine every driver that cut's you off, is doing so in a desperate attempt to reach a gas station, then enjoy passing them when they pull in to fill up.

 

No vehicle (unless an all-electric) will provide good gas mileage if driven aggressively. And what's wrong with letting someone get in front of you? This is probably why so many drivers tailgate these days - which just leads to road rage and violence.

Ease off. You'll get there, and it probably won't take more than a couple of minutes longer.

 

My observation has been that as long as you "drive like your brakes are broken" you cannot get the Prius to get poor (for a Prius) mileage

 

You're from the UK, so you must not have heard the stories about merging onto the DC beltway.

I agree with you - you often have to adopt a "taxi strategy" to driving in some (ok, most) cities. However, getting from point A to B quickly isn't a matter of how aggressively you drive, it's a matter of how effectively you plan ahead.

Maintaining a high average velocity is kinda the key, though a lot of the time you just can't avoid traffic jams.
Alex Roy proved that:
The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory

 

call me jaded . . . but me thinks ...




.

 

I think she is worried she can't drive a Prius aggressively, and just needs to be reassured that yes, you can drive any car like Mario Andretti. In a Prius you still get good mileage, but it makes fewer Vroom Vroom noises. Really sad is when they miss the Vroom Vroom Noises and put Fart Pipes on a Prius.

 

What I love about my prius is nobody beats me from light to light, the thing is a demon in trafic, what a blast, what excellent vision of what's happening around me, I run 45 series rubber on 17" rims and still get 51.7 mpg (15 tankfuls)...doing 65+ will kill your mileage fast but bopin around town won't
jmho,ymmv

 

speaking of fast, I saw this posting on craigslist SF Bay Area.... hahaha...


You hit me with your Prius

Date: 2009-07-25, 3:23PM PDT


Me - Bicyclist, heading to jury duty on 10th Street, Friday at 8:50am.
You - Prius driver, crossing over two lanes, hitting me with your car and speeding away.

I was hoping we could catch up for a cup of coffee, so I could get your views on the environment, and strangle you.

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 1288922120

 

I do accelerate hard form a standstill when driving around town, however I leave big gaps and couldn't give a rats if some clown cuts in front of me as long as I don't lose momentum because of it. In other words, as long as I don't need to brake. I get great joy out of passing lane weavers, god it's fun! I normally resist the urge to wave and smile at them as I pass, normally.

Forward planning, stay smooth, look well up the road, avoid the big pedal or hit it soft and early, avoid stopping and relax, great mileage here we come.

 

There is ONLY ONE thing that will give you LOUSY mileage.


Short trips !!!! As in 10 mins or less, multiple times per day.

On the highway at 75 MPH versus 65 MPH versus 55 MPH, the difference is negligible in my opinion, there is one, but the time savings on big trips is worth it.

*** Unless it's raining. Rain on the highway destroys good mileage significantly, more than the difference between 55 MPH and 65 MPH.

In L/100, I'm getting 5.0l/100km across multiple gas tanks, which is about as lousy as it gets for summer driving, with short trips. Canadian winters boosts this to 6.5.

 

downhill while using the gutter technique yes

 

You sure everyone watches "Initial D"?

 

Go buy a civic.... i will even throw in a few stickers

 

looking at al 20 posts until now i have to agree
http://priuschat.com/forums/search/search-id/1864221/

that or its really a to mutch girlygirl.