after a week of ev only driving (on vacation), today was my first commute to/from work in the pip. the trip is 22 miles, mostly back roads with few lights. speed limits range from 25 to 55. some hilly sections, and lots of long stretches with mild upgrades and downgrades. i started the trip with the battery fully charged. my initial plan was to use ev until it ran out, then use hv the rest of the way to work, and hv for the entire trip home. the first hilly section of the trip is only ~2 miles from my house, so i decided to switch to hv for the climb (the ice would have turned on anyway), and switch back to ev for the descent. i was surprised how much ev i was able to regenerate during the descent, so i changed strategy. basically, i drove the car the same way i drove my gen 3 prius, using the hv to climb hills or pulse on the flatter roads, and ev (instead of stealth) to glide or descend hills. i was able to regenerate a lot of ev miles, and maintain mpgs near or over 100 for most of the trip to work. when i pulled into my spot at work, the eco dashboard read 106.8 mpg, and i still had 6.8 ev miles leftover for the trip home. i used the same strategy on the way home, with the ev hitting .1 as i pulled into my driveway. the eco dashboard read 90.1 mpg for the trip home. roundtrip =98.45 mpg. in similar weather in my gen 3, i would have got ~65-70 mpg on the trip in and ~60 on the trip home. the car is new to me, so i'm not sure how much better i can do without plugging in at work (i'm trying to find a way). any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated. michael
I'd discourage against saving EV miles for the end of any trip, because by the end of a trip, the engine is warm and very efficient. It's better to use the EV miles when getting on the freeway because it allows the engine to operate in a more efficient range at that high speed while it's warming up.
