I think it was hurricane rita in 05 that pretty much caused the evacuation of Houston, tx, the drive to Dallas, normally about 3 hours took 24, yes twentyfour hours. many cars ran out of gas from idling. so, how would the prius do if in a major traffic jam? how would the battery hold up?
I get about 400 miles on a tank of gas (two pips) The Prius does not idle often, the Gas engine shuts down when not needed. Any time the HV Battery got down to 2 bars, the gas engine would turn on to recharge it. (I usually sit for 20 minutes before the engine comes on to recharge, if I did not run A/C and headlights, it would be longer) Many owners (not me, yet) have left their Prius on over night parked, with no harm done. I advise you not to keep driving once it runs out of gas. It is not vital, but a good idea, to keep some A/C on, as the HV battery is cooled by cabin air.
Much better than an ordinary car. The engine would run only as needed to charge up the battery. People have idled their Prius for several days while using them as backup power sources. Long stop and go driving would be no different. Tom
I was in that evacuation, but I left about a day earlier than most, so I missed the mayhem. The one thing I do remember was that it was hotter than average...over 100 during the day. The AC would be working very hard. They waited until the state's highways were in gridlock before they opened contraflow on the freeways. They tried to stagger the evacuations with those far from the coast first, then those on the coast last...yeah right.
I read a brief account by someone who was in just that situation. They reported that the car performed very well.
The other problem was people ran out of gas and blocked the way. It was miserable. I had friends from Houston, come and stay with me. It took them 8 hours for a 3 hour trip without traffic, but it is often 5 so bad but not as bad as some. I tested the prius in a similar but much shorter traffic jam and it got around 17 mpg. Any car was ok if it had enough gas and good ac. We learned we do not have a real evacuation plan from Houston. I wonder if its improved. Galvaston will definitely get hit again. Even as far inland as I am people died from tropical storm rains as they drove on the wrong roads.
Been in some traffic in city but nothing like what you described.. It "Killed" my gas mileage but on a much smaller scale it did quite well. I actually like highway stop and go traffic since there is battery useage to keep the mileage quite respectable. Been in heavy traffic and my mileage has actually improved because we were moving, just not very fast.... that's the best (for mileage that is)!
I doubt it has improved. They rely on controlled loading of the freeways to keep them flowing. They try to achieve this by staggered evacuations. Logically, they tell people far from the coast to leave first. Of course, those people are the last to get released from work, since there is less perceived threat in places like Conroe. Those on the coast, and subject to fatal storm surge, are told to wait until the end, and sit there watching jammed roads on the TV, and storm clouds in their windows. Net result = fail. I know there has been no improvement in the system because during Ike, parts of Galveston got a mandatory evacuation after some parts already had 2 feet of water in the street. I know people should be self reliant, but if we rely on that, what's the point of even having announced evacuations. There might be a hope if they can get contraflow going 96 hours before landfall on I-10W to San Antonio, 290 to Austin, 6 from Hempstead to Waco, I-45 to Dallas, I-35 Dallas to OKC, 59 to Longview, and I-10E to Baton Rouge. That might be enough to handle a real Houston CAT 4+ evacuation. On topic: The nice thing about the Prius in such a situation would be that you could start with a full tank and put 2 5-gallon cans in the back and have 1000 miles range or a few days of idle time.
If that's the case I can see it being of merit when doing normal hot driving but if you're in a world-is-ending traffic jam and 99% of the time is spent stopped AC is going to be a primary drain of power, so you'd definitely want it off. With it off, and rarely moving, the battery would be under so little stress anyway it would not overheat.
