Saw My 1st A132 Prius PHEV Today In the Wild Shiny black 2008 - sitting at the plumbing shop. A123 sticker on the back. I caught up with the owner as she was leaving. I asked her how she liked it. She's dissatisfied with it because she's only averaging 70mpg in stead of 100. She couldn't believe it when I told her that with pulse & glide techniques mentioned on PC, I've gotten over 700 miles on a tank at 75.2mpg in my old non PHEV. Not wanting to, or willing to modify her driving style, she is apparently satisfied with remaining in her dissatisfaction.
I'm disappointed too. I don't get the advertised 100mpg with my Hymotion battery. I'm willing to bet she thought she was going to save money by turning the car into a plug in. I just don't get why people want to spend all this money on these kits and not willing to drive just slightly different to get the best out of their investment. I'm not talking about full blown hypermiling mode but just small changes. Basically just driving the way you was taught in driving school is enough.
I am amazed how much I have changed my own driving style in an effort to get the most MPG possible. I learn more about this car and also the Enginer system everyday. Today I made my first 100% EV trip to drop kids off at day care and then to work.
I think people are disappointed because the whole reason they paid $10,000+ was so that they didn't have to modify their driving patterns to get good mileage. On the flip side, some people really are just looking to get 20 or 30 MPG extra over the EPA. Everyone has different expectations for a PHEV it seems. I think I would categorize myself in the "I-just-wanna-drive-normally" group (I'm not much of a hypermiler at all actually--my hat is off to those of you who are) though since the conversion system in my car uses electricity much more aggressively than most other aftermarket systems I guess I never really needed to modify my driving to begin with... Maybe this makes me a bad hybrid owner, but I do like being able to get in my car and drive it like a traditional gasoline car (including wasting a few obnoxious trucks off the line from time to time just for fun) and still get 100+ MPG without having to do things like neutral shift, pulse & glide or use EV mode (though I do like using EV mode--don't get me wrong, I just like being able to drive the car normally most of the time without sacrificing lots of mileage). Are there others that like to drive normally like me? Andrew
Re: Saw My 1st A132 Prius PHEV Today In the Wild Did she mention the conversion provider with the A123 batt's?
Re: Saw My 1st A132 Prius PHEV Today In the Wild She didn't volunteer it, and I didn't think to ask. At 6'-5" ... I think it creaped her out that I came up to talk to her ... or maybe it was my 'nissan leaf' shirt. .
Re: Saw My 1st A132 Prius PHEV Today In the Wild 70mpg sounds about right for the typical PHEV Prius conversion without any special driving techniques... I suspect that her expectations weren't managed properly.
I was getting 72-75mpg when I first got my Hymotion, and hell I was impressed! Since then I tend to average between 94-107mpg, and I haven't relly changed my driving behaviour; just learned how to drive the car better. I guess everyone expects something different.
