Mpg

[zetor]

The last week I thought I would try and get a personel mpg best, I consciously tried to keep out of the power band, not easy on some of the hills here and when entering a motorway but I thought I had done really well, I covered 710km and I estimate 550km was motorway driving, I never went above 115kmph(72mph)and I should think 95% of my town driving was kept in ECO or EV mode. I just filled up and was dissapointed with only getting 53.7mpg, I didn't beat my personel best:( As I bought the car from new I am not sure what oil is in it and wondered if the 0W/20 is put in all new cars? I have been accelerating very carefully this past week keeping it in the ECO band but it all seems for nothing:( My "normal" driving the week before got me a 52mpg. Any opinions most welcome!

[Jan&tone]

The last week I thought I would try and get a personel mpg best, I consciously tried to keep out of the power band, not easy on some of the hills here and when entering a motorway but I thought I had done really well, I covered 710km and I estimate 550km was motorway driving, I never went above 115kmph(72mph)and I should think 95% of my town driving was kept in ECO or EV mode. I just filled up and was dissapointed with only getting 53.7mpg, I didn't beat my personel best:( As I bought the car from new I am not sure what oil is in it and wondered if the 0W/20 is put in all new cars? I have been accelerating very carefully this past week keeping it in the ECO band but it all seems for nothing:( My "normal" driving the week before got me a 52mpg. Any opinions most welcome!

I am averaging between 51 and 68mpg on my Prius.

Firstly fhe oil. It WILL have been filled with 0w-20 at the factory.

Tyre pressures. These are critical, more so I believe with a hybrid than a 'normal' car. Either manufacturers recommended as per the door jamb, pr as a maximum, one pound extra.

I did the toyota eco challenge last week in a dealer Owned Auris. Total disaster, I got only 58.4 mpg using ECO mode as recommended and I found that despite having a smaller body and the same drive train it would not do things that I regularly do in the Prius.

Have a look at the thread, "short journey misinformation" i think it was....

So, how do I do it?

A good 80 pct of my motoring is motorway - m25 - or dual carriageways. The rest is country lanes and very little town work.

I NEVER use the ECO button, it xuts the response and you have to press harder on the gas pedal to do anything, I reckon that uses more petrol.

If the EV button will work, below 29 mph, pulling away from traffic lights, joining roundabouts if you have time, then use it! I try never to pull away from rest using the ICE, EV is slower but hey, whats the rush anyway!

Ok, so on a motorway, accellerate briskly to 67mph, put the cruise control on and let the computer handle the economy - it can do it much more efficiently than you or I can... Occasionally you will have to either accellerate or slow down, depending on the traffic obviously, but judicious use of your eyes (anticipation) and the cruise control button will make that a rare necessity.

If I can return 68.8 mpg on a 78 mile trip a13-m25(s)-m3 to junction4, then there is no reason for others not to be able to get decent mpg's...

Good luck

[kithmo]

Anything above 55mph will see the mpg drop significantly. If you must use the Motorway then cruising at 68mph instead of 72mph could take it up over 60mpg. Also don't bother with the EV mode except when manouvering the car on a cold engine, the more you take out of the HV Battery in EV mode then the more you have to put back in with the engine running, using fuel. I personally only use ECO mode in the winter to dull the heater and lessen amount of engine use in traffic, otherwise I don't use it as it makes the car less responsive and I find myself pressing the pedal more and using more fuel. My Fuelly stats shows around 53 mpg over the 13 months I've had the car but most of this is a 3 mile commute to work. My last few tankfuls have been nearer to 60mpg with the warm weather.

[Jan&tone]

pg. Also don't bother with the EV mode except when manouvering the car on a cold engine, the more you take out of the HV battery in EV mode then the more you have to put back in with the engine running, using fuel

Not always, using the brakes puts more back in the hv Battery than the engine does... At least on the gen3.

On the gen2, you would have been correct, but I feell that the gen3 is more efficient in this respect.

[Terry953]

The last week I thought I would try and get a personel mpg best, Any opinions most welcome!

I can only refer you to this previous post that covers the subject pretty well:--

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=126336

Cheers TerryB

[dwilson]

The last week I thought I would try and get a personel mpg best, I consciously tried to keep out of the power band, not easy on some of the hills here and when entering a motorway but I thought I had done really well, I covered 710km and I estimate 550km was motorway driving, I never went above 115kmph(72mph)and I should think 95% of my town driving was kept in ECO or EV mode. I just filled up and was dissapointed with only getting 53.7mpg, I didn't beat my personel best:( As I bought the car from new I am not sure what oil is in it and wondered if the 0W/20 is put in all new cars? I have been accelerating very carefully this past week keeping it in the ECO band but it all seems for nothing:( My "normal" driving the week before got me a 52mpg. Any opinions most welcome!

I have a Gen 2 Prius not an Auris HSD so maybe my comments are not directly relevant but a few thoughts.

Your car is still very new so mpg will probably improve as it "runs in". 50mpg average is still very good - how does it compare with your previous car - my guess is that it is significantly better. Over 1000 miles at 50 mpg you will use 20 gallons of fuel but you would still use 16.7 gallons if your average improved to 60 mpg. I think there comes a point when enjoying driving and not holding up others becomes more important than slight improvement in fuel economy - that sounds harsh and I don't mean it to be !

I know my Prius economy suffers on the motorway when I do a speedo indicated 75mph - which I hope is still really a legal 70mph. I know the other day this resulted in the fuel computer saying 55 mpg rather than about 60 mpg (in this warm weather) on A roads where I travel slower and can glide on occasions.

No other car I have owned in the last nearly 40 years would give 55 mpg on the motorway though.

David

[cbcdesign]

I got 60 MPG on the M5 yesterday at 75MPH with the air con on. Quite pleased with that!

[dwilson]

I got 60 MPG on the M5 yesterday at 75MPH with the air con on. Quite pleased with that!

Yep that's very good

David

[Cyker]

60mph is a good speed for the motorway; When I got my best ever 'score' (Just over 81mpg!) in my Yaris it was due to 99% motorway airport runs sticking to 60mph as much as possible!

I keep abusing the diesel torque now tho' so I have a hard time sticking to 60mph...

Off the motorway, coasting (in-gear!) and avoiding braking and accelerating as much as possible are the key to good mpg.

Leaving a bigger gap between you and the car in front does wonders, esp. in traffic, as it lets you absorb transient pauses as you can roll right through them without braking (Gauging this is tricky tho' as too big a gap will lead to people cutting in and leaving too small a gap gives less benefit)

[Thrawn60]

I went 230km trip last week, the best trip so far. 90% is highway/A roads, with a speed not over 90km and did 3.8L/100km

I found that if I try to drive ECO, with not too much throttle, make most of the EV etc. it will end up the wrong way, at least for my way of driving.

What I do to get an average of 4.6L/100km is drive sensible, not speeding away in traffic, but not do the granny driving, just normal and follow the traffic. I try to accelerate to around 20-25km on electric only if the road allows me, and then just stick in the truck lane until I reach the speed of the next lane.

My recent refuel was 4.8L/100km, but it should have been 3.9, but ended up in a traffic jam of 1 hour, which meant the ICE was one a few times to recharge the batteries.

Oh, I always drive with the CD/radio on and the Aircon, plus automatic lights and wipers, and still have my spare wheel in the car etc, so didn't do any hypermileing tricks to improve the numbers.

As many has said, just drive the car, the computer takes care of the rest, and I'm getting to the agreement that this might be very true, since all my other efforts, except the above mentioned, to improve the consumption has failed :(

[Seamaster73]

The last week I thought I would try and get a personel mpg best, I consciously tried to keep out of the power band, not easy on some of the hills here and when entering a motorway but I thought I had done really well, I covered 710km and I estimate 550km was motorway driving, I never went above 115kmph(72mph)and I should think 95% of my town driving was kept in ECO or EV mode. I just filled up and was dissapointed with only getting 53.7mpg, I didn't beat my personel best:( As I bought the car from new I am not sure what oil is in it and wondered if the 0W/20 is put in all new cars? I have been accelerating very carefully this past week keeping it in the ECO band but it all seems for nothing:( My "normal" driving the week before got me a 52mpg. Any opinions most welcome!

You might find this interesting:

[peak_46]

I drive the Auris as a company car and now have just shy of 26k miles on mine since the end of October 2010. I reset my meters after the last service about a month ago and in the last 5.5k miles I have it showing 60.1mpg at an average of 50mph. I know it's a bit optimistic as my real average for June was just over 57mpg. As much as I loathe the car on the motorway and I'm not a fan of the hybrid principle for company cars it is hard to knock for a family vehicle.

Anitcipation and making the most of coasting where appropriate makes a huge difference.

[zetor]

First off thanks for all the info and links there is quite a lot of info to digest, I have just filled up after doing 419 miles which was similar to my previous one with about the same ratio of motorway driving, taking the advice to turn off the Eco Mode I got a return of 56.2mpg beating my previous fuel up of 53.7mpg and my personnel best of 55.6mpg so I am quite happy with that (my average over 4831m is 50mpg), the Auto Express video is interesting that he gets 82mpg but he does only do 29 miles and relies on the trip computer I can see how over a short distance better fuel consumption can be had but I am more interested in what my average figure is, he also mentions that Toyota says to put it in Eco Mode to get the best fuel economy which does contradict what I and others have discovered here.

[kevin h]

ECO works for me.

I do 13 miles each way per day, country road and some stop start getting into town.

Last 4 fill ups have exceeded 70MPG (Computer) 600 miles between fill up and has never cost more than £50 to do it.

Impressed

[Seamaster73]

Am I drawing a statistically invalid conclusion, or does it seem that in general Prius owners are getting better MPG than Auris owners? On paper, the latter should be doing better.

I have an Auris HSD on long term loan while I wait for my Prius, so I will be able to do a fairly direct comparison of real world economy, all other things (ie driver/driving style) being equal.

[Terry953]

Am I drawing a statistically invalid conclusion, or does it seem that in general Prius owners are getting better MPG than Auris owners? On paper, the latter should be doing better.

I have an Auris HSD on long term loan while I wait for my Prius, so I will be able to do a fairly direct comparison of real world economy, all other things (ie driver/driving style) being equal.

I've come to the same conclusion and can offer a couple of my own unsubstantiated theories.

1. The Prius was designed for HSD and is more aerodynamic.

2. The Auris has its aerodynamics tweaked for HSD but at the end of the day is a modified car.

3. A point often overlooked is that there are two target MPG's for Auris'

74.00mpg for 16" wheels and 70.00mpg for 17" wheels.

My personal trip best is 69.8 on 17" wheels so I'm a happy bunny, I don't want a Prius as I can cope with the Auris's small boot. I don't like the Prius jelly mould shape and it is slightly larger and more expensive, all this is of course very subjective.

TerryB

[fatboy_daveb]

I think when it comes to motorway driving the Prius seems better than my Auris. I reckon that this is because the Auris has a higher drag coefficient than the Prius. Well my t-Spirit with its bigger tyres does anyway. 0.28 against the Prius 0.25.

Around town I reckon that they are very similar. The other thing I've noticed is my mpg really started improving when I reached 9000 miles.

Cheers

Dave

[kevin h]

I think when it comes to motorway driving the Prius seems better than my Auris. I reckon that this is because the Auris has a higher drag coefficient than the Prius. Well my t-Spirit with its bigger tyres does anyway. 0.28 against the Prius 0.25.

Around town I reckon that they are very similar. The other thing I've noticed is my mpg really started improving when I reached 9000 miles.

Cheers

Dave

Yep the MPG will improve over time.

But the weather is the most significant factor when looking at MPG. 15 C (65mpg) 25 C (75mpg) same trip.

[Seamaster73]

FWIW, I've managed to get 67mpg in my loaner Auris HSD over the weekend (2010, 9K miles) without really trying.

[Jan&tone]

Am I drawing a statistically invalid conclusion, or does it seem that in general Prius owners are getting better MPG than Auris owners? On paper, the latter should be doing better.

I have an Auris HSD on long term loan while I wait for my Prius, so I will be able to do a fairly direct comparison of real world economy, all other things (ie driver/driving style) being equal.

That was my impression after my ECO challenge with the Auris.

However I believe dealers may be at fault here, they seem to be telling people to use the ECO button as a matter of course, whereas in the real world the ECO. Button seems to actually decrease the mpg's...

[imtiax]

Hi I am a new member always read and not contrubuted until now, I drive and Auris Hybrid, I live in west yorksire which is surrounded by hills, I get 55mpg constantly.

[korat102]

I've never actually measured the fuel consumption on my 2nd gen Prius...only looked at the cars estimated average and it's pretty stable around 56-58mpg. Almost all my travel (what there is of it) is on motorways and dual carriageways where I mostly sit behind lorries doing around 60 on the cruise control. What kills it for me is when I get close to home and have roundabouts to negotiate - seems like they're every three feet around here.

[Mkuk0]

Aha another Milton Keyney!! I shall have to keep an eye out for you :) Mine is instantly recognisable by the 'Planet Rock' window stickers and the 'Loyaltoyota' one on the back!

[Jan&tone]

I've never actually measured the fuel consumption on my 2nd gen Prius...only looked at the cars estimated average and it's pretty stable around 56-58mpg. Almost all my travel (what there is of it) is on motorways and dual carriageways where I mostly sit behind lorries doing around 60 on the cruise control. What kills it for me is when I get close to home and have roundabouts to negotiate - seems like they're every three feet around here.

Try EV mode around them.. It will pop out of EV and back to normal itself when you leave the roundabout, but all accelleration will be on EV and not on the engine...

[korat102]

Try EV mode around them.. It will pop out of EV and back to normal itself when you leave the roundabout, but all accelleration will be on EV and not on the engine...

Hmm, that sounds as if it'll be worth a try. Still have the ICE to cut in if things get dicey with people charging across...as they do. I've tended not to use EV mode much, since it cuts out so quickly.