Prius To Auris Hybrid

[ecodriver]

Thanks, MEP. My Auris always showed a running average all the time whilst driving, whereas my plug-in Prius does not seem to show a running average as I drive, apart from the immediate mpg for the moment you look. Maybe I am not pressing the right buttons.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Thanks, MEP. My Auris always showed a running average all the time whilst driving, whereas my plug-in Prius does not seem to show a running average as I drive, apart from the immediate mpg for the moment you look. Maybe I am not pressing the right buttons.

If you flick through the dash display there should be a window with a running MPG bar graph. When it's shown press and hold display on the wheel to change it between 1 min updates or 5 min updated :)

Similar can also be done on the entertainment system, hit the car button, and then the consumtpion button (I think that's what is is labeled as) on the screen.

Is this what the Auris had?

[ecodriver]

Thanks, MEP. I'll try that. Well, the Auris had a display which was easy to read and the Prius display is quite different. Many thanks.

[kithmo]

My fuel figures for 10,000 miles in a Yaris Hybrid T4 worked out at 55.94 mpg 'brim to brim'. My fuel figures for 9,000 miles in a Auris Hybrid Icon Touring Sports work out at 58.3 mpg 'brim to brim'. Both cars were used on motorways, dual carriageways and country routes with some town use, often laden with luggage and passengers. The on board computer consumption figures usually read more than my own figures. I do try to drive as economically as possible without holding up the traffic!

I am wondering what fuel figures to expect from the Prius Plug-In which I have on order? Anyone have any advice for the best way to drive it?

Thanks.

Plug in consumption depends very much on your journey pattern and in my experience varies much more from summer to winter than did Gen3 Prius that I drove previously.

I filled up with petrol last weekend, something I do only about once in two months and it was interesting to see the huge difference that the cold weather has made, even though it is still very mild.

I drive the plug-in version of the Prius and most of my journeys are short and local. During the summer, this gives enormous advantage and some weeks I can drive without having the ICE start at all. When I topped up last July I had managed 297mpg for the 493 miles that I had done since the previous top-up in May.

In the winter however the tables are turned and irrespective of the state of charge etc. the ICE starts up almost as soon as I switch on in order to warm up all the parts that need to be warm for proper operation (including me). Since I'm doing short journeys the petrol used for warm-up is not balanced by subsequent efficient running over extended mileage as it would be if I were doing longer journeys. So the top-up that I've just done showed only 102 mpg for the 319 miles that I had done since the last fill in October.

The electricity plays its part of course. In a straight hybrid all the costed electricity comes from the petrol tank and so is already taken account of. In the plug in, the majority of the electricity comes from an external charge. In the May to July period that charge cost about £8 and in the October to December period it cost about £7. If you applied these sums to the purchase of petrol it would give a reduced mpg figure, but I'm not really that interested. I just wanted to show how the short journey pattern is good for efficiency in the summer and equally bad in the winter.

It demonstrates very clearly that you cannot just quote an average consumption figure for a plug-in hybrid but must be aware of the driving pattern that applies. It shows also the almost total impossibility of producing a meaningful standard mpg from official tests.

Still, loving the Fuelly figure though

[MEP's Yaris GS]

My fuel figures for 10,000 miles in a Yaris Hybrid T4 worked out at 55.94 mpg 'brim to brim'. My fuel figures for 9,000 miles in a Auris Hybrid Icon Touring Sports work out at 58.3 mpg 'brim to brim'. Both cars were used on motorways, dual carriageways and country routes with some town use, often laden with luggage and passengers. The on board computer consumption figures usually read more than my own figures. I do try to drive as economically as possible without holding up the traffic!

I am wondering what fuel figures to expect from the Prius Plug-In which I have on order? Anyone have any advice for the best way to drive it?

Thanks.

Plug in consumption depends very much on your journey pattern and in my experience varies much more from summer to winter than did Gen3 Prius that I drove previously.

I filled up with petrol last weekend, something I do only about once in two months and it was interesting to see the huge difference that the cold weather has made, even though it is still very mild.

I drive the plug-in version of the Prius and most of my journeys are short and local. During the summer, this gives enormous advantage and some weeks I can drive without having the ICE start at all. When I topped up last July I had managed 297mpg for the 493 miles that I had done since the previous top-up in May.

In the winter however the tables are turned and irrespective of the state of charge etc. the ICE starts up almost as soon as I switch on in order to warm up all the parts that need to be warm for proper operation (including me). Since I'm doing short journeys the petrol used for warm-up is not balanced by subsequent efficient running over extended mileage as it would be if I were doing longer journeys. So the top-up that I've just done showed only 102 mpg for the 319 miles that I had done since the last fill in October.

The electricity plays its part of course. In a straight hybrid all the costed electricity comes from the petrol tank and so is already taken account of. In the plug in, the majority of the electricity comes from an external charge. In the May to July period that charge cost about £8 and in the October to December period it cost about £7. If you applied these sums to the purchase of petrol it would give a reduced mpg figure, but I'm not really that interested. I just wanted to show how the short journey pattern is good for efficiency in the summer and equally bad in the winter.

It demonstrates very clearly that you cannot just quote an average consumption figure for a plug-in hybrid but must be aware of the driving pattern that applies. It shows also the almost total impossibility of producing a meaningful standard mpg from official tests.

Still, loving the Fuelly figure though

I'm hoping mine should slowly creep up in the new year when I'm in my new home. My daily commute will be 40% shorter and I've calculated my PiP's average MPG should start to be well into the 3 figures

[YarisHybrid2016]

My Yaris has over 3700 miles on it now, and I can often get 65 MPG once it has warmed up. The other day (OAT +8 C) I achieved 71 MPG over 12 miles at 50 MPH.

Speed is the enemy! It also seems that on the Yaris at least, if the power needles is below the 4th tick mark in the ECO band at constant speed, this is where you can get maximum efficiency. It equates to around 48-52 MPH, depending. I get high 60s/low 70s MPG at this speed.

I have found if you drive at 60 MPH, then MPG is affected by about -15%. At 70 MPH, it is affected by about -25%, compared with 50 MPH consumption.

My "driving profile" is approximately 10 miles at 50 MPH, then 1 mile at 30 or 40 MPH, and sometimes slower.

The heater can seriously affect economy. Even though it is cold, if I can refrain from using the heater AT ALL (switch it OFF) this makes a huge difference. If I put the heater on when it has warmed up (about 5 minutes of driving at 50 MPH), setting the climate control to 16 C, this helps enourmously, I can see a definite difference of about 10 MPG (reported) in fuel consumption through this change alone.

As always, on long journeys this may become less significant, but on short journeys it is apparently making a significant difference. I have tested this theory over about 20 journeys now.

I use ECO MODE, and I don't accelerate beyond the top of the ECO band, however that is dictated slightly by terrain. If the car is hill climbing, it counter-intuitively is better to accelerate harder to speed.

If I want to get to 70 MPH without killing consumption, I have found that slowly increasing power as the car accelerates helps massively. I start with the power needle at the 4th tick mark of ECO band, then as the car passes about 40 MPH, I slowly increase power as the speed increaees, ending up with the needle in the middle of the power band at about 60 MPH. I hold the power, a d as the car accelerates to 70 MPH, the power needle actually falls back to the bottom of the power band on its own. At 70 MPH I then lift off slightly back to the 5th tick mark in ECO to maintain speed. This helps minimize fuel consumption.