Gen 3 fuel tank size.

[Chippy01]

Yesterday, I took a trip to visit the brother in law, who is just out of hospital.
After checking various maps and planners, they said the distance was 73 miles from his house to mine. So, there and back 'should' be 146 miles.
On checking my onboard computer, it said I have 164 miles to empty.

With those figures, I knew I was going to refuel at my usual filling station which is 5 miles before my house.

Normal driving, about 95% of the trip is motorway/dual carriageway, I set the cruise at 105kmh (65mph).

Watching the miles count down as we went home, really puts one on edge. I usually fill up with 2 pips left on the gauge, and have never gone this far with so little fuel - or so I thought.

When we pulled into the station, my trip meter for this tank read 486 miles travelled and the last pip had been flashing for 10 miles. The readout showed 12 miles until empty.
Filling her up, I could only squeeze in just 38 litres!!
I know these onboard readouts err on the side of caution, but come on!!!!
486 miles divided by 38 litres = 12.78 miles per litre.
Tank is supposed to be 45 litres, so 12.78 miles x the 7 litres left = 89.5 more miles in the tank - and the readout was showing just 12!!!

Surely in this day and age, even Mr T could be just a little more accurate.

[Heidfirst]

Toyotas typically count down range left to a "reserve" amount not empty - it is typical Toyota caution. From what I understand of running out of petrol on a Prius it is not just a case of refilling to get it going again.

[Catlover]

9 minutes ago, Heidfirst said:

Toyotas typically count down range left to a "reserve" amount not empty - it is typical Toyota caution. From what I understand of running out of petrol on a Prius it is not just a case of refilling to get it going again.

I was chatting with Mr T at my local dealer just couple weeks ago. He said never run out of petrol in a hybrid. And if you do do not continue to drive just on what ever Battery power is left, you will run out of Battery power and that causes a big problem. Apparently to get the big Battery up and running again it takes a special charging unit and there are only 2 in the country. Every dealer knows where these are at any point in time and can get hold of one within 24 hours - but its the time and trouble that flattening the main hybrid battery causes.

[j66]

I found that from my first ever fill, tank on reserve only managed 37 litres so 8 litres left.

So I know at reserve light I’ve got at least 80 miles.

Charging a dead or very poorly Battery is also dangerous, the Battery has to be in a certain poorly condition in order for it to be charged, otherwise it’s a new Battery please @£50 million quid.


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[kithmo]

16 hours ago, Chippy01 said:

Yesterday, I took a trip to visit the brother in law, who is just out of hospital.
After checking various maps and planners, they said the distance was 73 miles from his house to mine. So, there and back 'should' be 146 miles.
On checking my onboard computer, it said I have 164 miles to empty.

With those figures, I knew I was going to refuel at my usual filling station which is 5 miles before my house.

Normal driving, about 95% of the trip is motorway/dual carriageway, I set the cruise at 105kmh (65mph).

Watching the miles count down as we went home, really puts one on edge. I usually fill up with 2 pips left on the gauge, and have never gone this far with so little fuel - or so I thought.

When we pulled into the station, my trip meter for this tank read 486 miles travelled and the last pip had been flashing for 10 miles. The readout showed 12 miles until empty.
Filling her up, I could only squeeze in just 38 litres!!
I know these onboard readouts err on the side of caution, but come on!!!!
486 miles divided by 38 litres = 12.78 miles per litre.
Tank is supposed to be 45 litres, so 12.78 miles x the 7 litres left = 89.5 more miles in the tank - and the readout was showing just 12!!!

Surely in this day and age, even Mr T could be just a little more accurate.

Sounds about right, better to show 0 miles left and still have 90 than to show say 10 miles left and run out IMO. 

At least you'll know that you're ok to go to zero plus some before having to fill up.

None of this:

 

[danowat]

It's probably worth remembering that these aren't normal tanks, the Prius has a bladder tank, which could account for variations in volume.

[PeteB]

24 minutes ago, danowat said:

...Prius has a bladder tank, which could account for variations in volume.

To the best of my knowledge, the bladder was never fitted in the UK, only the USA.

[danowat]

5 minutes ago, PeteB said:

To the best of my knowledge, the bladder was never fitted in the UK, only the USA.

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that.

[PeteB]

The US had a few other  variations:

Gen 1 Prius (4 door saloon [sedan to Americans]): we got folding rear seats for luggage flexibility, they didn't

Gen 2 Prius: they (and some other "cold weather territories") got an interesting system where after the car was switched off, it sucked the engine coolant into a sort of Thermos flask, that could maintain much of it's temperature for a day or more.  When you switched on, during the 7 seconds before the engine started, it pumped it back in.  If it was still warm, result was a shorter warm-up period and quicker cabin heat.

[Chippy01]

Thanks for all the informative replies. It is nice to know that I do have a large 'buffer' when running low on juice. 
Not that I'll ever try and run that low again.

As a side note, is the tank/fuel gauge on the Gen 2 calibrated the same way?
My OH has a Gen 2, and she told me after our trip that she always refuels with 3 pips showing. I was just wondering what 'buffer' the Gen 2 has in regards to fuel?

[Joseph D]

9 hours ago, Chippy01 said:

As a side note, is the tank/fuel gauge on the Gen 2 calibrated the same way?
My OH has a Gen 2, and she told me after our trip that she always refuels with 3 pips showing. I was just wondering what 'buffer' the Gen 2 has in regards to fuel?

Sounds like it is pretty close.

I can get 100 km (62 mi) (with 4.5 l/100 km (63 MPG) average showing on the MFD) from when the car starts flashing the last pip + "Add Fuel" message.

The flashing pip is the start of the reserve, which I have worked out is around 4.5 L or 1 imp gal.

[QuantumFireball]

What I normally do is when the distance to empty goes to 0 miles, I reset trip B and will go another 40-50 miles before refuelling. As I have the Plug-in, there's still loads left in the tank, even after that. I filled it by 42 litres once.