I won't be doing it very often.

On the way home from work I took the back roads and had about a 6 mile stretch with no one behind me. I've been trying to get the Camry to glide. At first I couldn't do it, but I've become a bit more proficient lately.

First the good news - I don't have the NAV version so I just used the Camry's average mileage at the start and end of the run and interpolated. I started with about 20 miles on the tank and wound up with about 26. In that six mile stretch my mpg went from 43.2 to 48.9. Interpolating that would put my mileage for that stretch at over 60 mpg. And since I was not using the battery my SOC pretty much stayed near the max. So I didn't do it by depleting my SOC, causing the engine to stay on afterwards.

Now the bad news - It's very difficult. It will do it for about 3 - 10 seconds and then power will transfer causing you to make many adjustments. It's dangerous. Since the ICE is off you can't feel the car's power transfer. So you have to keep looking at the display and not at the road. And last, but not least, I was relieved to have a car come up behind me. I was driving on roads with 35 - 45 mph speed limits. To accelerate to 41 and then slowly decelerate to 25 or 30, just to repeat the process is quite annoying.

Conclusion - I'm glad I did it. I got a nice (although short) high mileage run. Doubt I'll ever try it again.

 

Try to use the cruise control. From what I can tell, it works well at speeds above 30mph and does a great job if the road is not hilly.

 

Not that I care what they think, but the Prius owners say this is not pulse and glide.

"True" glide only occurs when there is no interaction going on between the battery, the ICE and the "system'. I have the NAV and have never, never been able to generate more than a second where all arrows of interaction dissapear.

Now, as I said in another post, we either need to remame what TCH'ers are calling "pulse and glide" or stick our noses up and say who cares, we've redefined it.

 

I was able to get up to about 10 seconds with no arrows showing, but not until my speed got below 35. However, I only have the watered down display available without the NAV system. So perhaps the more detailed display would have possibly shown I wasn't gliding. Who knows?

Regardless, it may get you great mileage, but I won't be doing it. Even on open roads with no one behind you the gas saved is not worth the annoyance of driving like this.

 

Even on open roads with no one behind you the gas saved is not worth the annoyance of driving like this.

I agree. I'd rather walk or take a bus.

What I originally thought of as "pulse and glide" is working quite well for me and I'm still able to get the milage benefits you described. On 40 to 50 mph roads I have seen 57 mpg by gliding (battery assisted) for miles. I do this without a significant loss of speed thus it is not a danger or hampering other traffic.

If I'm on the interstate doing this and driving between say 70 and 65, it is not a problem either because in the right lane no one follows you reguardless of 70 or 65 driving and no one notices you loosing 5 miles per hour at that speed since they are not stuck on your tail.

 

I own a 06 HCH and my description of Pulse and Glide is different from others as well.

My description of a Pulse and Glide method is as follows:
1. Pulse (accelerating up to speed fairly quick) to 2 to 5mph over speed limit, glide back to speed limit while monitoring the Instantaneous Fuel Economy gauge. It will spike at 100mpg and stay that way for a while. Using a feather touch on the gas peddle to maintain speed or drop just slightly below the speed limit.


2. I Take note of the pitch of the road; is it level, sloping up or down and adjust acceleration/coasting accordingly.


3. Usually I pulse up a slope (usually short period of using more fuel) and then glide for longer periods while maintaining speed, again peaking the gauge at 100mpg.

Good luck with the TCH, I really like the new look of the Camry.

 

Orcrone thanks for sharing your experiment with us. This is really good to know. I don't see myself doing this now.

 

Smart man.

 

I own a 06 HCH and my description of Pulse and Glide is different from others as well.

You're doing it just like we TCH'er are doing it. It's the only safe and practical way to drive the TCH for near maximum FE.

 

I agree. I feel that it is much too dangerous in the densely populated northeastern US for me to regularly keep my eyes on the guages in an attempt to "pulse and glide." I feel that my FE is certainly respectable for a vehicle this size, as I have said before. While I am more than happy to adjust my driving for maximum FE I am not willing to do anything that could potentially endanger my own life, the life/lives of my passenger(s), or the lives of any pedestrians, drivers or animals on the roadways. (FWIW this includes no drafting 18-wheelers either. If the driver can't see me in his/her mirrors then I know I'm too close for safety, and if he/she can see me then I can't possibly be drafting.)

Additionally, I have come to enjoy the much more relaxed feeling I have driving my TCH and my few attempts to intentionally "pulse and glide" have been nearly as stressful as driving in rush hour traffic used to be. If it happens without my trying, which it occasionally does, that's fine by me, but otherwise I am making no attempts to force it to happen.