For those of you who make many 1-3 mi trips, which is your average FE in your Prius?

TIA.

 

If the trips are not up hill, I have been getting 50 plus mpg.

 

My wife used to drive 1 1/2 miles to work, and generally averaged about 30. She now drives about 4 miles to work, and averages about 40. The Prius seems to need sevaral miles to warm up in order to get high FE.

 

I guess if I averaged 35-40 mpg over the course of 150k miles, I'd save $3k in fuel over a gas-only Civic, so that should make up for the price difference between a EX and a Hybrid.

Currently, the driving consists of about 60-70% 1-2 mi trips, then some longer 3-4 mi ones, and one 20 mi commute weekly....current car is a '96 Saturn SL2 which gets 24-26 under such conditions. I'd expect a gas-only Civic to attain similar efficiency.

Resist, describe your driving conditions...50mpg sounds too good to be true!

 

My daily commute is about 8mi round-trip. On tanks where I don't do much besides go to work, it averages 38~42 mpg.

 

You have to let up on the gas way before stops and learn to force the vehicle into electric only mode, making up the battery power on down hill areas. It's all a matter of finding that sweet spot on the throttle on level roads, using just enought throttle to keep moving. My 2007 isn't even broken in yet so I know I can get higher mpg's when it is.

 

SodaGuy, this suggestion is a good one for trips (short or otherwise) with a warm engine. But I think I saw you say elsewhere (PriusChat?) that your 1-3 mile trips will be with a cold engine. EV mode and "gliding" in a Prius are mostly impossible with a cold engine; the ICE is pretty insistent on running when it's cold.

(Gliding: feathering the pedal below 42 MPH just enough to suppress regeneration but not enough for either the motor or ICE to start - a hybrid equivalent of freewheeling, indicated by a "no arrows" state on the MFD.)

I can't report based on firsthand experience what you might get because, knowing such short trips kill FE, I avoid them whenever I can. But 50 MPG seems pretty optimistic, whereas what ppgroup and agamotto report seem more plausible for this sort of driving.

 

Thanks a lot everyone, for their help. In that case, I guess I'll definitely lean toward the Prius, even though the HCHII will "put more money into my pocket" at the end. I still think I'll break even (not ahead) with the Prius.

I take that low to mid 30s should be reasonable then.

ppgroup- I see that you have both a HCHII and a Prius. Under such short trip service, does either fare any better?

 

Thanks for bringing that up. Yes, those 1-3 mi trips will be spaced at least an hr apart, so the engine will remain cool.

 

Actually you'll be in a pretty good shape. The Prius does a good job of maintaining latent heat over 2-3 hours. One of my recommendations is to "take lunch" to re-warm the ICE and transmission between the morning and evening commutes. By doing this simple trick, my evening commute performance improved signficantly.

Bob Wilson