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Hybrid Vehicles Toyota Prius Toyota Prius MPG-Real World Numbers
767 messages, Last post on Sep 28, 2009 at 9:21 AM
You are in the Toyota Prius Forum. Your Host is pf_flyer
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This topic is for Prius owners to share their MPG with others. "Real World" Fuel Economy vs. EPA Estimates |
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I just bought my new prius 8 days ago and have already put 1100 miles on it. It is a pleaseure to drive. I have been getting right at about 50 mpg combined. You can get it higher than 50 mpg but it is a lot of effort to watch the energy screen, conserve momentum and what not. It does seem to get the best milage with the speed set at 57mph. So I just gave up after the first tank, put the cruise control on and got happy with 50 mpg! It does seem to get the best milage with the speed set at 57mph.
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Replying to: mebman (May 16, 2005 6:29 pm) Woah, at that speed on LA freeways, you'd have a truck up your tailpipe! |
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The usual answer applies here - "it depends". Experience after 3 years occasionally driving an '02 Prius (it belongs to the wife): - wife has 2 mile commute to work, medium speed roads - gets 40-45 mpg. She's not running the gas engine long enough to get it warmed up in 2 miles  - I have a 14 mile commute one way, no problem getting over 50mpg with average speed about 50 mph driving 90% of the time on a high-speed road. I rarely go over 65 mph - faster speeds kill mpg !  - day-long cruise, about 240 miles, hilly and flat country checking out real estate - I can get 54-55 mpg.  These numbers apply to decent weather (45 degrees and up). Driving in 20 degree weather, I'd be seeing a 10% drop in mpg. Also important is proper tire inflation. I usually run my tires at 2 psi over recommended, ride is a little harsher (bumps are more noticeable) but you get better mpg, handling, and will not adversely affect tire wear. Optimal driving conditions ? Suburban roads, 30-45 mpg, outside temp 70 degrees or better, flat or moderately rolling terrain, and of course, few stop signs. I'm sure I could hit 56 - 57 mpg under those conditions. |
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Replying to: stevedebi (May 23, 2005 3:25 pm)
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At first I rarely got over 40 mpg, but then I raised the tire pressure to 41 psi, and Shazaam!, I'm getting over 50mpg even at 80 mph, easily averaging 49mpg on long trips that were heavy on the gas pedal. I just wish I could inflate with nitrogen, to avoid the recently discovered 5-year tire burnout.
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I recently had my first oil change at 5K miles on my new '05 Prius (bought April '05). So far I've had no problems and I love the new car. I very reluctantly changed from my '94 Camry with 302K miles (and still looking and running great!), but the lure of reduced gas consumption was too great with my high mileage (25K/year). Thought I'd report my gas mileage so far for 12 fill-ups. For data geeks like me, here are the numbers (for others, my apologies). I also apologize if the table format is not legible. Actual Computer Miles Gallons MPG MPG ------- ---------- ------- -------- 426 8.80 48.4 52.1 462 8.11 57.0 54.5 475 8.88 53.5 56.2 500 10.00 50.0 52.2 364 9.00 40.4 39.9 406 9.38 43.3 43.7 428 8.18 52.3 51.5 487 9.71 50.2 56.6 477 8.00 59.6 56.2 462 7.80 59.2 57.1 424 8.40 50.5 55.5 472 8.57 55.1 55.4 The 2 tanks of 40.4 and 43.3 MPG were during a 1,300 mile highway trip, doing about 80 MPH on long flat stretches with the A/C on (90 deg outside). I would get 50 MPG by going 70 MPH, but the mileage dropped off quickly above that. The Prius ran smooth and quiet, and didn't have any problems climbing hills. I was very pleased with that. The overall consumption is 51.3 MPG for 5,383 miles. My averages per tank are 449 miles and 8.7 gal, so I could easily go 500+ miles without getting too low on the 11.9-gal tank. These numbers are for mild Spring (and some hot) conditions in Southern California. Most of my weekly miles are stop-and-go freeway driving. The computer mileage seems to vary randomly from the actual, both higher and lower. The long-term averages are about the same. Does anyone know how the computer calculates consumption? Overall, the Prius has exceeded my expectations in all respects. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have any of the reported software problems!!
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The computer mileage seems to vary randomly from the actual, both higher and lower. The long-term averages are about the same. Does anyone know how the computer calculates consumption? It probably just divides measured speed by measured fuel flow rate. The difference between your fuel economy calculation and the vehicle's likely stems from the flexible fuel bladder. With a hard tank, it's a decent assumption that the amount of fuel consumed to drive however many miles since your last fillup is the same as the amount of fuel it takes to fill it up now. With the bladder that the Prius uses, the amount of fuel in a "full tank" can vary. If the uncertainty in the amount of fuel was about 0.5 gallons (a reasonable amount considering Toyota claims the difference in capacity between a cold day and warm day is as much as 1.5 gallons), that would mostly account for the differences. |
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I've always been able to get the best mileage out of a car so when I finally got my Prius, I was up to the challenge that people I know were giving me. They'd heard that the Prius doesn't get the mileage that it promises but they hear this kind of nonsense from people who don't know much about how to achieve good mileage anyway. That kind of driver will be disappointed. With my first tank, it was a very hot week so the a/c was on much of the time so I only got 51 mpg. With this second tank, the temperatures have been a lot cooler and the a/c hasn't been on a lot and the consumption display tells me that I've been getting 55 but it's creeping up to 56 or 57. I found out yesterday that if I set the temperature of the a/c auto to 76 that I'm comfortable in sunny, 82 degree weather and the a/c doesn't affect mileage. That's a great thing to discover.
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Hi All: Although I have not posted into the Prius groups much in the last 12 + months, I wanted to post some specifics of some recent extreme Hypermiling FE runs and record breaking runs to come in the Prius II. The highest recorded tank I have heard about to date was a 102.7 mpg tank from a Japanese owning Prius II enthusiast out of Japan. Here in the states, similar techniques are being developed and improved upon to push the Prius II to even higher FE! As of last month, an individual that goes by the nick Krousdb has exceeded 102 mpg for over 100 miles of segment testing in the Pittsburgh area with his own Prius II. This isn’t 55 mph type speeds and limits but roads similar to his normal city/suburban type commute with multiple lights and ~ 70’ delta’s when considering the many hills with speed limits ranging from 35 - 55 mph. His latest drive to work included a 90.4 mpg segment just yesterday morning in fact! Although the US and Canadian versions of the Prius II do not display FE in metric (l/100 Km) and you are limited to a max of 99.9 mpg per the MFD, there are HW additions that can add this feature similar to the Insight’s multiple Trip Computers in either English or metric units. Hopefully we will have one of the Japanese style FE Trip Computer’s installed by the launch date(s) as described below …  I went out to meet Krousdb 2 days ago and during a 4 round trip practice segment of 96 miles on a particular 24 mile roundtrip stretch along the Ohio River, we nailed 105.2 mpg. I drove 3 RT segments and he drove 1. It was raining hard for ~ 20% of the time we were out which makes it that much more amazing! In other words, world record type FE is available from the Prius II when setup in a particular way, driven in a particular fashion, and w/ a particular technique. We will be attempting to take out the Japanese held Prius II record with a tag team of 4 individuals (2 current Prius II hypermilers, 1 Insight, Prius I, and Prius II owning hypermiler, and 1 previous Insight owning Hypermiler) early next month. There will be updates on the progress of the team in as real time as possible while the event is actually happening. Our first proposed launch date is the weekend of August 5th, 6th, and 7th. The scrub/rain date(s) for the attempt will be the weekend of August 26th, 27th, and 28th. Who knows, we might just knock off the 102.7 mpg record with a little luck in the weather and temperature department? I wanted to give everyone a heads up that the Prius II when pushed to its limits can be an amazingly efficient automobile and with that, please consider performing a google search for 3 individuals with the following nicks/names: Krousdb, Dave Bassage, and Bill G. They post into many online Prius forums and it might be worth your while to look them up, learn the basics about their particular brand of what is now known as the “Pulse and Glide” technique, and practice it where appropriate on your own daily commute. It doesn’t work in all traffic and or roadway situations of course but where you can apply it, it is a truly amazing advance in FE vs. what you may or may not have enjoyed to date. I taught a friend of mine from work with an 05 Prius II just the “Glide” portion of the technique last week and he is now easily pushing low 60 mpg tanks on his daily commute vs. high 40’s to mid 50’s on all tanks prior to his latest from new. Good Luck Wayne R. Gerdes |
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