Prius seldom runs on batteries alone?

Here is some pretty good evidence:
http://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/11/cr_prius.html

Prius Ranks #1 in Owner Satisfaction

Do you have a citation for this? Couldn't find it on Google.

According to Consumer Reports, Civic gets:

Hybrid EX Si
1.3L CVT 1.8L AT 2.0L MT
overall mileage, mpg 37 28 27
city/highway, mpg 26/47 18/43 19/35
150-mile trip, mpg 45 34 32
EPA city/highway, mpg 49/51 30/40 23/32
0-30 mph, sec. 4.4 3.6 2.7
0-60 mph, sec. 11.7 10.1 7.0
Quarter mile, sec. 18.8 17.7 15.4
Quarter mile, mph 77 80 94
45-65 mph, sec. 7.3 6.0 4.5

What I want is the Si Hybrid.

You will.

 

More critically, the brakes will overheat and fail if used to control
speed on a long/steep descent.

 

-----

Isn't it amazing what some people do? They buy a car with no intention on
keeping it. Grab the tax incentive, maybe drive a few thousand miles,
complain it doesn't perform like it should and then resell it for more than
sticker.
The Feds and the IRS just let it happen. What a sham.

 

It's stop and go driving where the hybrid technology gains, there's
little or no gain with steady high speed driving.
Sounds like it's not working properly.

 

-----
Barometric pressure and fuel quality can make either city or highway fuel
efficiency flip flop. On level ground doing 101 miles an hour my digital
display says real time fuel economy above 35 but less than 45 mpg. I
hesitate to believe a traditional non-hybrid would even come close to that
fuel economy range at that speed. So, when someone tells their husband they
only saw such and such fuel efficiency you can sure as hell bet they drove
much faster than what they said they did, or their range of speed was more
like an up and down 60 to 80. Can't place blame on the car.
mark_
-----

 

As an owner of two Prius, I am very happy. The two cars together have
roughly the same fuel consumption of the 300ZX I traded in, and they are a
joy to drive (I love maneuverability). Most of all, they are the most
reliable cars I've ever had, by a wide margin. To each their own.

BTW... I'm with you on global warming and CFCs, but you're right - let's not
get that started. Have you seen NASA's findings on polar ozone depletion at
http://tinyurl.com/2lkn42 ? Especially interesting is Table 1 on page 59 of
the .doc version.

Don't get the Easter Bunny mad at us, though. I need the chocolate eggs.

Mike

 

Have to break the habit of a lifetime and agree with Ray. <g> My
Prius definitely allows me to set 30mph. Haven't tried any lower
(except maybe 29mph).

 

I read Bill's remarks as meaning "really short trips", like those
which don't warm up the engine properly and give the mpg time for
"recovery".

 

"We need more reliable, clear numbers" Andrew Stephenson

"I agree, we can wave our hands around and make points both ways, but
without real comparative numbers (which I for one do not have) it is all
just speculation." Tomes

So basically; No one has any experimental facts to support any conclusion,
or theory.


"Polymer Science Engineer here. As a physicist, you might have run across
situations where an answer comes through discussion, as well as through a
straight answer. The discussion is what occurs here and this is the
normal course of events in this Newsgroup. This is not a flaw, it is a
feature." Patience Grasshopper

So, this group is just a bunch of old farts shooting the breeze.

For the record, the way I learned science; discussion, speculations,
conjectures, 'shooting the breeze' are all excellent ways to think about
nature, formulate theories and suggest experiments to test such theories.
But as mentor of mine once said, physics is different from logic,
mathematics, and theology, in that we run experiments.

Clearly no one has installed an EV button, and utililized it in a consistent
fashion (for example turning it on when you anticipate driving for less than
2 miles) and measured the resulting mileage.

Finally, for what its worth to those of you looking for 'hard numbers'; our
first tankfull resulted in 44mpg (US gallons, not imperial gallons, of 87
octane regular gasoline), in a mixed highway and city (red lights) commute
across gentle small hills of 75 miles per day. I also read that the US EPA
will relabel the Prius from 60 city 51 hwy to 44 hwy this coming summer.

thank you for your comments

-princeton

 

US 2004 Owner's Manual, section 2-6 "Operation of Instruments and
Controls, "POWER switch, transmission, and parking brake," "Cruise
Control," page 141:
"The cruise control allows you to cruise the vehicle at a desired
speed over 40
km/h (25 mph) even with your foot off the accelerator pedal."

Myself, I've been able to set the cruise control at 24mph, so I'd
guess that the kph is the more important trigger there...

 

Forgive my bluntness, Mister Physicist, but it seems called for.
Either you've not actually been paying attention to what we have
been posting, or you're an idiot, or some mixture of both. Data
to hand indicate the third condition, plus ignorance and ego.

When are you going to catch on that the Prius "EV" mode does not
allow one to use it as you describe? Yes, you could engage "EV"
for (say) a series of very short trips. But sooner or later the
car's control system would decide the big battery had discharged
deeply enough to warrant flipping out of "EV" mode and firing up
the petrol engine for a recharge. It does that whether you like
it or not, to safeguard the battery (not to mention your ability
to drive the car). The length of run just isn't worth it for an
average user, the person for whom Toyota make this car. IOW, as
you've been told, repeatedly: THE CAR IS IN CHARGE OF STUFF LIKE
THAT -- NOT YOU.

If you don't like that you already know one solution. The other
is: shun this current Prius generation entirely -- along with us
farts here shooting the breeze. I especially like the last bit.

(Trolls. Bah. You just can't get classy/clever ones any more.)

 

Sometimes. Other times we get experts weighing in as well. It is a sum
of all of it.

Yep, looks like we are on the same page here. We have not run this
particular test and we have not found it published either, so we are back
to our discussion, speculations and conjectures. It is what we have at
hand.

We get about the same MPG here between Flemington and Bound Brook NJ and
around here. I read that the whole EPA mileage rating system is being
revised to project more realistic numbers, rather than their
pie-in-the-sky utopian figures that they have been putting out for years.
Pegging the Prius at 44 highway is realistic from my experience.
Tomes

 

Yeah, I just looked it up and it is supposed to be 24 MPH on the Prius.
That's better than I thought. But still, I would like to see a minimum of
'already engaged in forward motion' rather than any minimum.
Tomes

 

I read it the same way. The first few miles are always killer miles.
Tomes

 

OK, that's what I thought. It uses the electric motor in reverse to
generate electricity stored in the batteries. The IC engine remains out
of the picture. Now my next question is does it generate more or less
than in normal mode?
Tomes

 

I think that's backward - it dumps energy into turning the engine rather
than into the battery. Maybe MRV can explain it more clearly. She does that
sort of thing so well People who have monitored the battery current with
the Ecrostech Miniscanner (http://tinyurl.com/2yvbrx) report less
regeneration in "B." I've never actually checked myself, but if you want
numbers I can do that.

Mike

 

Possibly. The brakes are not especially big, and here in the States the rear
brakes are drum type. I understand in Europe they are 4-wheel disks. Anyway,
use "B" for long descents.

Mike

 

The gain in highway efficiency is in the ability to use a lower output
engine due to the availability of supplemental power from the battery.
When operating at cruising speed, the engine will be running at a
higher % power level which is more efficient. In this mode, the
electrical drive line saves fuel by merely being there if you need it.

 

Are you sure about this 12 mph or so? It sounds like I'm hearing
pad friction at higher speeds.

How do you know it reduces regeneration using B instead of braking?
Do you mean braking is more radical (more force) yielding more regenerated
power? Guess I'm used to manual transmission and want something to do.
But I see the battery charging quickly when the Prius is in B.

I wonder if the US Touring model also has 4-wheel disk brakes?

 

Thanks, interesting reading there. So now I am re-understanding this as
follows: In B mode it spins the IC engine without starting the engine,
wasting off excess energy in that spinning. What is not explained to me
yet (his section of How B Mode Works was truncated off) is does it
generate electricity in this engine spinning (the reverse of how it starts
the engine up all the time)?

I think that I gleaned from this stuff that it makes less electricity in B
mode due to the spinning waste.
Tomes