Mileage

[woofhaven]

How many MPG are you averaging on a tank of gas?

[Weili]

I only get about 38-42 MPG...

I've tried every tip on how to squeeze more MPG that I've gotten from the net.

Recently, for one reason or another, my MPG ratings dropped by about 5 - 10 for reasons unknown to me.

I've only had the car for a little more than a month and drove a little over 1,000 miles.

[woofhaven]

The experience we had with our Prius was that the milage improved a bit after getting a couple thousand miles on the engine. Despite what manufacturers these days say, there still is a break-in process.

[Brian R.]

Also, there are probably ways of getting better mileage out of a hybrid than are not normal for a gasoline engine. Getting better mileage in the city than on the highway is one thing that tells me you're not in Kansas anymore with these vehicles.

[Philo]

I bought an '07 last week, went home and loaded up my luggage and took off for NC, then IN. I just got home (NY) on Sunday. Over the first two tanks, 52 MPG. I think it will be less than that at home because of the hilly area where I live, but I am anxious to find out. On the way home, I drove from Indy to Jamestown NY on one tank.

[jstack6]

I get from 50 to 80 mpg. I always check on a round trip so it's not just going up hill or down hill.
A few simple things to do and check-
reset the trip meter on each trip so you aren't lokking at hundreds of miles averaged in. If you don't you can't see the results off each trip as well.
make sure tires are not soft.
after you are up to spped let up just a tiny bit and the mpg jumps higher.
don't drive over the speed limit. higher speeds have more arero dynamic drag.
stop slowly so you can regenerate all that energy back into the battery.
If you stop hard and quick it just uses the dumb old friction brakes.
Check and replace the air cleaner, it can get dirty and reduce mpg.

Watch the display it will tell you how you are doing. Learn from the mpg meters. They are worth gold.

[Philo]

I have an '07, with 25K miles. I get about 50 MPG average. Some fillups are under 50, some over. I generally don't do anything special to save fuel when driving, but do speed up on a flat stretch if I see a hill ahead. I drive about five over the limit on the open highway and spot-on with secondary roads.

[cocoa1999]

We get 45 in and around town, and 55 on the highway. How the @($& are you getting 80???????

[Gary Staples]

My wife has been keeping a long turm mpg as well as each trip to the pump. summer time = 46-47 mpg
winter with temps below 0 = 43-44 mpg.
We have an 05 with a new set of tires.

[txmike64]

41 mpg - most of my trips there's small hills and I have a 4 mile commute one way to work. I notice the gas mileage is lower when I'm starting, then goes up when I'm closer to work or the highway.

[LjasonL]

I'm a recent Prius convert. I've run one tank through the car and got 49.5 despite only having 35mpg average for the first hundred miles (drove it a little hard the first day just to see :P ) I see 50mpg average on the highway and 60 in town. This is an '08 model with (now) 500 miles. I've heard from several sources that the mpg increases after a few thousand miles, I hope it's true! I wouldn't doubt if it has to do with learning to drive the car rather than the car itself.

I've read the 'pulse and glide' method for mileage but I don't really like it. Too much concentration required and too slow getting around. So here's what I've been doing so far, the physics-major approach to driving this car:
1. You have several types of energy that you're working with. Chemical energy in the fuel, chemical energy in the battery, potential energy in going up and down hills, and kinetic energy in your motion.
2. Anytime you're converting from one form to another, you're losing energy in the conversion process. So if you're slowing down for something you want to avoid charging the battery. Coasting as far as possible with all the lines on your energy monitor blacked out is more efficient than slowing faster with the generator to charge the battery then using battery power to maintain speed.
3. Use gravitational potential energy to your advantage when you're coming down a hill. If I have my cruise control set at 60mph and I'm coming down a steep hill I shift to neutral and let it coast and gain speed, then keep coasting after I'm off the hill till I'm back down to 60mph, shift back to drive and hit resume on cruise control.
4. Use the engine braking to charge your battery instead of the regular friction brakes whenever you can. I know I said to avoid charging, but this is the exception. If coasting isn't going to slow you down enough and you have to lose your kinetic energy anyways, it's better to convert at least some of it into a form you can reuse (the battery) than to just dump it all as heat through the friction brakes, where it's lost to you forever.

Doing this stuff I average 50mpg on highway and I have no problem keeping up with other traffic. I usually end up catching up to other people and getting stuck behind them. I know it's not the most efficient hypermilage method, it's just a few simple things you can do without requiring a major change in your driving style and still getting places just as quick as if you weren't doing anything.

[fcom]

We get 48 in and around town, and 57 on the highway.

[Tinovolpe]

I have a 2013 plug in that I've had a litttle over a year and I'm averaging between 50-55 per tankful. Mileage goes down a bit in rain and winter but is awesome in fall and spring.