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Old 08-06-2010, 02:11 PM   #2 (permalink)
RobertSmalls
Left Lane Ecodriver
 
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
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Prius C - '12 Toyota Prius C
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The Prius' battery is the only way to start the engine, so you can't really remove it, but perhaps that's irrelevant to your question.

The funny thing is, hybrids get better mileage when you don't use electric assist and regen. Driving without brakes outperforms regenerative braking every time. Electric assist needs to be paid back with interest, so I avoid that too.

However, having regen available makes a hybrid much more forgiving to drive by recapturing a good percentage of your kinetic energy when you need to brake gently. Similarly, you might be forced to do an occasional jackrabbit start, but with electric assist, you don't need to exceed 3000RPM.

A stick shifted hybrid makes engine re-starts very easy, so if I'm going to be in N for more than three seconds, I hit the kill switch. Then just tap the throttle pedal or shift into gear to restart the engine.

Because they knew assist would be available, Honda were able to put a 1.0L in the Insight and a 1.3L in the Civic. That will save you bigtime when cruising.

So anyway, to answer the titular question, a little better than stock when driven carefully, and much less around town when driven like a typical american would.
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