Mildred Update.
We think we have worked out why the last tank for Mildred was not so good. Mrs A was studying the instrumentation provided by the Prius and it has to be said there is a lot to choose from - maybe too much. She was looking at the 1min or 5min MPG interval graphs, especially the regen icons. Basically these are little pictures of cars or half cars (they look like "fat blokes shorts" so they are called "pair of shorts" in our house) which appear whenever you generate 50 Wh of regen energy for the battery. She had worked out that flooring the peddle would allow her to cruise and generate a short or even a full car, some graphs on the 10 min history had the full 7 cars possible - this is her first full tank remember
However we had to look at the MPG aspect. Basically you have to minimise the use of the ICE by allowing the Prius to select the appropriate source. For example we tried going from the end of our road to home (gentle uphill) using only the electric drive, maybe with the EV button which prevents the ICE from being so aggressive. Its about 1/4 of a mile so it should make it but the battery bars go down quickly. However what Mrs A didn't grasp was that the trip out (downhill) would allow the battery to regain at least one of those bars with no ICE - which maximised MPG.
Her strategy of shorts generation meant the ICE is on all or most of the time to provide that speed. Which is great for regen and a full battery but uses fuel to create it. So she needs to change this strategy to minimise ICE use - we shall see. It does mean a change in which "screen" she uses for info.
If I'm honest this is a downside to the Prius - all the info options. Some of them are confusing or perhaps not that much use to an average driver - or maybe also too distracting. It takes a few presses of the display options to get an MPG reading for example, which is really what we want after all. Instant vs average is something I am still trying to find.
This led to me to another thought - is there a market for a simpler hybrid ? A manual gearbox is basically an auto for people who are too cheap to be lazy. So if you had the tech of a Prius but allowed manual control over the sources and when they are used, could this reduce the price of the technology, and make it compact enough for really small cars ? Maybe the Honda IMA system is just that especially in manual cars such as the CR-Z.
Dunno, just a ponder.