Well, I haven't made many posts since my introduction (and by that I mean none) but I really want to contribute something to this awesome community. So, here's my small addition.
Alright, when I started out, I had a hard time figuring out all these different acronyms like HSI, TPS, SHM...I couldn't keep them straight. Since this is going to be aimed at the beginner hypermiler with a 3rd gen prius, I will do away with such things.
And a quick disclaimer. Use any of the techniques I'm describing where traffic safely permits it. The last thing you want is to be rear ended or taken forcibly out of your Prius and beaten for accelerating slower than the old lady in her electric scooter on the sidewalk next to you. So keep it within reason.
And last note before we begin, I know, I'm a windbag, this is completely stock Prius. No aero mods, no scangauge (though I did use torque to quantify my information), just a plain ol' Prius.
*Everything assumes a fully warmed up Prius and preferably with a full charge. Also an accurate speedometer...so get that checked or use GPS.*
Accelerating From Stop
For this, switch on over to your ECO screen, we'll be using it for everything anyway. The 3rd gen is nearly impossible to keep in the deadband (no arrows) anyway.
Your ECO bar is split into 4 sections. Regen is the first bar. Battery power is second. Engine is the third. And the fourth is...well...Mordor...you don't go there unless you have a ring to destroy or really need the boost
We'll start by going halfway up the Battery bar. Keep it here until you reach around 15-17mph, or if you're going downhill you can push it a little further. After this, move to the Engine bar. For accelerating purposes, push the pedal down until you reach the right end of the ECO leaf. This is a good general area to use for low speed accelerating.
Pulse and Glide
If you're going to be keeping it under 41mph, then we move on to pulse and glide (P&G). After accelerating up to a decent speed 41 or under, let off the gas pedal, then press slightly until the bar disappears under the line between the Regen bar and the Battery bar. You are now coasting! Combine this with the acceleration from above and rinse and repeat.
Super Highway Mode for speed range 45-52mph
This one is a little trickier and since this is without a scangauge, I'm going to use a very limited speed band. Though it can be applied to speed ranges outside this band. From here, we'll need the Instant MPG bar to the right of your speedometer as well.
First, use the acceleration technique from above, but instead of going into P&G, keep going. Keep the bar at the right edge of the ECO leaf. You won't accelerate fast, but you will speed up. Keep doing this and watch your Instant Miles Per Gallon (iMPG) gauge. Once it reaches the tick mark for 50mpg or exactly halfway up, we're going to switch from using the leaf as our indicator to the iMPG. This will occur around 42mph or so.
At this point, keep the iMPG right at the 50 mark. If it doesn't fluctuate up and down, you've got it right at 50mpg. Try to keep it like this. If it starts fluttering up a lot, let off just the tiniest bit. I also highly recommend keeping the ECO mode on for this. You will have to keep giving more pedal pressure the faster you go. We're going to do this up 52mph for this particular guide.
After you've reached 52mph, we're going to use the the O in ECO as our guide. For this, you have to keep the bar at the right edge of the O. If it lines up perfect with the right edge of the O, for these speed ranges, you'll be just about spot on for SHM. Keep it there until you've slowed down to about 47mph. You can go as low as 43mph but but try to keep it above 45mph.
At this point, use the iMPG to keep it at 50mpg and accelerate. Rinse and repeat.
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Ok, so this was a rather long post based on a month of driving my new(ish) Prius. I've been using a rooted Nook Color with the Torque app to gather this information. Using just the HSI technique I described above, I was able to achieve a 67mpg over 120 miles. I work as a courier, with 90% of my driving being highway, so I get lots of time to test these things out.
If anyone has any suggestions, thoughts please feel free to share. And most definitely, if someone with a scangauge can try this out for themselves to see if it's accurate, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks for reading and good luck!
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